William Glaze established the Palmetto Armory in Columbia, South Carolina in 1850 with his Massachusetts partners: Asa Waters and Benjamin Flagg in anticipation of a South Carolina State contract to purchase arms. On April 15, 1851, Glaze and Flagg signed a bonded contract with the State to manufacture 6,000 Model 1842 muskets and other arms.

The partnership never actually planned to manufacture these muskets but rather they planned to assemble these arms from parts manufactured by other New England armories. This was a clear violation of their contract, however they apparently expected to complete this task without risk of being discovered.

This iron mounted palmetto is in nice untouched condition. It has never been cleaned or altered in any way. The lock plate features COLUMBIA over S. C. 1852 stampings left of the hammer and the PALMETTOARMORY S ☆ C in a circle around the "spiral” Palmetto tree right of it. As is expected with a musket in this condition, there is pitting around the barrel breech which has mostly obscured the P, V, and Palmetto barrel top proof marks. The left side of the barrel flat is stamped just above the stock with the number, 2367, which is likely the last digits of an owner’s social security number. It is not a serial number and though it is old, it is not contemporary. The "W^mGLAZE & CO” stamping on the left barrel flat is clear. The butt plate tang is stamped with the left facing S C mark.

The musket is totally untouched and original down to the last screw. Thankfully no one has ever committed the sacrilege of shining up areas to to brighten the marks. The mechanics work perfectly and even the ramrod is original.

It appears that a large percentage of surviving Palmetto muskets are equipped with brass bands, while those with iron bands are clearly less common. The musket shown here is one of the rarer iron mounted examples.

In Confederate Rifles & Muskets by Madaus and Murphy, they only mention brass mounted examples. This is simply because they were describing the particular gun that they used as an example. The most authoritative reference for the Palmetto Armory and associated products is, William Glaze and the Palmetto Armory by Jack Allen Meyer. In this more modern book, these rare iron mounted muskets are clearly mentioned.

Mr. Meyer has a new book coming out in January, 2025; Arming South Carolina: The Weapons of the Palmetto Armory and the State Military Works.