Muzzle-loading Musket

My Dad, Bill Bentz, had an old pre-Civil War musket that he used to hunt with when he was a young boy that had been handed down to him; he was born in 1913, so maybe he began using it in 1920.  It was a black powder, muzzle-loading musket where you loaded the black powder in through the muzzle, then loaded in the ball and a wad of paper to hold it in place, and then tamped down the whole load using a long metal ramrod that was attached to the musket.  I think it originally had a flint-lock ignition in the breach of the gun, but it was converted a long time ago to a percussion cap ignition that ignited the black powder when you pulled the trigger to fire the musket.  I believe it has a smooth, rather than rifled, barrel.  The musket is about 4 feet 9 inches long, as shown below.

There is a manufacture marking “US P. & E.W. Blake” stamped into the metal of the gun and a date marking “New Haven 1830”.  Philos and Eli Whitney Blake, who were nephews of Eli Whitney, organized and ran a gun manufacturing works from 1825 to 1836.  In the 1840’s, the US government arsenals converted many of their flintlock muskets to the percussion cap ignition.

One time, my Dad told me that he thought that the musket was used in the Civil War, but I don’t think that he knew for sure.  I don’t know any more about the family history of how the gun got passed down to my Dad.

Even if you are proficient at loading the musket, it probably takes 30 seconds to load and fire a muzzle-loading musket one time; and it takes some practice to learn to become proficient.  In a Civil War battle, 30 seconds was a long time between when a soldier could take one shot until he could take the next shot, especially when the other side was firing at him at the same time.  In earlier times, companies of soldiers sometimes were organized in rows so that one row could fire, and then fall back to reload the musket; another row would come forward to fire their shot, and then it would fall back, and so on; eventually the first row would come again to the front to fire its next shot.

When breach-loading guns were developed around the time of the Civil War, they quickly became very popular with soldiers because they greatly reduced the time that it took to reload the gun and fire it again.  The old muzzle-loading muskets are a far cry from today’s assault rifles where you can fire many rounds in a second with clips holding up to 100 rounds; and then you can reload in few seconds simply by changing clips.

My Dad hunted with his cousin Bill Hunter and his Uncle Dane Wickline using the musket when he was young.  He said that his Uncle Dane taught him how to hunt.  We have an old picture with my Dad (on the left) as a young boy, the musket, and his cousin at Adam Wickline’s house in Racine, Ohio.  I think Adam Wickline is my Dad’s maternal Grandfather.  You can see that the musket is much taller than my Dad in the picture.

After he was getting along in years and could no longer use his guns, my Dad gave his 22 caliber rifle to my son Jeff who is an officer in the Marines and his double-barreled shotgun to my son Nathan who is a Baptist minister. When my Dad died in 2001, I inherited the musket.  I believe these were three of his most prized possessions because they brought back good memories to him. 

In July, 2013, I gave the musket to Nathan.  Below is a picture of Nathan and two of my grandsons, Dominic and Cole.  Cole is Nathan’s son, and Dominic is my daughter Melissa’s son.  Melissa is a high school guidance counselor.