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In 1899, an order was received from a United States officer for twelve Savage rifles. The guns were assembled and shipped as quickly as possible.

They were apparently used by an Alaskan expedition headed by E.F. Glenn of the Twenty-Fifth (ninth?) Infantry. Captain Glenn was from Alaska and had previous experience with Savage rifles (obviously the 1895), and demanded that the US Gov't equip his men with it. Despite having a large number of Krag-Jorgensons on hand and Winchesters and Marlins being easy to acquire, the government did equip him with the Savage rifles.

I've seen old pictures of an Alaskan expedition with polar bears they'd shot with what I thought were 1895 rifles. I'll see if I can't find those again, might have been early 1899's with 1895 stocks.

Love finding this old stuff...!

Don't think from this account that the photos I saw were anything to do with this expedition.

Captain Glenn did not have the greatest success with his expeditions. Though there is a Glenn Highway named after him, as well as Glennallen is partially named for him.

Expedition details, both his previous trip and the one after they ordered these 1899's.

https://www.adn.com/uncategorized/a...highway-named-after-torturer/2012/01/11/

That was an interesting read, but woof,.. what a tough way to make a living. Thanks for sharing Rory.

Thanks to Alaska University digital photos, I did find this photo from his first expedition of a guide with an 1895 (summer of 1898, had to be).

A new subject to explore. Nice find. There was quite a few 1895's shipped in the last quarter of 1898. Given that the 1899 exposition would have started early in the year I think there is a chance that the 12 rifles were 1895's. On the other hand, the first 1899's were reported to have been made in the last couple of months in 1898.

As a side note to this, found separate references to 12 guns being the number of 1895's that were sent to the NY militia trials.

To bad I can't make out the serial number of that one 1895. I picked one up out of Dawson, thinking it had been there since the gold rush as it was sold in California.

On the military trial numbers, are you sure it's only 12? I have one lettered as a trials rifle.

No, not sure on the trials guns, that just what the references stated. I'll see if I can't find the link again.

My bad... there were twelve DIFFERENT guns in the trial, not twelve Savage guns.

Somewhere I have saved off some of the reports and write ups for the trial. I'll take a look at them and see if they state the number of Savage guns.

I'm glad you did a double take, it made me do a double take of my letter on that gun.

It does have the slot in the barrel that the military trial rifles had but the letter states made in 303 Savage. Weren't the New York guns made in 30-40 Krag?

JC states in the letter that it is a rare "military" model 1895 but that doesn't mean it was a New York rifle now does it. Although I always thought only the New York trials rifles came with the slot on top for the Springfield type rear sight which mine is clearly cut for. Now I've got a mystery.

99% sure the military trial guns were 303 Savage. There was no stated requirement for them to use the same ammo as the new US arm, tho I do think they might have specified 30 caliber.

I'll look through all my notes tonight.

There were 100 1895's in .303 Sav. sent to the trials, 96 1895-D's and 4 1895 "military carbines" (not sure what these were).

Sweet, no mystery then, it is a trials rifle.