This 45 caliber cap and ball black powder Rifle is for sale at this present time at the Village Antiques in here in Nampa, Idaho. The back site, the buffalo, the Union emblem is all original to the weapon and is made of solid gold. The weapon is signed E. Fisher ROCK ISLAND. I believe this rifle was made by the gun maker E. Fisher for a Union Spy of the United States Army under the command of our President Abraham Lincoln. This officer and undercover Union spy who more than likely popped off many Confederates officers before the having to hide this weapon when surrounded and captured by the Confederate Army fighting under the command of Robert E. Lee.
This weapon was told to me that it was found laying on the ground up against a fallen tree when clearing a woodlands when burning fallen limbs and brush in a mountainous area in Virginia. I can't remember for sure if it was this State or one of the other Southern States he told me. It has been kept in the same state as when I purchased it back in the early 1990's, just as it's owner had stated it was found in. He said he had just did some minor sawdust and glue filling in the stock and keeping the burn marks original. What a miraculous find and to keep it original as it was found.
Now for the best part of my story and told only by myself. I will say this as being presumably and coming from my own studies as what I believe to be the absolute truth. I'll attempt to tell this weapons history and its part in this American war between the North and the South to the absolute best of my own abilities. Let me say this much,... it damn sure didn't belong to Buffalo Bill or Annie Oakley, or it would have been in someone Else's collection and not mine. Not many know the name of Spy's in our wars histories because of the secrets being kept that way.
OK,... how many of you have heard of the name James Butler? I presume not many of you have, so I will enlighten you and give you a little history on this gentleman. At the time he was a well know ruffian mountain man and trapper known by good friends and fighting men on both sides. It has been said and written down in history books and other books of Civil war records that James Butler had been captured by the Confederacy eight different times and sentence to hang by their officers many of these times. It seems as those James Butler had always managed to escape by the help of his friends on the confederate side by convincing them that he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. After the war had change and used the name he is now know best for,... and that being my friends,..... Wild Bill Hickok.
Cheers!
vanrijngo
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