The Richmond rifle was a

rifled musket A rifled musket, rifle musket, or rifle-musket is a type of firearm made in the mid-19th century. Originally the term referred only to muskets that had been produced as a smoothbore weapon and later had their barrels replaced with rifled barrel ...

produced by the

Richmond Armory The Virginia Manufactory of Arms was a state-owned firearms manufacturer and arsenal in what is today Richmond, Virginia. It was established by the Commonwealth of Virginia in 1798 to supply the Virginia militia with firearms and related items su ...

Richmond, Virginia (Thus do we reach the stars) , image_map = , mapsize = 250 px , map_caption = Location within Virginia , pushpin_map = Virginia#USA , pushpin_label = Richmond , pushpin_m ...

, for use by the

Confederate States Army The Confederate States Army, also called the Confederate Army or the Southern Army, was the military land force of the Confederate States of America (commonly referred to as the Confederacy) during the American Civil War (1861–1865), fighting ...

during the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

Background

At the start of the American Civil War, the Confederacy suffered from a lack of resources with the capability to produce small arms weapons.

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

appropriated funds to modernize the Old State Armory building in Richmond with arms-making machinery manufactured in England; but the confrontation at

Fort Sumter Fort Sumter is a sea fort built on an artificial island protecting Charleston, South Carolina from naval invasion. Its origin dates to the War of 1812 when the British invaded Washington by sea. It was still incomplete in 1861 when the Battl ...

initiated the

Union Union commonly refers to: * Trade union, an organization of workers * Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets Union may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * Union (band), an American rock group ** ''Un ...

blockade which prevented delivery of the machinery. In April 1861, the Confederacy led by Thomas Jonathan Jackson captured the Union-held town of

Harper's Ferry Harpers Ferry is a historic town in Jefferson County, West Virginia. It is located in the lower Shenandoah Valley. The population was 285 at the 2020 census. Situated at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers, where the U.S. stat ...

in western

, and salvaged the machinery used to manufacture

Springfield Model 1855 The Springfield Model 1855 was a rifled musket widely used in the American Civil War. It exploited the advantages of the new conical Minié ball, which could be deadly at over . It was a standard infantry weapon for Union and Confederates ali ...

muskets. Confederate troops captured 33,993 black walnut

stocks Stocks are feet restraining devices that were used as a form of corporal punishment and public humiliation. The use of stocks is seen as early as Ancient Greece, where they are described as being in use in Solon's law code. The law describing ...

with the machinery. The machinery and stocks were shipped on the

Winchester and Potomac Railroad The Winchester and Potomac Railroad (W&P) was a railroad in the southern United States, which ran from Winchester, Virginia, to Harpers Ferry, West Virginia (Virginia until 1863), on the Potomac River, at a junction with the Baltimore and Ohio Rail ...

Winchester, Virginia Winchester is the most north western independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It is the county seat of Frederick County, although the two are separate jurisdictions. The Bureau of Economic Analysis combines the city of Winchester wit ...

, where they were transferred by wagons over the

Valley Pike Valley Pike or Valley Turnpike is the traditional name given for the Indian trail and roadway which now approximates as U.S. Route 11 in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. Long before the arrival of English colonists, Native Americans of the Del ...

to be reloaded onto the

Manassas Gap Railroad The Manassas Gap Railroad (MGRR) ran from Mount Jackson, Virginia, to the Orange and Alexandria Railroad's Manassas Junction, which later became the city of Manassas, Virginia. Chartered by the Virginia General Assembly in 1850, the MGRR was a n ...

Strasburg, Virginia Strasburg is a town in Shenandoah County, Virginia, United States, which was founded in 1761 by Peter Stover. It is the largest town by population in the county and is known for its grassroots art culture, pottery, antiques, and American Civil W ...

for delivery to Richmond. The rifling machinery was transferred to the

Fayetteville Arsenal The Fayetteville Arsenal in Fayetteville, North Carolina was built in 1838 because during the War of 1812 the United States government realized that the existing distribution of weapons and ammunition factories was not adequate for the defense o ...

.Davies, Paul J. ''The C.S. Armory Richmond and the Macon Stock Shop'' April 2003 ''

American Rifleman ''American Rifleman'' is a United States-based monthly shooting and firearms interest publication, owned by the National Rifle Association (NRA). It is the 33rd-most-widely-distributed consumer magazine and the NRA's primary magazine. The magaz ...

Production history

The Old State Armory building with Harpers Ferry Machinery was transferred to Confederate States control in June 1861. Production began in October 1861 retaining the general form of the Model 1855, but without the

Maynard tape primer The Maynard tape primer was a system designed by Edward Maynard to allow for more rapid reloading of muskets. Invention Muskets in the early 19th century were flintlocks, which had a high rate of misfire and performed poorly in damp and humid w ...

mechanism and patch box. The lock plate milling machine was modified in March 1862 to make manual capping easier by lowering the characteristic tape primer hump. Forged iron butt plates were replaced by brass butt plates concurrently with the lock modification. Most Confederate rifles also differed from the Union rifles they were based on with a different rear sight and brass nosecap. Gun stock machinery was moved south in response to Union advances; and become operational in the former railway depot at

Macon, Georgia Macon ( ), officially Macon–Bibb County, is a consolidated city-county in the U.S. state of Georgia. Situated near the fall line of the Ocmulgee River, it is located southeast of Atlanta and lies near the geographic center of the state of Geo ...

in October 1862. Finished stocks were shipped to Richmond by rail. Richmond Armory began production of a cavalry carbine in November 1862 by reducing barrel length to and overall length to . Gun stock production at Macon peaked at two thousand per month in April 1863. Attempts were made to harvest stock blanks in

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...

when the supply of captured gun stocks was exhausted, but Union sympathizers burned the North Carolina sawmill. Gun stock machinery was evacuated from Macon to avoid

Sherman's March to the Sea Sherman's March to the Sea (also known as the Savannah campaign or simply Sherman's March) was a military campaign of the American Civil War conducted through Georgia from November 15 until December 21, 1864, by William Tecumseh Sherman, major ...

. Production at Richmond shifted to a short rifle with a barrel to use shorter pieces of wood considered unsuitable for normal length rifles until the vanishing wood supply halted production in January 1865.

References

Smithsonian Institution

External links

Antietam on the Web
{{USCWWeapons American Civil War rifles Richmond, Virginia in the American Civil War Rifled muskets Weapons of the Confederate States of America

Background

Production history

See also

References

External links