Importance of the Enfield

Long Enfields of .577 and .58 caliber were issued to United States troops interchangeably with the Springfield rifle musket. In the same squad one might find M1855 Rifled Muskets with M1859 patchboxes, 1855 or 1861 types, long Enfields, and perhaps a special model from Colt, Lamson, or Amoskeag.

Volunteers by the spring of 1863 were being issued Enfields and Springfields, all new from the armory or contract shops. Enfields continued to be important in the issues to troops, in spite of the decline in purchases and import contracts after 1863. Oddly, almost none seem to have ever bom any mark indicating Enfield Royal Small Arms Factory origin—most were Birmingham; a few were London contractor guns, or those from the London Armoury Company.
Turning out these and more guns for the belligerents of the American War brought prosperity to Birmingham. Even London-marked guns shared their honors with the Midlands city, since so many of the barrels, including those proved in London, were made in Birmingham.
“The high-water mark was reached during the American Civil War,” writes Clive Harris in History of the Proof House, “when in 1861 over 700,000 arms were exported, and the incomes of some of the skilled workers rose to fabulous figures.
“Some astounding stories of these earnings are related by the ‘old timers.’ £20 a week was considered commonplace (average wage maximum before the War was about £3 weekly.) In some instances barrelmakers had earned as much as £50 in a single week . . . This sudden stimulus given to the trade by the American Civil War led to much profligacy among the Birmingham gun trade workers. Stories are common of these men bombastically lighting expensive cigars with £5 notes in public-houses. None would consider paying less than 2s. 6d. for a cigar—and this at a time when the average price of tobacco was about lVid. an ounce!
“One of the local men (who could have as easily walked), an expert percussioner, invariably came to work on horseback, stabling his horse in Whittal Street. Most of the workers, however, travelled to and from their work in hansom cabs; and it is related of one (for whose custom two cabbies had fallen out) that he engaged both by boarding the cab of the first, and, tossing his hat into that of the second, instructed

Warlike quartet of Yankee nicotine addicts relaxes in camp of New York Zouaves by leaning on their Long Enfields. Guns are M1853, having spring-fastened bands, snap caps, long slings for shoulder carry, and brass-end muzzle stoppers or tompions to keep out morning dews. Some soldiers kept mountain dew in barrels, removing stopper to quaff a snort. Revolver in belt is .31 Pocket Colt, type of 1849, a favorite with men at the front as on the frontier.

the driver to follow to the Gunmaker’s Arms, where great carousals nightly took place.”

