Richmond rifle
Richmond rifle | |
---|---|
Type | Rifled musket |
Place of origin | Confederate States |
Service history | |
Used by | Confederate States |
Wars | American Civil War |
Production history | |
Designed | 1861 |
Manufacturer | Richmond Armory |
Produced | 1861–1865 |
No. built | 31,000 rifles 5,400 carbines 1,350 short rifles |
Specifications | |
Length | 56 inches (1.4 m) |
Barrel length | 40 inches (1.0 m) |
Cartridge | .58 Minié ball |
Caliber | 0.58 |
Action | Caplock |
Rate of fire | 2–3 per minute |
Muzzle velocity | 1,000–1,200 feet per second |
Effective firing range | 600 yards |
Feed system | Muzzle-loaded |
The Richmond rifle was a rifled musket produced by the Richmond Armory in Richmond, Virginia, for use by the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War.
Background
At the start of the American Civil War, the Confederacy suffered from a lack of resources with the capability to produce small arms weapons. Virginia appropriated funds to modernize the Old State Armory building in Richmond with arms-making machinery manufactured in England, but the confrontation at Fort Sumter initiated the Union blockade which prevented delivery of the machinery. In April 1861, the Confederacy led by Thomas Jonathan Jackson captured the Union-held town of Harper's Ferry in western Virginia, and salvaged the machinery used to manufacture Springfield Model 1855 muskets. Confederate troops captured 33,993 black walnut stocks with the machinery. The machinery and stocks were shipped on the Winchester and Potomac Railroad to Winchester, Virginia, where they were transferred by wagons over the Valley Pike to be reloaded onto the Manassas Gap Railroad at Strasburg, Virginia for delivery to Richmond. The rifling machinery was transferred to the Fayetteville Arsenal.[1]
Production history
The Old State Armory building with Harpers Ferry Machinery was transferred to Confederate control in June 1861. Production began in October 1861 retaining the general form of the Model 1855, but without the Maynard tape primer mechanism and patch box. The lock plate milling machine was modified in March 1862 to make manual capping easier by lowering the characteristic tape primer hump. Forged iron butt plates were replaced by brass butt plates concurrently with the lock modification. Most Confederate rifles also differed from the Union rifles they were based on with a different rear sight and brass nosecap.[1]
Gunstock machinery was moved south in response to Union advances; and became operational in the former railway depot at Macon, Georgia in October 1862. Finished stocks were shipped to Richmond by rail. Richmond Armory began production of a cavalry carbine in November 1862 by reducing barrel length to 25 inches (64 cm) and overall length to 41 inches (1.0 m). Gunstock production at Macon peaked at two thousand per month in April 1863. Attempts were made to harvest stock blanks in North Carolina when the supply of captured gun stocks was exhausted, but Union sympathizers burned the North Carolina sawmill. Gunstock machinery was evacuated from Macon to avoid Sherman's March to the Sea. Production at Richmond shifted to a 49 inches (1.2 m) short rifle with a 33 inches (84 cm) barrel to use shorter pieces of wood considered unsuitable for normal-length rifles until the vanishing wood supply halted production in January 1865.[1]
See also
References
- ^ a b c Davies, Paul J. The C.S. Armory Richmond and the Macon Stock Shop April 2003 American Rifleman
- Smithsonian Institution
External links
- Antietam on the Web
- v
- t
- e
- Arkansas toothpick
- Bayonet
- Bowie knife
- M1832 foot artillery sword
- M1833 dragoon saber
- M1840 army noncommissioned officer's sword
- M1840 cavalry saber
- M1840 light artillery saber
- M1850 army staff & field officer's sword
- M1852 naval officer's sword
- M1860 cutlass
- M1860 light cavalry saber
- Mameluke sword
- USMC noncommissioned officer's sword
- Adams M1851 revolver
- Allen & Thurber M1837 revolver pepperbox
- Allen & Wheelock M1861 revolver
- Beaumont–Adams M1862 revolver
- Butterfield M1855 transitional revolver
- Colt M1836 Paterson revolver
- Colt M1847 Walker revolver
- Colt M1848 Dragoon revolver
- Colt M1849 Pocket revolver
- Colt M1851 Navy revolver
- Colt M1860 Army revolver
- Colt M1861 Navy revolver
- Colt M1862 Police revolver
- Colt Root M1855 revolver
- Deringer M1825 Philadelphia caplock pistol
- Elgin M1838 cutlass caplock pistol
- Kerr M1855 revolver
- Lefaucheux M1854 revolver
- Lefaucheux M1858 revolver
- LeMat M1856 revolver
- Moore M1864 revolver
- Remington M1858 revolver
- Remington M1860 Elliot revolver pepperbox
- Savage-North M1861 Navy revolver
- Smith & Wesson Model 1
- Smith & Wesson Model No. 2 Army
- Spiller & Burr M1861 revolver
- Starr M1858 and M1863 revolver
- Tranter M1856 revolver
- Volcanic M1855 repeating pistol
- Walch M1859 revolver
- Wesson and Leavitt M1850 Dragoon revolver
- Whitney M1857 revolver
- Augustin M1842 musket
- Ballard M1861 rifle
- Brunswick P1836 and P1841 rifle
- Burnside M1855 carbine
- Charleville M1816 and M1822 musket
- Colt M1855 revolver carbine and rifle
- Deringer M1814 Common rifle
- Deringer M1817 Common rifle
- Enfield P1853 rifled musket
- Enfield P1861 musketoon
- Fayetteville M1862 rifle
- Gallager M1861 carbine
- Hall M1819 rifle
- Hall-North M1843 carbine
- Harper Ferry M1803 rifle
- Henry M1860 repeating rifle
- Jenks M1841 Mule ear carbine
- Joslyn M1855, M1861, M1862, M1864, M1865 carbine and rifle
- Lorenz M1854 rifled musket
- Maynard M1851 carbine
- Merrill M1858 carbine
- Mississippi M1841 rifle
- P1839 and P1842 Brown Bess musket
- Potzdam M1831 musket
- Richmond M1861 rifled musket
- Sharps M1848, M1850, M1851, M1852, M1853, M1855, M1859, M1863, M1865 carbine and rifle
- Sharps & Hankins M1862 carbine
- Smith M1857 carbine
- Spencer M1860, M1865 repeating carbine and rifle
- Springfield M1795 musket
- Springfield M1812 musket
- Springfield M1816 musket
- Springfield M1822 musket
- Springfield M1835 musket
- Springfield M1840 musket
- Springfield M1842 musket
- Springfield M1847 musketoon
- Springfield M1855 rifled musket
- Springfield M1861 rifled musket
- Springfield M1863 rifled musket
- Starr M1858 carbine
- Tarpley M1863 carbine
- Volcanic M1855 repeating rifle
- Wesson M1859 carbine and rifle
- Whitworth P1857 rifle
- Adams grenade
- Coach gun
- Congreve rocket
- Double-barreled shotgun
- Hale rocket launcher
- Ketchum Grenade
- Rains grenade
- Rains landmine
- Sea mine
- Winans Steam Gun
and equipment