Springfield Model 1855

Springfield Model 1855
Public domain · source
Name	Springfield Model 1855
Caption	Springfield Model 1855 percussion rifle-musket
Type	Rifle-musket
Service	1856–1865
Used by	United States Army, Union Army, Confederate States Army
Wars	American Civil War, Bleeding Kansas
Designer	Eli Whitney Blake (improvement), Christian Sharps (contemporary influence)
Manufacturer	Springfield Armory
Produced	1855–1857
Number	~100,000
Caliber	.58 inch
Action	Percussion lock with Maynard tape primer (optional)
Feed	Muzzle-loaded
Sights	Rear sight, front sight

Springfield Model 1855 The Springfield Model 1855 was a .58 caliber rifled musket developed at Springfield Armory in the mid-1850s and issued to United States Army units during the late antebellum period and the early American Civil War. It combined rifled barrel technology with a long-range sighting arrangement and an experimental Maynard Tape Primer system offered alongside conventional percussion cap ignition, influencing small arms doctrine in the United States and shaping procurement debates in the run-up to the Civil War. The weapon saw service with both Union Army and Confederate States Army forces and contributed to discussions that involved figures such as John Brown sympathizers in Bleeding Kansas and ordnance officers at Watertown Arsenal.

Design and Development

Design work at Springfield Armory built on earlier rifling and patterning pioneered by innovators like Eli Whitney descendants and contemporaries including Samuel Colt and Christian Sharps, while procurement decisions involved the Ordnance Department staff in Washington, D.C.. Engineers at Springfield Armory adopted a tenon-style breech plug, a .58 caliber bore, and three-groove rifling influenced by experiments by John A. Dahlgren and testing regimes at Watertown Arsenal. The design incorporated a long-range ladder sight comparable to sights used on British-pattern muskets imported from Enfield makers and reflected ballistic studies referenced by Nathaniel Prentice Banks and ordnance inspectors such as Thomas Rodman. Political figures including Franklin Pierce and military administrators like Jefferson Davis influenced production priorities through appropriations and correspondence with armory superintendents.

The Model 1855’s most controversial development choice was the adoption of the Maynard Tape Primer system, patented by Edward Maynard, which ordnance committees and officers such as James Ripley and Alexander H. Bowman evaluated against the conventional percussion cap systems in use at Harper's Ferry and Arsenal sites. Trials documented in correspondence with the War Department and reports to Congress weighed factors such as reliability in field conditions encountered at Fort Sumter and frontier posts like Fort Leavenworth.

Technical Specifications

Specifications produced by Springfield Armory records show a .58 caliber bore with three-groove rifling over a 40-inch barrel dimension consistent with longarm doctrine advocated by officers like Winfield Scott and George B. McClellan. The lock mechanism used a percussion hammer compatible with removable Maynard Tape Primer disks as well as conventional caps employed by light infantry companies and artillery detachments commanded by officers such as Israel B. Richardson. Weight and balance followed patterns established by earlier models retained in depot inventories at Rock Island Arsenal and training grounds such as Fort Monroe. The stock layout, furniture, and bayonet mounting matched standards used by units under commanders including George Meade and inspectors like Joseph Holt.

Manufacturing tolerances and interchangeability practices instituted at Springfield Armory and paralleled at Harper's Ferry Armory reflected the industrial approaches promoted by Eli Whitney and later by machine-tool advocates in Massachusetts workshops associated with names like Lemuel Shattuck and firms supplying springs and screws to arsenals. The Model 1855’s sighting system included a ladder rear sight graduated for ranges endorsed in rifle trials summarized in examinations by Samuel P. Heintzelman.

Service History

The Model 1855 entered service with units in Bleeding Kansas disturbances and federal garrisons at Fort Sumner and Fort Moultrie before widespread issue during early Civil War mobilizations. Regiments raised in Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Illinois received the arm until production shifted to Springfield Model 1861 patterns advocated by ordnance chiefs after combat feedback from engagements such as the First Battle of Bull Run and siege operations at Fort Pickens. Capture and capture-reissue by Confederate forces placed many Model 1855 rifles into arsenals in Richmond, Montgomery, and makeshift workshops run by masters like John Mercer Brooke.

Field reports from brigade and regimental surgeons and quartermasters reached commanders including Irvin McDowell and George McClellan; those accounts influenced decisions at War Department procurement meetings and shaped transitions to percussion-only systems used by corps commanders in the Army of the Potomac. Units including the 1st Minnesota Volunteer Infantry and the 2nd Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry are documented as carrying Model 1855 arms during early war operations.

Ammunition and the Maynard Tape Primer

Ammunition practices for the Model 1855 used the .58 caliber Minie ball whose development involved figures like Claude-Étienne Minié and ordnance experiments in Europe reported to American inspectors. Cartridge preparation and rolling were managed by regimental supply officers and contractors in depots such as Springfield Depot and private firms connected to suppliers in Connecticut and Rhode Island. The Maynard Tape Primer—invented by Edward Maynard—was intended to speed priming in conditions criticized in after-action reports from First Battle of Bull Run and in field tests overseen by officers like Robert E. Lee prior to his Confederate commission. Practical use revealed vulnerability to moisture and dirt in campaigns such as operations around Yorktown and the Peninsula Campaign, leading many ordnance officers and unit commanders to revert to conventional percussion caps as advocated in memoranda to Secretary of War officials.

Variants and Modifications

Small-batch modifications at depots including Allegheny Arsenal and Arsenal de Richmond produced conversions, stock replacements, and bayonet fittings influenced by manufacturing practices at Harper's Ferry and by gunsmiths such as Josiah Gorgas in Confederate service. Some Model 1855 rifles were later altered to match the simplified lock and tangent-sight configuration of the Springfield Model 1861 during remount programs authorized by the Ordnance Department and overseen by inspectors like George D. Ramsay. Private contractors in New Jersey and Pennsylvania also produced spare parts and replacement furniture used by Zouave units and militia regiments raised under governors such as Andrew Curtin.

Collecting and Historical Significance

Collectors and historians consult armory records, ordnance correspondence, and museum holdings at institutions such as the National Museum of American History, the Smithsonian Institution, the Museum of the Confederacy, and the New-York Historical Society to authenticate original Model 1855 examples. Academics publishing in journals tied to West Point curricula and curators from Colonial Williamsburg and the American Battlefield Trust study surviving specimens to understand transitions from smoothbore muskets to rifled small arms described in works by historians like Drew Gilpin Faust and James M. McPherson. The Model 1855’s role in debates over industrial standardization and battlefield logistics links it to broader narratives involving Industrial Revolution actors and antebellum political crises such as Kansas–Nebraska Act controversies. As artifacts, Model 1855 rifles appear in private collections, auction catalogs handled by houses in New York City and Boston, and in preservation efforts led by organizations including the Civil War Trust and regional historical societies.

Category:Rifles of the United States