A theroy on Civil War Issue of the Zouave Musket

[John Holland]

I'm interested in any documentation on this topic, relic, written, etc.

John Holland
SAC

[Roger Hansen]

I went back through all old issues of North/ South Trader. Found 3 different dug M1841s from around Richmond, but no 63 Remingtons.
R Hansen
20th Georgia

[kevikens]

I just discovered this old thread which got me to wondering. The term,"Zouave" for the Remington rifle. Was that the term used for this firearm during the War or was this use of "Zouave" for the rifle a post Civil War creation? Do we know what the official designation of this firearm was during the War, something like "Remington, Model 1863"? Is it possible that the Zouave rifle was being referred to by some other designation that makes it difficult to distinguish from another similar firearm? One last question. There were a ton of these as Italian repros. Is there anything on the originals that would be necessary to differentiate an original from a scrubbed Navy Arms repro from the 1970's? Thanks

[Michael Bodner]

First differentiator that comes to mind: The originals has the word STEEL stamped into the barrel near the breech. The Navy Arms guns don't, to the best of my knowledge (never saw one that did).

-Mike

[John Holland]

All of the reproductions have Metric threads.

[Southron Sr.]

BAck in the "Days of Yore" when the N-SSA was first starting out, the ONLY arms available were originals. Then in 1957 Val Forgett formed Navy Arms and began importing replica '51 Navy Revolvers from Italy.

About the same time, original Remington Model 1863's (what we call Zouaves today) were available for around $20.00 each in "Mint" condition. Why were they in "Mint" condition? Because the government had accempted them from the production line at Remington and then immediately sent them to warehouses where they remained for the next century.

Yes, yes, yes, there is the possibility that a few did get issued out OR maybe Reminton sold some of the overrun to the states for their militias. Unfortunately, no documentation has been found.

Flash forward to the 1950's and the ORIGINAL ZOUAVES quickly gained a reputation as superb shooters in the N-SSA.

So, Val Forgett purchased one in "Mint" condition and sent it to Italy and had it put into production. Hence, the replica Zouave was the FIRST replica of a percussion Civil War long arm.

When the replicas arrived in the U.S. from Italy Val Forgett had a "Marketing" problem to solve and this he did in a brilliant manner.

He couldn't call the replica's "Remington Model 1863 Rifles" because he would have probably gotten sued by Remington. The name "Remington" is copywrighted by the company and they don't loan it out!

So, Mr. Forgett named his replicas of the Remington Model 1863 "ZOUAVE RIFLES.!!!" The Zouaves from the Civil War era dressed in colorful uniforms and were often considered "Elite" troops.

So, that is how the Zouave Rifle got its name, almost a hundred years AFTER the Civil War was over!!! Thanks to the marketing campaign that Mr. Forgett launched around 1961.

[Ron/The Old Reb]

Thanks Southern very interesting. I offen wondered why it was called the Zouave. Some where in one of the many books I have on the Civil War. I read that some of the troops guarding Washington were issued Remington Zouave rifles.

[le piaf]

Even in France ,during the prussian war of 1870, only a few Zouave were issued and seen on battle fields , lots of them were kept by town militia after the war and make today french shooters and reenactors happy . About 10.000 or more Zouave came back"NIB" to America at the end of XIX century.