Man Finds Ancestor's Sharpshooter Rifle With A Classified Ad

By Kathryn Jorgensen

“It’s a miracle to find one rifle out of all those rifles that were in the Civil War,” says Larry Paul Glass. But that’s what happened.

For more than a year he ran a classified ad in Civil War News looking for his Pennsylvania great-grandfather’s ID’d sharpshooter rifle. Collector William Bain reads the newspaper, but it was only when he took an issue along on a recent camping trip and had time to thoroughly go through the paper that he saw the ad looking for his rifle.

Glass, who now lives in Mesa, Ariz., is originally from Vanango County, Pennsylvania. That’s where his great-grandfather, Augustus Glass, age 25, of Coal Hill, and his 21-year-old brother Fred, who were farmers, signed up with the 121st Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers in August 1862.

The brothers were in Co. F and saw action at Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville and Gettysburg. In May 1864 Augustus was promoted to corporal and in August he was detailed as a sharpshooter. His company took part in the Grand Review before the regiment was mustered out in June 1865. Augustus died in 1904.

Several years ago Larry Glass began working on the family genealogy. “It surfaced that some fellow from Gettysburg had found a gun in Erie [Pa.] that had a silver plate on the side with my great-grandfather’s name, regiment and company, but had sold it back in the 1980s.”

Glass wrote his ad: “Augustus Glass, Union soldier, owned a Single Shot Muzzle-Loading Side Hammer Percussion Rifle manufactured by the Allen Co. Augustus Glass’ rifle had a metal plate on the stock on which his name and regiment are inscribed.”

Larry Glass speculates that Augustus bought the gun, which has a peep sight, since it was manufactured only from 1840 to 1860.

William Bain is a Pennsylvania collector who concentrates on identified Civil War artifacts that he can research. He was contacted four years ago by a Minnesota dealer who knew of his interest in Pennsylvania relics. The dealer sold him a rifle identified to Augustus Glass of the 121st Pennsylvania that he bought from another dealer.

Bain says the “metal plate” Larry Glass described is much more. It is an ornate jeweler-engraved silver corps badge in the shape of a modified keystone. It probably cost $3 or $4, “a huge amount of money back then.” The badge is professionally and beautifully inset in the stock, according to Bain.

The Glass brothers were in the battle at Gettysburg. Bain visited the Pennsylvania Monument where their names are inscribed. The rifle was not at Gettysburg, however. In research material collected by Bain, which he sent to Larry Glass, there is reference to a sharpshooter rifle being issued to Glass while his unit was outside Petersburg.

Bain was delighted to sell the gun to Glass. “That’s part of the deal when you do this history stuff,” he says. “I would not have sold the gun to anyone else.”

Coincidentally, Bain recently learned that his family has Civil War connections. His great-great-uncle, who enlisted in Salem, Va., in 1861 and survived the war, was with the 147th Virginia at Pickett’s Charge.

As for the Allen Co. rifle, it’s on Larry Glass’ mantel getting a lot of attention from relatives and friends. It’s in great shape, he says, with a few minor problems such as a loose screw on the stock. “I’m not replacing anything,” he says.