The Fuller Stuart “Humpback”

A curious version of this arm with “humpback” lockplate marked e. whitney/new haven is pictured by Fuller & Stuart; the rear sight is the 1855 type and buttplate is of brass. Whitney did have a contract for the original 1855 Rifle Musket, which was never fulfilled. Whitney’s penchant for putting up odd mixtures of non-standard parts to peddle here and there, and “old arms finished up,” is well known. Whether Whitney actually fitted up this arm for the South, or stamped a Burton-Richmond musket bought at a surplus sale after 1865, is not known.

Two short models of “humpback” lock guns were made at Richmond, not to salvage parts further but as definite models, apparently. The “Navy musketoon” is so-called from having been bored smooth to about .62, presumably for the use of buck-and-ball which has some practical application in boarding tactics at close range. Barrel is 30 inches long, two bands held by springs.
The front band is about where the middle band fits on the musket. The cavalry carbine is similar but shorter, 25-inch barrel, caliber .58, with the front band set back and the nose cap fitted immediately forward of the band spring. Brass buttplate and nose cap may appear on these arms, and the sights on all three may be the 1859 leaf type or the 1861 pattern with rounded sidewalls at the leaf hinge screw. The cavalry carbine has not only the front band and trigger guard sling swivels found on the other two, but may have a sling swivel fitted on a base in the belly of the stock about 7 inches from the butt.
While the Richmond works readied itself to produce the Rifle Muskets, the machinery for the .54 Harpers Ferry 1841 rifle, and some equipment for the M1855 rifle, were passed along to the State of North Carolina Armory at Fayetteville. Meanwhile, Captain Raphael Semmes had been working in the North prior to Sumter, under assignment from President Jefferson Davis. In addition to procuring percussion caps and many other vital stores, Semmes was assigned to track down some very interesting rifle-making machinery offered for sale by Ames in Chicopee Falls. President Davis wrote to Captain Semmes February 21, 1861:
A short time since the most improved machinery for the manufacture of rifles, intended for the Harpers Ferry Arsenal, was, it was said, for sale by the manufacturer. If it be so at this time, you will procure it for this Government, and use the needful precaution in .relation to its transportation. Mr. Barbour, the superintendent of the Harpers Ferry Armoury, can give you all the information.
Barbour evidently informed Semmes that this machinery was for the conversion of muzzle-loaders to the Morse-system breechloader, for in Washington, Semmes spoke with Morse on the subject. In some surprise, Morse, thinking he was authorized to go after the machinery, wrote to President Davis on March 6, 1861:

In pursuance of my understanding with you respecting the machinery for arms, I immediately, on my arrival here, went to work to find out the facts relative to the business, and had prepared a letter to you as the result of my investigations which I took on Sunday evening to Captain Semmes for delivery, as I learned he was going direct to Montgomery. Much to my surprise, he informed me that he had been sent here fully authorized to transact the same business, and instead of going to Alabama, he was on his way to the East to see Mr. Ames ... I hope that Captain Semmes may succeed in the enterprise, for then I shall have the satisfaction of knowing that my exertions and honest endeavors to benefit the Confederacy will have been crowned with success.