# 16507 - Confederate ``Richmond Hump Back Lock`` Musket- Shortened
6/2/2025
Lynn Mckinney Texas USA

Richmond 1863 with lock plate having a hump but not as high as the 1855 but higher than a 1861 Springfield. This is a gun inherited by a neighbor and I am trying to help her discover what this is. To me it looks like it may have been converted to a Fowler- no riflings. It is also shorter- more of a musketoon length. The tulip end of the ramrod has been filled with lead. It has a cut in the stock-similar to a barracks bag cut and appears to have been shortened-two bands only. The nose cap and the but plate are brass. I am a lot more familiar with the Springfields of that era but am intrigued with the possible Confederate provenance. I am asking if you would make a cursory evaluation and speculate on possible value if I sent you some pictures

Answer:
Lynn- After Harpers Ferry Armory was captured, the rifle musket making machinery was taken to Richmond, VA where the Confederates set it up to make Model 1855 .58 caliber rifle muskets. (And, they distributed some of it elsewhere for other makers to use.) To simplify and speed production, they immediately eliminated the Maynard tape priming system, while keeping the high ``hump`` on the lock plate. That was later reduced to smaller hump.

Confederate arms were desperately needed, and used hard and long, so many suffered alterations to keep them at least partially useful. Some were shortened for cavalry or artillery use. At the end of the war, most were surrendered to the Union forces, and many of those ended up in post war surplus sales as scrap, or for sale as cheap old guns with little value. Some arms went home with defeated Confederate troops, or were gleaned from battlefields later. Once in civilian hands, some were cherished relics of the lost cause, but most were simply old tools to be used. Smoothbore alteration was cheap and easy and a fowling poiece could put food on the table or kill rats and predators on a farm. If a kid needed a gun for hunting, they could easily shorten a rusty old gun for them to use.

So, the present configuration may or may not be an actual ``Confederate`` alteration, but if it is ``official`` then it likely has a lot more value than a ``farmer`` conversion.

Based on your description, the gun probably falls somewhere along the spectrum from ``junk- collectable junk-rare junk - rare and valuable junk``. Confederate arms are one area where condition is usually well below what would be interesting to most collectors, but it still may have rather high values.

The oddball Confederate guns are best examined by an expert in the field, and Tim Prince of College Hill Arsenal (whom you may recognizes from Antiques Roadshow) is one of the best on this type of gun, and I would urge you to contact him with photos.

Hope it turns out to be a treasure!

John Spangler