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Those medals and photos are awesome! The Krag is not too bad either. You have some real history there. What the collectors call "provenance", where the firearm has a traceable history connected to one person. This makes this carbine much more valuable than mine, which I bought off the rack at Cabela's. The medals, photos,service record and carbine would, no doubt, sell for big bucks at an auction house like Julia's.
I just wanted to drop in and say "Hello" to all of you. I haven't bben able to find much on my carbine or the soldier that owned it. Hi grandson is back home for the summer now, and I hope to start digging again (with his help). If anyone has any suggestions as to where I might do some research on this carbine i'd sure appreciate the info. The SRS didn't come up with anything yet, but I'm still optimistic.
Thanks for all of the great remarks!
Target-Panic,
glad to hear you are still on the case. I tried a coupleangles as well, no luck. I would look for a stash of letters and pictures, maybe in someone's attic. That's where a lot of stuff that's to useless to keep, too important to toss, ends up. If I were to bet,. I'd bet he turns up on the roster of the 6th Cavalry
good luck!
jn
target-Pnic:
This is a recent exchange from the Culver list:
Target Panic,
The question that we were framing is this: "Did our soldier bring back his service weapon, or did he buy one later from Bannermans or some other source?" I am leaning toward the former, because I seem to have run into a family-documented "bring-back" Krag.
I'll post more later.
Below is a current exchange from the Culver list:
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" brought back"
Wednesday I went down to the local yuppie bistro to have an India Pale Ale during their hapy hour. I ran into Dave, a BLM district sub-office manager, who asked me where I'd been last few weeks.
I told him about our elk hunt.he asked me what I was using for a rifleand I mentioned the Krag. Well, that got him started. His son just inherited the family heirloom Krag, through the kid's maternal grandfather. Dave wants me to help get the kid set up with brass and shells, for shooting and hunting.
The point of this is that the grandfather's grandfather had carried this rifel?carbine? in Mexico when he was with Pershing. "So he was able to take his service weapon home?" I asked. the answer was "yes."
I'll let you all know more when I get a look at the piece. I told Dave that if it was a Carbine, the ancestor was probably with the 6th Cavalry. If it was a rifle, I'll have to dig a little. I did tell him that a krag that couldbe tied to an individual soldier had collector value even if it had been sporterized as this on apparently has been.
Lets see what I can put together. On the other list, Target-Panic was trying to track down a Krag he acquired from the grandson of a soldier who served in Cuba, the Phillipines and China. The question was whetehr this was his service weapon or a Krag he picked up just 'cause he liked them. If Dave's son' rifle is a soldier's weapon that he somehow acquired for his personal use, that kind of lends some weight to Target-Panic's thought that his weapon was that soldier's service weapon.
Soon as I get a look at the rifle I'll post some more.
jn
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2. 5Mad Farmers:
Might have changed later. This is 1899.
(picture of regulation relating to fine for losing your Krag)
Wouldn't surprise me if that changed after the '03s were adopted.
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5MF,
I'm thinking that as the troops got the '03s, the 30,000-man Army may have realized they didn't really need 1/2 million obsolete rifles, and made it easy for soldiers to acquire their former service arms. If this was official policy, there's got to be paper on it somewhere. If t was unofficial, then we'll never know.
jn
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That would fit the pattern. After the CW they allowed it. After the SpanAm they allowed it on trapdoors. I know, as I shoot with a guy who took advantage of it, that after WW2 both '03s and '17s were sold to the soldiers.
So, no, it wouldn't surprise me in the least. In fact it'd surprise me if they didn't. Right after the SpanAm war - no. During the teens? Likely.
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Well, then, there could be hundreds of Krag bring-backs in gunracks and attics, all of them with a reasonably good connection to an individual soldier, marine or cavalryman. The issue would be finding them.
jn
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Thanks Jon,
I haven't visited this forum in quite some time. The grandson of our soldier who I bought the carbine from has decided to stay in Michigan this winter. He usually goes south to Texas. This should allow me to take the time to go over all of the photos, postcards, and other pieces of the collection with a fine tooth comb..........maybe I can uncover more clues.
I'll be off chasing Whitetails for a couple of weeks.........................
I'll check back soon!
target-P
Are you going to use the Krag? I just got back from a 10-day elk hunt in rough country. The Krag was all I carried.
jn
Hey...where is the rest of the story?????I know there is more to be found. Did anyone check the Michigan State archives? I have used State archives to get My Great-Grandfather's Civil War records. The States were great at archiving dispatches.......
I searched some Mich. State sites, but not sure if I went about it the right way. Seems like I always hit a restricted area, or the search process was so complicated that I just gave up. Do you have a link to the site that you searched through?Quote:
Originally Posted by Mohawk
Jon,
No.............I didn't hunt with the Krag. Actually I haven't even fired it yet. I just admire it once in a while and rub a little lite gun oil on it. I still need a screw for the sling ring bar if anyone has one.................Shoot me a PM if you know where I can get one.
I called up the State records office. It was through the State of Vermont. They kept very concise records of all the Units day to day logs that were kept by the Units clerks. Might want to check with the Historical Commision....
Thanks!Quote:
Originally Posted by Mohawk