|
THE CARTRIDGE COLLECTOR'S EXCHANGE |
|
|
Home of the Old Ammo Guy's Virtual
Cartridge Trading Table
Picture Page April 2018 Please note: Unless otherwise indicated, the pictures on this web site are my property, and should not be used by anyone without crediting the source. An extraordinary fired cartridge case.... I probably average several emails a week from people who, having stumbled across my web site, ask me to identify and provide them with a value and/or age, or to give my opinion on the authenticity of an item they have. I'm usually able to provide at least some of the information they're looking for, although values and ages are often just guesstimates. So often, when I'm looking at one of the more interesting items I catch myself thinking (as I think most of us tend to do) "If only it could speak". Obviously, inanimate objects can't tell you where they've been and what they were doing there, but occasionally they come very close to doing so. Which brings me to this month's
item. I received an email this past week from a lady who was interested in
the age of a fired cartridge case that she had recently found in a bag of
tourist souvenir pins in a thrift shop. She went on to say it was inscribed
"fired in volley by 22nd Reg. at Grant's funeral". Essentially, she wanted
to know if the engraved shell was as old as the e
The photo shown below, from an album titled "Seven Mile Funeral Cortege of Genl Grant in New York August 8, 1885", is captioned "Twenty Second R . . .
So what is the story behind this engraved cartridge case? Who knows? But I would speculate that the members of the honor guard probably kept the fired cases from the blanks they fired, and one chose to have this one engraved as a lasting reminder of this special event in his life.
I'd appreciate feedback from anyone who has seen or heard of a similarly engraved cartridge case.
Sources:
UMC cartridge catalogs from the International Ammunition Association reference section, various catalog dates as discussed, http://www.cartridgecollectors.org/ammunition-catalogs
Illustration of the Union Metallic Cartridge Company cartridge head, Metallic Cartridges (Regulation and Experimental) as Manufactured and Tested at the Frankford Arsenal, Philadelphia, Pa., Government Printing Office, 1873, reprint by The Armoury, West Hurley, NY
Seven Mile Funeral Cortege of Genl Grant in New York August 8, 1885, The Instantaneous Photographic Co, Boston, Mass.
Information on the New York National Guard rifles from a discussion regarding the engraved cartridge case in the International Ammunition Association's cartridge forum, found here: https://forum.cartridgecollectors.org/t/50-70-grants-funeral-cartridge-case/27693/7 and Flayderman's Guide to Antique American Firearms and Their Values, 6th edition, page 194, DBI Books, 1994
Photo of the Remington Model 1871 Rolling Block rifle from a closed auction on the Guns International auction site, www.gunsinternational.com
.
|
ngraving
would suggest it was, 
and
if it could actually be a memento from Civil War
General and President Ulysses S. Grant's funeral, which occurred on August
8th, 1885. Attached to the email were several photos that piqued my interest.
Disregarding
the engraving for the moment and focusing on the cartridge case itself, it is a
relatively common folded head, Berdan-primed .50-70 Government cartridge case, of the raised or stepped head style produced by the Union
Metallic Cartridge Company (UMC) beginning in about 1868. The
illustration below left is a cross-section of a UMC folded head cartridge
case with
it's Berdan
primer. The photo below right of the two cartridges shows what the blank would have looked
like prior to having been fired and engraved.
The June 1887 UMC price
list includes folded head Berdan-primed as well as solid head boxer-primed
.50-70 Government cartridges in both bulleted and blank loads, so they produced
the folded head, Berdan-primed cartridges at least until 1887. I was unable
to locate UMC price lists for 1888 and 1889, but the one published in June
of 1890 no longer includes a Berdan-primed
version, so they were out of production by that date, and
possibly a year or two earlier. The U. S. Government has always had a
practice of procuring military ammunition in times of need from commercial
ammunition manufacturers. Such was the case in the 1870's and 1880's when
contracts were often negotiated with the Winchester Repeating Arms Company,
the United States Cartridge Company, and UMC to produce some of the
ammunition that was needed for the military. In my own collection is a wood shipping crate that held 500 UMC
folded head .50-70 Government cartridges, manufactured and shipped to the
Army Depot in Washington D.C. on December 24th, 1873 as part of an
ammunition contract with the government. It remained in storage there until
being shipped to the Virginia State
Militia. 
egiment, N.G.S.N.Y.", and
shows that the Twenty Second Regiment
was present at
the funeral. The 22nd Regiment was part of the New York State National
Guard, as indicated by the letters N.G.S.N.Y. in the caption. Most state
guard or militia units were armed at the time of the funeral with .50
caliber Springfield 'Trapdoor' rifles that had been rendered obsolete when the .45 caliber Springfield rifle
was selected as
the standard long arm of the regular U. S. Army in 1873. However, in
1872 the Governor of New York
had contracted with the Remington Arms Company to
supply 15,000 new Model 1871 rolling block rifles, like the one pictured
here, to arm the New York State Guard with. Like the older Springfield
Trapdoor rifles, these Remington rifles were chambered for the .50-70
Government
cartridge, and were the rifles that should have been in use by the New York National Guard
at Grant's funeral and well into the
1890s. 
If
this cartridge case actually was one of those fired in the volley, that is,
fired as part of the 21 gun salute that Grant received, and all were
similarly engraved, perhaps to be presented to dignitaries who were in
attendance at the funeral, then where are the other 20? Surely one or more
would have come to light in the intervening years. Another possibility is
that a large number of empty cartridge cases were engraved in this manner by
an entrepreneur who offered them for sale as souvenirs in the days following
the funeral to tourists visiting the tomb. But again, what has happened to
the others? I would expect that quite a few would have survived such that
one would occasionally be offered for sale. And then there's the possibility
that the engraving is completely bogus, added recently to a random fired
cartridge case by some one intent on creating an instant collectible which
he could profit from. A number of factors convince me that this isn't so.
The photos above and below clearly show the engraving on the case. The style, quality and
general appearance of the engraving are enough to
convince me that it is 'of the period'. The caliber and physical
characteristics of the 
case
are correct for the reasons discussed above. That it was found in a bag of
trinkets in a thrift shop, having never come to light to be the subject of
discussion among historians or cartridge collectors at some time in the past
130 plus years is surprising, but I am convinced that it is what the
engraving says it is. In my 40+ years of collecting cartridges I have never
seen or heard of another. 