1803 Harpers Ferry Rifle Conversion

[MarkTK36thIL]

Good evening ACers,
In my pondering moments, has anyone come across CS conversions of the Harpers Ferry 1803 Type I or Type II .54 flintlock rifles? As I was going through a posting or two of the ordnance reports, it unfortunately doesn't look like the supply sgt. really cared to distinguish any of the .54 rifle varieties. I can't blame him since they were 4th class weapons at that point. Right now, I have only seen what looks to be a brazed bolster, and another one that was a drum bolster. I'm aware Lodgewood has done two alterations, but I'm not certain it was modeled after an existing piece, or altered in the period style of other alterations.

Brazed Bolster with a Mississippi Forestock

http://jamesdjulia.com/item/lot-1071-confederate-alteration-of-model-1803-harpers-ferry-rifle-31301/

Drum Bolster

http://www.csarms.com/scripts/csa_view2.asp?ID=7625

Murphy and Madaus do not go into the m1803 that I can find at the moment, and I think Tim Prince had one, but it does not come up in his search feed (but it does exist if you do a FB search for: 1803 Harper's Ferry with Likely CS Conversion
If your Googlefu works better than mine,, here is the only evidence for a link that I can find:

http://www.collegehillarsenal.com/shop/product.php?productid=635&cat=14&page=2

As I was talking to Curt H.S. earlier, as he suggested, artifact evidence exists without documentation evidence- but I'd like to find something other than these two (or three). I would agree with Garrett Glover that the m1803 on Shiloh Relics page resembles one of the Leman alterations. Maybe there is someone out there with something unique that is floating around in a private collection (or public), but I'm just hoping to find something for a project.

Thank you,
Mark

[Curt Schmidt]

Re: 1803 Harpers Ferry Rifle Conversion

Hallo!

In my adult life, or is it maybe the life of my memory.....?

I have seen and handled some five or six "drum" bolster alterations of the M1803. (Once Upon a Time, nobody much wanted them as they were 'Pre CW." And me and a pard were thinking of reconverting two back to flintlock with the repro lock that was commercially available.)

Curt

[GarrettG1993]

Re: 1803 Harpers Ferry Rifle Conversion

The vast majority of percussion altered M1803 rifles that I have seen were altered via the "drum" method. I think the most likely reason for this is due to civilian alteration during the antebellum period. My reasoning to support this is as follows: Since the M1803 was a product of a National Armory it was not intended for issue to the States. By the time the M1803 was old enough to officially be drawn under the provisions of the Militia Act of 1808, supplies of new made M1817 "Common Rifles" were already available. If the rifles were not issued to specific States prior to 1842 when Federal Arsenals and posts began to be inventoried prior to the implementation of the percussion alteration program they would have been condemned as 3rd and 4th class. I have not seen any examples with a 3rd class inspection cartouche, so I would assume that any in Federal repositories were listed as 4th class arms, and were thereby included in pre-Civil War surplus sales.
Although there are known examples of M1803s altered by Henry Leman, I don't recall any other examples of Northern altered M1803s (perhaps the New Jersey State Arsenal at Trenton might have done some). There is also a lack of examples altered in a concerted manner to attribute Confederate alteration, at least on a large manner. Fisher alterations are covered by Murphy and Madaus (ones with the 1841 style forearm spliced on), but these seem to be a relatively low number alteration method. Likewise, assuming that M1803s could not be altered via the "brazed bolster" method, which appears to have been much preferred by CS Ordnance officials as well as private contractors, due to the octagonal breech section is not bore out by the surviving Fisher alterations, as well as brazed bolster altered M1814 common rifles and altered Virginia Manufactory Rifles.

According to Moller, in 1841 the various States owned approximately 48,500 rifles. IIRC production of the M1803 (both types) amounted to less than 20,000 rifles. M1817 production stands at roughly 38,000. To these numbers we can also add a couple thousand M1814 Common Rifles. Another factor in the equation is that Moller's estimate may very well include M1819 Hall's Rifles, of which 9,221 had been issued to the States by 1855.
If Moller's figures are correct, and M1819 Hall's are included in his figure, there would be relatively little room for M1803 rifles in his figure if we assume the majority of M1814 and M1817 Common Rifles had been issued to the States at that point.

Cheers,
Garrett Glover

[GarrettG1993]

Re: 1803 Harpers Ferry Rifle Conversion

The other day I shared some information that I compiled with Mark, but thought that it might be of interest to others so I will post it here.

Flintlock Rifle Production
M1803 Rifles – 19,720
M1814 Rifles – 4,000
M1817 Rifles – 38,267
M1819 Hall's – 25,380

Total - 87,367

M1819 Hall's Distribution (circa 1855)
States – 8,416 (9,082 reported in 1855)
Navy – 1,362
Congress – 302
Federally Owned – 14,074
Total 24,154 – 24,820 out of 25,380

Percussion Altered M1814 and M1817 Rifle Distribution
States (circa Jan. 1861) – 3,058
Federally Owned (circa 1857) – 6,929
Total 9,987 out of 42,267

Presumably State Owned Flintlock M1814 and M1817 Rifles
32,280, unless the Federal government owned unaltered rifles

Known M1803 Rifles
Federally Owned flintlocks (circa 1847) – 498
State owned percussion (circa Jan. 1861) – 50
Total 548 out of 19,720

Moller's Figures
State reported flintlock rifles (circa 1841) – 41,000
Estimates of unreported flintlock rifles (circa 1841) – 7,500
Total: 48,500

An additional 6,502 flintlock M1814 or M1817 Rifles were reported as Federally owned in 1847. These rifles may be reflected in the numbers of Federally owned percussion altered rifles in 1857. Given the shortages of surviving flintlock M1814 and M1817 rifles I am inclined to believe that these rifles were percussion altered and are included in the 1857 figure of Federally owned altered rifles.

Under the original provisions of the Militia Act of 1808, States were only allowed to draw muskets. It wasn't until the 1820s that States began drawing any rifles under their annual allotments. If the general rule of issuing only contractor made arms to the States held true, then the rifles drawn by the States would have primarily been M1814 and M1817 Common Rifles. Adding up the State owned arms listed above, and including the figure of probably State owned flintlock M1814 and M1817s, gives a total of 40,746 to 41,412 rifles accounted for. I am not clear as to whether or not any States reported any privately contracted arms, such as Virginia Manufactory Rifles or New York and Pennsylvania 1812 Contract Rifles, but even if they didn't that would leave room for no more than 7,754 additional M1803 Rifles (or other pre-1814 rifles). Added to the 50 known percussion altered M1803 Rifles owned by Kentucky, that would render a maximum total of 7,804 M1803 (or similar) rifles in State hands prior to the war.