Question about US. markings.

[originalrebelyell]

Would CSA soldiers have tried to remove or deface US. markings ect. from muskets, carbines,pistols picked up off the fields.

 

[johan_steele]

Never seen reference to it.

 

[originalrebelyell]

I haven't either I was just wondering if anyone else had.

 

[Grayrock Volunteer]

I have seen a number of percussion altered muskets that sellers have claimed that US markings on the lock, or the American Eagle were removed by Confederates, or that it is at least a possibility because it was a common practice. However, every single one of these muskets has been a patent breech alteration (which were all done in the North) and the lack of markings was almost certainly due to the old flint mechanism screws being milled flat with the front of the lock.
I have also yet to see a genuine Confederate used musket with CS or CSA stamped onto the lock (excluding muskets which were actually manufactured with those markings).

 

[originalrebelyell]

I have seen a number of percussion altered muskets that sellers have claimed that US markings on the lock, or the American Eagle were removed by Confederates, or that it is at least a possibility because it was a common practice. However, every single one of these muskets has been a patent breech alteration (which were all done in the North) and the lack of markings was almost certainly due to the old flint mechanism screws being milled flat with the front of the lock.
I have also yet to see a genuine Confederate used musket with CS or CSA stamped onto the lock (excluding muskets which were actually manufactured with those markings).

I haven't personally seen one with CS or CSA either.

 

[Craig L Barry]

The exception, which is only because they were made with the US Armory tooling from Harpers Ferry for the model 1855, is the "CS Richmond" rifle-musket. Those locks were stamped CS Richmond. However, these were manufactured at the CS Armory in Richmond and were not altered or repaired battlefield pick-ups. The first of these Richmonds to be encountered by Union troops were thought to be US models recovered from the battlefield and repaired, but were of course newly manufactured at Richmond from the captured equipment. The US soldiers that recovered them were somewhat confused and called them "Springfields" which was how virtually all US models were considered, whether made at a US Armory or by a private contractor. Some Union soldiers called them "Richmond Springfields."

However, to the point here...any "altered percussion musket of the old style" or other arms marked CS or CSA should generally be taken with a grain of salt. Many of these markings were added many years later or even in the modern era to give a Confederate heritage to a musket which may or may not have done any service for the Confederate cause.