A few old things...

[Shark Bait]

I put together a few old things I had laying around for a picture. The gun was made in 1864. I plan to make a shadow box to display it in. I'll keep the other trinkets locked up, though.

[mm93]

You might consider looking at Hampel's for their display boxes. I have made some cases, and display boxes for handguns and rifles. But after recently being directed to Hampel's site and buying from them, I wont bother anymore. Their prices are very nice, and all pieces are custom made after you order them. Takes a couple weeks to be made, but worth it.

Glass Top Cases and Displays – Hampel's Woodland Products

I just got a pair of display stands that hold two long guns per stand. At $20 each I wont build them. Glass pistol cases run $7 to $38 each. Tough to beat that when I buy wood and glass to make them.

[glowe]

Nice 5" Model 2 you have there. The collection, however, might be a little misleading, since the S&W Model 2 would rarely have made it in the hands of a Confederate soldier. Maybe a nice fake US issued $100 bill instead? There is one on ebay. https://www.ebay.com/itm/NICE-CRISP-...UAAOSwtJZXVHrV

[Shark Bait]

Originally Posted by glowe

Nice 5" Model 2 you have there. The collection, however, might be a little misleading, since the S&W Model 2 would rarely have made it in the hands of a Confederate soldier. Maybe a nice fake US issued $100 bill instead? There is one on ebay. NICE CRISP UNC. 1864 U.S. $100 GREENBACK BANK COPY NOTE! READ DESCRIPTION | eBay

My very small amount of research suggests that both soldiers on both sides bought them as back-up protection. But I was mainly interested in putting items of the same period together.

I bought one of the bills you suggested. I won't mind putting that in the shadow box.

[glowe]

Just drag that Yankee $100 bill around the yard and run over it a couple of times with your car and it will look original!

I wish I could remember the source of this, but it is my understanding is that S&W, located WAY north of the Mason-Dixon Line, did not sell to the South during the war, mostly since there were land and Naval blockades on gun running. My guess is that most that ended up in Confederate hands were picked up on the battlefield.

[S&WsRsweet]

One thing for certain Shark Bait that will make a very nice display I like anything firearms related and add in American history related and you got my undivided attention. Very cool very very cool. Thanks for the heads up mm93 about display boxes as I’m not the best woodworker anyway .I read somewhere an interesting tidbit about I want to say Colt but can’t recall ,anyway one gun manufacturer got in some hot water trying to sell to both sides .Maybe some of you can recall heck I probably read it here somewhere you guys seem to come up with very interesting historical facts that I never heard of before.

[H Richard]

I have made several shadow box displays for my more antique S&W's, I have featured them standing up so I can see them from anywhere in the room. The guns are secured by resting on small brass "L" hooks. The felt background is the self stick available at Hobby Lobby.

The glare on the glass makes it hard to see clearly in the pictures.


The period accessories make nice pictures.

[Shark Bait]

Originally Posted by H Richard

I have made several shadow box displays for my more antique S&W's, I have featured them standing up so I can see them from anywhere in the room. The guns are secured by resting on small brass "L" hooks. The felt background is the self stick available at Hobby Lobby.

The glare on the glass makes it hard to see clearly in the pictures.


The period accessories make nice pictures.

Very nice! Thanks for sharing your displays. You reminded me I have an old railroad watch that would fit in pretty well. It's a bit later than Civil War era, but I could use items spanning 1850's through 1900.

[Shark Bait]

Originally Posted by glowe

I wish I could remember the source of this, but it is my understanding is that S&W, located WAY north of the Mason-Dixon Line, did not sell to the South during the war, mostly since there were land and Naval blockades on gun running. My guess is that most that ended up in Confederate hands were picked up on the battlefield.

You make a great point there glowe. I have to agree.

[kobsw]

Originally Posted by Shark Bait

I put together a few old things I had laying around for a picture. The gun was made in 1864. I plan to make a shadow box to display it in. I'll keep the other trinkets locked up, though.

SB, What's the cutout/file groove on the top strap just behind the pivot pin?

I'm new to the 1st and 2nd models and I've not seen it before.

Nice representation by the way and I like way you put the pic together.

Regards,

Kobsw

[rwsmith]

I did the graphics for a friend's shadow box to display his Nationalist Chinese Broomhandle Mauser with their flag.

[S&WsRsweet]

Oh yes Richard I feel I’ve seen that roll top desk picture either in another thread or maybe in another life when I was a Civil War general and that was in my study with my war souvenirs .If it be the latter I would appreciate you sending my things back to me no questions asked .Seriously that is a cool display and picture .

[Shark Bait]

Originally Posted by kobsw

SB, What's the cutout/file groove on the top strap just behind the pivot pin?

I hadn't noticed until you just mentioned it. At first, it seems to be deliberate and perhaps filed. But close up photos make it look like an old scar of unknown origin.

