Richmond rifle

Richmond rifle
Richmond rifle
	File:Richmond musket.jpg
Type	Rifled musket
Place of origin	USA
Service history
Used by	CSA
Wars	American Civil War
Production history
Designed	1861
Manufacturer	Richmond Armory
Produced	1861–1865
Specifications
Cartridge	.58 minie ball
Caliber	0.58
Action	percussion lock
Rate of fire	2–3 per minute
Muzzle velocity	1,000–1,200 feet per second
Effective firing range	0–600 yards
Feed system	muzzle

The Richmond rifle was a rifled musket produced by the Richmond Armory in Richmond, Virginia, for use by the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War.

History

At the start of the Civil War, the Confederacy suffered from a lack of resources with the capability to produce small arms weapons. In 1861, the Confederacy captured the Union-held town of Harper's Ferry in western Virginia, and in doing so, gained access to much needed machinery to produce small arms weapons. The equipment was dismantled and sent to armories or arsenals in the South, including the Richmond Armory.

The first Richmond rifles produced were Confederate-made copies of the Harpers Ferry-produced Model 1855 musket. Improvements were made in 1862 and 1863, paralleling the improvements that the Union made to their Springfield rifle-muskets.

Design and features

Because the Richmond rifles were produced using equipment seized at Harpers Ferry, the Richmond rifle retained many of the features of the Harpers Ferry rifles. They had a .58 caliber barrel, which was 40 inches long, and an overall length of 56 inches.

The locks for the Richmond rifles were produced using equipment that had been originally designed to produce Springfield Model 1855 rifle-muskets. As a result, even though the Richmond rifles did not use the troublesome Maynard primer system that had been featured on the Springfield Model 1855, the Richmond rifles did have the Model 1855's distinctive hump on the lockplate.

The Richmond rifles also differed from the Union rifles they were based on with a different rear sight, brass buttplate, and brass nosecap on the Confederate model.