How to find out what rifles issued to CW unit?

[bigstick61]

I've been trying to find out what weapons were issued to Co. A of the 10th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment and the 10th New York Veteran Volunteer Infantry Battalion during the American Civil War. The reason is that I have been and still am a reenactor for that unit. Currently we use a quite inaccurate mixture of M1861 Rifle-Muskets, P-53 Enfield Rifle-Muskets, rifled M1842 Percussion muskets, and the Remington M1862 rifle. The Springfields and Remingtons predominate, because those were often the cheaper of the ones listed, and also because through reading the regimental history it was determined that the Springfield was issued sometime between November 1862 and January 1863 to the line companies and thus would have been used during 1863, the year we mostly portray; the history also states that while at Ft. Monroe, probably in February, the flank companies (which based on the infantry tactics of the day are assumed to be Cos. A and B) were issued what are only described as "Remington rifles," which were assumed to be the M1862 at first.

Recent research turned up new information. The issuance of the M1862 rifles was found to be most unlikely. While attempts were made in 1862 to fulfill the Federal contract, not enough could be made, so deliveries were initially made in 1863. It is most unlikely that any of the few weapons made would have been sold to the State of New York before deliveries to the Feds could be made. This seemed to rule out the M1862. What I found out, though, was that Remington in the 1850s produced M1841 percussion rifles under contract for the Federal government. At the start of the Civil War, 5,000 Remington produced M1841s were given to the State of New York for issuance to volunteer units. One of the units I have confirmed were issued these in 1862 is the 10th New York.

New York issued a contract to Remington to alter these rifles by converting them to .58 caliber, replacing the ramrod with a one-piece one better suited for .58 caliber Minie balls as opposed to .54 round patched balls, and adding a bayonet lug of the 1855 type with no rails for the 1855 style saber bayonet made by Collins & Co. of Conneticut. Due to the inability of Collins & Co. to deliver enough bayonets, Remington had to end the contract early, after only having delivered 3,268 rifles so converted. New York then had a NYC gunsmith named F.H. Grosz complete the contract. It seems they may not have replaced all of the ramrods with a better type, and that the reboring may have been already done by Remington, but the biggest difference is in the bayonet. The rear sight was moved back and the muzzle turned down in a lathe to fit an M1842 socket bayonet, the stud for which was brazed on under the barrel. The bayonets were government manufactured, but were issued with a peculiar frog and scabbard. New York units at Ft. Monroe prior to the Peninsula Campaign were issued both conversions, some units being issued both types, both within the regiment and within the company.

What I would like to know is how I may find out which type was issued to the 10th New York, the Remington or Grosz conversion, or both, and which companies were the flank companies, as well as whether the two companies were equipped differently. Co. A in all probability was a flank company, but I cannot absolutely confirm this. I'd also like to know if these were retained when the Springfields were issued, or if only the line companies recieved these in exchange for their M1842 percussion muskets, and also when the Springfields were issued. I'd also like to know what the impact on armament and organization (line vs. flank companies) the change to a 4-company battalion was when the change was made in mid-1863 following the discharge of the 2-year men.

I'd like to know what ways this information can be had, or if anyone here has access to such resources or knows or can quickly ascertain the answer to these questions. This will of course impact how we portray the 10th when it comes to armaments and such. So far I simply cannot find this information or even a way to get it.

Information

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[jmoore]

Tough task, indeed!

Historical societies of the area might be of some help. They might know of someone w/ old diaries or records. Probably gonna take some off line sniffing "aboot".

[bigstick61]

I've pretty much exhausted the library, academic database, and internet sources so far, but the one thing I haven't found is where to start exactly, especially seeing as how I am in California and can't really go back east to research this sort of thing in person, as I'm sure there must be something over there as far as records go. I'm trying to find out from New York what part of their government would keep records related to State arms contracts and military records at the unit levels and such, but with no luck. Nothing they've told me has been helpful.

[tbeck]

A couple thoughts. If you have a state university nearby, you can get microfilms from the National Archives on inter-library loan. Start with the muster rolls of the 10th NY. These will have a month by month report of where the unit was and a synopsis of the last month's activities. There is LOTS of fantastic first person information on what was going on. There may (or may not) be information on arms issues. There probably will be information on which companies were the flankers. You may also be able to get documents from the State of NY. Those could be very useful in finding out what contractor supplied the M-1841s. The librarian should be able to help with government documents (there is usually a person that specializes in them). There are also some guide books to government records. The references section of Garavaglia & Worman's "Firearms of the American West, 1803-1865" is a treasure trove of government documents.

Most early war units were armed with a variety of weapons through the war. Typically, they would have started off with something like M-1816 conversions. If they were in front line service, they would have gotten P-53s around early 1862 and M-1861s in mid '63 to '64. In most cases, when arms were turned in they were sent back to an armory for refurbishment. Units in the field almost never hung on to old arms.

Each company would be similarly armed. As new arms came in, they would have been issued by company. A lot of units issued by caliber, so one company would have M-1816s firing buck & ball, another maybe rifled M-1816s and '42s, another a mixture of M-1861s, Special Models and P-53s. They would all eventually end up with 58 cal. arms of one type or another.

[bigstick61]

In the case of the 10th, some information is definitely known when it came to arm issues. In May of 1861 the entire regiment recieved the U.S. M1842 Percussion Musket. In late winter, early spring of 1862 while at Ft. Monroe, at least one type of the M1841s were issued to the flank companies. The unit history states that the smoothbores were replaced by the Springfield rifle muskets (M1861) sometime around the Fredricksburg Campaign, give or take a month or so (it just states several months after the 2nd Battle of Bull Run, but other sources imply November or so as the month of issuance), but never states that this was done with the flank companies.

I'll look into one of the state universities (I'm assuming universities in California will have such information, as that is the State I currently reside in). The New York government people were not very helpful though, although perhaps I may have been talking to the wrong people. They couldn't seem to direct me to an agency which would have access to the information I seek.

[Don Dixon]

Under the Federal ordnance regulations during the Civil War, regiments were required to report their holdings of arms on a quarterly basis. The U.S. National Archives has microfilmed these quarterly ordnance reports. Most units are covered by the 1st - 2nd quarter of 1862, although not all. For some quarters, not all companies of a regiment were reported, and for some quarters there is no regimental record. The reports are somewhat general. For example, a unit might report that they were equipped with Austrian rifles in .54 caliber with block and leaf sights. These would be Muster 1854 Austrian Type I (block sights) and Type II (leaf sights) rifles. From the report, you would not know the numbers of each type. Springfield model years are not necessarily reported. Most units in the west, and some in the east, were equipped with mixes of weapons, including mixes of calibers. It will take some searching in the reports to find what you are looking for. Good luck.

Regards,
Don Dixon

[bigstick61]

Excellent advice! I found the records you described, but naturally, they are on microfilm and cost $85 a roll and there is also the fact that I have no way to view them. Looks like something I'll have to wait to do later. Good to know where the information is though, although I wish they had the record going back to early 1862, but it seems the records were not made until October of 1862. Unfortunately I was not able to discover if somehow these could be sent to the library for viewing (assuming my library has viewers for microfilm, I'll have to check that out), but I did find out they cannot be rented. One thing that would be nice would be if they could just find the specific regimental records I am looking for on the microfilm and send/sell me a paper copy.

[bigstick61]

I just realized tbeck already posted a solution to the problem. Excellent.