[desi2358]

Originally Posted by glowe

Just drag that Yankee $100 bill around the yard and run over it a couple of times with your car and it will look original!

I wish I could remember the source of this, but it is my understanding is that S&W, located WAY north of the Mason-Dixon Line, did not sell to the South during the war, mostly since there were land and Naval blockades on gun running. My guess is that most that ended up in Confederate hands were picked up on the battlefield.

I like the idea for aging a fake bill for display, lol... Though a Confederate bill wouldn't look too out of place I think. There was a thriving trade in smuggled items of all types during the war and a modern, cartridge firearm would certainly appeal to anyone who could afford it. Though he might have a problem getting ammo resupplied. Same issue with a captured piece too.

While many recruits went off to war with a hideout gun most who commented on it later said they soon sent them home or otherwise got rid of them as just extra weight to carry. More likely to be in an officers hands. Displays do look nice with contemporary items included, I think the OP's items would certainly add to the presentation

[glowe]

Originally Posted by Shark Bait

I hadn't noticed until you just mentioned it. At first, it seems to be deliberate and perhaps filed. But close up photos make it look like an old scar of unknown origin . . .

Let's guess it was a Cavalry Saber strike while a Union Officer was fending off an attack during the war.

[kobsw]

Originally Posted by Shark Bait

I hadn't noticed until you just mentioned it. At first, it seems to be deliberate and perhaps filed. But close up photos make it look like an old scar of unknown origin.

SB, Just a bit more character to a gun with a long history i'm sure.

From the original side shot picture it looked like it was a modification.

Thanks for the clarification.

Best Regards,

Kobsw

[Shark Bait]

Originally Posted by glowe

Let's guess it was a Cavalry Saber strike while a Union Officer was fending off an attack during the war.

Works for me! I wonder if Roy would put that in a history letter for me.

[Stevens]

How about a notch for a man downed.
Not a good place for it.
Steve W

[glowe]

I have to share something I put on the Forum quite awhile ago. One of my Great Grandfathers in the Civil War had his life Story published in a newspaper a century ago about his Civil War experience. I only wish I had the boot he mentioned in the story. What our ancestors on both sides had to go through in that very nasty war can not even be envisioned.

HENRY A. MANWELL, who is the owner of a handsome farm of eighty acres on section 25, Tittabawassee Township, Saginaw County, bought this tract of land in its wild condition and built upon it first a log hut, which he lived in until 1880.
Our subject had his early training and education upon a farm and as his father died when Henry was but an Infant, the mother moved to Canada with her six children whom she managed to support by her own labor in spinning and weaving, and at the same time gave them the advantages of a fair education.
At the age of twenty the young man returned to Saginaw and worked in the lumber woods until January 24, l864, when he enlisted in Company D, Sixteenth Michigan Infantry "for three years of the war." This regiment was attached to the Army of the Potomac and sent on at once to the Rappahannock Valley where they participated in the engagements of the Wilderness being under fire for twenty six consecutive days, and having men in the "killed and missing" column daily.

Through all this terrible time of conflict our young hero was so fortunate as to escape without a scratch and he narrates a humorous Incident of his first detail on skirmish line. As he had not had much experience in drilling he made & mistake in taking the command right dress for left dress and breaking the skirmish line he advanced through the brush and came on to an officer whom he took to be the sergeant of Company A. and therefore did not shoot.
In a few seconds the officer gave the command "Attention Company" when he found he was in the rebel lines with a company of rebels not twenty feet away. He beat a hasty retreat and ran into another company of rebels, which when he discovered he started in a third direction receiving a volley of shots from both companies, but none hit him, except one bullet which cut the tent cloth from his back and another bullet knocked off the heel of his boot and he returned to his own lines In safety. He thinks he must have outrun the bullets for more than fifty shots were fired.

After the battle of the Wilderness his regiment went with Grant to Petersburg and he was taken sick and was In hospital some time, but rejoined his regiment before the surrender of Appomattox and participated in the Grand Review in 1865, receiving his honorable discharge at Jeffersonville,'' Ind., July 8, 1865, and being sent from there to Detroit, then returned to his home.

[merl67]

Just a thought if you have a printer you can do what I have done. This is one I did today.

[Shark Bait]

Thanks for sharing Gary. Great story! I wish you had the boot, too.

[Warren Sear]

I got this...

[mm93]

Originally Posted by glowe

Nice 5" Model 2 you have there. The collection, however, might be a little misleading, since the S&W Model 2 would rarely have made it in the hands of a Confederate soldier. Maybe a nice fake US issued $100 bill instead? There is one on ebay. https://www.ebay.com/itm/NICE-CRISP-...UAAOSwtJZXVHrV

Thanks for that link! I wanted some old bills for display purpose too, and bought one of their "starter sets" so I'd have a variety for use in my gun displays.

