unidentified weapons of gg father in Louisiana regt

this is a copt of an old daguerrotype? of my great-great grandfather David Dunn. we had it forever but I never figured out what he was holding. 1851 copy or baby dragoon of some kind. anyway, comments from all are welcome. there is a letter he wrote home to his wife when they were mustering in at camp Moore. it's on the Louisiana state archives website.

sorry. shoulda been great great grandfather

Those are terrific pictures, @lone pine ! And you have a letter, too...Wow! We have a letter in the family written in pokeberry juice by one of my great great grandfathers. He had traveled from Alabama down into the Florida panhandle to look at some land. He said it looked like good land, but the seller wanted a dollar an acre, so he passed it up.

Anyway, that musket looks like one of the imports, to me, maybe from Belgium or Prussia. It looks like it may be a conversion, with that nipple screwed directly into the barrel as it is. I don't know about the revolver. I can't even say for sure that it's a Colt. In addition to the Confederate revolvers, there were other makers, such as Manhattan, that made open-tops like that. I suppose Colts would have been most common, but I can't say with any certainty.

If nothing else, maybe this response will bump your post back to the top and somebody who knows more about these guns can weigh in.

Best regards,

Notchy Bob

One thing to think about…..most of the Civil War photographers used props in their pictures. We have a picture of my great great Uncle with a Colt Dragoon and a sword. Neither of which he owned.

good point.

Notchy - "It looks like it may be a conversion, with that nipple screwed directly into the barrel as it is."

I think it is too. Just still trying to nail down the profile, trigger guard, etc

To me it looks like a standard conversion of a M1816 musket. Very common early in the war.
Could have been his weapon, or like others mentioned, a prop at the photographers studio.

You're lucky you know who it is. I have a family album full of pictures of people from the same era. The note in the album says "this book was bought it 1864". Unfortunately, there is not a note in it telling who all those long lost relatives are.

Letter from David Dunn to his wife, Allen Parish Louisiana
Submitted by Michelle Johnson
Date: January 1, 2007


************************************************
Copyright. All rights reserved.
http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm
************************************************


Copy of letter written July 29, 1861 by David Dunn.
Original now (1966) in possession of Ida Belle Odom
Lewis of Oakdale, La.

Headquarters, Camp Moore, La.
Monday Evening, July 29th, 1861

My Dear Wife,
I will now say to you that we have just mustered into the Confederate State
Service for twelve months. I am happy to say to you that we will soon be
ready to take up arms in defense of our lovely country. Dear Wife I feel
happy to say that we are well and seem to enjoy ourselves, I think we will
all do well. We are pleased with our officers _____ we are sorry to say that
some of our boys have backed out. I think that they have done wrong, I would
have died before I would have backed out. You may think that I do not feel
near to you, but my whole life depends upon you and self in defense of my
country. If God spares me I will return to you, that is if life lasts. You
must not take any exceptions to any thing that is written, because it is on
my satchel upon my lap. If I never see you on earth, may we meet where there
is a better and brighter world above, where we will never part and song shall
never cease to be sung, and more where parting will never by any more. Our
boys that have backed out, have never seen elephant, too many men here and
too many drims beating, I see twelve Companies drilling every evening and
morning. And I hope that it won't be long before we will be drilling. I see
lots of companies that have got the word of command perfect.

I have nothing of interest to write to you now than I have my profile drawn
and will send it to you. I must now close by saying to you that you must
kiss all the children for me, and Dear Wife, you must not take anything
hard, as all will be bright.

I close by saying to you all is well and right with me at this time.
I close; Good bye.

Yours truly,
David Dunn

this is his letter.

It is wonderful that you have those pictures and letter.
I can tie this in with the "Do you keep a journal" thread in the Primary Documentation section of this forum. How do you think your great, great grandson or granddaughter would feel if they had a letter from you? Or a whole journal? Keep a journal and pass it on.

Our family wasnt even landed until about 10 years after the Civil War.

Postscript to my post of guns held by my gg grandfather.
We had heard this story from Nannie and Pawpaw as kids growing up but this is the first written reference to this duel I've ever seen. Found it by accident today.

"David William Dunn died 24 August 1869, reportedly, in a gun duel at Eldred Crossing, Rapides Parish, Louisiana.[7]". source wikitree

striking difference in that young man between the two pictures. first picture he was on an adventure.
second picture he had seen the elephant. wife has pictures of me that are almost copies. clothing is different, the eyes are the same.

"David William Dunn died 24 August 1869, reportedly, in a gun duel at Eldred Crossing, Rapides Parish, Louisiana.[7]". source wikitree
maybe the war hadn't ended for David.

I believe the musket in that picture is a Springfield 1816 with a Belgian cone-in-barrel style percussion conversion. Here's a picture of mine for comparison

It is hard to tell. Way back then the photographer had prop guns that people would use to pose for the pictures. Most people did not own or use handguns. Many if not most had shotguns or smoothbore muskets instead of more expensive rifles. Muskets or shotguns were a lot more useful for farmers etc. Thus they would use prop guns for the pictures. Heck they even had nice suit jackets etc that the customers could wear for pictures too.

After the Civil War ended the country was awash in cheap surplus military guns that most people bought. Then the second wave of surplus guns was when cartridge guns became popular then the muzzleloaders and cap and ball pistols became dirt cheap and still popular to own. For putting meat on the table you didn’t really need a expensive cartridge gun.