Auction Items at Cowans

Carolina/Tennessee Full-Stock Flintlock Rifle

.50 caliber smoothbore, 47" octagonal barrel, double based front sight (North Carolina-style), double tang screws, iron hardware, with unique heel, buttplate, toeplate in three pieces; 1/4 of the buttstock visible. Walnut stock with grease hole in the right side of stock. The shape of the heel of buttstock and wrist and cheek piece are reminiscent of the Soddy-Daisy school of Southern Tennessee.

Ex Bill Reisner, Arnie Dowd Collections

Condition: All metal has a nice dark brown patina with some pitting around the breech and in the pan of lock. Walnut stock is excellent with an old repair through the wrist. This is a very nice untouched Carolina/Tennessee rifle.

8.5" through 16". Longest horn primitively inscribed Who paid the Farmers for the Hogs?

15.5" length, Engraved with tress, vines , floral designs and a man and woman,Nathaniel Johnson His horn Novmber 4, 1757. Original wood base, raised ring blending into the spout.

All are different sizes and have bone handles. One has a folding fork.

15..25" length, original wood plug, Engraved with trees and vines, Josiah Taylor his horn 1776, anthropomorphic carving, with engrailed edge and a raised ring with engrailed edge that blends in to the spout.

The Record of Service of Connecticut Men in the War of Revolution (Pt. 1., p. 393) shows a Private Josiah Taylor on the roster Captain Northrup's Company attached to Colonel Silliman's 1st Battalion, Wadsworth's Connecticut State Brigade. The battalion was raised for six month's service in June 1776 under Act of Legislature to reinforce Washington's army camped on Long Island. The company served on the Brooklyn front under General Putnam and participated in the battle of Long Island, narrowly escaping capture during the subsequent retreat of the army in September. The reduced company was posted to Harlem Heights and still serving with Silliman's battalion during the fight at White Plains on October 28, 1776 where it suffered one killed and five missing. The company mustered out on December 25, 1776.

Josiah Taylor may have later re-enlisted in Captain Dorrance's Company of the Connecticut State Line as he is found on another roster dated January 1781. The identification is tentative after only a cursory examination of Revolutionary rosters.

Images from Cowan Auctions.