CONFEDERATE IRON MOUNTED WM. GLAZE ASSEMBLED RIFLED-MUSKET SURCHARGED “SC” FOR ISSUING TO SOUTH CAROLINA TROOPS

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CONFEDERATE IRON MOUNTED WM. GLAZE ASSEMBLED RIFLED-MUSKET SURCHARGED “SC” FOR ISSUING TO SOUTH CAROLINA TROOPS – In 1850, following Governor Whitemarsh B. Seabrook’s recommendation, the South Carolina General Assembly created a Board of Ordnance and appropriated $350,000 for weapons and munitions. The resultant Palmetto Armory was a short-lived effort to establish a weapons-manufacturing capability in South Carolina during the secession crisis of 1849–1852. Northern attempts to block the spread of slavery into the newly acquired southwestern territories led many South Carolinians to consider secession. In 1850, following Governor Whitemarsh B. Seabrook’s recommendation, the General Assembly created a Board of Ordnance and appropriated $350,000 for weapons and munitions. A consortium of William Glaze, Benjamin Flagg, and James Boatwright received a contract in 1851 to produce muskets, rifles, pistols, cavalry sabers, and artillery sabers, at the newly formed, Palmetto Armory. All weapons produced were to be of the current federal pattern and were to be manufactured wholly within the state.

The Palmetto Armory obtained some equipment through Flagg’s contacts with northern manufacturers, particularly Asa Waters. Although Glaze and his company were supposed to manufacture all weapons in South Carolina, recent research indicates that most of the components for the firearms and all of the edged weapons were produced elsewhere and merely assembled in South Carolina. In May, 1853 the contract with the armory, was terminated, by the state, due to a lack of funds. By this time, of the numerous state contracts received by the Armory, the largest was for 6,000 M1842 muskets, which the firm delivered between 1852 and 1853. After the final delivery of arms was made, in 1853, the company stopped producing arms and became the Palmetto Iron Works and started producing agricultural equipment. By the cessation of ordnance production at the Palmetto Armory, Glaze had delivered 6,020 muskets, 1,000 rifles, 1,000 dragoon pistols, 2,000 cavalry sabers, and 526 artillery sabers..*

• *Meyer, Jack Allen. William Glaze and the Palmetto Armory. 2d ed. Columbia: South Carolina State Museum, 1994.

With the onset of hostilities in 1861, William Glaze & Co. revisited the arm’s manufacturing business. With the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860, the state of South Carolina determined it would secede from the Union and once again began making preparations to arm its state militias. It was during this time that the state made an effort to update its weaponry supplies by collecting the Palmetto M1842 muskets from its arsenals and shipping them back to Glaze to be rifled. During the Spring and Summer of 1861, Glaze converted 3,720 Palmetto Armory smoothbores to rifled muskets, by cutting 3-groove rifling in their bores. These rifles were issued to several South Carolinian units, including the 1st South Carolina Volunteers, who used them at Gettysburg.

This gun is one of the 1842 pattern muskets which is thought to have been assembled and rifled by William Glaze, at the beginning of the Civil War. Glaze apparently cobbled together M1842 parts to assemble his early war muskets. Indicative of this process are the following characteristics: the presence of the rare, added long range, rear sight; 1854-dated, Harper’s Ferry lock plate; lightly stamped eagle on the lock plate; rear of barrel is stamped with the standard “VP” / eagle proof, as found on some Palmetto muskets; a date of 1853 stamped on the breech plug; crudely cut, three-groove rifling. In all aspects, this musket conforms with other known, Glaze produced examples. The musket measures as follows: an overall length of 57-1/2″ and a barrel length of 42″. The musket remains in overall very good condition; the mechanics are strong, the stock untouched and the iron elements finished bright.  These rifled muskets are considered to be secondary, Confederate arms that saw definitive use by South Carolina troops.