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Featured Article A Very Special Musket
by Jerry Sciortino
Sutler’s Row was alive with uniformed and casually dressed men and women clad in fair weather garb. Sutlers were happily scrambling to serve their cheerful customers. Shouting kids darted about while smaller ones watched from their strollers. It was another great day at a Spring National!
We’d just joined in to unhinge the shutters from Bucky’s Place. I reached into a box and hauled out a handful of copies of my first skirmish novel, For The Want of A Musket. A passing teammate paused while I arranged them on their rack. He asked; “So Jerry, what are you gonna do for an encore?”
Pete bought one of the first copies of my historic/Sci-Fi novel that were sold at Fort Shenandoah last year. Since then, he’d asked the same question more than once and, I’d only replied with a shrug. I finally tried to frame an answer to his question. Memory flashed back to my retirement shindig.
My soon-to-be-former boss asked me; “What are you going to do with all that spare time now…besides playing with your guns?” I’d forced a smile and confirmed that I intended to continue skirmishing and competing with the U.S. Muzzle Loading Team. My parting words to the man and Corporate America were “…and I will try writing the Not-So-Great American Novel!”
I thought of those parting words now, as I tried to frame a reasonable answer to my friend’s query. “Well Pete, it took me a while but here is my self-published novel; a salute to skirmishers and skirmishing; for better or for worse. But life’s too short to spend much more of it, pecking away at a keyboard for days at a time. It’s like working in an office…. without a paycheck.” As it turned out, Fate…and the Fickle Finger of Fiction… were not yet done with me.
Both of my brothers were drafted into the US Army in 1942. Jack was first to be drafted and Phil got his “Greetings” letter one week after graduating from high school. Phil fought in the European Theatre and Jack, in the Pacific Islands.
Happily, both combat veterans came back home and soon, both went off to pursue their interrupted lives. Life “on the home front” had been difficult for their seven-year-old kid brother during their absence. It wasn’t much better afterward. Owing to our age differences and life experiences, a communications gap had been forged between us siblings. Neither brother spoke much to me about what they’d seen or done. Years later, despite my having served a three-year hitch in the Regular Army overseas, my brothers still said little related to combat life except to tell amusing anecdotes.
What a surprise it was when, after Phil had finished reading his copy of For The Want Of A Musket, he called me and asked if I would look over his hand-written memoirs. Of course, I was delighted to do so!
Phil’s memoirs arrived a few days later. They were neatly handwritten on yellow, legal-sized pad paper. I was filled with pride to note how well-scripted was his military life story; described and integrated among those historic events. I found myself almost drawn along… gripped by those near pen strokes. He began by describing his first days at the Induction Center and thru Basic Training. Next, he was climbing down a rope ladder from a troopship onto a Higgins Boat with the rest of his squad. They were soon underway, heading for the beaches at Normandy. They kept their heads low as German sniper rounds snapped over their heads and clanged against their steel hull. Then the boat’s ramp dropped down onto the sand and the men ran toward their collection point above the beach. German snipers and machine gunners rained fire down upon them while American P-38 Lightning fighter planes strafed the enemy positions as they ran!
After a needed break, I called Phil. He seemed pleased by my enthusiastic comments and my offer to digitize his penned text so that he might make minor changes as desired. It was then that we had our first disagreement, which however, led to a series of decisions, directions, and discoveries.
“Hey Phil, I got an idea! Since self-publishing my novel, I learned a good bit about what’s needed to prep manuscripts and, have established contacts to make it into a book. From what I’ve read already, you’ve got the makings of a great autobiographic history. I would….”“No, you won’t!” Phil interrupted. “My purpose for writing the memoirs is to share them with a few friends and interested family members.” After moments of silence, he continued; “I didn’t do anything special that hadn’t also been done by many thousands of other men and women…and I was one of those who lived to come home, thanks be to God.” “I can appreciate what you’re saying, Phil. We’re both in agreement that less and less history seems to be taught in schools and, it has been leading to the ignorance of History.” Our phone conversation terminated soon afterward. I called him back a half hour later. “Okay...suppose that I start sketching a sequel to my novel. I could introduce another character-- named
Phil--who goes thru some of your real-life experiences; would you allow me to use them that way?” I held my breath. “Let me read what you want to write beforehand.” He sighed, “If you’ll agree to alter or edit out anything I might find disagreeable, then you’ll have my okay.” replied my stubborn brother.
Now the ball was in my court. How could I link a character and a musket from the 1860’s to a character in the 1940’s? I hoped to find some nuggets of truth, whether in form of documents or an artifact. Establishing even a tenuous link between the two time periods might make a novel more readily thought of as Science Fiction rather than Fantasy.
