The Log Cabin Living: Artifacts from 19th Century Life exhibit at Job Carr Cabin Museum encourages visitors to take a closer look at more than 20 objects in the museum's collection.
Job Carr and his two sons, Anthony and Howard, were familiar with guns, like most men from the 1800s. All three participated as infantry during the Civil War. Even though the family had Quaker heritage, a religion that is opposed to war and violence, they detested slavery more. The family enlisted to fight to preserve the Union and to end slavery.
1809 Prussian Postsdam Musket on display at the Job Carr Cabin Museum. This historical weapon has been modified so that it no longer operates.
Many visitors are curious about the musket on the museum's wall. The antique gun on display at the cabin is a 1809 Prussian Potsdam Musket, converted to percussion, with a curved cone seat forged onto the side of the barrel. It has been modified, however, so that it is no longer functional.
This firearm is a muzzleloader, which means that the round bullet and the propellant, gunpowder, were loaded directly into the barrel before each shot. Muzzleloaders required timely reloading and firing. This process involved manually reloading the musket using a ramrod to place the bullet and gunpowder inside the barrel. The weapon fired a single shot before requiring manual reload. Depending on the skill of the solder, this process would take about 30 seconds.
Job Carr's powderhorn, from the Carr family collection at the Washington State Historical Society. A powderhorn held black gunpowder which gave the musket its charge.
The weapon in the Museum's collection is a .72 cal smoothbore, meaning there are no grooves on the inside. Smoothbore muskets were less accurate than the later developed rifle-muskets with spiral grooves that allowed the bullet to travel further and straighter.
Marked on the lockplate of the musket is the word “Saarn,” which is the city where the Prussian Royal Arms Factory was located. Prussia produced this musket and sold the surplus units to the US during the Civil War. During the early years of the Civil War, the Union Army bought nearly 126,000 of these muskets to keep them away from the Confederate Army. Muskets like this one were used by soldiers for training and issued to troops further behind the front line.
Anthony Carr in his Union Army uniform, source: Carr Family Collection
During the Civil War, Job Carr and his sons may have used an 1809 musket. More likely, however, they received firearms like the .58 or .577 caliber rifle-muskets commonly used by foot soldiers on both sides of the conflict. The rifle-musket, introduced in the United States in 1855, quickly replaced guns from earlier eras, like the 1809 Prussian Potsdam Musket in the Museum's collection. The accuracy of the newer guns was notable due to grooved spirals in the barrel that stabilized the bullet through a spinning motion. With a rifle-musket, the average infantryman could shoot a target 250 yards away, while a skilled individual could shoot as far as 800 yards away. In contrast, the smoothbore muskets were only reliable up to 75 yards. Springfield, Colt, and Remington were among the top-rated manufacturers of rifle-muskets, names that likely still sound familiar today.
Anthony and Edward Carr and their dog Hunter prepare for a hunting trip, source: Carr Family Collection.
When Job Carr and his sons arrived on Puget Sound after the war, a gun was an essential kitchen tool in every household. The nearest grocery stores were many miles away, so early settlers hunted and fished for local food. Anthony Carr's journal from 1868 frequently mentions hunting for game, including ducks, pheasants, and grouse, as well as fishing for rock cod near Point Defiance. They could also gather berries, greens, and mushrooms growing in the surrounding forest, as well as plant a European-style garden to begin raising non-Native foods.
Take a closer look at the Museum's musket in this short video:
Sources
Barton, Miriam. “1809 Prussian Potsdam Musket.” The Porter-Phelps-Huntington House Museum, The Porter-Phelps-Huntington House Museum, 2 July 2018, www.pphmuseum.org/blogging-through-the-museum/2018/7/2/1809-prussian-potsdam-musket.
“Converted Prussian Model 1809 Percussion Musket.” MNopedia, Minnesota Historical Society, www.mnopedia.org/multimedia/converted-prussian-model-1809-percussion-musket. Accessed 5 Dec. 2023.
“Small Arms of the Civil War.” American Battlefield Trust, American Battlefield Trust, www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/small-arms-civil-war. Accessed 29 Nov. 2023.
About the Authors
Madeline Teddy completed an internship with Job Carr Cabin Museum in Fall 2023. She was a graduate of University of British Columbia majoring in history and classical Near Eastern religious studies. She hoped to take her studies further and become a museum curator.
Brendan Michael Beltran volunteered with Job Carr Cabin Museum in Summer 2023. He is a student at University of Washington, majoring in history. One day, he hopes to get into the history field.