.72 caliber. 42" barrel secured by three flat, spring retained bands. NSN. Oxidized metal, iron furniture, smooth walnut stock. Single shot smoothbore percussion altered muzzleloading musket with brass blade front sight, bell shaped lower sling swivel, no upper sling swivel and a steel button head ramrod. The musket is crudely altered to percussion with a flat neck "blacksmith" made percussion hammer and a crude cone in barrel cone seat. Cone is of the civilian sporting type, rather than a musket cone, which also suggests southern alteration, along with the crude hammer. Lock marked "E. BUELL" in a vertical line at the tail and with an {Eagle} with the word "MARLBOROUGH" in an upward curve underneath. Barrel with no defined markings other than a single deep stamp that is illegible. Buell does not appear to have had any Federal contracts and the limited number of surviving examples and most documentation revolve around Buell making militia muskets for Connecticut and possibly Pennsylvania, although it is more likely he was affecting repairs for Pennsylvania. Many northern state flintlock muskets were turned into the Federal Government during the early part of the percussion era in return for percussion altered guns. Those flintlocks were often then reissued under the Militia Act of 1808 other states, particularly southern ones. As a result, finding northern contract flintlocks in southern state arsenals at the beginning of the Civil War was not uncommon. Many of these guns were subsequently altered to percussion in the south and went off to war in the hands of Confederate soldiers in the spring of 1861. {ANTIQUE}

Fair to Good. Heavily oxidized bore is dark, dirty and pitted. Muzzle with some damage, chipping and denting. Metal with a thickly oxidized brown patina, scattered surface roughness and some scattered pitting. Markings on lock remain fairly legible. None discernible on barrel or in wood. Lock is mechanically functional but is still using the very heavy flint mainspring, making cocking the hammer an effort, particularly with the short hammer spur.   Wood untouched with a pleasing rich patina and several cracks in the forend and on the counterpane. Otherwise the wood shows scattered bumps, dings and mars.