Black Powder, White Smoke
Reader Harold Ruhl sent me an email with the following question:
“A friend of mine has a Trenton Civil War Rifle that was found in a 2nd floor closet in a home that was Allen J. Flitcraft’s early 1850’s Boarding school in Eldridge’s Hill (Pilesgrove Township, Salem County), N.J. Several Civil War veterans attended this school. My friend is trying to find out how the rifle got from Trenton to Allen Flitcraft’s school.
It has an embossed letter F an inch in back of the barrel tang. Also, the same letter F is embossed in front of the butt plate (top). The number 7 is embossed between this F and the butt plate. The date 1864 is on the top of the barrel in front of the tang. NJ is on the left side of the barrel near the breech. It reads US over TRENTON on the lock plate below the cone in front of the eagle. The date at the rear of the lock plate can’t be read though a 4 seems to be there.”
My answer was that the gun he has is one of those purchased by the state of New Jersey in 1863-1864. The “NJ” on the barrel indicates state ownership. There should be an “NJ” on the stock just below it. If there is not, then the stock may have been sanded down and refinished at some point, or it might be a replacement stock. The other markings are no doubt “rack marks” applied to designate who in a particular unit the firearm was assigned to since rifle muskets did not have serial numbers. How it got to the boarding school, I cannot say.
Contrary to folklore, which posits that these “NJ” marked rifle muskets were carried by New Jersey soldiers in Civil War battles, they never left the state. The rifle-muskets were intended for use by the New Jersey Militia and New Jersey Rifle Corps, a sort of elite militia established in 1863.
Using federal promissory notes, the state bought several thousand rifle muskets, including Model 1861s marked Trenton and Savage and Colt “Special Model” 1861s, to replace the obsolete smoothbore muskets the militia was armed with and probably to assure “Rifle Corps” recruits that they would indeed get rifled arms. Recruiting had been slow for the new unit, with only six of fifty proposed companies enlisted by the end of 1863.
The guns were purchased from both dealers and manufacturers. In July 1863, New Jersey ordered 2,500 and then 1,500 Colt “Special Model 1861” rifle muskets from New York arms merchants Schuyler, Hartley and Graham. After delivery of the initial Colt order in January 1864, however, the state’s Quartermaster General canceled the second one.
It appeared that Colt, or Schuyler, Hartley and Graham, or both, were trying to dispose of guns that had failed federal inspection by selling them off to unsuspecting customers. Unfortunately for them, New Jersey had a very sharp quartermaster general in Lewis Perrine, who saw to it that each weapon was taken apart and carefully inspected by “a competent person” at the state arsenal in Trenton. Perrine reported that “the inspector rejected a great number of parts.” He added that he had “allowed the contractors in every instance to replace the parts rejected for defects with perfect parts.” Perrine did not provide details on why the second Colt contract was canceled, although one would assume that there was a lack of “perfect parts” to replace the inferior ones.
No contracts for Trenton guns, supplied by J.T. Hodge and A.M. Burton of the Trenton Locomotive and Machine Co. in Trenton, or Middletown Manufacturing, the company that made the Savage, were canceled, so it is safe to assume that those contractors either supplied satisfactory arms or had a ready supply of functional parts.
In 1869, the rifle muskets were issued to members of the New Jersey National Guard, created to combine and supersede the Militia and Rifle Corps. Although some states purchased breech-loading rifles for their citizen soldiers, including New York, which supplied its citizen soldiers with .50-70 caliber Remington rolling block arms, New Jersey’s Guardsmen carried their rifle-muskets until 1875, when they were finally replaced by federal government issued breechloading Model 1873 .45-70 caliber Springfield rifles.
Just in case anyone has any remaining doubts as to what a charge of smokeless powder will do to a muzzle loader, I suggest they take a look at this video made by a couple of guys from Georgia. As they note, please do not try what they do at home. I have seen such experiments before, but I am still amazed at the complete destruction using the wrong propellant can cause. Remember, not all powder that is black in color is not always “black powder.” Only use real black powder or a recognized substitute that is packaged in the original container when loading your muzzleloader. Link to it on Youtube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=en384qVqrug
