CHAPTER 7 Injustice to Justice

In justice to Justice, it must be said that a recent examination of one of the muskets, for the supplying of which to the Union he was so villified, proves to be a reasonably well-assembled hodgepodge of surplus parts and at least as strong and reliable as the American parts from which it was built.
But when Philip S. Justice, gunmaker-importer of Philadelphia, tried to get aboard the Federal musket contract gravy train, he both got more than he bargained for—and Holt and Owen conversely gave him less.

Justice Enters the Arena

Justice first came into the rat race with a sale to the United States, of 1,000 caliber .58 Enfield rifles, sword bayonet model (two band M1859), specific maker or marks unknown, which he proposed to deliver during July, 1861. Soon after making his original proposal to General Ripley, Justice offered an additional 500 long Enfields, with angular bayonets. All Enfields were to be delivered by September. These arms, being substitute standard, were not destined for the Regular Army of the United States, but to outfit the newlyauthorized 28th Pennsylvania Regiment, recruiting that July at Oxford Park, under command of Colonel John W. Geary. The authorized strength of the 28th having been raised to 1,500 men, Justice offered and Lieutenant James T. Treadwell, inspecting Ordnance officer at Frankford Arsenal in Bridesburg, was authorized to inspect and receive, the added 500 Enfields.
The record shows that Justice delivered actually 700 with angular bayonets by September, 1861, at $18, and another 700 with swords at $20.
But the market became competitive that summer of 1861 and Justice turned to other means to supply arms. As an importer, he had the contacts perhaps to obtain some small work done abroad—at least, the trigger guards on his basic .69 caliber rifle and rifle musket are distinctively European in pattern. But whether he bought small parts abroad or made them in Philadelphia is almost academic, for he did manage to obtain a source of supply for condemned Springfield rifled .69 musket tubes, plus old locks, Enfield-type brass stock tips, and brass patchboxes which bear a
striking similarity to the Sharps Ml853 Carbine patchbox. To all these parts he added his own make of fairly-badly fitting brass split bands, his own make of stock (decried as green wood causing rusting of the locks), and ramrods and bayonets. He may also have made locks which he fitted, or altered U.S. plates to fit. One gun is recorded with a rebuilt Wickham contract lock. Generally the new-made locks are on the .69 riflemuskets; the altered flint locks are on the sword bayonet rifles. The finished gun is a handsome specimen, very colorful with blacked barrel, lock dulled by casehardening, warm walnut wood stock, and colorful burnished brass bands, patchbox and guard.

Types of Arms Sold by Justice

Two types of Justice-made arms were offered to and bought by the U.S. Government, for issue to Pennsylvania troops. When the lot was delivered, it included arms of at least five distinct patterns. They were the production outgrowth of his offer made August 12,
1861,    to Lieutenant Treadwell, in which he stated:
I propose to supply the Ordnance Department of
the United States with four thousand rifled muskets, caliber 69/100 of an inch, similar in style and finish to the sample deposited with you, at 20 dollars each. In all the month of September, I will deliver one thousand, and each month thereafter, until 1st January,
1862,    I will deliver 1,000 of the above arms.
Treadwell was authorized by General Ripley on
August 16 to accept the proposition of Justice as to the 4,000 rifled muskets. Justice had also offered Treadwell 680 rifles of the Chasseurs de Vincennes new pattern, with sword bayonets, 31 inch barrels, .69 caliber, priced in bond at $22.50 each. Ripley refused to make any agreement about arms not yet in port, although these were good quality French arms, but did accept the offer Justice also made to supply 5,000 cavalry sabers. Ripley stipulated they must be delivered and approved after inspection as Justice stated, or else the Government would be relieved of responsibility to take them and might do so or not as the needs of War occurred.
This acceptance was the start of a rhubarb which cost Justice money, vexed the Government, endangered

Brass-trimmed P. S. Justice Rifle Musket was .69 cal., used patchbox which resembled M1853 period Sharps, and distinctive curved trigger guard.

At bottom, a Whitney Long Enfield, serial No. 166. Gun resembles Enfield but has no Enfield parts in it. Guard bow is brass on steel plate. Sling is old.

