3307 INTERESTING MEXICAN WAR ERA HALL CARBINE BREECH

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[?]Live Online Auction Starts In 2026 May 29 @ 10:00 (UTC-04:00 : AST/EDT)
Category Firearms & Military
Auction Currency USD
Start Price 400.00 USD
Estimated at 800.00 - 1,200.00 USD
ALTERED TO PISTOL. Cal. 52. NSN. Complete breech section of 1838 dated Hall Breech mounted with well-worn and patinaed hand carved wood stock. 8" overall, breech retained in stock with forged nut & bolt. There are stories from the Mexican War of breeches being used as a pistol. The most famous written by young adventurer Samuel Emery Chamberlain of the 2nd Illinois Volunteer Regiment, later joining the 1st US Dragoons in San Antonio. He wrote a journal about the Mexican War: "The Recollections of a Rogue".He was a young man searching for adventure, enjoying life, chasing women and never avoiding conflicts. He was armed with a Hall carbine, and in his journal, he shares information about the non-traditional use of the breech of the Hall. He notes multiple times that when off duty he removed the breech block of his carbine and used it as a Derringer as last line of defense:"When not on duty, I went into town day and night, armed with a Bowie Knife and the chamber of my Hall's Carbine, visited the Fandangos and gambling rooms, danced, gambled, drank wine and Muscal, made love to the Senoritas and with many gold onza in my pockets staggered into camp at reveille, all safe, while many a poor fellow's body would be horridly mutilated, stripped and thrown into a ditch to be devoured by the Coyotes and Buzzards." He recounts a time in Monterrey cantina in 1847 when confronted by Mexican guerillas: "…but resolved not to be rubb'd out without a struggle. With a bound I sprang behind a large table used for a bar, drew the chamber of my Hall's Carbine (that I always carried in my pocket), said a short prayer and stood cool and collected, a baby before those human tigers, guerillars. There was one grizzly old fellow who seemed more ferocious than the others; he had but one eye that glared on me with the fierceness of a wild beast. He rushed for the table as if he would spring over, when the sight of the little iron tube pointing straight for his solitary optic caused him to pause." CONDITION: good and sound, dark iron patina, maker mark & date are worn but discerned. Stock has several cracks with old hand worn patina, mechanics function, dirty smooth breech bore. PROVENANCE: Estate collection of Compton LaBauve Jr. (01-28932-5/JS). ANTIQUE. $800-1,200.