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IDENTIFIED CONFEDERATE ISSUE PATTERN 1853 ENFIELD
RIFLE MUSKET – J/S ANCHOR STAMPED – ENGRAVED NUMBERED
BUTT PLATE TANG - IDENTIFIED TO A CONFEDERATE SOLDIER
FROM MISSOURI: As with so many treasures, this
Confederate issued Pattern 1853 Enfield Rifle Musket lay
undiscovered in plain sight for more than a half a
century, and only recently was brought to light by the
one person who had handled it in the past sixty plus
years and fully recognized the significance and history
of this piece. One of the most iconic long arms carried
by the soldiers of the Confederacy, this Pattern 1853
Enfield has all of the correct features and markings of
a Confederate purchased and issued Enfield, with the
substantial added value of being identified to the
Missouri Confederate Soldier who carried this rifle
during the War Between the States, Corporal James
Clayborn Babb, 4th Missouri Infantry Regiment.
Sometime in the 1950s, a
businessman traveling through the small town of Salem,
Missouri stopped in a small cafe called The Walnut
Bowl. The walls of the café were decorated with an
extensive gun collection and before he departed he had
arranged to purchase the entire collection which
included this Enfield Rifle. The collection was placed
into storage where it remained until the early 1990’s
when the businessman, now retired, retrieved the
collection to decorate a sporting goods store. This
Enfield hung high on a wall, unnoticed under a heavy
coat of dust, until just this year when it was acquired
by a knowledgeable collector who rescued it from
obscurity.
Any story worth telling requires a backdrop that sets
the scene and frames the details in historical context.
The history of this Enfield Rifle, manufactured in
England, purchased by the Confederacy, smuggled through
the Union Blockade, and issued to Corporal Babb is
certainly worthy of such a rare firearm and it deserves
to be related in sequence.
The Pattern 1853 Enfield Rifles were usually ordered by
the Confederate Ordnance Department in lots of 30,000.
The “Second Contract” for 30,000 Enfield Rifles,
requiring the arms to be delivered between October of
1861 and April of 1862, was placed with Sinclair,
Hamilton & Co., an arms supplier in London, England, who
paid for, packed and shipped these guns to the
Confederacy. These Second Contract Enfields – which
included the specimen offered here - were notable as
they were hand-engraved with inventory numbers on the
buttplate tang before being crated in England - the
first 10,000 having no letter suffix; the second 10,000
with the number over the suffix “A”; and the third
10,000 with the number over the suffix “B”, as engraved
on this Enfield.
A significant body of research which details of the
procurement, marking, and shipment of these Second
Contract Enfields has been collected over the past
decade and will hopefully be published before long.
Significant to this particular rifle, the research has
established that the “B Suffix” Enfield Rifles represent
only 7% of the known Confederate Enfields which survive
today. To quote this research, “To date, less than 50
A-suffix and less than 20 B-suffix P-1853 Enfields are
known to exist.”
The reason for the low survival rate of the B Suffix
Enfields has not been completely explained, however it
has been suggested that a significant number of the
rifles in this series were lost as a result of the
efforts of the Union Navy’s blockade as they intercepted
the ships carrying the arms from England. Whatever the
reason, the B Suffix Enfields are considered to be the
rarest of all the “Second Contract Enfields”. This
particular specimen is the most recently discovered B
Suffix Enfield, and by its very survival, it is an
important addition to the very small known group of less
than twenty.
This Pattern 1853 Enfield Rifle Musket was manufactured
by E.P. Bond of London and bears the fully legible
company marking on the lock plate. E. P. Bond was one
of the five major British manufacturers who supplied the
Enfields to fulfill this contract; the other four being
Parker, Field & Co., James Kerr, C.W. James, and W.C.
Scott & Sons. Based on surviving records, it is known
that Bond supplied 6,000 Enfields - only 20%, of the
total supplied under the “Second Contract”.
