Buffalo gun maker Patrick Smith supplied half-stock military rifles in 1861 to members of the Union Continentals, a volunteer militia company organized in Buffalo, NY, as an offshoot of the Buffalo City Guard in late April. Members were generally too old for field service, but had years of militia experience between them. Ex-President Millard Fillmore acted as commander and by June the ranks included four former militia generals, sixteen colonels, thirty-three majors, sixty captains and thirty-five honorary members, or roughly 140 men. Some were very wealthy: the membership’s combined cash capital was reported to be twenty-million dollars, but an additional eighty men had enlisted, and had not yet paid a three-dollar initiation fee. In May a committee was tasked with reporting on the “expediency by the Corps of the Enfield rifle,” and solicited opinions about the members purchasing their own rifles, noting the cost of the Enfield might be a burden, “to many members of the Corps.” They eventually agreed to furnish their own arms and equipment and to pay their Quartermaster the cost of the arms, “after the kind shall be agreed upon” (Cited by J. Gerry 2017.)

Patrick Smith eventually contracted with at least some members of the company to produce a hybrid military and civilian half-stock rifle that may have reflected what many were already carrying. The guns were marked by Smith and numbered on the breech, but also bore German silver plaques on the left butt flat engraved with the unit designation, Fillmore’s name as commandant, the individual owner’s name and the date 1861 (see Moller No. 358.) It is thought that the lighter half-stock hunting configuration benefitted older company members in drill, but may have intentionally reflected the old ideal of the yeoman farmer called to duty, and offered the less affluent members a functional hunting weapon as well.

Moller estimated fewer than a hundred of those hybrid rifles were produced, leaving open the question of what weapons were used earlier and also by the rest of the company, which may have numbered up to 220 at points (140 members enlisted and paid, and another 80 not yet paid up in 1861.) Even among Smith’s hybrid group, purchased and adorned with silver plaques, there was significant variety. Calibers varied: .58, .40 and .36 are recorded. Locks were both unmarked and marked. (Number 65, offered at Pook and Pook in 2017 had a well-fitted J. Henry lock with a civilian style hammer; Number 85, offered at Cowan’s, had an unmarked lock with military style hammer, and was in .40 caliber.)

This half-stock rifle by Smith is either one of the earlier arms purchased by a member of the corps, or one who could not afford the hybrid Enfield and opted for a straight-forward hunting-style half-stock. Smith’s name and location are crisply stamped on the barrel, along with a number “70,” though forward from where they appear on the hybrid. The wood is excellent, with crisp edges to the lockplate platform and offside flat. The cross-hatched checkering at the wrist is very good, with just slight softening from handling and a few very small dings. The buttplate is a deep crescent in shape and the triggerguard has a scrolling handrail. The butt has a circular patchbox with an extended finial, all secured with four screws. The lock is secured by a single lockplate screw having an upside-down mushroom cap escutcheon on the off side. The barrel is secured by a single wedge. The barrel is octagonal with a very short rounded muzzle. The metal is smooth, with no pitting and lots of plum-brown finish and stronger color on rib running along the underside of the barrel forward of the nosecap. Both sights are in place. The brass-tipped wood ramrod is in place, secured by two thimbles attached and a rear-entry pipe just aft of the stock nosecap. The lock is functional, unmarked like #85 and uses a civilian hammer like #65. The nipple is mounted on a side lug. The hammer is plated, which seems odd until one recollects the unit was largely ceremonial, escorting departing volunteer troops such as the 21st NY to the train station, forming honor guards for patriotic meetings, recruiting drives, and funerals of returning casualties. (Members of the company even served as honor guards for Lincoln’s body in Buffalo as it returned home through several large northern cities.) It is worth noting also the rounded muzzle, which seems suited for a bullet starter. Even the .40 caliber hybrid rifles of the unit were likely using picket bullets, if not round ball, which would have benefitted from use of a starter.

This is a very scarce and unique early-war adaptation to military use of a civilian rifle form, adopted by a prominent New York unit at a time when every old military arm that could shoot, or possibly shoot, was being gathered up to defend the Union.  [sr]

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