French Musket question

[Cpl Stevens]

I am looking for some assistance on French muskets used by Union troops during the war. I have a chance to by a converted French musket, flintlock to percussion by a new breech section, a smooth bore rifled to 69 caliber and sights installed. A really nice piece. I have always read that they were heavily used by Union troops but cannot find a book or other source that states the number of them that were imported. That is the information I am looking for with a primary source, a book or other documentation. Thank you
Cpl Stevens

[MarkTK36thIL]

Re: French Musket question

The book you'll want to grab is, "Firearms from Europe." Amazon link here

They do pop up on Ebay every so often, and can be had for a cheaper price. If you post some pictures here, there's a few of us that can pull out and ID your musket. Be sure to include measurements of the overall length and the barrel length. They did lots of variations, and sometimes that only way I can tell the difference is by the measurements.

[Cpl Stevens]

Re: French Musket question

Hi, thanks for the reply. I pretty much know what I have but what I am looking for is primary source documentation that they were issued to Union troops and in what numbers were they issued

[MarkTK36thIL]

Re: French Musket question

I would buy a copy of Firearms from Europe, or even "European Bayonets of the American Civil War: A Guide to the Imported Bayonets of the Union and Confederacy, Including American-made Bayonets for Foreign Arms," for that mater. Both of those books are well researched, and provide the primary sources of quantitative numbers, units issued, and their history of importation. I think your questions would be answered then. What city was the .69 rifled-musket are you referring to, made in? There were some variety within French and Belgium producers, and without measurements or pictures, it might not be possible to narrow it down to a specific rifled-musket at the moment to even point to a clear answer.

David Noe is on facebook, and might be able to provide some of the letters, ordnance reports, and other source material that was quoted in both books. You might try posting your musket and details here for more analysis and debate. Link

At some point, someone who was very into Ohio research broke down the issued muskets per regiment. That list is available somewhere on the web, and a search should pull it up. Ken Baumann was interested in breaking down the quarterly reports of Illinois regiments, and details what they were issued during the War. However, a lot of ordnance officers were not clear in distinguishing which rifled-musket they were receiving. I.e. a ".69 Belgium conversion" was listed as the weapon issued to the 36th Illinois, but the correct terminology would have been, "Federal Alteration."

[MarkTK36thIL]

Re: French Musket question

Union purchases totaled over 147,000 French and Belgium myskets, but the vague descriptions will prevent any identification to most models and quantities.

-French m1816 Wurtteuberg: 2,000 purchased.
-French m1822 musket: min. 640 purchased.
-French m1842 musket: unknown numbers, but was purchased by Marcellus Hartley and Henry Sanford.
-Piedmontese 1844/1860: 8,176 delivered

[fahnenschmied]

Re: French Musket question

Your musket sounds like a Mle 1822T - "Transformed" into percussion, and if rifled and sighted it is probably the 18mm bore size, closer to 71 caliber. These muskets were purchased in the earliest days and as said above, there was little discrimination as to the exact patterns and models.