The manufacturers supplying these rifles under the
Second Contract often marked the comb of the buttstock
with a large single letter. In this case, a faint, but
legible “B” - the recognized stamp applied by Bond – is
stamped on the crest of the butt stock immediately
forward of the butt plate tang.
In accordance with the numbering system applied to these
Second Contract Enfields, the butt plate tang is
engraved with a legible serial number, “1118” over the
suffix, “B”.
Exactly one half inch behind the rear trigger guard tang
is clearly stamped the prized Confederate Inspector’s
mark “J S” over an anchor. As detailed in The
Confederate Enfield by Captain Steven W. Knott, USN
(ret.), the author’s excellent research and reasoning
has finally revealed the story behind this
quintessential Confederate wood stamp. One of the
Confederacy’s primary arms suppliers in London,
Sinclair, Hamilton & Co., arranged the secret, temporary
employment of John Southgate, a trained viewer
(inspector) of weapons from the London Armory Company,
who would travel periodically to Birmingham, England, to
inspect arms purchased for the Confederacy before they
were packed and shipped to the CSA. Southgate’s
initials, J S, were used as the upper portion of the
stamp. The lower portion, the anchor, was drawn
directly from Birmingham’s own Assay Office and was
probably intended to convey the assurance of quality.
The combined stamp of the JS over the Anchor became the
acceptance stamp applied by John Southgate to the tens
of thousands of rifle muskets (and some revolvers) being
shipped by Sinclair, Hamilton & Co. to the Confederacy.
Since it is known that Southgate changed his
inspection stamp to a simple anchor over an S in 1863,
the presence of the earlier “JS over the anchor” present
on this Enfield is consistent with the final delivery
date of the Second Contract rifles.
The left buttstock flat is hand carved with the
inscription, “J C . BABB”. Fortunately, the memory of
how and where this rifle was originally purchased in
Missouri - at the Walnut Bowl Restaurant in Salem -
remained with this Enfield, providing some point of
reference to begin the search for Babb.
James Clayborn Babb was born on February 16, 1842, in
Robertson County, Tennessee, and his family moved to
Dallas County, Missouri shortly after his birth,
settling in the community of Shady Grove.
Babb enlisted in the Missouri State Guard, presumably in
1861 with the onset of hostilities in Missouri, and he
distinguished himself sufficiently to be promoted to
sergeant. On January 5, 1862 he left the State Guard
and joined the Confederate Army at Springfield,
Missouri, enlisting for twelve months in Company B, 4TH
Missouri Infantry Regiment. Based on surviving
enlistment and muster rolls, Babb was present with
Company B well into 1862, however his term of enlistment
had changed from the original twelve months, and was now
noted as “for war”, indicating he was there for the
duration. He was present for the Battle of Pea Ridge,
the First and Second Battles of Corinth, and in the
Spring of 1863 he accompanied his regiment as they moved
into the Siege of Vicksburg. As chronicled in the Roll
of Prisoners of War, and in Babb’s personal parole, Babb
was surrendered with Company B, 4TH Missouri
Infantry upon the fall of Vicksburg in July of 1863.
At this point, Babb’s wartime record reflects an
interesting turn. While required to surrender and
accept the terms of parole, Babb was apparently one of
many Confederate soldiers from Vicksburg who deciding to
escape from Union control, slipped across the river
under the cover of night. This unusual and exciting
story is chronicled in a lengthy, handwritten
Historical Memorandum for Company B, 4TH
Missouri Infantry, which states in part, “…almost
one half were surrendered and quite a number of the Co.
crossed the Miss. River to Gen Price they are marked as
Deserters on the Roll but are now doing duty in that
Dept. and most of them are as gallant soldiers as ever
faced the enemy…”.
Babb’s activities after leaving Vicksburg are not
known. Since the fragment of Company B which remained
in captivity continued to maintain personnel records,
Babb, like the others who had crossed the river, was
listed as “Absent” and then “Deserted” even though many
of them continued to serve with General Price. Within
seven months Corporal Babb had returned home to Shady
Grove where he died on February 18, 1864 and was laid to
rest in the family plot in the Liberty Cemetery, Long
Lane, Missouri.