[first-model]

Originally Posted by glowe

Nice 5" Model 2 you have there. The collection, however, might be a little misleading, since the S&W Model 2 would rarely have made it in the hands of a Confederate soldier. Maybe a nice fake US issued $100 bill instead? There is one on ebay. https://www.ebay.com/itm/NICE-CRISP-...UAAOSwtJZXVHrV

Smith & Wesson only sold to one entity: their sole sales distributorship in New York City, which was owned by Joseph W. Storrs and later by his second-cousin-in-law Marcus Robinson.

I have pre-Civil War advertising examples from Smith & Wesson from nine southern states, so *someone* was moving those guns south. Benjamin Kittredge (whose base of operations was in Cincinnati) was shipping a lot of guns through his operation in New Orleans, and Smith & Wessons are sometimes found bearing his stamps. I suspect there were a lot of other people (now long forgotten to history) that were also happy to move to goods across state lines.

This gets into a fascinating and under-research aspect of 1850's and 1860's business practices, which was the rise of sales distributorships (and the corresponding rise of more sophisticated financial services). The term "sales agent" is a bit misleading here, since a sales agent back then was also coordinating the movements of goods and monies, in much the same way that a modern logistics company would. Storrs, who had experience in the silk trade and the railroads, knew his business well and (I would argue) was one of the reasons why Smith & Wesson rose so quickly. After all, a product will not succeed if people can't get hold of it.

I haven't had the time to research the newspaper advertising of the era as throughly as I'd like to, but at this point I feel confidant in saying that (by the time the Model 2 came along) Smith & Wesson had a strong following in the south, and that there were plenty of guns moving down there. How many of these ended up in the belts of Civil War soldiers is anyone's guess, but I suspect it was more than a few.

Mike

[amazingflapjack]

Thanks for a nice thread.

[glowe]

The Model 2 was first marketed in 1861, so there was a very small window of legal shipping before was was declared in April, 1861. I doubt that any Model 2 revolvers went to the South before the war started and would only guess that few got sent down there during the war.

Pre-Civil War shipments to the South would have been Model 1, not Model 2. The earliest shipment in the database was serial number 48 that left the factory on July 1861 for the Model 2.

My point was that the numbers of Model 2s in the south during the Civil War were few when compared to those who bought them during the war in the North.

[first-model]

Originally Posted by glowe

The Model 2 was first marketed in 1861, so there was a very small window of legal shipping before was was declared in April, 1861. I doubt that any Model 2 revolvers went to the South before the war started and would only guess that few got sent down there during the war.

Pre-Civil War shipments to the South would have been Model 1, not Model 2. The earliest shipment in the database was serial number 48 that left the factory on July 1861 for the Model 2.

My point was that the numbers of Model 2s in the south during the Civil War were few when compared to those who bought them during the war in the North.

Gary, all I was suggesting was that Smith & Wesson had a stronger presence in the Southern marketplace than was suggested earlier. And it wasn't just the well-known Frank Leslie's ads that Storrs placed, but also a lot of ads from local merchants mentioning Smith & Wesson by name.

I've never found any primary source evidence to suggest how willing Storrs would have been to ship goods to the south during the war (or to sell to distributors like Kittredge that were well known to have moved guns into the south), but my haunch is that they were selling to whoever was buying.

That said, we're still just guessing.

By the way, I show Model 2, serial number 2 (with a 6" barrel) as having been shipped in June 1861. I assume (wrongly, perhaps) that it also went to Storrs ... but your point about this happening after the start of the war is well taken.

Mike

[glowe]

It seems clear that the only source of goods for the South was from foreign countries. Lincoln mandated a Naval blockade on all goods coming by ship, which did take some time to become effective, but there is no indication that northern industries were in any way part of the blockade runners. A research paper on Northern Industry in the Civil War has some interesting content and one section has the following:

One body of evidence indicates that the war widened this sectional disparity by destroying the South's minute industrial base and expanding that of the North to prodigious dimensions. Statistics on specific industries provide what appears to be convincing proof. While the loss of the Southern crop produced a steep war-long decline in production in the North's largest industry, cotton textiles, its woolen industry enjoyed a 100% production rise during the conflict. The second largest consumer industry in the Union, shoes and leather, also enjoyed tremendous growth, thanks to army contracts that more than offset the loss of the Southern market. Other war related industries, especially firearms, gunpowder, and wagon manufacturing, grew rapidly on the strength of military contracts. Meanwhile, iron production in the North experienced a slump early in the war but boomed 1863-64, in the latter year reaching a production level 29% higher than that of the entire country in the busiest prewar year, 1856. The coal industry experienced similar growth, in 1861-65 enjoying an expansion rate 21% higher than that for the nation as a whole during the 4 years immediately preceding civil strife.

The whole article is in this link: Northern Industry In The Civil War The article does seem to support that the notion that northern industries were supporting the "government" and people of the Union, with no mention of supporting southern interests. So, there is no indication that the North supplied anything to the South, but the premise that no company in the Union sold any goods to the South after 1861 still proves to be difficult to document.