Pennsylvania volunteers to whom the Justice rifles were issued, and left behind as mementos scarce specimens of this most interesting issue, and several illustrations in the Philadelphia-published (J. B. Lippincott) United States Infantry Tactics, Lieutenant Colonel H. B. Wilson, 1862. In this book, a two-band rifle, similar in style of patchbox and trigger guard form to the Justice arm, is pictured (viz. Stack Arms, page 99). Whether this was Justice’s effort to publicize his special model rifle, or a conscious effort of Colonel Wilson to illustrate a model of rifle with which the Pennsylvania troops were going to be armed, is unknown. His engraver may merely have sent out to a gun shop for a musket to use as a model, and fell upon one of the Justice arms which failed to pass Treadwell’s eagle eye. At any rate, there it is—one of the first instances of that subtle form of firearms publicity which chooses a particular rifle that the printer or editor or advertiser wants to push and uses photos of it as window dressing to an article or book.
Justice built two rifles—a short and a long. Sub-types consisted in each pattern of brass-banded, or ironbanded, rifles. The short rifle had sword bayonet, brass handle. A fifth type, sword bayonet short rifle with cross-pins fastening stock to barrel, was also delivered by Justice. The rifle-muskets were .69 caliber arms; short rifles .58 inch bore. Of the .69 rifle muskets with triangle bayonets, only 2,174 were accepted by Treadwell; only 2,469 were accepted of all three varieties of .58 short rifle. A specimen of the Justice rifle cited by Gluckman has a lockplate stamped US in a shield borne by an eagle.
All Justice arms are stamped in two lines on lock plate and top of barrel breech p. s. justice/philad^a. On some—possibly on all, but at least on the author’s specimen No. P 2584 (.69 RM 39-inch barrel)—the final letter of the maker’s name is broken and resembles an F. Not all arms bore an eagle stamp—some, possibly those having new-made locks such as No. P2584 above, are plain except for maker’s name. The serial number appears on the trigger guard brass tang behind the bow, and on top of the barrel tang, crosswise. On the guard, the P is above the number; below it, on the barrel tang. No proof mark appears, but the

top of the barrel has been slightly struck off at the breech to more nearly match the esthetic line of the stock by the lock. Beneath the barrel is stamped C, for condemned. Justice stated the barrels he used were condemned, done so by reason of being too short for the standard model for which they were intended. The bolster form and general dimensions suggest Model 1842 U.S. Musket, which had a standard barrel length of 42 inches. Oddly, the 1842 barrel’s bayonet stud is beneath the barrel; that of the Justice musket is on top, also approximately Wi inches from the muzzle, and 1 11/16 inches forward of the front sight mortise. The inference is that the bolster was knocked off (or the barrel never originally percussioned) and stocked upside down by Justice to hide that C stamp of condemnation.

Complaints

Now Justice was a practical gunmaker. He sold various types of arms to the Union, including pistols and revolvers, muskets, swords, and sabers. And of his muskets in particular, issued mostly to the 58th, 88th, and 98th Pennsylvania Volunteers, complaints were many. The least vehement complaint, in the words of Major John Buford, assistant inspector general of the 91st Pennsylvania Volunteers, (commanded by Colonel Gregory), was that they were unserviceable. Buford obtained the withdrawal of the 91st’s Justice muskets, which were returned in late April or early May, 1862 to Washington Arsenal, and an issue was made to the entire regiment of Springfield-made rifle muskets, .58 caliber, 1861 date. Meanwhile, on May 9, Captain Knabb and Lieutenant Wagner of the 88th Pennsylvania Volunteers were detailed to Washington from Regimental headquarters at Aquia Creek, Virginia, to draw arms and accouterments for this command. Inference from the correspondence is, that Knabb and Wagner rode chortlingly back to camp behind a trainload of Justice muskets, glad they had solved their problems of armament so easily—until they opened the cases. Assistant Inspector General R. Jones of the 88th Pennsylvania recapitulated to General Ripley the defects of some 700 muskets inspected, of which all but 130 (by Remington) were stamped on the barrel Justice, Philadelphia.

