Rifled Flintlocks

[hobbler]

Does anyone know of a research source for what rifled flintlocks were used during the war? All know that some flintlocks were used. And, quite a few flintlock smoothbores that had been converted to percussion.
So, what about rifled flintlocks?

[Southron Sr.]

I think a little research would verify that some U.S. flintlock Common Rifles and flintlock Hall Rifles were issued in the early years of the war.

[Jim Leinicke 7368V]

I have read that based on the numbers of flints issued, some 40% of arms at Shiloh were flintlocks, and a memior by one Confederate officer (Stanley, of Stanley and Livingstone fame) speaks of going among his men on the eve of battle showing them how to adjust their flints. My own kin are pictured on the eve of 1st Manassas carrying flintlock muskets, and I have read a manuscript memior by a Virginia soldier in which he discusses the men of his company paying a country blacksmith near Romney to percussion their Brown Bess flintlocks during an early lull in the Valley fighting. Certainly flintlocks saw a lot of early usage.

As for rifles, I know that my own state of Illinois listed numbers of unaltered Deringer (Model 1817) and Harpers Ferry (Model 1803) rifles in its state armory in 1861, and everything was at least initially issued out to volunteers. I find no documentary evidence that any of these ultimately left training camps, but in 1861 almost anything was possible. This would be an interesting area of research, as there were large numbers of both of these rifle types in state armories at the beginning of the war.

[Don Dixon]

At this point, I can only comment about the issue of flint rifles by the Commonwealth of Virginia. Between April 1 and June 13, 1861, the main state arsenal in Richmond issued thousands of arms, many of them in flint, to Virginia and Confederate forces. Among these arms, Virginia issued at least 197 flint rifles. The Virginia, U.S. and Harper's Ferry rifles may have been flint.

127 flint rifles
70 U.S. flint rifles
109 Virginia rifles
33 U.S. rifles
628 Harper’s Ferry rifles

Unfortunately, Governor Letcher's message to the succession convention documenting the issues is much less than clear about the models of the weapons issued during this period.

One of the issues was "700 English flint muskets." Were these Brown Bess muskets left over from the Revolutionary War?

Regards,
Don Dixon
2881V

[Don Dixon]

Additional information on the issue of flintlock rifles by the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Between April 22 and May 20, 1861, the Lexington Arsenal at Virginia Military Institute (VMI) issued 860 flintlock rifles to Virginia and Confederate forces. After these issues, 50 flintlock rifles remained in inventory. The model desginations are not specified in the VMI archives. The location of the arsenal at VMI made the Institute a legitimate military target, fully justifying Major General David Hunter’s burning most of the Institute’s buildings on June 12, 1864.

Regards,
Don Dixon
2881V

[Johan Steele]

A Company of the 4th MN VI carried M1817's (whether or not all were percussion conversions I don't know but some were.) The M1817, Hall all were good armsand were certainly issued at some point or another.