Rifled musket
Encyclopedia
Musket
A musket is a muzzle-loaded, smooth bore long gun, fired from the shoulder. Muskets were designed for use by infantry. A soldier armed with a musket had the designation musketman or musketeer....
or rifle musket refers to a specific type of weapon made in the mid-19th century. Originally the term referred only to muskets that had been produced as a smoothbore
Smoothbore
A smoothbore weapon is one which has a barrel without rifling. Smoothbores range from handheld firearms to powerful tank guns and large artillery mortars.-History of firearms and rifling:...
weapon and later had their barrels rifled
Rifling
Rifling is the process of making helical grooves in the barrel of a gun or firearm, which imparts a spin to a projectile around its long axis...
. The term was later extended to include rifles that directly replaced, and were of the same design overall, as a particular model smooth bore musket.
History and development
In the early 19th century, there were rifleRifle
A rifle is a firearm designed to be fired from the shoulder, with a barrel that has a helical groove or pattern of grooves cut into the barrel walls. The raised areas of the rifling are called "lands," which make contact with the projectile , imparting spin around an axis corresponding to the...
s, and there were musket
Musket
A musket is a muzzle-loaded, smooth bore long gun, fired from the shoulder. Muskets were designed for use by infantry. A soldier armed with a musket had the designation musketman or musketeer....
s. Muskets were smooth bore weapons, firing round balls or buck and ball
Buck and ball
Buck and ball was a common load for muzzle-loading muskets, and was very commonly used into the early days of the American Civil War. The load consisted of a .69 caliber round lead musket ball combined with three buckshot pellets.-Construction:...
ammunition. Rifles were typically similar weapons, using the same type of flintlock
Flintlock
Flintlock is the general term for any firearm based on the flintlock mechanism. The term may also apply to the mechanism itself. Introduced at the beginning of the 17th century, the flintlock rapidly replaced earlier firearm-ignition technologies, such as the doglock, matchlock and wheellock...
or caplock firing mechanisms that muskets used. A rifle differed from a musket in that its barrel was rifled, which meant that it had grooves cut into the interior wall of the barrel which would cause the bullet to spin as it left the barrel. The term "rifled musket" therefore seems contradictory, but this term does in fact refer to a specific type of weapon.
Rifles had the advantage of long range accuracy, due to the spin imparted by the rifling. Muskets had the advantage of a faster rate of fire. In order for rifling to be effective, the bullet had to fit snugly into the barrel. Fouling, caused by normal firing of the weapon, would make it more and more difficult to load a bullet into a muzzle loaded rifle. This was not a problem for hunters, but for military use the slower rate of fire was significant.
Although outwardly similar, the way they were used in battle was quite different. Muskets had two functions. As firearms they delivered volleys of close range fire in close ranks. With fixed bayonets they acted as pike
Pike (weapon)
A pike is a pole weapon, a very long thrusting spear used extensively by infantry both for attacks on enemy foot soldiers and as a counter-measure against cavalry assaults. Unlike many similar weapons, the pike is not intended to be thrown. Pikes were used regularly in European warfare from the...
s, and were used in battle much like the pikes that they replaced, using formidable line and square formations. Bayonets today tend to be last ditch weapons, but in musket fighting the bayonet played a much more significant role, accounting for roughly a third of all battlefield casualties during Napoleonic and U.S. Revolutionary War times. Bayonets were so effective on the battlefield that often the threat of bayonets was enough to cause an enemy to turn and run. Since they were used as pikes, muskets tended to be fairly long and heavy weapons. They tended to be about four to six feet in length (six to eight feet including the bayonet), with a weight of around 10 to 12 lbs, as longer and heavier weapons were found to be too unwieldy. The length of a musket also allowed them to be fired by rank, with no fear that the men in the rear ranks would accidentally shoot the men in front ranks in the back of the head. Muskets six feet in length could be fired in three ranks without fear of accidents.
The relative inaccuracy of the musket was not considered to be significant on the battlefield, because smoke from the black powder used at the time quickly obscured the battlefield and rendered the longer range of the rifle useless. Rifles were not even used by some armies, such as Napoleon’s. Where they were used they were typically issued to small units of riflemen trained not to fight in close ranks, but as sharpshooters
Marksman
A marksman is a person who is skilled in precision, or a sharpshooter shooting, using projectile weapons, such as with a rifle but most commonly with a sniper rifle, to shoot at long range targets...
. Since they weren’t fired over other men’s shoulders military rifles could be much shorter than muskets, which made for a handier weapon and also meant that the tight-fitting balls didn’t have too long a distance to be rammed down the barrel.
Minié ball
The Minié ball is a type of muzzle-loading spin-stabilising rifle bullet named after its co-developer, Claude-Étienne Minié, inventor of the Minié rifle...
