The Fenians were an Irish-American group who wanted to put pressure on Great Britain to free Ireland. They conspired to mount an invasion of Canada and occupy some territory in order to force concessions. In June 1866, the group purchased a number of surplus Bridesburg rifle-muskets to arm their expeditionary force, and sent 600 armed men across the Canadian border from New York. The small force briefly captured Fort Erie, but was readily overcome, and the men were sent back to the U.S.. Surprisingly, the Fenians were sufficiently well connected politically that they were able to recover their guns along with their freedom to try again.
However, by the time the Fenians were considering a second foray across the border in 1867, the British troops in Canada were equipped with Snider conversions of the P1853 Enfield rifle, and the Fenians knew they would be seriously outmatched with their original muzzle-loading Bridesburg muskets. To update their arms, the Fenians, contacted Patrick J. Meehan to oversee the conversion of their outdated muzzleloading muskets to modern breech loaders. Meehan formed a company that he called the "Pioneer Arms Works," and arranged to rent a portion of a former locomotive factory in Trenton, N.J., that had been used as a musket factory during the Civil War. Meehan’s operation was underway by 1868, and Alfred Cole was supervising the conversion process, assisted by a young German immigrant gun designer, Hugo Borchardt. Borchardt later gained fame through his work with Sharps rifles, and his basic semi-automatic pistol design proved to be the inspiration for the well-known German Luger pistol. the clandestine Pioneer Arms Works was able to convert about 5,000 of the Fenian's muskets using the "Needham" conversion.
Ironically developed by two English brothers, Joseph and George Needham, the conversion work involved cutting off the lower 3" of the barrel, threading it and then screwing in a new breech. The new breech had a side-swinging breechblock, that was pivoted at the front. This pivot also held a half-moon shaped extractor that would move to the rear and stop at a 45-degree angle when the breechblock was shoved forward. In order to shove it forward, the user put the hammer at half cock, grasped a knurled knob at the rear of the breechblock between the right thumb and forefinger and smartly opened the breech.
When firing, the breechblock was locked by an unusual system. From the full cock position, a steel triangular wedge, pinned to the face of the hammer, fell into a slot, forcing the spring-loaded firing pin forward while locking the breech. The rear of the spring-loaded firing pin also slipped into an indentation at the rear of the breech, in order to keep the breechblock in place before firing. After firing, the hammer was brought back to half cock, the breechblock was shoved forward, and the spent cartridge case was extracted from the chamber—but only part of the way. The user then had to turn the rifle on its right side, hold the breechblock open with his left hand, and presumably shake the rifle in order to eject the empty case.
With their new arms in hand the Fenians now faced the issue of smuggling them to the border. Federal authorities could easily identify crates full of shoulder arms. Since the two-man crates had to be at least about five feet long and measure over eighteen inches in width and depth in order to hold ten shoulder arms, they were very recognizable. Crates meeting those sizes had been seized by federal troops in 1866, as they were being unloaded from railroad cars in Cleveland, Buffalo, upstate New York and Vermont.
A solution was to cut the fore-end of the stocks under the middle band (on both M1861 and M1863 rifle-muskets), usually with a “V”-shaped cut, so the guns could be disassembled and shipped in crates no longer than the barrel—marked as containing something other than firearms—and later reassembled. These cut and dismantled arms were shipped to secret arms caches and depots along the New York, New England and Canadian border over a period of months in early 1870. The guns were stowed away in the barns and cellars of Fenian supporters and sympathizers, waiting for the signal to attack Canada again. That signal would come in May of 1870 when the Fenians launched an attach across the Vermont border. The Canadians were forewarned and the Fenians soundly defeated. This time, the guns used in the attack were confiscated by the U.S. Army, along with additional guns that had been stored in Trenton. The army subsequently auctioned off the guns, a large number of which were purchased by the surplus dealer Schuyler, Hartley & Graham. These guns account for basically all of of the Needham conversion rifles which occasionally show up for sale, with the only exception being rare protype guns used during the Army trials of 1865.
This particular example is in excellent, collector grade condition. The lock is in great shape with no rust or pitting and great, sharp markings. The hammer holds solid on both full and half cock with a wonderfully crisp action.
The stock is excellent and features the distinctive "V" cut underneath the middle barrel band; indicating that this was one of the guns that was smuggled to the border for use in the 1870 raid. The edges are nice and crisp with no damage, and is unmarked. This lack of Bridesburg inspector's cartouches indicates that this is one of the few muskets that received new stocks made by the Pioneer Iron Works as during it short tenure building guns for the Fenians. The stocks edges are beautifully crisp and sharp, indicating the stock was never sanded or refinished.
The barrel is full length with no rust or pitting. the breech block work perfectly and the firing pin is intact and in good condition. The bore is excellent with no rust or pitting and the rifling is very sharp.
All the furniture is original and matching.
This fine conversion musket is just oozing with interesting and unique history. This extremely rare piece is sure to be the pride and joy of anyone's collection.