Justice planned no fraud, plainly stamped his mark on lock and barrel. Serial numbers are prefaced by a P, or the P may be below the number. Odd but distinctive guard form is seen. Rear sights on Justice and Whitney Enfield (bottom) are 1859 type. Whitney has barrel like 1861 Springfield; was advertised 1862.

Jones declared further;

STACK ASHB (No. 410).

Cut from Col. Wilson’s drill book shows stand of three Justice rifles, two bands, sword bayonets. Book published in Philadelphia boosted local product, may have been intended for use by Pennsylvania regiments issued Justice guns.

Of these guns, 423 had the bayonet, and 401 the rammer, either bent or broken; the bands of 262 were so loose as to fall from their places on discharging the guns; 140 had the sights loose, broken off, or otherwise injured; 158 locks were more or less injured; the mainsprings of many being too weak to explode a cap; 14 barrels were bent; and 22 had either burst or were dangerous to fire on account of flaws in the metal.
The stocks of 212 were broken or split, the injuries being mostly at the toe or heel of the butt, or around the lock, and quite a number were broken off at the small of the stock. If was noticed that the sights that had fallen off had been soldered onto the barrel and not secured by a screw; it was also observed that the rifling in many of the guns was so slight as to be scarcely perceptible to either the touch or sight.
A more detailed inspection of arms in store for issue at Fort Monroe Arsenal, Virginia, by Lieut. R. M. Hill, Ordnance Corps, only heaped more abuse upon Justice’s products. Absence of interchangeability was decried; even bayonets could not be fitted to guns other than the one whose number they bore. The sights were knocked off, and of those which remained, imitation screws (are) made upon them, to fill the screw hole, since they all appear to have been of the 1861 type of sight. Hill concluded with, In consequence of the many defects of this arm, I respectfully recommend that they be not issued to the troops, but be condemned.

A Second Look

Still willing to give Justice the benefit of the doubt, and possibly wondering what Lieut. Treadwell was doing passing as inspected and approved so many gross defects, the Commission on Ordnance and Ordnance Stores, through its technical member, Ordnance Major P. V. Hagner, asked Major T. T. S. Laidley at Frankford to take a second look at the sample Justice musket and other Justice arms in the Frankford Arsenal. Laidley was not one bit more encouraging. Out of two boxes of Justice arms, presumably a total of 40 muskets, he found three barrels which had flaws of considerable size ... I broke two hammers, which bent back and forth before yielding. I am of the opinion that one, at least, is of cast iron, well annealed . . . The rammers and bayonets are only slightly tempered, and take a set readily . . . Some of the locks were rusted from the green wood stocks, and the bands were, in some cases, loose, as they are upon the sample arm.
Then damning with faint praise, Laidley closed his examination by stating With the exception of the rifling (very slight, about 0.05 inch, and not as deep as in the sample arm), and some flaws in the barrels, I regard the arm furnished by Mr. Justice that I have inspected equal to the sample arm.
The Commission was not content with field reports; the sample arm from Frankfort was shipped off to the Washington Arsenal, where its commander Lieutenant Colonel George D. Ramsey took a long hard look at what he had on hand. . . . making the comparison with the sample, he had to admit, there is no great difference as to service qualities. The sample arm was a three-band rifle musket, angular bayonet, .69 caliber, brass bands. By comparison with the sample, Ramsey reported to Ripley, the locks vary in length from
0.5 to 0.9 inches, and the lockplates are variously patched to suit the cone seats . . . one or two [screws] are used, according to length of lockplate . . . The rifling of the barrels varies from three to six grooves; and some of the barrels are reduced by filing down the
upper surface at butt to adapt them to the breech screws (plugs). Sights: Some are long, and others short. The long range sights are imperfectly secured, and readily move in the dovetail seat; (see sample arm). The three leaf sights are coarsely riveted on the bands . . . The component parts of these arms are, apparently, with the exception of the brass mountings, of discarded armory work. These arms, in the average, cannot be said to be inferior to the sample arm furnished me, and now before the Commission on Ordnance and Ordnance Stores. They are far, however, from being a first class arm, and, in view of the contract price, $20, are decidedly of inferior quality. The other varieties of the ‘Justice arms’ on hand referred to are pretty much of the same quality and diversity of parts. The rifles without bands have a coarse notch sight, and are the most inferior of the lot.

