Discussion Took Their Rifles Home

[Singing Welder]

What was the protocol at the end of the war? Did soldiers buy their issued arms or was it a perk of rank?

 

[thomas aagaard]

When the war ended it was an option for federal soldeirs, since the federal government had no use for soo many firearms.
Especially not since with them being muzzleloaders.

CSA soldiers were disarmed.

 

[Copperhead-mi]

When the war ended it was an option for federal soldeirs, since the federal government had no use for soo many firearms.
Especially not since with them being muzzleloaders.

CSA soldiers were disarmed.

At Lee's surrender, Grant allowed the Confederate officers to take their sidearms home.

 

[poorjack]

When the war ended it was an option for federal soldeirs, since the federal government had no use for soo many firearms.
Especially not since with them being muzzleloaders.

CSA soldiers were disarmed.

IIRC, part of the terms in NC were to allow 1 in 10 to keep their arms for protection on the way home.

 

[tbuckley]

Federal soldiers could buy their arms as Thomas Aagaard stated.
Over the years I have seen several rifles and muskets that were supposed to have been brought home by soldiers but I suspect that some of "the guns Grandpa used in the war" were actually bought post-war by veterans for Grand Army of the Republic parades. In one case there was a M1863 Springfield supposedly brought home by a soldier who had been discharged in 1862. Just a thought.

 

[Kyle Kalasnik]

Does anyone have a number, idea, or rough estimate of what percentage of Union Soldiers kept their arms?

Occasionally there is a post here on CWT of someone having a ancestor's or relative's musket or rifle from the Civil War. Talk about a family heirloom.

 

[James Brenner]

Going through some of the muster out rolls for Ohio, a soldier could purchase his musket for $10.00.

 

[Don Dixon]

Under the provisions of General Order 101, 30 May 1865, discharged Federal soldiers were permitted to purchase their arms and take them home. Muskets of all types, with or without accoutrements, cost $6.00. Spencer carbines, with or without accoutrements cost $10.00, while all other carbines and revolvers cost $8.00. The Army may have regretted letting the Spencer carbines go because in 1867, under G.O. 19, it directed that enlisted men who lost a Spencer carbine were to be charged $100; four times what the Army had paid for them during the Civil War. Under G.O. 101, soldiers purchased 116,677 "muskets"; including 96,238 Springfields, 19,882 Enfields, and 557 "others." I should point out that in 1865 $6.00 was a significant amount of money.

I have found no provisions prior to 30 May 1865 for Federal soldiers to purchase their arms upon discharge.

Regards,
Don Dixon

 

[Story]

Winslow Homer (1865). "Thanksgiving Day--Hanging up the Musket."

Lacking statistics, one can turn to period art as primary source material.

Last paragraph, p.76 -

"These scenes in art and literature have heightened meaning in view of the events at the close of the war. At war's end, soldiers were to be mustered out and returned home unarmed to their states. This action was precipitated by the fear that these men, who had been hardened by years of campaigning, might be a menace to the maintenance of order. Almost immediately, newspapers registered their dismay over this policy.

The soldiers are presently coming home, and we wish to suggest, on their behalf, that the government can do them a real kindness, and reward them for their brave and honorable services, in no better way than by letting them take their muskets home.

"

Winslow Homer's "Thanksgiving Day: Hanging up the Musket" Christopher Kent Wilson The American Art Journal Vol. 18, No. 4 (Autumn, 1986), pp. 76-83

https://www.jstor.org/stable/1594465?seq=1

 

[Story]

while all other carbines and revolvers cost $8.00.

Considering that retail for any given serviceable revolver seems to have been $25 (and as high as $40), this would have been a real bargain - still spendy tho, for someone earning $15/month.

 

[Story]

... continuing from my post above (now p.79), the same editorial elaborates how it would have been disgraceful to send units home without their weapons so the War Department relented but stipulated that those weapons be turned into state arsenals.

Again, THE NEW YORK TIMES remonstrated Washington ['A Good Idea', p.4 New York Times June 1st 1865].

Let the government, then, give the honorably discharged soldier his musket, to have and to hold for future service, and we will be bound that it will be burnished and ready for use in any war that may her-after afflict the nation".

The article mentions that "a few days after this editorial, President Johnson decided to allow the veterans to keep their muskets as "mementoes of their honorable services and heir-looms for their children" but does not give a citation for that Executive quote.

I'll leave that historical dumpster-diving expedition to someone more caffeinated that I.

 

[FrankN]

A few years ago I was lucky to purchase an 1861 Bridesburg musket. Apparently no one ever removed the butt plate until I did and I discovered the soldiers handwritten name and regiment on cartridge paper and glued inside the buttplate as proof of his ownership. I was extremely excited that my musket now had provenance and through the help of the knowledgeable members of this forum and my own research I gathered the history of the soldier. Here is a photo of his muster out roll where it shows he bought the musket to take home for $6.00. It says "stop $6.00 price of musket retained" in the section about money owed.

Regards,
Frank

If anyone is interested I'll include a link to that older thread about the musket.

