Dug this one out of the back of the safe after recent question came up concerning #3 Ballard elsewhere here.
This is one of only a few guns I've bought online, without having it in my hands. When I saw it some years back on Gunbroker, I immediately got interested. But it seems I was the only one interested, as it went for a very reasonable opening price!
After receiving it I began researching the name on the silver presentation plaque in the stock, and was pretty pleased with my luck in winning it.
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The plaque reads:
"Presented to Charles L. Phillips. By the Hamlin Rifles. Co. G 2nd Regt. MVM." The "MVM" is the Maine Volunteer Militia. And the Hamlin Rifles of the 2nd Regt. were a unit started up at the beginning of the Civil War, who fought in a number of very significant battles.
Lt. Charles L Phillips was a college graduate, who entered West Point in 1878 after college, and graduated 13th in the class of 1881. He went on to reach the rank of Brigadier General, and served from 1878-1920.
He served all over the US from Pacific to Atlantic, and at Subic Bay, Phillipines during the Spanish-American War. 

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The only two special order features on this #3 Ballard are the Lyman locking base tang sight, and the omission of the rear sight dovetail. 

I also received a letter from the owner, who consigned it, explaining how she came into the Ballard. Gen. Phillips was her neighbor when she was a child, and a friend to her parents in El Centro, Ca. where he died. After his retirement he moved to Ca. Death Valley for his wife's health, and met her parents, who owned the radio station in Death Valley. 
The General took a liking to her brother Heath, and gave him the Ballard. Her brother died in a car accident a few years later, and their father put the Ballard up. When her parents died, she inherited it, and it sat in her closet until a few years ago. She put it up for sale when her daughter showed no interest.
 

Quite a rifle but a spectacular story.

One thing that added to this for me was dating the gun's build date. The owner's letter stated that she thought the Ballard was given to the General by his troops during the Spanish-American War. But of course we all know that was impossible, since Ballard production ceased long before that.
So I went back to his military records to see when he departed Maine, which was July 1, 1888. I believe this was a parting gift when he left at that time. So it gives a fairly accurate timeframe for when this particular serial number was built. Something we rarely have for Ballard serial numbers.
Yes Bill, that's part of the allure to this gun I enjoy most. Knowing so much about the whole gun's history, and history of it's owners is the best part for me.
I've got three other guns I can track the history of the owners, but none of them can I track the entire history from first sale to today.

Depending on the amount of wear from adjusting over many decades, they can often loosen up, and move too easily. Mine is still like new and adjustment doesn't move that easy. It takes a positive turn to make an adjustment, so no chance of it being accidental.

Thanks Greg. I'll have to post a couple others that I have pretty good provenance on the guns and their owners.

Fritz wrote on Nov 24^th, 2020 at 2:31pm:


Thanks! I've always been puzzled why nobody else even bid when it was on GB? It was a very modest opening price, and I was a good $500 over it, but since nobody else bid I got it at opening price.

Gunfunpow wrote on Nov 24^th, 2020 at 5:08pm:


Thanks. I really enjoy history, and the whole process of gathering provenance too. I've tried to gather provenance on many guns over the years, and it's been greatly simplified the last 10-15 years with the resource we now have online. 
Writing letters, and making phone calls in the past was a slow, painful and often frustrating process.