What happened to all the Souths muskets after the war?

Some were destroyed. Sherman corduroyed the road with 10,000 longarms in South Carolina if I recall correctly. Remember, not every Enfield had CS inspector stamps. The Federal army used some during the War (think Vicksburg).
I have seen at least two Confederate Enfields concerted to the Snyder system.
The South did not manufacture guns in tens of thousands like the North did.
 
I did some searching in this forum and didn't find the answer, so apologies if this has already been asked and I missed it. What happened to all those rifles the Union captured? Did they sell them at some point after the war? To who?
Just go up to the search at the top right and type in Bannerman's and you will find a great bunch of info.
 
I did some searching in this forum and didn't find the answer, so apologies if this has already been asked and I missed it. What happened to all those rifles the Union captured? Did they sell them at some point after the war? To who?
Some were probably traded to the Indians. Some were possibly sold at auction for pennies on the dollar and bought by gunsmiths. From there cut down and barrels bored out smoothbore and made into cheap shotguns for farmers. Just speculating but this is what happened to US guns. War surplus Henry, Sharps and Spencers went to trading posts and ended their days at the Little Big Horn all the way up to Wounded Knee. When you see the inventory of guns surrendered by the Sioux, Cheyene, Pawnee etc you see a LOT of war surplus stuff. Even flintlock trade muskets were part of it in the 1870's
 
There was also a thread on this forum on the same subject back in 2017, if you enter it in the search function you can locate it. https://civilwartalk.com/threads/where-did-the-muskets-go-after-the-end-of-the-war.140998/ I posted that I did a research piece on this subject some years ago, which was published but I don't exactly recall where... The point of it was all these alleged "Confederate" used military arms we find at gun shows are not likely to be legit because:

1. Unlike Union soldiers, paroled CS soldiers were obviously not allowed to take their infantry arms home with them.

2. Frances Bannerman recalled bidding on a large quantity of Confederate arms which he called "...part of the lot surrendered by General Lee, classified “Rebel.” The U.S. Ordnance Officer refused to accept our bid for the guns, alleging that we (Bannerman) would repair the guns and put them into serviceable order, and they would then enter into competition with the now obsolete guns that the Government had for sale.” So this lot of “Rebel” guns, which contained many heirlooms of patriots who had fought with Lee and Jackson, was consigned to the fire, and the old burnt locks and barrels sold to us later as scrap iron."
 
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Some were possibly sold at auction for pennies on the dollar and bought by gunsmiths. From there cut down and barrels bored out smoothbore and made into cheap shotguns for farmers. Just speculating but this is what happened to US guns
Indeed! I have a 61 Springfield which suffered that very fate.
 
A number went to France in 1870 along with anything else the French would buy. Numbers hit the surplus market as well as the Africa trade.
I looked at my Bannerman reprint and they altered some Sprinfields to FLINTLOCK for the African trade. I'd love to see one of those!! Robert Riley did a b&w drawing of what it might have looked like. He speculated that parts from the 1817 common rifle could have been used, being smaller than musket sized locks.
 
I did some searching in this forum and didn't find the answer, so apologies if this has already been asked and I missed it. What happened to all those rifles the Union captured? Did they sell them at some point after the war? To who?
FWIW The 1863 Remington rifles a.k.a "Zouave" were never issued but were kept in storage and sold after the war. Same with Rogers& Spencer revolvers. Never issued but bought by Bannerman for 25 cents each. He made some $13,000 in profit on that one. And remember the rifle picked up from Gettysburg that had 20 some odd rounds stuffed in it ? That tells us that the better quality pieces were picked up, sent to the arsenals and unloaded, repaired and or cleaned for re-issue to volunteer and militia units. I've seen Republic of Texas muskets that were "recycled" by both Union and Confederate forces.
 
Just ask any kind of question on this website and you'll get plenty of bull-s.....er I meant to say ANSWERS. (Just kidding. I think I've probaby learned more here than any other site) And thats what I enjoy about this hobby, so many knowlegeable folks willing to SHARE that knowledge.
 
So I guess if I found this at a gun show I would be inclined to believe it did not have any Southern heritage or even be used by Confederate forces by that rationale?
For those not initiated, this is a Nathan Starr contract US M1822 that was converted via brazed bolster in RICHMOND, Va ca. 1861-62 by the Union Manufacturing Co.

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