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    #1

    Austrian rifle - Civil War Import

    Not WWII by a long shot, but hopefully there will be some experts here anyway.

    I'm just looking for any information on this rifle, or at least, a good source for information.

    I believe it to be an Austrian rifle, but I'm not sure what model.

    At first I thought it was a Lorenz, but the nipple area seems different from others pictured on the net.

    Any help would be appreciated.
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    #2
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      #3
      This is not an area that I have a lot of involvement in, but I think that it is a model 1842 Austrian musket or if rifled a rifle/musket.

      I think that a some number of these were bought by the North during the Civil War, but these were way behind the 1854 Lorenz in terms of preference and usefullness during that war.

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        #4
        sources

        Does anyone else have ideas on where to get good info on these?

        I don't know if any books deal with the imports.

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          #5
          Originally posted by Chad1 View Post
          Does anyone else have ideas on where to get good info on these?

          I don't know if any books deal with the imports.
          Two good books that reference these imports are "Firearms from Europe" by Whisker and Yantz, and "Civil War Guns" (I think...but exact title may be off) published in the early 1960s and later reprinted, authored by Edwards.....this is really the bedrock reference of civil war small arms.

          As I told you, these muskets were imported by the North in some numbers...not huge but more than a few.

          The South did not officially buy any that are documented (speculators may have bought about anything) because they were old and inferior by 1860s standards and the South was very selective about their imports.

          The Austrian goverment (and the Prissian) dumped a large amount of out of date arms on the first agent (Schyler I believe) who went to Europe...these were among those on that buy I believe.

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            #6
            damm that looks like my old 69 cal i got rid of in the 80s it was a flint lot conversion.

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              #7
              This musket appears to be a Mod 1842 Austrian of some type. I would need more information as to barrel length, overall length and probably hands on as well in order to tell much more. There were around a half a dozen different sub-models of the 1842 and then there were variations to be found among most of those! So a lot of detailed possibilities.

              These were originally designed as "tube" lock ingnition systems...the flat on the top of the side plate in the posted example bears this out as well.

              Apparently when the North bought these, they had some converted to percussion cap ignition in Belgium as well as in Ohio USA. Some were also rifled and there were some caliber changes made to some. There were several different styles of conversion as well between all of the sub models and the sub variations. All of this adds up to dozens if not hundreds of slight possible variations within this basic model.

              By all appearances this example is a typical (if that exist with these) example of one of the Union purchased and converted 1842 Austrian muskets. The ones of these that were actually issued in the Civil War (there was a lot of "push back" from the troops and units!) went to Fremont's Army in the west.

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                #8
                musket

                Thanks again for the detailed info. I am going to pick-up some of those references for my own good.

                The guy I got this rifle from has more information on it, he just has to dig it out and send it to me. Now without having the rest of the info in my hands, I'll go on memory. I think this came out of a GAR post and there might be some info on any battles it was carried in. So, as soon as I get it I'll post for those who are interested.

                A few other details:

                Carved into the stock is "J Smith 1864".

                Barrel Length= 33 5/8 in.
                Total Length= 48 1/2 in.
                No visible rifling
                The highest number on the sight is "9", for 900 paces?

                It also came with the 4-sided bayonet, a bullet-mold (size not right for this gun though), two really strange pairs of glasses (one tinted blue, the other tinted yellow), and a very old photograph of a chunky girlfriend(?).

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                  #9
                  glasses

                  These are the most interesting of the accessories that came with the rifle.
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                    #10
                    The glasses are often called "shooting glasses" and some say that glasses like these date as early and earlier than the CW....I don't know. I do know that they were being used by the 1870s for activities such as shooting and other things.

                    Back to the 1842, I found about three different sub-models that were around the length that you stated. All three were Rifles and that would make sense give the 900 sight graduation that you found. If the bore is in fact smooth I would suspect that it smoothed out a good bit later...either during the CW or after. There are a number of reasons that it may have been done.

                    Also I found out that some of this style rifle with the conversion was sold around Europe before the CW, one buyer was Italy and some rifles of this general pattern were/are known as Garibaldi rifles for their use in that related conflict.

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