wingshot37
Cadet
- Joined
- Jul 28, 2009
- Location
- Henderson, NV
I have an M1841 rifle marked as follows:
Lock plate face: Robbins
&
Lawrence
U.S.
Tail of lock plate: Windsor, VT
1850
Top of barrel tang: 1850
On barrel top
opposite nipple: U.S.
JPC
P
Stock cartouche
opposite lock plate: “WAT” (Script initials in oval )
Rectangular cartouche
to left of oval cartouche: stamping in rectangle is illegible
Top of butt plate: U.S. (reads with rifle horizontal)
Underneath U.S. (reads with rifle vertical): "8c" over " I"
Other details:
Cal. is original .54 with brass tip ramrod. Original brass front sight was filed flush with barrel, and a 3/8” dovetail slot was cut just to the rear of the original front sight. The rear sight has one leaf that pivots on a screw axis, and the sight base looks like that on the M1861 rifle.
My questions are:
Wingshot37
Henderson, NV
[email protected]
Lock plate face: Robbins
&
Lawrence
U.S.
Tail of lock plate: Windsor, VT
1850
Top of barrel tang: 1850
On barrel top
opposite nipple: U.S.
JPC
P
Stock cartouche
opposite lock plate: “WAT” (Script initials in oval )
Rectangular cartouche
to left of oval cartouche: stamping in rectangle is illegible
Top of butt plate: U.S. (reads with rifle horizontal)
Underneath U.S. (reads with rifle vertical): "8c" over " I"
Other details:
Cal. is original .54 with brass tip ramrod. Original brass front sight was filed flush with barrel, and a 3/8” dovetail slot was cut just to the rear of the original front sight. The rear sight has one leaf that pivots on a screw axis, and the sight base looks like that on the M1861 rifle.
My questions are:
- “WAT” is William A. Thornton. Can the rectangle stock cartouche be ID’d knowing the maker and date of this rifle?
- JPC is James P. Chapman. What does the “P” stand for underneath?
- I think the “8c I” is the unit designation for the 8th Regiment, Company “C”, New Hampshire Volunteer Infantry. This rifle was given to me 63 years ago by my grandparent’s neighbor in North Hampton, NH (38 miles from Manchester where the 8th Regiment was organized and mustered in Dec. 1861). This neighbor told me he had found it at a local dump, along with another 1841 made by Whitney. He did not tell me where that dump was, and I was too young to ask. I have often thought that maybe a local G.A.R. Post closed and they were dumped. Both VT and ME had an 8th Regiment of Infantry in the Civil War, but they were a lot further away than Manchester. Is the NH 8th Regiment unit designation probably correct? Would a unit designation add any value to this rifle?
- Why was the original front sight was filed down, and what replaced it in the cut dovetail? Would that have been part of a conversion to the single leaf rear sight?
Wingshot37
Henderson, NV
[email protected]