help on Remington Zouave

[kevikens]

I need to know if every original Zouave musket from Remington has the word "steel" on the barrel near the lock. A shop near me has one for sale and iIam afraid it may be a scrubbed Italian not an original. Every image of the original Zouaves on the net has that word on the barrel and no Italian repro does. So does anyone know if any originals are supposed to be without "steel" on the barrel? Is there something else I could look for to determine its authenticity. It looks well used but any reenacter can make an Italian one look old after 10 years of reenacting. He wants $1000 for the gun, way too much for a repro but a good price for an original. Thanks PS He is a gunsmith, but... .

[JDagget]

E. REMINGTON & SONS

E. Remington and Sons began in 1816 as a sporting gun barrel maker in the Mohawk Valley of New York state. In 1828 the operation was moved to the banks of the Erie Canal near Ilion, New York. Remington was one of the first gun-makers to use steel in their barrels, which were highly sought after (14). The strategy changed when Remington began buying out the contracts of Federal military suppliers who behind on their shipments and completing them at their factory. The second government contract for Remington was the US Model 1841 rifle. The Ordnance department was impressed by the quality of the initial deliveries of these rifles, and extended a total of four contracts totaling 20,000 units from 1846 to 1855. The barrel flat on the Remington is stamped STEEL, the lock plate reads REMINGTON’S over HERKIMER over N.Y. with the date and US behind the hammer. All of the Remington contracts were delivered as agreed, and few if any were rejected. Remington usually referred to the US 1841s in correspondence as “Harpers Ferry rifles.” After 1855 the US Model 1841 evolved into a newer version, in the “standard” .58 to take advantage of the new Burton designed minie bullet. Remington was given a government contract to ream out the barrels of the older .54 US 1841s (to .58), and fit them with bayonet lugs. Unlike Whitneyville Armory, Remington did not supply contract arms to the southern states after the start of the US Civil War in 1861.

Interestingly, when the US Civil War began E. Remington & Sons did not capitalize on the new Federal and State rifle-musket contract work like Whitneyville and others. Remington did enter into one “regular model” US 1861 rifle-musket contract on August 20, 1862 but they made no deliveries on it (15). Instead, having all the machinery on hand from the earlier US 1841 contracts, Remington agreed to make 12,500 modified 1841 rifles in .58 with bayonet lugs. These are referred to variously as the Remington 1862 contract rifle, or 1863 contract rifle, depending on the contract or the delivery date. The Remington rifle was similar in appearance but entirely different in detail from the US 1841 Percussion rifle. By the time the final deliveries were made, in December 1863, the Ordnance department was no longer as desperate for any infantry arms they could procure. There was some reluctance about issuing the Remington rifles as replacements for rifle-muskets, and they were apparently stored until the end of the war and sold off as surplus along with at least a million other infantry arms. There are no records of any Remington 1863 contract rifles issued to any troops during the US Civil War (16). Presumably, these rifles were stored in Watervliet Arsenal, as that is where the US 1841 percussion rifles made by Remington were also stored prior to alteration and issuance.


US 1841 Remington contract

[kevikens]

JD thanks for all that wonderful information but it does not quite answer my questions. Does an original Zouave ALWAYS have the word "steel" on the barrel? Is there something else on the originals not present on the Italian repros to help distinguish an original from a scrubbed repro? Thanks, again.

[JDagget]

My several references say these always have STEEL on the barrel.

[John Holland]

kevikens - The lock plate should read: "1863" (horizontal on the tail end); a very finely detailed" Eagle" (facing right) over "U.S." (both are in the center of the plate in front of the hammer); to the right of the Eagle "Remington's" with "Illion N.Y." stamped underneath. On the left flat of the barrel you should have the word "STEEL" with an inspector's mark of something like "H.S.L.". The top of the barrel should be stamped "1863" with the standard "V" over a "P" followed by the "Eagle Head". The barrel bands should have a letter "U" stamped on the left side so that the "U" faces up towards the muzzle. There should be two inspectors stamps on the left stock flat. All other brass parts will be stamped with a very tiny Sub-Inspector's stamp which will be an alpha stamp such as "S", "A", "L", etc. Remove the lock; all parts will have the same type Sub-Inspector's stamps. The butt plate will have a very neatly stamped "US" on the tang. If the rifle is an early delivery it will have a seven groove barrel with rather round bottom rifling. If it is a later delivery it will have the standard three groove rifling. I hope this has helped you with your decision. JDH

[kevikens]

Thanks: that's just the sort of info I need