how to identify civil war rifles

His goal was to build a replacement for the Pattern 1853. For other collectable antique military firearms, take a look at our inventory of antique U.S. martial pistols and Civil War revolvers, foreign military surplus antique handguns, and foreign military antique long guns. Rifles were more accurate than smooth bore muskets, and could have been made using shorter barrels. While most shoulder fired rifles during the time fired a bullet between 350 and 500 grains propelled by 40 to 60 grains of powder the Henry rifle shot a small .44 bullet of only 200 grains and 26 to 28 grains of black powder, giving it a quite short range. It was also a time of great technological change. While both the Union and Confederate armies had their own standard weapons that they issued to the enlisted, soldiers would frequently bring their own supplies from home with them to the front lines. The Civil War witnessed a technological revolution in weaponry. He certainly built a gun that outperformed it, at one trial striking targets at 2,000 yards, 600 yards better than the Enfield. This weapon gave the Union an advantage over the Confederate troops. Most of the regular army was equipped with them in 1861, and the Confederates had a few thousand that had been stored in Southern arsenals. Surveying a number of battles, they found that Civil War combat still largely took place at ranges similar to or slightly better than smoothbore muskets, suggesting no revolution had taken place in the way war was conducted. Burnsides company went under and he sold his patent to Charles Jackson. Used by both the Confederate and Union troops, the Sharps were often used as a sniper rifle. The American Revolution was foughtand wonwith guns, and the weapons have become ingrained in U.S. culture, but the invention of firearms started long before colonists ever settled . This rare Spencer Model 1860 carbine is identified as a War Department pattern gun and the top of the breech end of the barrel is bearing a flaming bomb stamp above "W.D" (War Department) surrounded by an oval and "1864" in three lines. If needed all that had to be done was put the caps on nipples and it was ready to shoot.. Whitworth rifles were equipped with either Enfield style sights or telescopic sights. This. The Spencer carbine, on the other hand, was widely utilized, with around 90,000 being produced for the war effort. #4. When in flight however the cleaning components gave the impression of being exploding bullets. army weapons were often marked with unit markings on the barrels, butt plates, or side plates. In fact, this rifle was the first breechloader ever made in any national armory that fired a primed metallic cartridge. In the early 1850s, Burnside resigned his military commission to work exclusively on his breech-loading carbine design. It looks like the wood has been sanded and refinished. A few fell into Confederate hands, but proved largely unusable due to a lack of ammunition (the Confederacy had insufficient supplies of copper to manufacture the Spencer's rimfire cartridges). Examples altered by them feature a cone-in-barrel conversion, and some are fitted with a US M1855 style long range sight and are rifled. The Civil War was a time of great social and political upheaval. Since the South lacked sufficient manufacturing capability, most of the Springfields in Southern hands were captured on the battlefields during the war.[2]. 1-86-NARA-NARA or 1-866-272-6272, The Struggles of a Soldier-Inventor: Capt. PLEASE READ BEFORE COMMENTING! And despite its overall popularity with the troops, few of the rifle variation made it into their hands. The side with the best production plants and firepower was ultimately more likely to win the war. The percussion musket used .58 caliber Minie balls for ammunition which provided additional range and accuracy for soldiers using the gun. At the root of the wide chasm in opinion on the Austrian Empires service arm appears to be manufacturing standards of the fairly complex weapon. The rounds fired by the Lorenz were considered inferior to the .58 caliber Mini ball, and while the rifle could be rebored to accept a larger bullet the process could affect barrel quality. At the Battle of Gettysburg, the Union Army salvaged 24,000 rifles which were still loaded and found 18,000 of them had been loaded twice or more without being fired. Disease in an era before antibiotics was the main culprit to these horrendous figures, more than 2 percent of the countrys population then. Like with all historical firearms, the prices can vary throughout the years on certain models and type of arms with condition and provenance playing a role on cost. The Impossible Takes Longer Winter 1995, Vol. Many soldiers were forced to use their own personal hunting rifles, which were typically Kentucky or Pennsylvania type rifles. A rugged design that was simple to construct, the Model 1861 and its derivatives (including the Springfield Model 1863) were the most common rifles in the war, with Northern arsenals producing over a million examples. Realistically, though, hitting anything beyond 500 yards was mostly a matter of luck. There are no markings on the shotgun whatsoever aside from some very faint decorative etchings and a couple of tally marks carved into the side of the wood. [23][24], Many older Springfield muskets, such as the Springfield Model 1842, which had been converted into rifles were also brought out of storage due to the arms shortage. When not at his press or the range he can be found chasing mule deer around the Rocky Mountains. Smooth-bore muskets were cast aside for updated rifled muskets (which still had the same