Can anyone here ID this weapon?

[KyCavMajor]

This has one of those "found in the attic, great granddaddy carried it at Gettysburg and antetiem and saved Gen Lee's life with it" stories attached to it. A guy brought this to where I am working here in SC with his story and wanted to know about this rifle.
As soon as I looked at the lock plate, dated 1867, the story was pretty much moot. But I was wonder if this type of weapon was imported during the war, this could be an example of a type used, just produced after the war.
As I stated the lock plate is marked 1867 and has the word Torino also stamped in it. There is a crown over a proof mark.
It appears to have never have been a rear sight.About .54 caliber, hard to say if was rifled or not. No sign of a bayonet lug.

[K Bartsch]

Re: Can anyone here ID this weapon?

Purely a guess: Spanish copy of an M1863?

Cordially,

[K Bartsch]

Re: Can anyone here ID this weapon?

Duh...I meant ITALIAN copy an M1863...but still only a guess.

[107thman]

Re: Can anyone here ID this weapon?

The Front "sight" doubled as the bayonet lug; at least that's how they worked on Brown Bess muskets and the like. With just a "lug" front sight and no rear sight, my guess is that it is a smoothbore.

Michael McMaster
Ohio

[hireddutchcutthroat]

Re: Can anyone here ID this weapon?

I think that Mr. Bartsch is correct in this.

[Michael McComas]

Re: Can anyone here ID this weapon?

I would recommend posting this on the N-SSA forum, but their software recently got trashed by a spambot and will be down for several days.

So the other three places I would recommend posting this (and will gladly do so if you wish) are:

http://pub222.ezboard.com/fbritishmilitariaforumsfrm4

http://www.civilwarguns.com/board/

http://www.britishguns.net/cgi-bin/forums/british.pl

The first one is probably your best bet.

Very interesting gun. I can't wait to see what the experts come up with.

[RangerSWB]

Re: Can anyone here ID this weapon?

I found the following info while digging around on the web which I hope may be helpful.

"Under the tutelage of Salvatore Carcano, the famous Italian gun-maker, The Royal Factory of Arms in Turin (Torino), produced a large number of weapons throughout the 1850’s and 60’s.

In the Austro-Prussian war of 1866, the "seven weeks war," the Italians suffered two humiliating defeats at the hands of the Austrians at Custoza and Lissa. These defeats were deeply galling to the Italian nation and in the years that followed, Francesco Crispi, the Italian statesman (and later Premier) called repeatedly for Italy to increase its armaments and to be ready for war."

It is possible that the piece you own is a product of that military buildup. It’s true the weapon may have been used in a war…not ‘our’ war but perhaps in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71. Of course, that is pure speculation on my part. How the weapon came to this country is probably a story unto itself.

George Walters
27th VA
Stonewall Brigade