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tang and in the stock upper tang inlet. The small “W” inspection mark of Oliver Winchester is stamped on the lower receiver tang behind the lever latch. The stock contains a four-piece cleaning rod. The side plates feature period scroll engraving around the borders and the following inscriptions: “’Archd. McCalist’/’Co E. 2d. Regt. P.R.V.C.’/’Enlisted April 27th 1861’/”Discharged June 16th 1865’”(left side) and “->Reinlisted.<-/’March 17th 1865.’/Co. H. 3d Regt. Hancock’s 1st A.C./Discharged March 16th 1866.”
The “2d Regt P.R.V.C.” was the 2nd Regiment Pennsylvania Reserve Corps/Regiment also known as the 31st Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry. The men were recruited from Philadelphia. Company E was known as “The Scotch Rifles” and were led by Captain John Orr Finnie. Archibald McAlister is listed in the National Park Service records as a private in Company E. The 2nd Pennsylvania Reserves monument at Gettysburg lists them as mustering in on May 27, 1861, and mustering out on June 16, 1864. They had 400 casualties during the war, including 4 officers and 82 enlisted men killed or mortally wounded, 2 more officers and 62 enlisted men died of disease, 21 officers and 176 enlisted men wounded, and 5 officers and 48 enlisted men captured or missing. At Gettysburg, 9 enlisted men were killed or mortally wounded, 1 enlisted man was captured, and 25 enlisted men and 2 officers were wounded. In addition to Gettysburg, they fought at Mechanicsville, Gaines Mill, Glendale, Malvern Hill, Groveton, 2nd Bull Run, South Mountain, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Bristoe Station, Rappahannock Station, Mine Run, Wilderness, Spotsylvania, North Anna, Totopotomoy, and Bethesda Church.
“Co. H. 3d Regt. Hancock’s 1st A.C.” would be Company H of the 3rd Regiment of Hancock’s 1st Army Corps which were veterans led by General Winfield Scott Hancock who had been seriously wounded at Gettysburg. General Orders No. 287 dated November 28, 1864, called for “an Army Corps, to consist of not less than 20,000 Infantry, and enlisted for not less than one year, to be designated the First Corps, shall be organized in the District of Columbia, commencing the Organization on the first day of December, 1864, and continuing until the first day of January next; the privates to consist of able-
The serial number is stamped on the top barrel flat between the rear sight and the receiver and on the inside of the buttplate below the trap door. Out of caution, the stock has not been removed, but the matching serial number is almost certainly repeated on the left side of the lower receiver
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bodied men who have served honorably not less than two years, and, therefore, not subject to draft; the officers to be commissioned from such as have served not less than two years.” It also called for the men to be paid a $300 bounty when they enlisted and that “Each recruit who preserves his arms to the end of his term may retain them as his own upon being honorably discharged.” Newspapers indicated that Hancock’s corps would be a “fighting corps” unlike the Veteran Reserve Corps (Invalid Corps) formed of men that were partially disabled by disease or injury who served lighter duty. The Union needed men to finish the war. Recruitment broadsides noted that “This Corps will be provided with the best arms in the possession of the Government and the men will be allowed to retain their arms at the expiration of service.”