components as a traditional musket but featured boring in the barrels that aided in keeping ammunition going in a straighter, more consistent, line upon exit). Napoleon normally always tried to rout opposing armies from the field after softening their line with massed artillery barrages. However, most American army officers in 1861 had been schooled in obsolete Napoleonic tactics, especially since many of them had served in the Mexican War, which was still fought in the old way with smoothbore muskets and linear formations. [7] At 500 yards a trained shooter could hit a man-sized target about half the time. [2] Soldiers were often forced to use older smooth bore and flintlock muskets, which had been considered to be obsolete, simply because the newer rifles were not available in sufficient quantities. Were really interested to find out what it is and maybe gleen some additional history that might be associated with her family. [5], Historian Allen C. Guelzo argues that one technical reason such short ranges persisted was the continued use of black powder. Even worse was the state of cavalry tactics. When one side gained the upper hand, they would finish off the attack with a bayonet charge. rimfire) made by the Federal Government (at Springfield Armory) and actually designed for issue to infantrymen was the Model 1865 Springfield Joslyn Rifle, of which only 3,007 were made. [13][14] Cost was also an issue: in an era where a soldier earned $10-13 a month and a rifled musket might cost $10-20 to manufacture, a repeating rifle might cost $37-65 to manufacture. For questions or more information about our firearms or policies, call us at (877) 214-9327 or email info@collectorsfirearms.com . Military leaders therefore preferred the faster loading smooth bore weapons over the more accurate rifles. I could clearly see the add of "eggs-10 cents a dozen.". With 16+1 rounds of .44 Henry rimfire ammunition on tap, the rifle would have been money well spent. 10,000 of the muskets were sent to Hall, Carrol and Co and Greenwood and Co, both of Cincinnati, Ohio. Many soldiers saved their salaries to buy their own Henry rifle as their government issued weapons couldn't hold up to the rifle's speed and lethality. Western armies were slower to obtain Springfield rifles, and they were not widely used there until the middle of 1863. The seven-shot Spencer was produced in rifle and carbine versions, although the latter was more common. The American Civil War still remains the deadliest conflict in our nation's history. Dec 13, 2014. Thank you for the quick and enlightening responses. At the same time, Northern rifle and gun manufacturers such as Sharps, Colt, Remington, and the Springfield Armory quickly increased their production of rifles;[18] Springfield alone increased its annual output from 20,000 to 200,000. This is most definitely a sporting arm and not a military arm. And the .44 round was relatively weaker compared to the dominant repeater of the time, the Spencer. Pulled wads, shot and powder. The Civil War rifle was the model that John Brown used in his raid of Harpers Ferry. It is a great option for a collector on a budget. When the gun was fired, it would ignite all of the powder at once, sending a volley of metal into the left hand of the person firing. This was converted from tubelock to percussion by Henry Leman of Lancaster, PA, in converted from tubelock to percussion by Henry Leman of Lancaster, PA, in late 1862 or early 1863. Countless firearm experts have lent their own perspective to the subject, and a few contemporary books to check out are: Rifles from the Civil War are important pieces of history, and as such, they can command top prices from avid collectors, military enthusiasts, and Civil War fanatics. It is close, but not quite right. The standard weapon of the British Army between 1853 and 1867, like the Springfield the Enfield was a single-shot, muzzleloading rifle musket. I would guess the gun originated in Belgium. It had a rifled barrel, and fired the .58 caliber Mini ball. Calibre .52 and Gwyn and Campbell carbine, Prussian Muskets (hand-written onto form), Austrian Muskets (hand-written onto form), This page was last edited on 25 April 2023, at 17:08. for cover. Sharps was without a doubt the finest produced and best functioning carbine of the war. As the war escalated, those arms stockpiles were quickly diminished. Many guns like this have " twist steel " barrels. [2] see The Confederacy had at least seven units that were armed with Burnside rifles that had been captured from the Union armies. Italy:Oxford University Press, USA. The telescopic sights were more accurate, but had a reputation for bruising the user's eye due to the rifle's recoil. The balance is believed to have been altered by Henry Leman, of Lancaster, Pennsylvania using a patent breech like the ones used on his alterations of US M1816 muskets and M1803, M1814, and M1817 common rifles. Nonetheless, Hardee's book was produced in a huge variety of editions during the war, often for different types of infantry. (2012). Civilian models did see war time uses if a soldier privately purchased the firearm, but it is hard to tell if the Civil War gun was for battle or just purchased by someone for general protection. Advertisements. United States:Lyons Press. This one is thrown in the list for fun, who doesnt like a good Le Mat revolver? During the American Civil War, the rifle was the most common weapon found on the battlefield. I say that because of the blow out plugs which one normally doesn't see on lower grade guns. Granville Stuart's Sharps Model 1874 Creedmoor No. With more than 650 types of bullets used during the War. More accurate firearms, able