Springfield Armory Museum - Collection Record



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Title:RIFLE, MILITARY -  U.S. RIFLE MODEL 1875 TRAPDOOR OFFICER'S .45-70
Maker/Manufacturer:ALLIN, ERSKINE S.
Date of Manufacture:1875
Eminent Figure:
Catalog Number:SPAR 1499
Measurements:OL:114.9CM 45 1/4" BL: 66.2CM 26 1/8"

Object Description:

U.S. RIFLE MODEL 1875 TRAPDOOR OFFICER'S .45-70
Manufactured by Springfield Armory, Springfield, Ma. - Badly burned in museum fire. Stock charred. Nose cap melted off. Tang, front sight missing

Markings:
Breech block: MODEL/1873/Eagle/arrows/U.S.
Lockplate: U.S./SPRINGFIELD/U.S. M scratched inside lockplate and on bridle.

This weapon was exhibited at The Sesqui-Centennial International Exposition in Philadelphia in 1926.

Could this be weapon A. Jackson refers to?

Notes: "The Springfield Armory tried to satisfy the sporting needs of officers by making a special series of Officers Model Springfields. By 1875, however, not more than twenty such rifles had been made, one of them for General Grenville M. DOdge, Union Pacific Railroad empire builder. George Armstrong Custer also had a Model 1866 Officers Model, documented in a photograph with Russia's Grand Duke Alexis, who had come to the United States in 1872, hoping to hunt the Great American West. Custer wrote about his gun in a letter to his wife Libbie (June 1873): 'Well, (brother Tom's) latest dodge is to obtain possession of my Springfield rifle, which I allow my orderly, Tuttle, to carry. Night before last he carried it off to his tent without saying any thing about it; but Tuttle slipped down while Tom was at breakfast and recaptured the Rifle! Tuttle killed tow antelope with my Springfield at pretty long range.'
Tuttle was later killed in a sharpshooting exchange with Indians across a river, in Montana. As Custer described it, Tuttle 'took a sporting Springfield Rifle and posted himself, with two other men, behind cover on the river band, and began picking off the Indians as they exposed themselves on the opposite bank....It was while so engaged that he observed an Indian in full view near the river. Calling the attention of his comrade to the fact, he asked him 'to watch him drop that Indian,' a feat which he succeeded in performing. Several other Indians rushed to assistance of thier fallen comrade, while Private Tuttle, by a skillful and rapid use of his breech-loading Springfield, succeeded in killing two other warriors. The (Indians), enraged no doubt at this rough handling, directed their aim at Private Tuttle, who fell pierced through the head by a rifle-bullet. He was one of the most useful and daring soldiers who ever served under my command." - Wilson

References:
Wilson, R.L. THE PEACEMAKERS: ARMS AND ADVENTURES IN THE AMERICAN WEST. Random House. N.Y., N.Y. 1992.

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