Great Great Grandfather's powder horn

[Whitworth]

My Grandmother recounted the giving of her Grandfather's old Confederate uniform (VA Cavalry) to a tramp traveling along the nearby RR tracks thru the Trough near Moorefield West Virginia sometime after the turn of the century. His sword survives with a cousin although the sharkskin grip suffered some damage in a long ago house fire. Fortunately Grandma gave me his civilian powder horn (a plain country beauty) when I was little, Davey Crockett being the rage then. I still have it over 65 years later to be passed down on my demise. When retrieving a table for Grandma from her deceased bachelor packrat brother's house I saw numerous pictures of Great Grandfather's Confederate veteran reunions. Since I was sent for just the table I left them there as they weren't mine. They were sadly discarded by my cousins when cleaning out the house. "Oh, all those old things, we threw them out".
Here's the powder horn, I will take a few pictures of the sword if i ever see it again. Pretty sure it was an M1860 Sabre made by Ames. My brother has a letter he wrote home after the First Manassas. Written in pencil it is still legible, he thanks the folks back home for packages sent, news of the local men with him and said they captured one and a half millions of dollars of Yankee material. He survived the war, returned to the farm to be a prosperous farmer in Hardy County WVA, the farm still in family hands.

 

[Ames]

Like the horn. Must be gettin' old. I don't remember building the sword.

 

[Notchy Bob]

That's a beautiful horn. I like the way the butt plug still has toolmarks on it... Sort of "rough and ready," but nicely designed and fitted, possibly with nothing more than a pocketknife.

I have a couple of questions. First, I've never seen a "triangle dee ring" held on with a leather band at the neck of the horn that way. I'm sure the leather has been replaced, but is the metal dee-ring original, and was the horn originally set up in that way?

The other question is about the protruding nailheads around the base. Most of us have seen brass tacks used that way on horns from the western frontier, but I understand some southern horns had cobbler's iron or steel hobnails used in the same way for securing the base plug. I can't tell if the nails on your horn are steel hobnails or brass tacks. What is your assessment?

Thanks for showing this fine old horn, and for sharing your family story. This is the kind of thing I most enjoy seeing on this forum.

Notchy Bob

 

[3Setters]

Nice piece of history. Also like that mile swim patch. I have one of those also, probably somewhere in my parents house.

 

[Whitworth]

That's a beautiful horn. I like the way the butt plug still has toolmarks on it... Sort of "rough and ready," but nicely designed and fitted, possibly with nothing more than a pocketknife.

I have a couple of questions. First, I've never seen a "triangle dee ring" held on with a leather band at the neck of the horn that way. I'm sure the leather has been replaced, but is the metal dee-ring original, and was the horn originally set up in that way?

The other question is about the protruding nailheads around the base. Most of us have seen brass tacks used that way on horns from the western frontier, but I understand some southern horns had cobbler's iron or steel hobnails used in the same way for securing the base plug. I can't tell if the nails on your horn are steel hobnails or brass tacks. What is your assessment?

Thanks for showing this fine old horn, and for sharing your family story. This is the kind of thing I most enjoy seeing on this forum.

Notchy Bob

The nails are iron, didn't know they were hobnails. Yes, I too have always loved that hand carved wooden plug, knowing my GGGfather (1841-1913) whittled it out with his own two hands, hands that took him thru the War. The recycled leather securing the triangle D ring is thin, maybe shoe leather, too thin for harness with crude stitching showing previous stitch holes. It has been on it since I got it about 1955-56. Always wondered what type of strap he hung it from as Grandmother had it hanging on a less then manly piece of ribbon. The leather throng replaced the ribbon, after all Davy Crockett (thank you Walt Disney) didn't want a sissy ribbon to hang up his powder horn.

 

[S.Kenton]

That’s a really cool backstory on an even cooler old horn!

 

[Marc Adamchek]

Really great heirloom (and story as well)

 

[andy52]

I like it, the amber colored horns are mu favorites.

 

[IROCZ]

That is a beautiful horn. You are lucky to have a connection to the past.

 

[olskool]

my great great uncle who was called "bubs cook" served the CSA from SC he came back home and was working at a sawmill in a very small town where my mamas family came from. he was firing the boiler and it blew up and killed him. one of my mamas great aunts was a baby at the time being carried by her mom in a blanket, when the boiler exploded a small piece of brick came flying through the air and hit her in the head and left a little scar,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

 

[Whitworth]

Wow, thanks for all the nice comments guys.

 

[Omahkapi'si]

Very cool.

 

[Squatch84]

Very nice! Something like that still in the family is something to be proud of.