It is significant to note that the Babb family home site
in Shady Grove, Dallas County, Missouri is just 50 miles
from Salem and the Walnut Bowl Restaurant where this
Enfield Rifle was acquired with the rest of the gun
collection as described above.
While this Enfield exhibits the expected indications of
use, age, and the environment, it has survived in the
original and complete configuration, and presents in
remarkable condition. The brass furniture has that
special aged patina that is so desirable, and the stock
has acquired the satin feel of a gently used, treasured
piece of fine furniture. The lock-trigger mechanism is
very crisp and functions properly. The iron and steel
components have a consistent light pitting, more evident
on the outer surface of the barrel and more pronounced
at the breech, but there is no heavy pitting that alters
the profile or integrity of the rifle. The bore is
dark, and the rifling has been worn in the first inch or
so from the muzzle, however the rifling is present for
the balance of the bore down to the breech and although
lightly pitted for the length of the bore, the lands and
grooves are readily visible. All of the components of
the rifle are present and the stock is full form with no
significant damage or wear – only the normally expected
evidence of handling and use which can be viewed in the
photographs below.
A comprehensive body of research documenting this
Enfield Rifle and an extensive biography of James C.
Babb which includes photocopies of his original
enlistment, service, and parole records drawn from the
Dallas County, Missouri Historical Society, the National
Archives, and numerous other sources, as well as a
comprehensive battle history of the Missouri units in
which he served, is collated in a three inch thick
binder which is included in, and will accompany, the
sale of this rifle.
We’ve all heard the old saw, “If only this old gun could
talk, the stories it could tell.” Unfortunately, so
often the history of a rifle or pistol is very one
dimensional with little more known than the date of
manufacture and the collector must be satisfied that the
firearm is associated in very general terms with a given
period of history.
In extraordinary contrast, Corporal Babb’s Confederate
Pattern 1853 Enfield Rifle Musket is, in fact, that rare
example of an “old gun” that can, and does, speak
clearly of a closely defined span of time in our
nation’s history, and it does so in remarkable detail.
These British rifles are readily identified with the
years our Nation was torn by a terrible Civil War,
however this “B Series” Enfield specifically attests to
the desperate need of the Confederacy to secure arms and
equipment for their soldiers from overseas sources. The
maker mark on the lock plate, the JS – Anchor
inspector’s stamp, and the engraved serial number on the
butt plate tang, document the complex business
relationships that were established to purchase the
rifles, have them inspected, and transport them under
the veil of secrecy and subterfuge used by the blockade
runners, crossing the unpredictable Atlantic Ocean,
avoiding the Union Navy, and eventually – if the stars
aligned just right – landing the valuable cargo through
one of the Southern ports. After all this effort, there
were still the obstacles of transportation overland
through areas subjected to the frequent ebb and flow of
the front lines to finally issue this rifle into the
hands of a young Confederate soldier serving in a
Missouri infantry regiment along the Mississippi River.
Proud of his new rifle and wanting to be sure his
comrades knew this was his rifle, Babb carved his
name in the stock, unable to imagine that more than 150
years later anyone would take any notice of this
primitive identification. In reality, like so many
soldiers through the ages, it is quite probable that
weighted with the daily struggle to survive, Babb gave
little thought to a future beyond that day’s march or
battle, unaware his short life would soon end.
Finally, surviving the crushing defeat at Vicksburg,
Babb’s surrender and parole, and his subsequent journey
home - likely already suffering from the disease or
exhaustion that would eventually claim his life – Babb’s
Enfield was kept by his family as a treasured keepsake
until at least 1888 when it was listed in his father’s
probate records.
Indeed, this Enfield Rifle Musket has volumes to tell.
Now acknowledged and married with extensive research and
documentation, this newly discovered artifact of the
Confederacy will be the centerpiece of even an advanced
collection.
SOLD
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