Converted 1855 Tower Musket

[TDM]

Ok, this is nothing fancy or special, but just wanted to share. My Wife and I went antiquing today and I stumbled on it. It’s rough, got a couple of parts missing, but the action works fine and the barrel bore is ok. I bought this for my oldest Son for his collection, for $250 bucks, I couldn’t pass it up. And no, they wouldn’t deal on the price, but the parts are worth more than the whole. Another interesting thing, is that it’s been fitted with a barrel wedge. From the VR under the Crown and the wide arrow after TOWER, I believe it was originally a British military issue. No way of knowing at this time if it ever saw ACW service. Maybe some other marks will show up.

 

[TDM]

Ok, the final verdict is not quite in. But with my Son's good eye sight and reference books he's starting to wade through this old gun. His main reference book for this is "The British Conection". An excellent and hard to find book nowadays. First off, after zooming in on the photos I too, the lock clearly reads TOWER 1853, not 1855. Then he realized the barrel was basically the same length as his P53, just larger in diameter. He also noticed a slight difference in the curve of the rear lock face. He measured the bore with digital calipers and it was right at .75 cal. So it this is actually a P51 which was a .702 cal. rifled musket which used wedges instead of pins or bands. But the best part is that it has the Barnett barrel marks that show it was in the first group of 1,000 purchased from the British military in 1861 and he found the C&H stamp on the stock that shows it was exported on the early blockade runners for CSA service. At some point after the war someone had it bored smooth and cut the half the forestock off. My Son is very excited about the history of this weapon, I'm sure glad I bought it.

 

[TDM]

My Son keeps sending me more info as he uncovers it. It seems clear now that this is a Pattern 1851 with a colorful military history.

 

[TDM]

Here’s some more interesting information.

https://collegehillarsenal.com/Shortened-Confederate-Imported-Pattern-1851-Minie-RIfle

 

[Thagomizer]

Perhaps came out of the Nepal cache about 15 years ago? Lots of those were missing parts.

 

[TDM]

Perhaps came out of the Nepal cache about 15 years ago? Lots of those were missing parts.

Possible maybe. But now that we know it’s a Pattern 1851, the search results say there were only 34,000 to 35,000 made and were all used in the Crimean War. The service life was only about 2 years, because the P53 came out. The records state the 14,000 to 15,000 were returned to London as surplus and within a year all were sold to CSA buyers and shipped here. There just never were a lot of these around at anytime.

 

[Grayrock Volunteer]

An excellent find in deed. Any P1851 is a hard gun to find, but a CH1 marked example is a real rarity, even in that condition. There are only about a dozen that are known to survive.

Here is a example from my collection in its original military configuration.

 

[TDM]

An excellent find in deed. Any P1851 is a hard gun to find, but a CH1 marked example is a real rarity, even in that condition. There are only about a dozen that are known to survive.
View attachment 219189
Here is an example from my collection in its original military configuration.

Thanks, still can’t believe it fell into our hands as it did. Now that a light cleaning has been done I’ll soon post photos of all the marks. They show up plainly now.

 

[TDM]

Went over to my Son’s house this evening and took some better photos of the markings. The C&H1 on the stock, the Barnett marks on the left side of the barrel, and numerous marks and Roman numerals on the underside of the barrel. Some of which correspond to marks in the ram rod channel. Also a shot of the remaining barrel wedge, which is slotted and pinned. Which was original.