Help - ID on Old Rimfire Casing - Civil War?

[the_great_waldo]

I found this on a farm that is along the Confederate retreat route from Gettysburg along the Fairfield Road.
This farm has yielded a number of identified Civil War relics.
The case length is longer than anything I can find for CW rifle casings.
It is 1.5" long.
The base rim is 0.625" in diameter.
The bottom base has two marks opposite from each other from where the casing was stuck.
I do not want to clean the bottom too hard but I can't faintly make out what looks like an H.
A Henry?
But I have not found any references to a Henry case that is 1.5" long, plus most sources say there were likely few Henrys at Gettysburg.

 

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[eyemustdigtreasure]

Great find!
Its probably a Henry.
Touch up the headstamp a bit with toothbrush hot water and soap....or,
use a brass bristle brush to get some definition off the makers mark.
Maybe low-angle lighting should bring out details.
Henrys were available near end of the Civil War.
TWO firing pins on the hammer of the gun is the original Henry Rifle,
mainly because of the unreliability of these early metallic cartridges.
'H' is Head stamp is Henry, later Winchester Company.
Book: Cartridges of the World, 12 Edition, page 451 gives some History of the Henry 44 Flat.

Phoenix is another early rim fire cartridge ....

 

[Icewing]

You might want to begin your search here:

Antique Collectible Cartridges

Also if you want to clean the headstamp, try warm water and a toothpick. Wood won't scratch brass.

 

[BosnMate]

.44 Henry

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.44_Henry

 

[AU Seeker]

It not a Henry cartridge, the Henry didn't have round firing pins, the marks from a Henry would look like this - - , 2 little lines for lack of a better discription and the casing is only about 7/8" long, here's photo showing the pin marks on a Henry cartridge.

Without seeing the headstamp, pin marks and more accurate measurements all I can do is guess that what you have is a ".41 Swiss" casing, which did have round double firing pins, the .41 Swiss cartridge is "necked down" to the caliber diameter and is larger at the rim, these cartridge had several different headstamp depending on the producer of the cartridge but I have never seen one with a H headstamp but I have seen them witha U headstamp, see photo, the .41 Swiss cartridge was used in the model 1869 Vertterli Swiss rifle.

A photo of the model 18699 Vertterli Swiss rifle.

 

[NOLA_Ken]

It's not a Vetterli. The Winchester '66 also had a double firing pin, which had round faces rather than the rectangular Henry style,

 

[AU Seeker]

Ken the casing is too long to be from Model 1866 which fired the same cartridge as the Henry it took it's design from.

 

[NOLA_Ken]

If you can get ahold of a digital caliper and measure the diameter just above the rim where it's not deformed and get an accurate length as well that will help a lot.... I seem to remember hearing about early Sharps having a double pin as well but I can't find anything online to confirm that

 

[pistol-pete]

Gentlemen, The 44 Henry casing is less than an inch long, so rules that out. I agree it is a 41 Swiss casing. One in my collection measures 1.550" Also have a fired one with identical firing pin marks.

 

[NOLA_Ken]

Gentlemen, The 44 Henry casing is less than an inch long, so rules that out. I agree it is a 41 Swiss casing. One in my collection measures 1.550" Also have a fired one with identical firing pin marks.

.41 Swiss is a bottleneck cartridge, the OPs looks to be a straight cartridge....

 

[AU Seeker]

.41 Swiss is a bottleneck cartridge, the OPs looks to be a straight cartridge....

Ken,

While at first glance in the photos it does appear to be a striaght cartirdge, but at closer inspection of the photos to my eye it could be bottle necked but it's hard to tell for sure, but I can't find another type of cartridge that fits with the OP's measurements and firing pin configuration other than the Swiss .41, the only way we'll know for sure is if the OP "the_great_waldo" comes back to comfirm either way, but if you check his profile he hasn't been back on the forum since Nov 16, 2016 08:34 PM and has only seen the first 2 replies, otherwsie we'll never know for sure.