TN colonial finds

[capsmith]

I found these at one old house site.I ant done yet.
Anyone have any info on the button and shell caseing.

 

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[capsmith]

Had trouble wiith post and ediit. These are the ones I have questiion about. The shells are center fiire wiith priimer made inside.The one on the left has a hole in the back and top edge ( I have about 7 of them),These are the button I have questions about . Looiks like they are made out of pewter.

 

[Klclark3]

I have a button Identical to the one you have there with the rim and big circle with many around it.

 

[1stColonialRegiment]

I like the buttons. I think they are pewter after looking at the picture. I would make a mixture of mostly water with a little Elmer's glue and brush it onto the buttons. If you do not they will crack and fall apart. The shells seem later, probably late 19th c.

 

[CASPER-2]

 

[NEPADIGGER7]

Great finds

 

[CoilyGirl]

Love those little buttons! Someone will come along soon who will know more about your casings.

 

[NHBandit]

Someone will come along soon who will know more about your casings.

They are called pinfire. Probably Civil War era or so. You're onto a good spot. Where in Tennessee ? I'm in Greene County. North East corner.

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

Capsmith sent me a Private Message, asking me to identify the cartridge-casings.

The one on the left, having a round-bottomed base with a pinhole in the center, is definitely a civil-war-through 1870s yankee .50-caliber Gallager Carbine bullet-casing.

The middle two casings SEEM to show a section of indented line a little bit above the casing's base-rim, which means they are "Benet-primer" casings, and that means they are 1868-through-1882. Those two casings look too damaged to get an accurate measurement of their diameter... so I can only roughly estimate their caliber, as .50 or perhaps a little larger. Being about the same length as the Gallager casing, I think they are .50-70 Springfield Rifle bullet-casings. To see some examples of Benet-primer .50-70 cartridges (and info about them), go to the following webpage and scroll about halfway down the page. Note, the indented line does not COMPLETELY encircle the casing. If that's not what I'm seeing on your two casing, let me know.
THE CARTRIDGE COLLECTOR

The casing on the far right in your photo also seems to be too damaged for an accurate diameter-measurement. My estimation is that it looks to be .50"-diameter or a little larger. Based on that, and being much shorter than your other three casings, I think it is probably a .52-caliber Spencer casing, That type also dates from the civil war through the 1870s or a bit later. The civil war ones didn't have the Benet-primer indentions on the casing's side.

Here's a photo of a Benet-primed (1868-1882) casing for the postwar .58 Alin-conversion Springfield Rifle.

 

[capsmith]

TheCannomballGuy-----Sir you are 100% correct on all .I took a look at the site and also looked up the Spencer and the Gallager. Thank you much.

 

[AaronN322]

They are called pinfire.

Yeah they are definitely not pinfire.