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Model 1861 Rifle Musket  257. Because of widespread dissatisfaction with the Maynard priming system in units to which arms with that primer mechanism had been issued, an Ordnance Board was convened in May 1860 under the direction of Major Alfred Mordecai. This board examined several aspects of the Model 1855 rifle musket and its report contained recommendations for several changes. Perhaps the most significant is the following: 3. The Board is compelled to remark that nearly all of the reports from officers in command of companies using the Maynard primer, and from the Inspectors General, concur in condemning the Maynard primer as unreliable for general service; and it appears that no commanding officers are willing to trust to the use of them separately from the percussion cap—thus confirming the doubts expressed by the Ordnance Board with regard to the adoption of the system, when this subject was first presented to them in 1854. The Board recommends that no more arms of this kind be made after those in progress are finished; but that all models of the rifled small arms should be made on the former simple system for using percussion caps alone, which are universally admitted to be efficient and reliable for service. The report recommended the lock changes necessary for this change, the adoption of a circular buttstock implement compartment proposed by Erskine Allin of Springfield Armory, and some additional changes to the hammer, mainspring, and ramrod head. It reaffirmed the rear sight’s location on the barrel . On February 20, 1861, Chief of Ordnance Colonel Craig wrote that these recommendations had been approved by the secretary of war. All .58 caliber Model 1855 rifle muskets for the U.S. armed forces had been produced by the two national armories. None was procured by contract. Harpers Ferry Armory’s production of arms for the federal government ceased with that armory’s partial destruction and capture by Virginia militia troops on April 18, 1861. Only Springfield Armory remained to produce the rifle muskets necessary to arm the rapidly expanding Union Army. The deletion of the Maynard primer mechanism resulted in a different lock configuration and required corresponding changes in the stock’s lock recess and in the nipple bolster’s flash shield on the barrel. Before these rifle muskets went into production, the rear sight base and leaves were also changed. Elisha K. Root, of Colt’s Patent Firearms Manufacturing Company, was at Springfield Armory during June 1861. He and Erskine S. Allin, the armory’s master armorer, supervised the manufacture of the model of the rifled musket, which would be the Special Model 1861 Contract rifled musket to be produced Part II 284 under contract by Colt. The Model 1861 leaf-type rear sight was developed at this time. This sight differed from the Model 1858 sight in that its sidewalls were raised to protect the 100-yard leaf, and the head of the hinge screw was countersunk into this sidewall. Also, the ends of the sight’s leaves were straightened , which facilitated raising them with fingers. The shoulder arms that would be fabricated at Springfield Armory with these changes were designated Model 1861 rifle muskets. President Lincoln issued a call for 75,000 militia to three months’ federal service on April 15, 1861. On May 3, he called for 42,034 volunteers and 22,714 regulars for three years’ service, and on July 22–25, he called for 500,000 volunteers for three years’ service. These men needed arms. Although more than 60,000 Model 1855 rifle muskets had been fabricated at the two national armories prior to the Civil War, an October 10, 1860, inventory showed that only 22,649 .58 caliber rifle muskets were in various government arsenals. The remainder had been previously issued pursuant to the 1808 Militia Act to the Army or to states. Of the 22,649 rifle muskets, 7,431 were in Federal arsenals in the South and would be taken over by Southern states or the Confederacy, and 6,250 had been shipped to Benicia Arsenal in California. New Springfield Armory Superintendent George Dwight wrote to the new Chief of Ordnance, Colonel James W. Ripley, on April 25, 1861. He requested the elimination of the rifle musket’s implement compartment and also stated, “The omission of the Maynard Primer will not retard the production of...

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