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Washington native James Smallwood had had the old musket of another era for several years, as it had been passed down through his family. He knew that it had belonged to his great-grandfather Charles Smallwood, and that was about it. He knew nothing about the gun’s history and very little about his distant relative. Then, a trip to the local library and a chat with Stephen Ferrell, curator of special collections, would unimaginably change all of that.

“I stopped by the library to speak with Mr. Farrell about the gun and some other family artifacts that are at the house,” said Smallwood. “He showed me some of the vintage muskets that are on display, and I told him I have one just like those. I asked if I could bring it in, and his answer was a resounding ‘yes!’ When he first saw it, his eyes got big, and then my eyes got big in reaction to his, and that’s when it all started.”

Ferrell was in complete amazement when he saw how good of condition the weapon was in. The first thing he noticed was that it was not necessarily a Civil War military-made weapon, but that it was probably from that era. “I started comparing it to various flint lock muskets, and percussion weapons we have in the library from that same era, and started comparing the similarities and differences. I was then able to determine that it was an old hunting shotgun that had been converted into a military weapon. That is when everything started churning in my brain. We knew that James’ great-grandfather had owned it, that he was married in 1867, and he would have been 19 in 1863 during the Civil War, and that’s when the fireworks started going off.”

Ferrell was able to determine that Charles Smallwood had served in the First North Carolina Colored Infantry. And through Ferrell’s resources in the history room at the library he was able to access Smallwood’s war record. “It was amazing and enormous,” said Ferrell. “I was able to pull up his muster roll, which is a detailed list of a person’s military record.  It was enormous. Even officers at the time didn’t have the amount of paperwork that Charles Smallwood did.”

Smallwood had joined the Union Army on June 15, 1863, in New Bern, North Carolina. He first fought in the Battle of Olmsted, in Florida.. He then went on to fight in the Battle of Honey Hill in South Carolina, where he was severely wounded on November 30, 1864, and spent the better part of the next year in a hospital in Beaufort, South Carolina. He remained in the army until 1866. During that time he was also promoted to corporal. “The First North Carolina Colored Infantry was an experimental corps at the time made entirely of African Americans,” said Ferrell. “The weapons they would have used were second, third, and fourth tiered weapons as they were not considered a front line unit, and war materials were scarce at the time. We can say this weapon was owned by Charles Smallwood, who served in the military during the time of the Civil War. Can we definitively say he used this gun during the war? No, but the information we have thus far is certainly pointing us in that direction.”

For Smallwood, the news of all of this was beyond words. “I was speechless when Stephen shared all of this information with me,” said Smallwood. “I almost wanted to have water in my eyes. Right now, I’m feeling an emotion that is hard to explain. The only thing I knew about my great-grandfather was that he was a man of principle, always doing the best he could and helping others at the same time. I never knew that he served in the military during the Civil War, as no one ever talked about it.”

Ferrell said this discovery is perhaps a career high for him. “To be able to place a wartime weapon with a veteran is rare,” said Ferrell. “It is rarer when that individual was a member of the First North Carolina Colored Infantry and a resident of Washington, and rarer yet, when a member of the family is now in possession of that same gun. It gives you chills at night. I don’t know who was more excited, James or I, and what we might be able to find next.”

Smallwood doesn’t look at this as closure, but as opening the door to what else might yet be out there. “It has all been fulfilling and wonderful,” said Smallwood. “But I want to know more and grab more. See pictures of my great-grandfather in uniform, smell the smoke from the weapon after it has been fired, even though that is not possible, so I can appreciate this moment even more.”