Guns International #: 101671438
Seller's Inventory #: 10021

Category - Sharps Rifles - Antique - Civil War Carbines

Category
Sharps Rifles - Antique
Civil War Carbines

Sharps Model 1853 Slant Breech Civil War Carbine, Beecher's Bible / John Brown serial range, Historically Significant, 2nd US Cavalry

Description:
Historically Significant Sharps Slant Breech Carbine, M1853 serial number 16xxx, see John Brown/Beecher's Bibles.

Please see below for the historical significance of this Sharps.

Condition, very good, visually Gorgeous, some, see photos.  Wood in very good condition with nice grain and visible faded inspector cartouche.  John E. Weige took very good care of this weapon.  Mechanically this weapon tries but does not hold at second cock, a condition that is fixable but I have not removed the lock to adust the tumbler.

This specific Carbine was issued to John E. Weige, 2nd US Cavalry, as engraved on the patch box, see photos.
John Weige enlisted in the 2nd US Cavalry in 1855.  In 1856 he was commended for "Distinguished for Gallant Conduct" at the battle of the Guadalupe, by his commanding officer, then-Colonel Robert E. Lee.  The 2nd US Cavalry was stationed in Texas from the Mexican War until December 1858, at which time they were brought east as Texas contemplated secession, for fear the unit would join the Confederacy.
Once back east, eight of the twelve commissioned officers and majority of the troops resigned and joined the Confederacy.
Commissioned Officers in the 2nd US Cavalry from 1855 through 1860 included Robert E. Lee, Albert Sydney Johnston, William Kirby Smith, John Bell Hood, Earl Van Dorne, and "The Rock of Chickamauga" George H. Thomas.  In fact the last command Robert E. Lee held, up until the time he tendered his resignation from the United States Army, was as Colonel of the 2nd US Cavalry.  He did lead the 2nd Maryland, a contingent of Marines and 2nd US Cavalry troops to subdue John Brown at Harpers Ferry.
Along with 67% of the officers, a large number of enlisted personnel also went south to the Confederacy.  John E. Weige disappears from the US 2nd Cavalry rolls at this time, and it is almost certain enlisted in the 1st Maryland CONFEDERATE Cavalry, as Historian Mrs. Nancy Dearing Rossbacher's cross-referencing of his stated address, 55 Gay St, Baltimore Maryland, produces a "Charles Feige" at the same address, with the same age and physical description (5'6", black hair and gray eyes) and same occupations (Barkeep, Porter), enlisting in the Confederate regiment shortly after John Weige ceases to appear on the 2nd US Cavalry muster rolls.  This is a near certainty the same man, as it was very common for Marylanders serving in the Confederacy to identify under an alias to avoid persecution and prosecution (treason) back home.
He reappears enlisting in Baltimore again in 1864, likely following a three year enlistment with the Confederacy, this time as a paid substitute for a draftee, and enters the 2nd Maryland, UNION.  John is captured at the Battle of the Weldin Railroad south of Petersburg on August 19th, 1864, and reappears on his unit's roll records on January 2nd, 1865 as "recovered from Missing in Action".
After the war he re-enlists in the 2nd US Cavalry (which had since been re-designated the 5th US Cavalry), is redeployed out West where his paper-trial finally disappears.

Sharps expert Dr. Richard Labowski identifies this particular weapon leaving Hartford in 1855 (purchaser and destination unknown, according to Sharps factory records), the same year John Weige enlisted in the 2nd Cavalry and reported to his unit in Texas, he likely took possession of this weapon at the beginning of his service, and would have been firing this very weapon while earning "Gallantry" praises from Robert E. Lee and Albert Sidney Johnston at the Battle of the Guadalupe.
It is also possible he was with Robert E. Lee at Hapers Ferry and took possession of this weapon during that skirmish, as he was still with the 2nd Cavalry at that point.  The serial number does fall smack in the middle of the range of John Brown / Beecher's Bibles.  Apparently John Weige was a fan of both Robert E. Lee and the Southern cause, I also have a Robert E. Lee CDV and oil-cloth Confederate reunion flag circa 1880's obtained from the same source from which the carbine was obtained, I believe also belonged to John Weige (update - the Robert E. Lee CDV has been sold separately).

John Weige, cited for Gallantry in 1856, Indian Fighter of the Commanches and Kiowas on the Texas frontier, possible participant in the John Brown skirmish at Harpers Ferry, likely following his officers south to the Confederacy, later serving in the Union Army to close out the war with his home-town's 2nd Maryland Regiment, and finally returning with his unit to the Western Frontier, provides the richest possible history for one of the most superior, highly collected Civil War carbines.

Comes with a wealth of documentation courtesy of Dr. Richard Labowski and Historian Nancy Dearing Rossbacher, as well as the oil-cloth confederate reunion flag (hand-flag measuring approx. 6" x 9".

Thank you to Dr. Richard Labowski for the Sharps factory information.
Thank you to Nancy Dearing Rossbacher, Historian and Researcher, North-South Trader contributor, for the rich history on Corporal John E. Weige.

Comes with factory letterhead letter from Dr. Richard Labowski, and e-file of Weige research performed by Nancy Dearing Rossbacher.

If you collect one-of-a-kind, historically significant weapons, this is a must-have.

Add $480 for insured USPS shipping anywhere in the lower 48 states, or alternatively you can pick up at my home in Wilmington Delaware, or I can deliver or meet for delivery anywhere in the mid-Atlantic region, Massachusetts to Georgia, Tennessee to Ohio.
 

SOLD