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Picture Page August 2011 A military photo with a couple of mysteries... The photograph shown below was taken by Captain Charles Gandy, an Army surgeon assigned at the time to Fort Yellowstone. The photograph was made from a glass negative that was purchased years ago by a friend, I believe from the estate of Captain Gandy's daughter. The paper envelope that the negative was in was labeled 'Hospital Corps Drill, June 1894, Fort Yellowstone, Wyo'.
The two men in the photo with the rifles are
performing some maneuver which involves encircling each
rifle with the sling of the other, as can be seen in the enlargement
shown below. For what purpose they are doing this I don't know,
but as they are hospital corpsmen, it is possible that they could be
demonstrating how to fashion a makeshift 'litter' for carrying a wounded
comrade. In the process of trying to figure this out, That the photo might have been mis-labeled could be a possibility. However, it should be noted that the photo could not have been made earlier than the late 1880s, based on the knife that the corpsman on the right is wearing. It is the Model 1887 Hospital Corps knife, first issued in 1888. . .
A couple of Savage boxes......
I have included pictures of a pair of boxes of the Savage.25-20 Hi-Power cartridge. The labeling on the upper box mentions the Savage Model 23-B among the rifles that the cartridges are adapted to, but does not mention the Savage Model 219. This would indicate that the box was made after 1923 and probably not much later than 1938. . . . . .
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a couple of other perplexing revelations were made. I contacted Al Frasca,
co-author of the book The .45-70 Springfield who maintains a web site
devoted to the all things trapdoor-related, to see what his thoughts were on
the photograph. He pointed out that the slings are fitted on both rifles
upside down, noting that the double loop portion of the sling should be
attached to the sling loop at the trigger guard. He also pointed out that
the rifles are surprisingly the 1866 model, rather than the 1884 model rifle
that was in general use by the Army at the time this photo was taken.
The three barrel bands on each rifle are the obvious tip-off that they are
not any of the trapdoor rifle models after the 1866 (M1868, 1870, 1873,
1884), as these later rifles all had only two barrel bands. Why these
soldiers would be armed with rim fire .50 caliber rifles at such a late date
is a mystery to me, but it does suggest that the issuing of firearms to the
Hospital Corps was not a major concern to the Ordnance branch of the Army. I
also wonder if they even had dependable ammunition for these old rim fire
rifles at this late date.
The
cartridge shown here is Savage's version of the .25-20 Winchester High
Velocity, the 'Hi-Power' designation added to put it on an equal footing
from a marketing perspective with the Winchester HV cartridge that had been
in production for about 20 years by the time the Savage cartridge was put
into production in the early 1920s. 
The Savage Arms Company was founded in Utica, New York in 1894 by Arthur
Savage for the purpose of producing his patented hammerless, lever-action
repeating rifle. The rifles were manufactured by the Marlin Firearms Company
for Savage from 1895 to 1899, after which Savage began production of their
rifle, designated the Model 1899, themselves. In 1923, Savage
began production of a bolt action rifle in .25-20, which they called the Model 23B
Sporter. In 1938, they introduced a single shot
rifle, the Model 219, which was available in .25-20 as well as several other
cartridge. These appear to have been the only firearms that Savage produced in .25-20. 
This
second box is later production, and makes no mention of the Savage Model
23-B, or the Savage Model 219, but does continue to list the other four
rifles that were on the upper box. The Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts address
on the box indicates that it was made
after J. Stevens Arms Company purchased Savage in 1946. 