, which had been invented in the 1840s by French inventor Claude-Étienne Minié. Despite its name, the Minié ball was not a round ball at all. It was bullet shaped, and had an expanding skirt. The skirt allowed the minié ball to be smaller than the barrel's bore, and since the skirt expanded when the weapon was fired, it still made a tight fit against the sides of the barrel, which caused less energy to be wasted in blow-by around the ball and also insured that the grooves and lands of the rifling would impart a stabilizing spin to the minié ball.
In the 1840s and 1850s, many smooth bore muskets had their barrels rifled so that they could fire the new Minié ball. These "rifled muskets" or "rifle muskets" combined the advantages of rifles and muskets. They were long enough to serve the function of muskets in close formations of line and square, they were as quick to load as the old muskets and as easy to use with a minimum of training. Yet the Minié-type
Minié rifle
The Minié rifle was an important rifle in the 19th century, developed in 1849 following the invention of the Minié ball in 1847 by the French Army captains Claude-Étienne Minié of the Chasseurs d'Orléans and Henri-Gustave Delvigne. The rifle was designed to allow rapid muzzle loading of rifles, an...
rifled muskets were much more accurate than smooth bore muskets. The loose fitting ball in a smooth bore musket was only accurate to about 50 or 75 yards. Rifled muskets increased the effective range to about 200 or 300 yards, and a rifled musket could often hit a man sized target up to 500 yards away. This potential accuracy, however, required skills only acquired through training and practice; a rifle-musket in the hands of a raw recruit would not have performed very much better than a smoothbore.
In the 1850s and 1860s, new weapons produced with rifled barrels continued to be referred to as "rifled muskets" or "rifle-muskets" even though they had not originally been produced as smooth bore weapons. The term was only used for weapons that directly replaced smooth bore muskets. For example, the Springfield Model 1861 with its typical musket style lock mechanism and long barrel length was called a "rifled musket". In contrast, the Model 1860 Henry Rifle produced in the same time period did not replace a musket and did not have other musket-like characteristics, and was just referred to as a "rifle".
In the late 1860s, rifled muskets were replaced by breech loading rifles. Weapons like the Springfield Model 1868
Springfield Model 1868
The Springfield Model 1868 was one of several model "trapdoor Springfields", which used the trapdoor breechblock design developed by Erskine S. Allin. Originally, the trapdoor Springfields were created to convert Model 1863 Springfield rifled muskets to breech loading rifles at a relatively low cost...
were produced by simply changing out the lock mechanism of a rifled musket. However, once this change was made, the weapon was no longer referred to as a rifled-musket and was instead referred to as simply a "rifle".
Characteristics of rifled muskets
Originally, rifled muskets were smooth bore muskets whose barrels were later rifled. In the 1850s and 1860s the term "rifled musket" continued to be used even when the weapon was completely redesigned and was not just a modification to an existing smooth bore musket. In general, rifled muskets were the same length as the smooth bore muskets they replaced. This meant that they typically had about a 40-inch barrel and an overall length of about 55 to 60 inches. The first rifled muskets, having originally been smooth bore weapons like the Model 1842 Musket, which were typically .69 caliber weapons, though smaller caliber weapons were sometimes modified as well. Later rifled muskets tended to be of smaller caliber, like the .58 caliber U.S. Springfield Model 1855Springfield Model 1855
The Model 1855 Springfield was a rifled musket used in the mid 19th century. It was produced by the Springfield Armory in Massachusetts.Earlier muskets had mostly been smooth bore flintlocks. In the 1840s, the unreliable flintlocks had been replaced by much more reliable and weather resistant...
or the .577 caliber British Pattern 1853 Enfield
Pattern 1853 Enfield
The Enfield Pattern 1853 Rifle-Musket was a .577 calibre Minié-type muzzle-loading rifle-musket, used by the British Empire from 1853 to 1867, after which many Enfield 1853 Rifle-Muskets were converted to the cartridge-loaded Snider-Enfield rifle.-History &...
. Tests conducted by the U.S. Army in the 1840s and 1850s showed that the smaller caliber was more accurate at a distance. The conical shape of the Minié ball also meant that the smaller .58 caliber Minié ball had roughly the same amount of lead and weight as the larger .69 round ball. While the caliber was reduced, the overall length of the barrel was not. Shorter rifles could have easily been made (and often were made) that would have been more accurate than the smooth bore muskets they replaced, but military commanders still used tactics like firing by ranks, and feared that with a shorter weapon the soldiers in the rear ranks might accidentally shoot the front rank soldiers in the back of the head. Military commanders at the time also believed that bayonet fighting would continue to be important in musket battles, which also influenced the decision to keep the overall length of the weapon similar to the length of a pike.
