In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

Introduction Because they were needed in order to arm cavalry and dragoons, breechloading percussion arms were first introduced into American military service in 1833. The adoption of regulation models of muzzleloading percussion infantry arms began in 1841. These arms were supplanted by the government’s adoption of cartridge arms only 24 years later, in 1865. These few years mark an exciting period for the student of American military shoulder arms. The American small arms industry matured during the fairly short period the percussion system of ignition was used in American military shoulder arms, from 1833 to 1865. Under the direction of Master Armorer Thomas Warner, Springfield Armory achieved mass production of arms with tolerances so close that their components were fully interchangeable, while it tooled up for production of the last regulation model of flintlock musket, the Model 1840. Largely through the efforts of John Hall, the rifle works at Harpers Ferry Armory had produced a bit fewer than 20,000 Model 1819 breechloading rifles with interchangeable components between 1824 and 1840. However, it was not until the introduction of production of the Model 1842 percussion musket at the Harpers Ferry Armory that its musket manufactory was capable of mass production of regulation muskets with interchangeable components. During the 1840s, only a few American commercial small arms manufacturers were capable of producing significant quantities of arms having fully interchangeable components. Notable among these was Simeon North, of Middletown , Connecticut. Other makers with this capability were federal contractors of the Model 1840 musket: Leonard Pomeroy, of Pittsfield, Massachusetts, and Daniel Nippes of Mill Creek, Pennsylvania. None of the U.S. contractors of the Model 1841 rifles produced arms with fully interchangeable components during the early years of this rifle’s production . Some hand fitting and finishing was still required in the assembly of these arms. By the early 1850s, at least one firm, Robbins & Lawrence, was producing rifles with close enough tolerances to be considered fully interchangeable. Except for arms made under government contract, there was little incentive for most American gunmakers to undertake the rigid manufacturing tolerances required for full interchangeability. During the late 1840s and throughout the 1850s, most shoulder arms procured for the federal armed forces and procured by the federal government for allocation to state militias were fabricated at the two national armories. Only Harpers Ferry’s production of the Model 1841 rifle was augmented by federal contracts with commercial manufacturers. As a result of the invention of the expanding minie bullet, the use of rifled armsincreasedfromarelativelysmallnumberofriflementoanarmy’sentireinfantry , both in Europe and in the United States. Previously, relatively slow-loading rifles were in the hands of a few highly trained men in specialized rifle units and line infantry were equipped with smooth bored muskets. This invention enabled Introduction xxiv regular line infantry to be equipped with a shoulder arm of musket configuration that had a rifled bore. These arms were referred to as “rifle muskets.” For the first time, line infantry would be equipped with arms capable of rapid reloading and of consistently hitting a man-sized target at distances as great as 300 yards. The National Armory at Harpers Ferry, Virginia, was partially destroyed and fell into Confederate hands at the outbreak of the Civil War in April 1861. It is estimated that between 16,000 and 17,000 new muskets in storage there were at least partially destroyed. Federal arsenals containing well over 100,000 muskets and rifles also were taken over by the Confederate states. These actions not only reduced the Union’s arms production capacity, but also greatly decreased the serviceable arms owned by the Union Army at the beginning of the Civil War. The result was that the government increased production at its remaining national armory at Springfield, Massachusetts, and turned to the private sector and to Europe for arms. Section 257 of this work describes how production of regulation rifle muskets was augmented at Springfield Armory. The government also contracted for more than a million regulation rifle muskets from 17 different companies . These contracts mandated that the arms were to have fully interchangeable components. The letting of these contracts for regulation Model 1861 rifle muskets was delayed for five critical months following the war’s outbreak. It has been suggested that arms contracts with private manufacturers were let only after General McClellan arrived in Washington in July 1861. Certainly...

Share