to be fired at a higher rate, combined with outdated military tactics to pulverize vast swaths of men in the blue and the gray. [18], The third-most widely used rifle of the Civil War, and the most prolific of "second-class" weapons, was the Lorenz Rifle. To determine the height of the unidentified Civil War soldier, an employee of The Horse Soldier store in Gettysburg, Pa . The Colt revolver made its way to be the second most common military hand gun of the Confederacy. [17], An alternative type of rifle ammunition which saw use during the Civil War was the exploding bullet. Reference materials are a must-have for any person interested in Civil War firearms or antique firearm collecting in general. [7][22] Depending on the location where they were manufactured, these were known as Richmond or Fayetteville rifles. Whereas a smoothbore musket like the Brown Bess could be expected to accurately hit a target at a distance of several dozen yards, rifled muskets were reasonably accurate at a distance of 500 yards. Admittedly, I know almost nothing about guns (a fact thats obvious to you). Given that these rifles were infrequently used in the war, it's unlikely to find these rifles at auction. Guns with a story and background are extremely interesting and exciting to collect with the Civil War era being a time that has many tales to tell. Suspected it was loaded. Turkish evacuation plane shot at as latest cease-fire struggles in Sudan. Though there were several models of the Springfield rifle created during the conflict, the 1861 model was the most heavily used and the easiest Civil War rifle to find on the antiques market today. Rifles made this type of fighting obsolete because of their much greater range. The black powder at the time quickly fouled the barrel, making reloading slower and more difficult. Like the Springfield, this was a three-band, single-shot, muzzle-loading rifle musket. 2023 LoveToKnow Media. The Springfield Model 1861 therefore used a three-band barrel, making it just as long as the smoothbore muskets that it had replaced. Used in the Civil War? The accuracy of the Whitworth was often exaggerated, but it was capable of hitting a man sized target beyond 1,000 yards. Both Union and Confederate armies used this accuracy to devastating effect, flinging the .58-caliber, 500-grain Mini balls at each other from up to 500 yards out. Get the 76th edition of the World's Greatest Gun Book. For this reason, many Civil . All rights reserved. These old and obsolete weapons were replaced by newer weapons as they became available. Thus, the short-lived Burnside rifle didn't become a major winner with soldiers during the war. Whitworth Rifle. Some shotguns were used in the very beginning, mostly by southern troops but were discarded after the first battle or two when better weapons were acquired from the dead. By Katharine Houreld. After attending a demonstration firing, President Lincoln was impressed enough to give it his approval. The first Model 1861 Springfields were delivered late in that year and during 1862 gradually became the most common weapon carried by Union infantry in the eastern theater. The rifle was produced under military contract with S.C. Robinson Arms Manufactory and was made in the breech loading style of the Sharps rifle. With an effective range of 600 paces, troops could fire three rounds per minute with an accuracy of up to 500 yards. Only about 2,500 made it to the Confederacy by means of their gun runners. [18], This collection contain smoothbore flintlocks converted into percussion muskets, some with their barrels rifled, Contract carbines as they were known at that time: Cosmopolitan, Sharps, Gallager, Smith and Burnside, Joslyn, Starr, Lindner, Warner, Maynard and Merrill carbines, Model 1816, Model 1842 and Model 1855 muskets, Confederate Richmond musket (top) along with U.S. Model 1861, British Pattern 1853 Enfield, U.S. Model 1861 muskets and Sharps rifle, Here is a number of Springfield Model 1861 contract rifles produced elsewhere except Springfield. It was second only to the Springfield model 1861 in popularity. CAT. The invention of the Mini ball solved the slow loading problem, allowing smoothbore muskets to be replaced by rifles in the decades just before the civil war. Due to complaints that they damaged the barrel of the rifle, the US Army discontinued their use in September 1864. We have an old rifle that has been passed on through my wifes family from, we believe, the Ciivil War. A sketch details the 14th Brooklyn regiment's uniform jacket, vest and kepi. Perhaps the most intriguing feature of the Civil War gun is its .60 caliber, 18 gauge under shotgun barrel located right underneath its .42 barrel giving the user an addition shot. When it became obvious that the southern states wouldn't win the war, the British government refused to sell any more rifles to the Confederacy, and they were forced to turn to gun runners and private sources for their stores. The ignition source was a folded rim on the inside of the gun. 1860. Besides the Henry, no other long gun could provide a shooter with 7 rounds before having to reload. Rock Island Auction Company has a wide variety of Civil War guns in our Premier and Regional Auctions. USA.gov, The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration The US adopted the breechloading 1866 Springfield "Trapdoor" infantry rifle built from surplus rifle-musket parts after the war. One particular area that tends to see a boost during wars is artillery development and the 1860s assuredly had its fair share of firearm improvements. I need help in identifying the attached photo, Need help identifying uniforms and building, Looking