Boxes for Enfield

[Mcouioui]

I look for information on the boxes of delivery of wooden for Enfield ( length), conditioning by 10, I think?!
Thus I look for all that you have to make one, plan, dimensions, sketches, photos, inside and outside of the box, etc. markings on the box (for period 62-63) and for the federal army.
In you thank in advance for your answers!

regards.

William

[Cfarrell]

Re: Boxes for Enfield

Sir Miconnet,

I believe I have the information you are looking for but it is at home. If no one finds it before then I'll post it later tonight if I can find it. The information is out there. Back in 2006, I built one for our muster at Mansfield and it worked out great.

[Mcouioui]

Re: Boxes for Enfield

Thank you in advance, I wait that with the impatience of the child...:)

[Mcouioui]

Re: Boxes for Enfield

Please, please, please ;)

[lukegilly13]

Re: Boxes for Enfield

I know this is an old thread but I was hoping to prevent starting a new one. I'm interested in making boxes so that when "recruits" show up at a living history, their weapons are pulled straight from the box and issued. Does anyone know the dimensions or have pictures of original boxes that muskets were shipped in..perhaps from the arsenal? Any muskets will do (springfield, enfield, etc..) as I can adjust the box a little to fit particular weapons. It would be a neat additions to the recruiting station and depot impression I'm involved with from time to time.

[PanzerJager]

Re: Boxes for Enfield

Last time I was at the Drummer boy in Gettysburg they had an original shipping crate for muskets, not sure if it's still there or not and unfortunately didn't have a camera along.

[estephenson]

Re: Boxes for Enfield

Union drummer boy still had it a week ago. Seth without a camera? Wow.

[Garrett Silliman]

Re: Boxes for Enfield

The Georgia DNR has one in conservation at their Panola Mountain facility. I would contact them - they may have dimensions/curation sheet for it and wouldn't mind sharing their information.

Good luck, Garrett

[Nighthawk]

Re: Boxes for Enfield

The Enfield crates being delivered to the South were marked with Cypher codes. This allowed the inventory and records keeping needed for overseas shipments. It also left the federal agents on the docks, who were recording what was being loaded, from knowing what was in the crates.

[Brandon]

Re: Boxes for Enfield

Ft. Mcallister State park in Georgia has a one in their museum that is a reproduction of one that they pulled off the bottom of the river,still loaded with enfields.

Brandon Hand
48th NYSV Co. F
SCAR

[David Fox]

Re: Boxes for Enfield

As I recall, the old Blockade Runner Museum on the N.C. coast had at least one crate on display filled w/ rusted Enfields salvaged from the wreck of a...what else?..blockade runner. It might be in the Ft. Fisher museum collection now.

[traveler1863]

Re: Boxes for Enfield

Sir,

I have a book titled "An Introduction to Civil War Small Arms" by Coates and Thomas. On page 4 it has an illistration of a rifle musket shipping box with some dimensions. The rifles don't appear to be Enfields, but it might get you started in the right direction.

Gordon Morey

[Bill]

Re: Boxes for Enfield

The Union Drummer Boy still has that weapons box this Saturday. I was looking at it and didn't notice any stencils on the box. (At least the part I could see.)

[LeatherHead]

Re: Boxes for Enfield

Not Enfields, but M'55 though '64 US rifle-musket crate specs, drawings in plan view and cross section, with excruciating narrative detail on its components, can be found in the US Ordnance Manual of 1862. It is probably reprinted, but I do not know that as a fact.

Best Luck
Dean Nelson
1st Maryland Infantry CSA, N-SSA

[Charles W. Mood]

Re: Boxes for Enfield

The book "The Blockade Runner Modern Greece and Her Cargo" by Leslie S. Bright and published by the Archaeololgy Section, Division of Archives and History, North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources, Raliegh, North Carolina, June 1977, has a diagram and markings of the cases used on that vessal to ship enfield muskets. (I bought my copy from the Fort Fisher State Historical Site in North Carolina). The case held 24 muskets (8 muskets across (alternating directions) and 3 levels high. They were held in place by cross boards with hole cut that would align just behind the trigger guard. It also contained leather shoulder straps (musket slings) that were packed in one end of the box. The case was marked:
S M
G (with the G inside a small diamond)

Unfortunately, no dimensions are given for the case, but the letters marking the case are 3 inches tall.

The two cross braces that hold the muskets in place are each made out of four pieces of wood with holes cut out, like below.

______________________
I I
I--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--I
I I
I--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--I
I I
I--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--I
I______________________I

V/R
Charles Mood