Hi J_F_Shepard; I disagreed when you wrote: "The Civil War? What government was overthrown, the Confederates tried but were defeated with millions of dead and wounded. They were still using muskets and front loading cannon, rifles just coming in." Message 28611267
No. Rifles were not "just coming in". The smooth-bore musket (Model 1842) you've linked in was obsolete before the war began. They had stopped making them in 1855. The production run was only 275,000. Furthermore, they were designed to be converted to rifles:
"Like the earlier Model 1840, the Model 1842 was produced with an intentionally thicker barrel than necessary, with the assumption that it would likely be rifled later. As the designers anticipated, many of the Model 1842 muskets had their barrels rifled later so that they could fire the newly developed Minie Ball."
en.wikipedia.org
Here are some rifles also used in the Civil War with their production numbers (and notes if they were primarily used outside the US).
1,000,000 en.wikipedia.org
??? en.wikipedia.org
60,000 en.wikipedia.org
32,000 en.wikipedia.org [Confederate]
??? en.wikipedia.org [Confederate]
100,000+ en.wikipedia.org
4,000 en.wikipedia.org
100,000 en.wikipedia.org
400 en.wikipedia.org [CSA]
30,000 en.wikipedia.org
14,000 en.wikipedia.org
200,000 en.wikipedia.org
23,000 en.wikipedia.org
And there were a couple British rifles that were imported and used by the warring parties, probably in very small numbers compared to total production:
1,500,000 en.wikipedia.org [British but some imported to USA/CSA]
13,400 en.wikipedia.org [British but some imported to USA/CSA]
Now some of the above production numbers are for rifles produced after the war. But rifle designs change quickly and the vast majority of US production, of course, was for the war.
The civil war was a rifle war, not a smooth-bore war. That's why the article you linked to was comparing to earlier, smooth-bore musket wars.
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The innovation that killed off the military smooth-bore musket was the Minié ball. Before this invention, smooth-bores were preferred because of their higher rate of fire, even though they were much less accurate. Before the Minié, a rifle took longer to load than a smooth bore.
The Minié ball was invented in 1848 but there were already indications that this technology was going to make a complete change in military rifles. That's why the Model 1842 smooth bore was designed to be converted to a rifle.
Here's a nice NY Times article:
The Bullet That Changed History
"Almost as soon as the war ended, historians began to study the factors that contributed to so much bloodshed – more than 200,000 killed and nearly 500,000 wounded – and concluded that the introduction of the rifle musket was the primary cause of the staggering casualty rates.
...
In 1855, Secretary of War Jefferson Davis adopted the rifle musket and Burton’s improved Minié ball, or bullet, for the United States Army.
... "
opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com
-- Carl
P.S.
For example, at Vicksburg:
By the time of the Vicksburg Campaign the North was able to supply three-quarters of its regiments with state-of-the-art first-class muzzleloading muskets. About one-quarter of the army were armed with second-class muskets of both European and American design. Many of the American-made weapons were older smoothbores that had had their barrels rifled to increase their accuracy and range. While they were serviceable weapons, they were not considered as accurate or reliable as first-class weapons. Only one unlucky regiment in the Union army at Vicksburg was armed with third-class arms: the 101st Illinois Infantry had smoothbore muskets.
mississippiconfederates.wordpress.com
Here, look for yourself. See how few musket balls from the Civil war are available, compared to obvious rifled bullets:
gettysburgrelics.com
sgtriker.com |
