WAR OF 1812 SMITH COGSWELL NY STATE MILITIA MUSKET WITH MASSACHUSETTS MADE BARREL

WAR OF 1812 SMITH COGSWELL NY STATE MILITIA MUSKET WITH MASSACHUSETTS MADE BARREL

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$2,295.00

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Item Code: 2025-3649

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This is a very interesting War of 1812 musket. The lockplate is Riley’s Plate #229, simply marked “SC” on the lower edge just to the rear of the frizzen spring finial, a mark he identifies as Smith Cogswell, who ran an ironworks at Albany and a “New York Gun Factory” at Troy, NY. The barrel bears a clear NY state ownership “SNY” stamping on the top of the breech and the stock side flat has the NY state acceptance stamp of John McLean, the NY Commissary of Military Stores: “V / BY / IM,” in a scallop-edged circular cartouche.

Moller records a July 1812 New York purchase of 750 muskets from “Cogswell & Horford” of Albany, and a September 1814 increase of a contract by 500 muskets that he takes to refer to the 750 muskets of 1812, but which Riley apparently thinks referred to a different transaction- a contract for 500 that was “extended to 500 additional muskets,” for a total of 1,000. As noted in connection with another musket we handled, there is an 1820 reference to an 1815 trade authorized by the Governor of New York, exchanging older arms held by the state for new arms made by Cogswell, which saved the state some $6,000, though whether this refers to additional arms made by Cogswell or payment for those mentioned above is unclear. Cogswell later boasted of making “many thousand stands of arms” during the war, though Riley wonders how many were actually delivered since, “surviving specimens are rarely encountered,” though he allows for attrition from hard use.

This rates very good for condition, with full length 41-3/4” barrel, showing smooth metal, a mix of brown, gray and plum in color, with all bands, springs, swivel, bayonet stud, and rod in place. Lock, lock plate, side plate, triggerguard and butt plate are matching in surface and color. The wood has a good surface and color, showing a darker brown toward the muzzle and a lighter brown from handling further down. The lock apron has good edges. The side flat shows a short crack and some battering along the top of the side plate, a shrinkage gap along the right of the breechplug tang, and a deep chip off the left side of the breechplug tang, nearly to the screw, but which is old, showing a good deal of wear to the surface. The mechanics are good, but require a strong trigger pull avoid the hammer sticking at the half-cock position. The barrel has an old collection number “2” in white paint on the left muzzle.

The markings in both wood and metal are good and complicate the story a bit. In addition an “SNY” ownership stamp near the breech, the barrel also bears clear Massachusetts proofs indicating manufacture in that state: “P/SJ” and “M/1812.” There is an indistinct mark in between and slightly below those two marks that we have not deciphered, perhaps a NY barrel proof, but the Massachusetts proof markings are unambiguous, and taken by Riley as indicating Cogswell bought all or some of his barrels from other sources. That seems pretty clear.

Who those sources were is not known, but Lemuel Pomeroy of Pittsfield, MA, certainly comes into consideration. Moller remarks on the similarity of Cogswell and Pomeroy muskets supplied to New York, following the general lines of Springfield Armory muskets, but with some Whitney elements. We might also note Pomeroy’s rather cursory method of marking his lock plates for his purchasers: “MASS,” “SNY,” and the (debated) “S. CT.” for the State of Connecticut. (In this case, “State of Connecticut” or “South Carolina” seem clearly out of contention for the “SC,” given the NY acceptance and ownership markings.) All of which opens up the additional question of whether Pomeroy may have supplied not just the barrel, but other parts or even the entire musket to Cogswell. He would seem to have had the capacity- he had contracts with New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts, and March 11, 1811, letter from the Governor of NY, quoted by Moller (V.2, p.245,) he seems to have been well ahead of schedule on deliveries on a November 1809 contract. Moller also notes he was later a major supplier of barrel iron to Springfield in the 1840s-50s.

Of course, all this is beyond this specific musket, which is a very good War of 1812 New York militia musket. The state has a long border with Canada and was naturally worried by the rising tensions with Britain starting with the Chesapeake-Leopard affair of 1808, and supplemented its arms on hand and militia allotments with state contracts, beginning with Whitney and with Pomeroy from 1808 to 1810. With the outbreak of war in 1812, and the state eventually fielding more than 63,000 infantry alone, they turned to other suppliers, like Cogswell as well.

This is very good War of 1812 musket by a maker whose products show enough variation to be a collecting category of their own.   [sr][ph:L]

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