GG Uncle went to Spanish American War with a Trapdoor

[Hammer]

I’ve been saving this information until I could get my Model 1884 trapdoor correct as it would have been issued which thanks to Dick Hosmer I’ve been able to do as shown in “My First Trapdoor is Now a Model 1884” thread

The reason I wanted to get an original trapdoor rifle with original sling and bayonet is because my great great uncle William Boynton was in Company C of the United States 3rd Volunteer Infantry that was mobilized in 1898 and deployed to Cuba. He lived in Central Florida was part of the “Immune” regiment. The War Department called for Volunteers who lived in the Gulf coast area because they thought they would be immune to malaria. He’s listed on the company roster below third from the bottom.

He carried a Trapdoor Rifle

[Hammer]

Here’s a picture of the Florida volunteers that my GG Uncle and his friends were part of. I love that one of his fellow volunteers had his bayonet attached on his rifle for their picture!

[John S.]

Here is a letter written by PVT Reynolds in Company H to a family member (and printed in the newspaper) which give a pretty good idea of what the regiment was doing,
The SpanAmWar.com site is a great starting point for just about any research on that era.
https://www.spanamwar.com/3rdusvinfreynolds.html


Serial number for several companies of the 3rd U.S. Volunteer Infantry have survived int eh National Archives, but those for Company C did not survive. Please PM me your email address and I will send those I have directly to you. Most are in the range of 184,000 through 202,000, all made around 1882, so not quite Model 1884 yet. Your photo shows one rifle held with the rear sight visible, and it is a pre-1884 sight.

Hope that helps.

[Hammer]

Thanks John S. I just messaged you my email.

I saw that the volunteer sitting in the left of the picture had the earlier trapdoor, I’m just wondering if the others may have had an 1884 model.

My interest was in rifles that the Marine Corps would’ve used after the Civil War and up through World War II, and that’s why I bought my first Krag rifle and my first Trapdoor Rifle. I wanted an 1884 model because that’s the type the Marine Corps preferred because of its Buffington peep site.

As I did my education learning on Trapdoors on this great Forum and online I found out that most of the volunteer units mobilized for the Spanish-American war carried trapdoors. I had always assumed they had Krags because it was 1898. I knew that my GG uncle had served in the Spanish-American war in a unit that was called up in Central Florida and I made the connection between my very first trapdoor and my relative who most likely carried one when he went to Cuba. I realize he and his fellow volunteers may have had Model 1873s but it was totally unexpected connection between my first trapdoor rifle and my GG Uncle’s service in Cuba which amazed me.

So thank you Dick Hosmer, JohnS, Whig and others on this forum for helping me connect my family to this amazing piece of American history!

C company served in Guantánamo and part of their duties was guarding Spanish prisoners and collecting and inventoring enemy weapons which obviously passed down to my DNA