Muzzleldrs - Paper with soldier name found in my musket buttplate. NEW provenance info added on 1/18/14. | Small Arms & Ammunition

Hello, I am lightly oiling the metal and waxing the wood to preserve my newly acquired original CW Bridesburg musket. I found this piece of paper with what looks like a soldiers name and unit information attached to the inside of the buttplate. I thought I had read that someone found similar...

civilwartalk.com

 

[Kyle Kalasnik]

A few years ago I was lucky to purchase an 1861 Bridesburg musket. Apparently no one ever removed the butt plate until I did and I discovered the soldiers handwritten name and regiment on cartridge paper and glued inside the buttplate as proof of his ownership. I was extremely excited that my musket now had provenance and through the help of the knowledgeable members of this forum and my own research I gathered the history of the soldier. Here is a photo of his muster out roll where it shows he bought the musket to take home for $6.00. It says "stop $6.00 price of musket retained" in the section about money owed.

Regards,
Frank

If anyone is interested I'll include a link to that older thread about the musket.

Muzzleldrs - Paper with soldier name found in my musket buttplate. NEW provenance info added on 1/18/14. | Small Arms & Ammunition

Hello, I am lightly oiling the metal and waxing the wood to preserve my newly acquired original CW Bridesburg musket. I found this piece of paper with what looks like a soldiers name and unit information attached to the inside of the buttplate. I thought I had read that someone found similar...

civilwartalk.com

View attachment 391410

That is so awesome. Documented proof, and then the soldier's records. Unbelievable.

 

[JeffFromSyracuse]

Winslow Homer (1865). "Thanksgiving Day--Hanging up the Musket."
View attachment 391409

The look on her face is hilarious.

 

[Story]

The look on her face is hilarious.

I became a fan of his work at an early age.

High Quality Reproductions Of Winslow Homer paintings

All oil painting reproductions will be professionally painted with the highest quality by our skilled artists. The world's largest collection of Winslow Homer reproductions.

www.winslow-homer.com

Truth be told, any modern day sutler worth his salt could make a mint selling these as post cards.

 

[UCVRelics]

Also, a lot of soldiers would send home captured muskets, swords etc as souvenirs.

 

[JOHN42768]

It is a difficult challenge to prove that g-g-grampa's musket really is the one he used in the war. Lack of serial numbers and even if the arm had a serial number the lack of it being recorded in an official document. Initials carved into stock doesn't mean that it wasn't one he picked up from a dead soldier or was reissued when he might have returned to duty from a hospital stay. Also as stated a soldier was allowed to purchase upon discharge, but with piles of arms available he may have swapped for a better condition. An officer may have been given one by his troops as an honorary.

 

[Jeff in Ohio]

Federal soldiers could buy their arms as Thomas Aagaard stated.
Over the years I have seen several rifles and muskets that were supposed to have been brought home by soldiers but I suspect that some of "the guns Grandpa used in the war" were actually bought post-war by veterans for Grand Army of the Republic parades. In one case there was a M1863 Springfield supposedly brought home by a soldier who had been discharged in 1862. Just a thought.

Many Model 1873 trapdoors, which bear the very clear date of 1873 on the lockplate, are proudly identified by family story to be the rifle brought back from the Civil War (ended in 1865). I suppose those folks could not answer the quiz question asking them to name the starting date of the War of 1812.
In my grandparents' family gun case was a ZULU shotgun which was identified as the gun that great grandfather used in WWI. These were actually French muskets of about 1840 vintage converted into cheap $6 shotguns the the 1890s to 1910 era, and certainly not anything that would have been used in WWI, but that's the story I was told.

 

[Rusk County Avengers]

When the war ended it was an option for federal soldeirs, since the federal government had no use for soo many firearms.
Especially not since with them being muzzleloaders.

CSA soldiers were disarmed.

Not all Confederate soldiers were disarmed. Here in the Trans-Mississippi the CS Army didn't surrender as in the east, the officers surrendered the Department after the Army had disbanded. In a lot of cases up and disbanded itself without orders.

Soldiers apparently had choice of stacking arms or just taking them home. There's even some CS manufactured artillery in the T-M Dept. unaccounted for to this day in the lists of all CS artillery the Federals took custody of.

 

[Cornpone and Molasses]

Winslow Homer (1865). "Thanksgiving Day--Hanging up the Musket."
View attachment 391409

Lacking statistics, one can turn to period art as primary source material.

Last paragraph, p.76 -

"These scenes in art and literature have heightened meaning in view of the events at the close of the war. At war's end, soldiers were to be mustered out and returned home unarmed to their states. This action was precipitated by the fear that these men, who had been hardened by years of campaigning, might be a menace to the maintenance of order. Almost immediately, newspapers registered their dismay over this policy.


"

Winslow Homer's "Thanksgiving Day: Hanging up the Musket" Christopher Kent Wilson The American Art Journal Vol. 18, No. 4 (Autumn, 1986), pp. 76-83

https://www.jstor.org/stable/1594465?seq=1

Always loved the imagery here of a returning Civil War Infantry Soldier hanging up his trusted musket over the hearth, under what was probably his Grandfather's Flintlock from the Revolutionary War. In the frame over the hearth looking back are the reflections of fallen comrades. At least that is what I see.