Rare 1864 Bridesburg Needham Conversion Lock Plate

1864 Bridesburg Needham Conversion Lock Plate. Own a piece of Fenian Brotherhood history. The Fenians bought 7500 M1861/63 muskets from the Bridesburg Manufacturing Company, maker of Civil War muskets, to use in their raids against Canada in 1866.

The idea was to capture some settlements and use that leverage to try and force England from Ireland. That raid failed and most of their Bridesburgs were siezed by the U. After a short while they did get their weapons back so they tried again in 1870. This time, they had converted their muskets into breech-loaders using the Needham system. These raids also failed and they did not get their weapons back.

The government confiscated all of their weapons including what was left at Pioneer Arms Works, the Fenian armory, in Trenton, New Jersey. This is a1864 dated Needham Conversion lock plate. This would have belonged to the Fenians for the 1866 raids and then modified by them for the 1870 raids.

They do not come up for sale very often. I have the largest Needham Conversion and parts collection there is and just thinning the herd a bit.

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