Springfield Model 1861 Rifled Musket: Precision Rifles, Napoleonic Tactics

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The Springfield Model 1861 was a 56 inch, 9 pound rifled musket that put sharpshooter accuracy in the hands of ordinary infantry. This episode explains how the .58 caliber Minie ball made rifles as fast to load as smoothbores, why percussion caps replaced flintlocks, and why the Ordnance Department abandoned the gummy, jam prone Maynard tape primer of the Model 1855 in favor of simple copper caps and rugged flip up leaf sights.

Demand overwhelmed the Springfield Armory, which built about 265,000 rifles between 1861 and 1863, so the government contracted 20 private manufacturers across the North. Colt's engineers simplified the design into the Colt Special, and several of its changes were adopted in the Model 1863. Yet the rifle's potential was wasted by West Point doctrine built for smoothbores and by the Minie ball's high arc, which sent shots over the heads of charging enemies when frightened soldiers left their 500 yard sights raised. After the war, surplus rifles spread worldwide and Erskine S. Allen's conversions turned them into breechloaders.

A trained marksman with the Model 1861 could consistently hit a man sized target at 500 yards.
The Confederacy favored the British Enfield Pattern 1853, whose ladder sight was graduated past 900 yards.
Colt replaced spring retained barrel bands with screw clamped bands and reinforced the bolster to reduce cracking.
In Korea in 1871, U.S. Marines and sailors fought with a mix of rolling block breechloaders and surplus Model 1861 muzzleloaders.
The Allen conversions led to the Springfield Model 1873, the standard rifle of the Indian Wars.

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