Justice’s Rebuttal

While the inspectors were criticizing him, Justice did not stand still and absorb the knocks. For one thing, he had coming, at the original price of $20, a balance of $19,171.25. This payment was stopped by the Ordnance Corps when complaints from the field suggested that not all was right with Justice’s guns. He, too, informed Commissioners Holt and Owen of his side of the story. And in justice to Justice it must be admitted that he did have some major points in his favor.
First, military arms from Springfield were the peak of perfection of the art of making guns by machinery. Justice had been an importer and maker of sporting guns for 20 years before the war. But, he admitted, he had no experience with military work although then, and since, as is the case today, military small arms are made to higher standards of perfection than common sporting rifles, accuracy excepted.
Justice argued that the sample represented pretty much the best that he could do in the way of a military arm. This seems to be a true statement, not only from the evidence that all inspected were spoken of unkindly, but also because of the circumstances in the small arms trade at the time.
Quantities of surplus United States and contractors’ small arms parts were available from the scrap yards. Many gun merchants in the late 1850’s seem to have made a point of buying these parts and fitting them up into militia muskets and rifles. Although these arms generally conformed to the United States pattern, there were many differences. The Justice rifles, for example, with sword bayonets and brass fittings, corresponded generally to the U.S. Model 1855 Rifle, although the patchboxes were from surplus old Sharps carbine manufacture, apparently, instead of the smoothly ovaled U.S. style of brass lid. They are rudely finished—perhaps from Sharps’ castings, or perhaps new, but following the Sharps Ml853 style.

Possibility Whitney Enfield barrels were made in England under Jarvis’ supervision for Colt and not used by Colt is suggested but undetermined. Only mark on Whitney barrel isserial number and few cryptic cyphers; regular Enfield (top) is marked by barrel-maker Millward and gunmaker Pryse &Redman.

fter much cost, Justice explained to Ripley in Washington, I made the arrangements (i.e., purchased the junk parts) to manufacture the style of musket of which I showed you the sample. Knowing that I could