Not until I ran across the scientific “nugget” called Kirlian Energy did I feel it could be possible to stretch that tiny bit of real science into being the key for the characters in my first novel to travel to other timelines. The search began for a link between U.S. Muskets and France; before or during World War Two!
In my modest collection of Civil War Era firearms, I have a US Model 1863 Type 1 Rifled Musket bearing Remington markings with 1865 on the lockplate and, 1864 on the breech. I’d purchased it from Bucky Malson who knew I wanted a threebander in excellent condition for US Team competitions. I’d never seen one with such markings and neither had Bucky. My two most knowledgeable friends pertaining to Civil War firearms, were John Holland and Bob Fisch. John of course served admirably as N-SSA Small Arms Committee Chairman for many years. I ran into John at a skirmish and asked if he had ever encountered a musket so marked. He recalled having read or hearing something about Remington producing Model 1863 3-band rifles toward the end of the war, but hadn’t actually seen one. He’d check his reference library when he returned home and would be in touch if he had success.
Mr. Robert W. Fisch, now deceased, was the Curator of Arms at the West Point Museum. Bob was an exceptionally talented gun builder, restorer, firearms expert, historian and skirmisher. He was, maybe still is, the World Record Holder in the Cominazzo (flintlock smoothbore pistol) Event: all wrapped up in one understated and humorous friend. We first competed together with the U.S. Int’l. Muzzle Loading Team in Switzerland in 1977. I spoke of my “plight” with Bob. He stared at me: his sad, hound dog eyes attentive over a large, droopy mustache. I began feeling slightly uncomfortable. Then he began laughing: “Let’s see if I got this right, Jerry…You want to know if there are any records that mention U.S. percussion muskets being sold, loaned to or, smuggled into France before WWII, right?” I nodded. He continued; “…and while I’m at it, you’d like to know if there was any specific mention of Model 1863 rifled muskets with Remington 1865 lockplates?”
I knew that I must have been wearing a sheepish grin when I replied, “That’s a great idea, now that you mention it, Charlie Brown!”
A few days later, Bob called and provided me with the following information.
The full story behind this U.S. Model 1863 Rifled Musket is largely unknown. Bob offered some learned conjecture about the actual small production batch from which this rifle came. However, this article is written to add a page to the rifle’s history and, the influence it had in the writing of my second novel: Where Have All The Muskets Gone?
“It was one of the U.S. Model 1863 Type 1 Rifles that had been contracted by the U.S Government to be built by Remington’s Ilion, NY. (dates and quantities unknown)
Manufacturing delays were encountered due to re-tooling, completion of priority work and perhaps, the expectation of the war’s end. It is uncertain how many of these rifles were delivered to the U.S Arsenals and, how many of them actually found their way into the hands of Union troops before the war ended. However, it is known that some of these muskets were never issued to the U.S. Army. They were sold as War Surplus: Some of them were sold to the government of France. These bear the Remington’s name, address and year 1865, stamped on the lockplates.”
Linked with other bits of information he uncovered, Bob conjectured that these were included in a shipment of U.S. Government “obsolete” weaponry sold and shipped to France in 1870.
How fortunate it was that a rare and obscure musket survived an untold amount of usage and 150-year storage. How incredibly fortunate that, because of its excellent condition, it attracted the attention of its present custodian. Even more so, how fortunate that the musket would win its custodian two International Gold Medals and influence the writing and storyline of a novel.
So--did I use this vital information, provided by my two firearms expert friends in writing Where Have All the Muskets Gone? Absolutely!
For skirmishers who enjoy the endless discussions about the Civil War; the guns, battles and tactics, there would be more “Campfire Fodder” for them to chew over. For those who enjoy ghost stories and the vicarious pleasures of sharing the adventures of time traveling skirmishers, they would not be disappointed. Since the novel is a sequel, at least some of the characters from Book I reappear in Book II, later in life. Newly introduced is the character Philip Campbell, the grandson of the main character. It is he who lands on the beach in Normandy, and it is his life that is saved by a French Freedom Fighter who’d taken up his father’s well-used muzzle loading rifle against the German Army. Later, more of that arm’s shipment from America would help to save a town marked for destruction.
Official Doc’s Place Announcement
Hours of operation are as follows for Doc’s Place. National store hours during National Fall and Spring Nationals. Wednesday: 12 pm to 5 pm Thursday: 10 am to 5pm. Friday; 10 am to 9 pm. Saturday 10 am to 5 pm.
