July 12-14, 2022 Collectible Firearms & Militaria
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 7/12/2022
Manufactured as part of a Civil War contract of 30,000 muskets by William Mason of Taunton, Massachusetts. Standard 40" barrel bored out to a .62 caliber smoothbore with blade front sight and 3 position rear sight. Percussion lock dated "1863" and marked ahead of cock with Federal eagle and "U.S./Wm. MASON/TAUNTON". Plain Walnut stock mounted with 3 bands and "US" marked butt plate. "WRH" carved on both sides of stock. Musket is accompanied by 2 notarized letters attributing it to Sergeant Elihu Harlon Cox (1842-1914) signed by his granddaughter in 1967. Muster records list Elihu H. Cox enlisting in Company C of the 12th Indiana Infantry July 28, 1862 as a Corporal and mustering out as a Sergeant in 1865. The 12th Indiana served in the Central Mississippi Campaign in 1862, the siege of Vicksburg and advance on Jackson before moving on to Tennessee in 1863, in the Atlanta Campaign including the infamous March to the Sea in 1864, where according to the letter Cox was wounded at Peach Tree Creek, and finally in 1865 the Campaign of the Carolinas. According to the letter, after the close of the war Cox wed and began homesteading in Oklahoma in 1889. CONDITION: Good. Musket exhibits an honest brown/gray patina throughout iron components. Stock shows wear, impressions, and abrasions not uncommon on service arms. Mechanically fine. A great "been there, done that" condition Civil War musket with provenance! BAS
Caliber/Bore
.62 Smoothbore