Some weapons were produced in a longer "rifled musket" version and a shorter "rifle" version, such as the Springfield Model 1855. The rifled musket version had a 40-inch barrel and an overall length of 56 inches. The rifle version had a 33-inch barrel and an overall length of 49 inches. In the British forces the distinction was retained between the full-length muskets of the infantry as a whole and the short handy weapons of specialist rifle regiments and marines for whom a shorter version of the Enfield was produced. The long version had the barrel held to the stock by three metal bands, the shorter needed just two, so they are referred to as “3-band” and “2-band” Enfields respectively.
Rifled muskets typically used percussion lock systems, with some exceptions like the Springfield Model 1855 which used the Maynard tape primer
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 weather...
system.
Since rifled muskets were meant as a direct replacement for smooth bore muskets, they were fitted with bayonets. Their designers envisioned that they would be used in battle much like the bayonets on older smooth bore muskets. However, in practice, the longer range of the rifled musket and changes in tactics rendered the bayonet almost obsolete. During the U.S. Civil War, bayonets accounted for less than one percent of battlefield casualties. This was a significant change from the days of smooth bore muskets, when bayonets accounted for roughly a third of all battlefield casualties.
The term "rifled musket" was only used for weapons that directly replaced a smooth bore musket. For example, the Model 1855 and Model 1861 Springfield rifled muskets were direct successors to the Model 1842 smooth bore musket, and were therefore referred to as rifled muskets. Rifles that were not a direct replacement for an existing smooth bore musket were not referred to as rifled muskets, even though they had similar mechanical characteristics such as a percussion lock and a long rifled barrel.
Rifled muskets, like smooth bore muskets, were always muzzle loaded. Black powder was first placed into the barrel. Unlike smooth bore muskets, which required a wad to be inserted, the Minié ball did not require wadding. The lead Minié ball was greased and inserted into the barrel directly on top of the black powder. A ramrod was used to fully seat the round.
In military use, loading was simplified somewhat through the use of "cartridges". These were significantly different than modern rifle cartridges. They typically consisted of rolled up tubes of paper that contained a pre-measured amount of black powder and a greased Minié ball. Unlike a modern cartridge, the entire cartridge was not simply shoved into the weapon. Instead, the paper was torn open (typically by the musketeer's teeth), the powder was poured into the barrel, the Minié ball was placed into the barrel, and the paper was discarded. Also differing from a modern cartridge, a separate percussion cap had to be placed onto the percussion lock's cone before the weapon could be used. The Maynard Primer system attempted to speed up this last step by using paper strips like a modern toy cap gun in place of the percussion cap, but this proved unreliable and was not used on many rifled muskets.
Use in battle
Rifled muskets were heavily used in the American Civil WarAmerican Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
. The American-made Springfield Model 1861
Springfield Model 1861
The Springfield Model 1861 was a Minié-type rifled musket shoulder arm used by the United States Army and Marine Corps during the American Civil War. Commonly referred to as the "Springfield" , it was the most widely used U.S...
was the most widely used weapon in the war, and the British Pattern 1853 Enfield
Pattern 1853 Enfield
The Enfield Pattern 1853 Rifle-Musket was a .577 calibre Minié-type muzzle-loading rifle-musket, used by the British Empire from 1853 to 1867, after which many Enfield 1853 Rifle-Muskets were converted to the cartridge-loaded Snider-Enfield rifle.-History &...
was the second most widely used.
The British
British Empire
The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...
Enfield was also used in the Crimean War
Crimean War
The Crimean War was a conflict fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the French Empire, the British Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Sardinia. The war was part of a long-running contest between the major European powers for influence over territories of the declining...
where its greater range gave it great success against the much shorter ranged Russian
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
smoothbore muskets.
The rifled muskets were not always successful on the battlefield, however. In the Italian War of 1859
Second Italian War of Independence
The Second War of Italian Independence, Franco-Austrian War, Austro-Sardinian War, or Austro-Piedmontese War , was fought by Napoleon III of France and the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia against the Austrian Empire in 1859...
, French
Second French Empire
The Second French Empire or French Empire was the Imperial Bonapartist regime of Napoleon III from 1852 to 1870, between the Second Republic and the Third Republic, in France.-Rule of Napoleon III:...
forces defeated Austrian
Austrian Empire
The Austrian Empire was a modern era successor empire, which was centered on what is today's Austria and which officially lasted from 1804 to 1867. It was followed by the Empire of Austria-Hungary, whose proclamation was a diplomatic move that elevated Hungary's status within the Austrian Empire...
rifled muskets by aggressive skirmishing and rapid bayonet assaults at close range.