How did the men of the north and the south clean their ML after a battle? Or any hunter back then?

Few of the books of the era pay much attention to cleaning...can assume that water was the solvent (if not of choice, then of need). Even cloth would have been hard to come by and held dear, so suspect that cleaning patches got washed and re-used.

Are documents of buff-hunters wetting down hot barrels...would be they also swabed the fouling out of them while they were at it.

Would have animal and plant oils...if near the coast, whale oil...if near natual deposits, perhaps some semi-refined petroleum. By the early 1800's, would have been commercailly avialble (it was in hair tonics...they have documnetaion of medical/cosmetic use in the late 1700's). Lubricating and preserving oils would have been traded at the same places powder and lead (and flints or caps)were sold, and probably pretty expensive. Being expensive, would guess that they took a minimalist attitude to it's use....probably more animal fats than anything else in use (bullet lube as well).

BUT...oil bases doen't clean BP salts...would offer some protection from rust once clean, but not if used over fouling.

Battle fields are not always water rich (althought the South tended to name battles after rivers/streams while the North named them after towns)...wouldn't be the first gun that got a first wash with urine to save water.

Hot (boiling) water - survivors gotta cook dinner, anyway.

Bet a lot of guns got ruined pretty quickly. Armies must have issued something for rust protection.

Lee,

Just coincidentally there is an article in the Nov. American Rifleman specifically addressing cleaning procedures for the rifled muskets. It is a re-print of the official Ordnance Dept. memo for cleaning and inspection procedures.

Whatever you do, don't try the advice about urine! It is caustic and will cause rusting and can even remove blueing in short order.

That was "first wash to save water"...would have to be cleaned out with water, just wouldn't take as much water to clean the urine out than clean the whole barrel. Not a recomendation, but a hand-me-down story of what sometimes got done back then.

Was potassium carbonate ever used at anytime? I would think someone somewhere would have used it, unless theres something about it I don't know that wouldnt make it an effective cleaner. But it would have been easy to make, leaching wood ashes, and when it comes into contact with animal fats, it turns them into soap. I would think by useing a comination of the two, one would have an effective cleaner.