Ohio-Marked Enfield

[James Brenner]

Has anyone seen one? I have not, but at least one exists.

I recently came across some correspondence between the late Thomas Rentschler of Hamilton, Ohio, and Donald Hutslar of the Ohio Historical Society. Rentscler was the author of the book, Cosmopolitan and Gwyn & Campbell Carbines of the Civil War (Lincoln, R.I: Mowbrey, 2000) and Hutslar wrote the 1968 article on Ohio-marked weapons for the American Rifleman magazine.

The correspondence is dated 1969 and Rentschler is offering several Ohio-marked muskets, carbines, and rifles for sale to the OHS. They declined. Anyway, one of the weapons listed is a 3 band Enfield, caliber .577. The description is, "Lockplate 1863/Tower and normal marks on bbl and sub parts.
Right side of rear stock: 7, GAR, P, 96 (GAR Post 96). Also stamped on stock; Birmingham Small Arms Trade in circle. Inside circle of these words is crown over SBTA (Note: letters are in a diamond shape, but I can't replicate that on this computer).
Stamped: OHIO.

He was asking $100.00 for the musket.

 

[bayonet]

Over the many years I have seen for sale or at auctions OHIO stamped ACW firearms. As in muskets or carbines. Not many out there but they can be found. Many other States simply marked them with 2 letters.

 

[Jeff in Ohio]

those OHIO stamps survived the Civil War. Maybe 30 years ago I saw offered for sale at a Columbus Ohio show a 7mm Mauser Remington rolling block. This had an authentic OHIO stamp on it. Since this caliber was first offered in 1893, the rifle long postdated Civil War use.

 

[James Brenner]

I have a feeling that the Enfield was a one-off. I have seen an Ohio-marked Swiss rifled musket, a similarly marked Wessen carbine, and a Ballard carbine with Ohio markings. Because of the carbines, I thought Ohio might have gotten them for some breech loader trials, but that's not the case. The records don't support that theory because, after the war, the state had little interest in or money to modernize the militia/Guard. It wasn't until the strikes in the 1870s that Ohio got serious about the Guard. By then, the government was isssuing trapdoors so a state trial was moot.

 

[Jeff in Ohio]

I have a feeling that the Enfield was a one-off. I have seen an Ohio-marked Swiss rifled musket, a similarly marked Wessen carbine, and a Ballard carbine with Ohio markings. Because of the carbines, I thought Ohio might have gotten them for some breech loader trials, but that's not the case. The records don't support that theory because, after the war, the state had little interest in or money to modernize the militia/Guard. It wasn't until the strikes in the 1870s that Ohio got serious about the Guard. By then, the government was isssuing trapdoors so a state trial was moot.

I once owned a post-War Miller conversion to breacloader in real nice condition and OHIO marked. I believe the person I traded it to, who collected only OHIO marked guns, told me he believed Ohio got a few to test.
The 7mm rolling block was really beat up, looked like those movie prop guns which suffered repeated drops onto the rocks as their stuntman users were shot from a fort's outer walls and dramatically fell onto a mattress - the prop guns falling onto hard surfaces as their users were killed again and again as the movie was filmed. I've seen a few trapddoors fixed so they look like flintlocks that looked like they had been so treated

 

[Don Dixon]

BG John Hunt Morgan's 11 June - 26 July 1863. cavalry raid into Indiana and Ohio created panic in Ohio. The Ohio Arsenal had a large quantity of unserviceable, but largely repairable, arms in storage which had been turned-in by Federal Army units. On 11 July Governor Tod wrote to Secretary Stanton requesting authority to issue 15,000 stand of arms in the state arsenal which were unfit for field service to the state militia. Adjutant General Wright followed this with a 30 July letter to BG Ripley. Wright had issued 8,000 of the arms to the militia in the border counties most affected by the raid. With most of Morgan's raiders having been captured the arms were being returned, but Wright wanted to permanently issue the arms to the militia. Ultimately, 28,524 foreign and U.S. manufactured arms of various grades and conditions - repairable and unrepairable - were transferred to Ohio for repair and issue as an advance on the state's Militia Act quotas. This included Enfield rifle muskets.

Ohio had received 47,329 arms from the national government under the Militia Act prior to the Civil War, virtually all of which had gone missing, or had magically disappeared from inventory if you prefer. To avoid such losses in the future the weapons received from the Ordnance Office in 1863 were stamped "Ohio" at two places on the wrist of the stock with one of two Ohio stamps with slightly different fonts. After the war the Ohio legislature stupidly directed that the arms be sold as surplus rather than returning them to the Ordnance Office for a credit on the state's Militia Act quotas. In consequence it wasn't entitled to further issues of Militia Act arms well into the 1870s, being left with a motley collection of muzzleloading French rifle muskets to arm it's militia.

Regards,
Don Dixon