make such arms, I felt that if your judgment certified to its usefulness, although it might not meet all your requirements, I was safe in pushing my manufacture to the utmost extent. Your judgment, as expressed through your officers, approved of it, and the order was given, and to this judgment I have always deferred and conformed, because I knew it was the only safe rule for me to follow.
The sample musket, Justice allowed, consisted of a U.S. barrel, bayonet, and flint lock converted to percussion—all the rest of the work was new. He noted that as he gained skill in making the general style of arm, he made improvements, although Lieut. Treadwell told him that he, Treadwell, could not allow any more money for the minor changes. Even at a cost of several thousand dollars ($3,672.50 to be exact), Justice delivered sword-bayonet rifles over and above what had been ordered, in lieu of the .69 rifled muskets, because he gained the impression from Treadwell that they were to be preferred, being more nearly like the U.S. standard rifle.
The soldered rear sights he acknowledged, but he pointed out that not only were they soldered on at the suggestion of Treadwell (drilling for the sight base screw and slotting would weaken the thin barrel) but that the Lieutenant, in examining claims that sights fell off, took a case of twenty arms and hit the sight bases with a hammer to knock them loose. In all cases the metal of the sight was damaged before any tendency to fall off occurred, and not all the sights did fall off.
Justice explained the dummy screw charge by noting that since the sight bases had been sweated on, it was only good design and esthetics to close up the old sight base screw holes, which he did by sawing off the threads and soldering the regular sight screw head into place. No attempt to deceive existed, he said. I believed that the best recommendation I could have for my guns was the fact that they were in part made of government work, he proclaimed. My muskets I have never invoiced or called as Enfield muskets, as charged, nor have I ever compared them to the Springfield musket, which I hold to be the best military arm
extant. I do say emphatically, however, that as a hand made arm, it has been made by me honestly and conscientiously and as well as it could be made with the opportunities offered, and is far better than the model in all its parts.
Justice dismissed the soft bayonet charges and complaints about locks with strongly worded remarks indicating they were, after all, U.S. Government inspected and approved old locks and stickers. The absence of band springs he countered with pointing out that his bands were like the Enfield style and tightened with a screw. Justice compared the soldier’s affection for the Springfield gun, as contrasted with his rifle:
I respectfully suggest that as it is natural that each soldier should desire to obtain the Springfield musket, whose qualities are so highly appreciated; they too often abuse the issue of other arms in the hope of condemning the same, and thus have a new chance offered them for obtaining what, perhaps, had been promised them by their officers, to secure their enlistment, as I am cognizant of the promise of Springfield arms having been made to the men in numerous cases of enlistment to aid the object they were striving for. The results of such promises, when broken, are, abuse of the arms and the reputation of the maker. I had nearly been made a sufferer from this very cause, where a complaint was made that the stocks were rotten, when upon investigation it was found the men had been using the muskets as seats, and thus broken stocks which were afterward acknowledged to be perfectly solid and seasoned.
With cause for complaint in rebuttal, Justice protested the second inspection of guns which had been first inspected and found acceptable, then passed entirely out of his hands and suffered he knew not what manner of deliberate abuse in the hands of soldiers dissatisfied with them. Very much to the point, Justice complained of certain conduct of Government officers in the abstract—if it was permitted the Government to review contracts once made in spite of the model having been acceptable, and inspections made under the conditions he was now exposed to—after guns had been in the hands of troops—it might be seen that any capitalist would be in jeopardy of not being paid by Government in spite of his most careful preparations. Justice cited again his 25 year record as a merchant, reputation untainted so far, but if the matter of his gun was not settled fairly, he would be ruined. His money would be lost, and his business ended, as I shall hereafter be classed amongst the list of ‘contractors’ whose main effort was to swindle the government they had sworn to support. At the time he wrote to Ripley, April 26, 1862, some $80,000 was unpaid on
vouchers for arms received from him and passed by Treadwell’s inspectors.

Finding of the Commissioners

Commissioners Holt and Owen considered very carefully Justice’s counter-claims. But in their findings, upon the basis of which his accounts were to be settled, they did not agree with him. The actual schedule of deliveries of arms accepted by Treadwell showed considerably less than 1,000 per month of any type arm going into Frankford from Justice. Of 5,035 Justice guns of all five types delivered, 392 were rejected; the accepted proportion of .69 muskets being 2,174 and of the three types of rifles, brass bands, iron bands, and no bands at all, being 2,469. Deliveries were slow, less than scheduled, and continued past the terminal date. Further, many of the defects found to exist were only such as would develop in service. The rusting of the locks and barrels from green wood could not be apparent until the guns have been out on the range, and the sun and dews got to work on the metal. Thin barrels were not only found for a fact by two inspecting officers later on, but several had burst in shooting from such flaws, one from firing a blank cartridge. The variations in rifling, in spite of being, as claimed, former government work, plus other details, all served to confirm in the Commissioners’ minds the opinion that Justice did not supply guns even uniformly up to his own low standards.
They accordingly directed that no contract be considered to exist, as had been declared in a former case, because Justice failed to deliver in time. They did direct that since guns delivered had been accepted and used, they should be paid for. But the pay was adjusted to be only $15 for rifle muskets, and the $20 for rifles with sword bayonets, and that his accounts be settled upon that basis.
From the whole fracas, Justice got odium and scorn, possibly major damage to his business as a firearms dealer, manufacturer, and broker, and $81,990 for his guns.
The name of Justice does not appear actively after the Civil War. He left behind him a strange story, and a few brass mounted guns. These, in spite of the claims made a century ago, are among the prettiest of the Civil War contract pieces with their brass trim, blued barrels, and unique form of trigger guard. Although the Government inspectors seemed to think Justice was as crooked as his oddly shaped trigger guard, we are not entirely sure, from the record, that this is true. He made guns as best he knew how, and, in the dire emergency of 1861, his guns did their part fairly well.