for help identifying a Civil War era sword -, I need help identifying a possible Civil War Uniform. What were the top long guns from the American Civil War? In a conflict dominated by muzzleloaders and single-shot rifles, the Spencer Repeating Rifle had to have seemed like a godsend. Model 1855 rifles were fairly common. To others, they were next to trash. The bored out versions were not consistent in caliber, ranging from .57 to .59. The Brunswick rifle was a high tech rifle during the 1830s when it was originally manufactured, but by the 1860s, it was an obsolete firearm. How to classify and identify Civil War rifles like the Henry Repeater. As such, officers typically failed to realize the power of rifles and continued to launch massed attacks against fortified enemies, which invariably resulted in heavy losses. [16], When the American Civil War broke out in April 1861, neither the North (about 360,000 small arms) nor the South (about 240,000) had enough weapons to fight a major war. The Lorenz rifle was originally .54 caliber. Not only is the Sharps perhaps one of the most elegant rifles to come out of the Civil War era, it also performed. The Lorenz was a bit like playing craps, if craps entailed being killed if the dice were faulty. You can find these rifles in antique auctions around the country for a few thousand dollars, such as with this 1861 Sharps rifle that's listed for $3,499. It had design similarities to the Colt revolver, with a rotating cylinder that held several rounds of ammunition (a unique feature on a rifle). Starting in 1850 and throughout the Civil War, roughly 100,000 Sharps carbines were produced for military use. LIFE ; TECH ; How to Identify Revolutionary War Musket Balls. The quality of Lorenz rifles during the Civil War was not consistent. Black powder also quickly obscured the battlefield, which led military leaders of the time to conclude that the greater range of rifles was of little value on the battlefield. Each of Rock Island Auction Company's Premier and Sporting & Collector Firearms auctions include collectible U.S. martial arms from 18 th, 19 th, and 20 th centuries, but no era has the variety of interesting American firearms . The men's main complaint about these rifles was that the unusually shaped cartridge often got stuck in the barrel after firing. The Model 1841 Mississippi Rifle, the progenitor of the Model 1855 and 1861 Springfield, was still used in the Civil War to a fair degree, especially by Confederate non-commissioned officers (NCOs) and sharpshooters. Observe the Rifle's Silhouette. They were to be shipped with the special brass priming tubes. With all due respect, the rear sight is the same as on the 1863 Springfield. Mike, a NPS Ranger at Fort Pulaski in GA, demonstrates how to fire a Civil War style rifle, demonstrating the commands for e. The lever action gun could fire off 20 rounds a minute on average making it ten times faster than the traditional muzzleloaders of the time. Get 12 Issues a year of the country's best firearms writing. Anything you can tell us about it would be much appreciated. The Sharps rifle was a falling block rifle that also used a unique pellet primer feed. The Spencer had an excellent reputation in combat, with a sustainable rate of fire of 20 rounds per minute. Produced in tremendous numbers by the Union and captured by the Confederacy, this is the arm that most soldiers on both sides carried. Chambered in the powerful .45-70 Government, the rifle was the choice of many commercial buffalo hunters on the American frontier. Available in Rock Island Auction Companys December Premier Auction is a 2nd Model Burnside Civil War carbine presented by Abraham Lincoln to Kentucky statesman John J. Crittenden. Come join the discussion about optics, hunting, gunsmithing, styles, reviews, accessories, classifieds, and more! Desirable Civil War era Parisian First Model LeMat grape shot revolver. Similar to the Pattern 1853, this was another British import the Confederates relied upon, mainly their sharpshooters. Henry Rifle. Its no wonder that even as Colt developed new revolver models during the war, like the 1861 Navy, that the Unions first choice was still the Model 1860. In the decades leading up to the Civil War, numerous advances had been made in weapons. The benefit of this Civil War rifle was that it could be fired in rapid succession without pausing to reload after each shot. This was highlighted by a changeover in shoulder-fired weapons from smoothbore firearms that had to be loaded through the muzzle each time a shot was fired to rifled-barrel firearms, some of which loaded at the breech. The range and accuracy were big selling points, as well as its .44 caliber which provided excellent stopping power. Good thing, too, because battlefield surgeons already had their hands more than full at the pace soldiers were being wounded and killed by the Model 1861. Given the Souths smaller manufacturing base compared to the North, it was imperative it import arms. Outstanding Civil War U.S. Spencer Model 1860 Army repeating rifle with sling and bayonet. Civil War rifles like the Springfield Model 1861 musket and Sharps were key elements to battle and are sought-after guns by Civil War memorabilia collectors today, while those who fancy handguns seek out Colt Model 1860 Army or Model 1851 Navy revolvers. 6. The rifle that you could load on Sunday and shoot all week long was a boon to the soldier who could get his hands on one. For non-historic arms experts, it can feel impossible to distinguish one old gun from a centuries-older gun thanks to their general appearances and similar mechanisms.

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