double rimfire impressions

[Redstone]

 I'm the archaeologist at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama and recently surveyed the battlefield of the 1864 Affair at Indian Creek Ford.  Among a broad scatter of Civil War artifacts, I recovered a curious .44 caliber rimfire casing. The casing measures about 0.865 inches long.  The rim diameter is 0.511 inches, and the rim thickness is 0.068 inches.  It has no headstamp, and the curious thing about it is that it has two firing pin impressions exactly opposite eachother. I have never seen a casing like this, and I haven't heard of a double rimfire pin. It could have been misfired, reloaded, and struck again, but the pin impressions are in a perfectly straight line exactly opposite one-another. My initial impression was that it was a .44 Henry, but it seems a little short for that.  Any ideas?

[tom buckley]

Hi Redstone,
The Henry rifle and the later 1866 Winchester did have double firing pins.
I checked a fired casing in my collection and it does have double indentations that are straight, it is .869 in length, the rim is .508, and there is no headstamp.
What else have you recovered at Indian Creek Ford?
Tom Buckley

[Redstone]

Thanks for the info, Tom.  I also recovered a Burnside bullet with the forward portion of the casing still attached.  It may have been dropped and badly corroded, but it almost looks like a misfire.  I got a dropped .44 Colt pistol bullet, a .44 caliber bullet cut with a knife just above the rings, a fired carbine bullet (weighs just a little less than the Burnside bullet), a fired small caliber pistol ball, and a curious carved bullet with two small parallel holes drilled horizontally through the base.  There was also an M1855/1864 knapsack hook, a nice civilian spur, lots of horseshoes that may or may not have been associated with the battle, and a bit of camp debris.

[tom buckley]

Hi Redstone,
It sounds like you have an interesting group of relics there.
Does the knife cut on the .44 bullet appear to be where the cartridge paper was trimmed like the TT-41 .44 Sage bullet?

[Jim T]

Finding Burnside cartridges in that condition is, unfortunately, common.  Regardless of the ground conditions, it always seems the Burnsides don't react well with the dirt!  I can only thing of 1 good complete specimen I've excavated...while many, many others had rotten cases and/or bullets.

Pics of the other finds would be helpful

[Redstone]

The cut .44 bullet does look like a Sage.  It's cut all the way clean through (see "e" in attached illustration of the bullets recovered from the site).

[tom buckley]

Hi Redstone,
That is a Henry cartridge.
And the cut .44 appears to be a Sage. I had originally thought that you meant a cut above the ring as would have been done to trim the cartridge paper.