Poster #1; "Hey! I picked up an awesome original Springfield Model 1861 Rifle Musket with bayonet!"
Poster #2; "Wow! That’s cool! Post up some pics!”
Poster #3; "Damn yankee musket!!!"
Poster #1; “But it has confederate provenance!"
Poster #4; "Some Inbred redneck took it off dead union soldier!”
Ad nauseam
The conclusion of the Battle of Gettysburg saw the Confederate Army in full retreat, forced to abandon all of its dead and most of its wounded. This left the Union Army and the local citizens with the job of cleanup. It was when the weapons were being gathered and added to a master list of enemy possessions found that people started to notice something strange.
The numbers we have today state that at least 27,574 rifles were recovered, although some sources claim the number to be as high as 37,000. Of the weapons that were salvaged, an incredible 24,000 rifles were still loaded (that’s either 87% or 63%, depending on which estimate you accept.) Of the total number, half had been loaded more than once, and a quarter had been reloaded multiple times. Apparently, one poor soldier had reloaded his weapon twenty-three times, but the weird thing is that he never fired a single shot. https://www.thevintagenews.com/2016/08/30/guns-gettysburg-found-loaded/
After the Battle of Gettysburg, the discarded rifles were collected and sent to Washington to be inspected and reissued. Of the 37,574 rifles recovered, approximately 24,000 were still loaded; 6,000 had one round in the barrel; 12,000 had two rounds in the barrel; 6,000 had three to ten rounds in the barrel. One rifle, the most remarkable of all, had been stuffed to the top with twenty-three rounds in the barrel.
Naturally the Gettysburg NPS museum has a really nice selection of weapons on display. Amazing the non standardization of weapons and ammo. A logistic nightmare.
