Researching U.S.Army Small Arms

[delta-419]

I am looking as to how to track pre-civil war small arms procurement deliveries by serial numbers. There must be some records of small arms by serial number made when payment was made to the factory of manufacture. Manifest lists of shipped arms by date and serial number must be somewhere in the archives. I'm thinking Library of Congress, but how to get started. I know the period I want to track and even the serial number range but, were they ever delivered? Did they make it to the Army?
Has anyone done this type of research, if so, please share your experience.

 

[Ivan the Butcher]

The handiest piece of old military gun info is: The reference of any edition of the Dixie Gun Works Catalog!

This may or may not fulfill you need, But you will find it fascinating!

Ivan

ETA: Identifying old US Muskets, Rifles, and Carbines by Arcadi Gluckman Bonanza Books my book's copyright is 1959

 

[johngross]

Three words. Springfield Research Service.

Books, newsletters, computer database. Keep in mind only a very small percentage of serial numbers have been located, and chances of any large remaining caches to be located are slim to none.

http://usmartialarmscollector.com/

Springfield Research Service Serial numbers plus additional serial numbers | eBay

SERIAL NUMBERS OF U.S MARTIAL ARMS SPRINGFIELD RESEARCH SERVICE 4 #289671 | eBay

 

[JH1951]

IIRC, a lot of the Civil War era rifles had no serial numbers. I do not recall any of my old Springfields with numbers until the Trapdoor era.
As usual, I could be wrong because I'm relying on memory.....

 

[DWalt]

Flayderman's Guide to Antique American Firearms will be most helpful. Likely that many military guns of the CW era had no SNs, especially those of foreign origin. My 3-band Enfield has no SNs, and they were used in quantity by both sides. Edwards' Civil War Guns will also have considerable information.

 

[Ivan the Butcher]

A very big PLUS 1 for Flayderman's!

Ivan