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MODEL 1812 MUSKET, SPRINGFIELD ARMORY MODEL 1812 PATTERN MUSKETS On August 8, 1812, Captain Callender Irvine was appointed commissary general of purchases. In this capacity, he was in charge of the procurement of muskets for the army. On September 8, Irvine wrote Secretary of War William Eustis that Peter Peleaux was making a new pattern musket under the direction of Marine T. Wickham. On December 2, 1812, Irvine sent Wickham with the pattern musket to Washington to gain its approval by the secretary of war. On December 8, 1812, Secretary of War Eustis wrote Irvine, and subsequently the superintendents of the two national armories: "The pattern musket isadopted as the Standard at the public armories, and in order to establish it at the private works, it appears advisable that new contracts should be entered into with those contractors who are now under employment to the U. States and who are disposed to carry on this work." In his letter to Harpers Ferry Armory Superintendent James Stubblefield, the secretary of war also directed him to make twenty-four pattern muskets conforming to the pattern that Wickham was to deliver. The Model 1812 pattern musket is important because it was the first musket intentionally designed as such for the U.S. armed forces. Previous muskets had been copies of existing French arms. The musket adopted by the secretary of war on December 8, 1812, as the "standard" had stud-type barrel band retaining springs.This innovation isattributed to Marine T. Wickham, and the stud-type retaining springs were also used in the patterns for the Model 1814 U.S. contract rifle and pistols built under his direction. Of even greater importance, the Model 1812 pattern musket was intended to be the first U.S. regulation musket with fully interchangeable metal components, and Irvine should be given credit for the attempt. However, it may have been this goal that ultimately prevented its production as originally designed . The Model 1812 pattern musket was not popular with either the chief of ordnance or the superintendent of Springfield Armory. On March 12, 1813, Colonel Decius Wadsworth wrote Secretary ofWar John Armstrong that he felt the musket was too heavy, that the balance was too far forward, and that the method of attaching the bayonet by a screw was particularly bad. On February 4, 1815, Benjamin Prescott wrote the chief of ordnance complaining of the weight and balance and stressing the high cost of production of this musket. 137. 82 AMERICAN MILITARY SHOULDER ARMS, VOL. II HARPERS FERRY PATTERNS During 1813 the secretary of war's order for the fabrication of twenty-four pattern muskets at Harpers Ferry Armory was modified to six patterns. Records of Harpers Ferry'sproduction for that year indicate that five pattern musketswere made at that armory. On November 30, 1813, Callender Irvine wrote to Secretary of War John Armstrong and to Deputy Commissary Amasa Stetson that the Harpers Ferry pattern muskets had been sent "some time ago" to Springfield Armory. They were sent to Springfield for two reasons. First, they had been equipped originally with a bayonet that used a screw to secure it, and they were to be modified to the simpler lug system then in use. Second, these muskets were to serve as patterns for six additional pattern muskets, which were to be fabricated at Springfield Armory, and they then were to serve as patterns for future contracts. Because Springfield Armory's superintendent, Benjamin Prescott, had temporarily left the armory without completing work on the Harpers Ferry pattern muskets, Irvine directed Benjamin Moor, inspector of arms at Springfield, to complete the modifications on them. On December 30, Irvine ordered Moore to send them to deputy commissaries in Albany, New York City, Boston, Portsmouth, and Norwich, Connecticut, to serve as patterns for contracts. The correspondence clearly implies that the five Harpers Ferry pattern muskets were of a single configuration, because they were to be sent out to deputy commissaries to serve aspatterns for future contracts. In his November 30, 1813, letter to Deputy Commissary Amasa Stetson, Irvine wrote that he had "procured a French manufactured musket, having all the latest improvements," and he described how the pattern musket had been constructed under Wickham's direction and approved by the secretary of war. Therefore, it would be expected that the musket approved by the secretary of war as the standard, and the five Harpers Ferry pattern muskets subsequently fabricated on this pattern, would reflect this French influence. None of the five pattern...

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