RELIC MODEL 1842 MUSKET RECOVERED FROM JAMES RIVER AT CITY POINT

$1,695.00 SOLD

Quantity Available: None

Item Code: 883-329

Here is an amazing “dug” relic. This is a M-1842 smoothbore musket as recovered from the James River near the site of the City Point wharf. The condition of this piece is exceptional considering it was under water for so long. It must have been buried in the mud. The musket is essentially complete…right down to the ramrod and the three barrel band springs. The only “missing” items to note are that the rear sling swivel was broken off from the trigger guard and there is a 5” to 6” section of the stock (between the nose cap and middle barrel band) that has noticeable loss to the wood. Obviously, the remainder of the stock exhibits the cracking and the minor shrinkage due to being submersed under water for over a century. However the wood has been expertly treated and is very stable. All of the iron components are in very good condition. With the exception of a very few widely scattered spots of rust, the iron surfaces retain much of their original finish. This musket is an exceptional relic from the site of the great explosion at City Point, Virginia.

City Point (now Hopewell), located in central Virginia at the confluence of the James and Appomattox rivers, was the site of Union general-in-chief Ulysses S. Grant’s field headquarters during the Petersburg Campaign. In 1864 City Point became a crucial Union port and supply hub. At least 100,000 Union troops and 65,000 animals were supplied out of the town, and in August 1864, a member of the Confederate Secret Service detonated a bomb on a docked barge, hoping to disrupt work at the port. As many as fifty-eight people were killed, but the wharf was soon rebuilt and service to the front continued. Approximately 58 people were killed and 126 wounded, while the damage estimate reached four million dollars. General Grant noted that "every part of the yard used as my headquarters is filled with splinters and shells." A Confederate prisoner awaiting exchange was killed, and a bayoneted musket was thrown a half-mile. Union officials had no idea what had caused the blast until after the war. [JET]

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