This Model 1795 musket has very sharp lock plate markings with a Harpers Ferry style eagle with small shield on its chest with a U.S., facing the butt, forward of the cock and “HARPERS / FERRY / 1815” in three vertical lines at rear of the plate, indicating it was one of 5,340 completed that year at the armory. The barrel has equally sharp proofs at the left breech: “US” in a sunken oval cartouche with an eagle’s head over a “P” in similar cartouche next to it. Just forward of these markings, stamped in small letters and reading from muzzle to breech, is “OHIO,” indicating the musket was distributed to that state under the militia act of 1808, which annually supplied the states with muskets, or their monetary equivalent in other arms based on the numbers of enrolled militia and later on population.

An 1860 Ohio report counted only 5,204 muskets still in state hands out of 27,967 acquired from the U.S. government from 1808 through 1860. Many, perhaps most, of the missing muskets, drifted out of state hands through issue to local militia who then damaged, lost, or simply failed to return them, or by inadequate paperwork. The state arsenal also privately sold quantities of obsolete arms after the Civil War and might have been doing so earlier.

This fits the M1795 pattern as produced at Harpers Ferry in 1815, measures about 60 inches overall and has a full length 45-inch barrel with a top-mounted bayonet stud. (See Moller for the parameters of these muskets, which underwent continual changes during the period of manufacture at both Springfield and Harpers Ferry.) The metal is generally smooth, brown in tone, and very good overall. The bands, springs, and ramrod are in place. The swivels are missing. The wood has a good fit to the metal and color, but shows scratches, handling marks and dings overall from issue and use on the butt, forestock, and along the ramrod channel. There are some chips at upper rear and front of the lockplate, around breechplug tang and forward triggerguard tang, The side flat has a number of dings and pressure dents obscuring the inspection marks, but with some legible: a “V” at the rear over another dark stamp, a small “U” near the rear lock screw, etc. All of these are commensurate with the musket’s age and it presents very well overall.

The musket is in original flint and likely left state hands by way of issue to a militia company or commercial sale to an intermediary and resold to a volunteer company. It was not shortened for handier use around a farm and sights were added for accuracy. The front band was fitted with raised brass blade sight and the rear barrel band has had a raised arch with sighting groove attached to it on top. We also see a short line across the top of the barrel to the rear of that band, perhaps an indication of a simpler notched rear sight that did not hold up to use.

The Model 1795, referred to at the time simply as the “Charleville pattern,” is important in the history of U.S. arms the first musket produced at the national armories of Springfield and Harpers Ferry as the country realized the necessity of meeting its own needs for arms. The armory at Harpers Ferry had only recently been established, but production of locks started there as early as 1800, with the first complete muskets produced in the fourth quarter of 1801. Production of this pattern and its variations at Harpers Ferry totaled 92,407 by the end of 1818 with another thousand possibly produced in 1819 as the armory began producing the Model 1816. This is a good example of that important longarm made by that historic armory and with clear associations with prewar state militia, making it an interesting study piece on that count as well.  [sr] [PH:L]

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