Asa Waters was the major player in the Model 1842 muskets produced not only under his own name, but also those marked by Benjamin Flagg and William Glaze, which have good secondary Confederate associations through their supply to the state of South Carolina. It is only fitting that some of Waters’s later production of the Model 1842 may have made their way into abolitionist hands by way of sales to the Immigrant Aid Society.

Waters’s supply of some 761 muskets to South Carolina in 1850 in concert with Flagg and through Glaze fell afoul of poor financial planning by the state and were not paid for until late 1853, a full two years after delivery. For that complicated story and Waters’s other dealings with Flagg and Glaze we refer interested parties to Moller, V.3, and to John Ewing’s article “Asa Holman Waters and the 1842 Musket, available online through the American Society of Arms Collectors (Bulletin 81:43-52.) This is a very good example of a Model 1842 not only made by Waters, but marked by him as well. It is also scarce in having an 1853 dated barrel, indicating it is one of the Model 1842 muskets he continued to make and sell on the commercial market to individuals, militia groups, and others. (This one has the rack number “30” stamped on the buttplate tang in large numerals, indicating it must have been part of substantial purchase.)

The wood to metal fit on this musket is tight. The wood has a nice, even, deep brown color and very good surface, and sharp edges to the lock plate apron, side flat, barrel channel and ramrod channel. There are a few handling marks and typical scratches on the sideflat. with relatively few handling marks, mainly just typical scratches to the side flat. The only defects of note are a small chip along the left forestock next to the barrel on the left, between the middle and upper band, and a short crack on the right buttstock just below the edge of buttplate tang and some hairlines on top.

The barrel is smooth metal, showing some bright metal underneath brown and gray staining, with the color darker at the muzzle and the breech. The lock plate and hammer are likewise smooth metal, mostly gray mixed with dark gray and brown, though the lock plate marking, “A.H. WATERS & Co. / MILBURY MASS” completely legible, crisp and on a lighter portion of the plate. The 1853 date on the breechplug tang is likewise sharp, and the breech, though showing some thin brown, is not pitted or marked by corrosion from firing percussion caps. The buttplate shows brown with some shallow pitting, likely from standing on floor for decades. Action functions well.

Total production of the M1842 by Waters is estimated by Ewing at 9-10,000, but only a small portion of that would bear his name, mainly the early 761 muskets sold to South Carolina, perhaps some of the 500 or 600 lock plates Glaze admitted to purchasing out of state for his 1851 contract with South Carolina for 6,000 muskets, and then some of the estimated difference of 2-3,000 sold on the commercial market through 1856 or so.

Biographical information on Waters pictures him as member of the Free Soil party and also the Immigrant Aid Society, so omitting his name on muskets supplied to South Carolina was probably fine by him, avoiding alienating northern customers if nothing else. Interestingly, though, he is also known to have supplied some 1,000 shoulder arms, suspected to be his Model 1842, to the abolitionist Immigrant Aid Society in 1856, just as troubles in Kansas were reaching a boiling point. Some collectors believe that later Waters Model 1842s found without his name on the lockplate, were part of these or similar shipments and an effort to avoid alienating southern customers.  [sr][ph:L]

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