During 1861-64, North and South were Birming- ham’s best customers. Finished guns were exported. Minor elements in its trading pattern were gun parts, particularly locks and barrels. The Liege, Belgium, trade worked with Birmingham to supply arms to Americans.
Enfields were delivered by many firms, mostly importers in New York. Unlike some who ran around the comer to Herman Boker & Company to fill their contracts for French or German guns, the Enfield importers almost all had their direct agents in the Birmingham or London trades. Holt and Owen stopped or disallowed a number of the early contracts and more blatant speculators, but the delivery of Enfields reached a peak, not in the first years of the War, but in 1863.
Buckley & Company, New York, delivered dribs and drabs of Enfields, 1,160 in all, at prices from $12.64% to $22.32, as a result of open purchase between December 24, 1862 and May 28, 1863. Samuel Bulkley & Company, also New York, delivered on November 13, 1861 “660 long English rifles,” presumably Enfields, with angular bayonets, at $22.50. An ad- ditional 160 were turned over to the New York Ordnance office at $15 to $20. W. V. Barkalow contracted on November 2, 1862, and did deliver in all, 8,000 long Enfields at $20. Brown Brothers &Company started out selling short Enfields in August 1862 but the Government’s preference was for long rifles, which they delivered after February 3, 1863, all caliber .577. Boker of course sold Enfields; his dealings are more fully dealt with elsewhere. Bailey & Company of Philadelphia sold 260 Enfields minus cones—fitting the wrong-thread U. S. musket nipples into these arms must have given Billy Yank quite a headache when they popped out and snapped off the hammers.
Colt delivered a number of Enfields to the United States and sold more to state governments. While Potts & Hunt is characterized by Albaugh as “probably con- federate,” Colt was a contractor with Potts & Hunt and more likely the Potts & Hunt Enfields in the Civil War came to the North through Colt. The “Inman line of propeller steamships,” on which line Hartley was in- structed to ship his purchased guns, got into the great money musket scramble. Between August 13, 1862, and January 29, 1863, E. Cunard imported and de- livered 8,980 long Enfields at prices from $13.75 to $23.44. Cooper & Pond, New York, after deliveries of “Beals” revolvers, possibly either Remingtons or Whitneys, sold 1,740 long Enfields to the United States between December 5, 1862 and June 30, 1863. But one of the most enigmatic listings which deserves more research is the purchase of 200 long Enfield rifles in bond at $14.62% from B. J. Calisher “of New York.”
B. J. Calisher and William Terry, English gunsmith and inventor, perfected a capping breech-loading rifle that was tested in 1858 in England for ship’s use and found effective. While J. H. Walsh (“Stonehenge”) disapproved of the principle of breech operation, a notice by Terry spoke of trials by “authorities at Enfield, Hythe, and Woolwich, and it appears to have undergone the severest test with complete success.”
Behind the hammer, which is mounted on a lockplate of conventional Enfield form, lies a hinged bar, under spring tension to remain flat against the rear part of the barrel which is extended rather far back over the small of the stock. Unfolding this bar makes it into a torque arm, the end of which is attached to a breech bolt. The breech bolt on its rear end has two locking lugs; at the front, it passes a loading port into which the special Terry patent tallow wad lubricated cartridge is placed. Dropping a cartridge into the load- ing port, shoving the bolt home, and rotating the hinged handle 90°, then folding it flat alongside and placing a cap on the nipple, completed the loading operation. The cartridge was self-consuming, and was ignited in the middle by cap flash. This left the wad in the back, to be pushed forward by the bullet of the next round, thus giving ample lubrication each discharge.
Army test guns were caliber .577, rifled Enfield style, with three grooves but a faster twist, once in four feet while in 1859 the Enfield twist was once in 6Vi feet. Unfortunately for Calisher, who must have had some money invested in Terry’s design, a similar but perhaps a simpler breechloader by Westley Richards was adopted and issued in 1861 for trials in England. With military sales dim for Calisher & Terry, Mr. Calisher’s presence in New York may be accounted for by his desire to sell what rifles he had on hand to the United States. With transoceanic passage at the time costing about $100 to $150 one way, it is pos- sible that the speculation of bringing 200 of his own rifles over and selling them, without payment of duty, at the figure of $14.62%, would have been attractive to him. Whether they were simply common Enfields, or were of the Terry patent, is not specifically revealed. In view of the grandiose claims by gun dealers of the present times for the Calisher & Terry as a “Confederate” arm merely because Jeb Stuart and Jeff Davis each owned one, the sale of Calisher should be considered carefully as showing a Yankee sympathy, or at least a sympathy on the part of Calisher for the Yankee dollar. Terry carbines were issued to New Zealand Constabulary in quantity.
Jeb Stuart’s “Terry carbine” (most references of the time are to Terry, not Calisher) was marked “Thomas Blisset, Liverpool.” Whether Blisset finished it or merely bought it from Calisher’s factory has not been determined. But Stuart, who was the official Con- federate States cavalry carbine tester, having a “Terry,” can hardly be construed as indicating that the Calisher & Terry Carbines were in any way a Confederate issue piece. Whether Calisher’s “long Enfields” were Terry patent or simply common rifle muskets is not now known. That Calisher sold to the Union is a matter of record.
Deliveries from the following New York firms and individuals consisted of Enfield rifles or carbines: E. W.
Canning, Durrie & Rusher, Goddard & Brother, and
C. K. Garrison.
Garrison after the War insisted he knew nothing about guns, that he would rather do almost anything than “ship batteries of cannon.” In 1861 he knew enough to charge $27 each, and deliver 2,800 Enfield muskets on November 20; his delivery of 3,200 Enfields on December 11, 1861, at $27 was reduced to $20 and paid for at that rate.
John Gill, John Hoey, and Howland & Aspinwall— all of New York—offered to deliver 17,000 Enfield long rifles at $19 “of the best English manufacture,” in bond, at the rate of not less than 2,000 a month. Just 8,000 had been delivered by the time Holt and Owen reviewed the case, and they decided because of apparent failure to complete the contract, that future purchases should be made in open market, at prices prevailing, consistent with the needs of the service. But unknown to them, additional guns had been of- fered and accepted by Ripley; and a letter had been sent by Ripley saying they could deliver as soon as possible, “thus virtually renewing the order,” and
meaning that no decision of the Commissioners was required on the case. Purchases at market rates seemed to be the rule, after a big lot of 9,040 were delivered April, 1862, and during the next months to May of 1863, Howland & Aspinwall sold in bunches from 100 to thousands at prices ranging upward from $12.64%. For example, 100 were delivered on May 4, 1863, that must have been positive knockouts for some reason. They were supremely excellent, for they were bought in the open market at the fantastically high price (for the time) of $25.07% each.
Howland & Aspinwall also sold 92 LeFaucheux revolvers at $22 each, 50 “carbines” of undisclosed nature at $22.50, 1 “naval rifle” $24.50, 1 French carbine $15, and 1 Whitney rifle, possibly the “Enfield” type, at $10.50.
Samuel Haskell sold 420 long Enfield rifles $27.50 each. Marcellus Hartley bought and shipped, between August 13, 1862 and December 18, 1862, 6,500 interchangeable Enfield muskets at an average price of $14.91 and 103,924 Enfield rifle muskets at $12.04.
H. J. Ibbotson sold 2,137 long Enfield rifles on May

Many Enfield-type arms were obtained by the North as a second-line rifle. In this plate only No. 14 is post-War, a Snider breechloading M1866 conversion. Item 3 is a Tower Minie rifle M1851, while Item 13 is same pattern by Barnett of London but does not have long range rear sight. No. 4 is 1862 Tower gun but there is no VR under lockplate crown, and vendor’s name W. E. Brown, Gloucester, is engraved on edge of lockplate. Brown evidently fitted special bayonet stud with short guide rib, differing from regular two-band export Tower 1861 rifle No. 5. Item 10 is No. 1 machine-made London Armoury long Enfield stamped 1862 L.A.Co. on lock, and seal of firm on stock. Gun is possibly one of initial contract made by Mc-Farland for State of Massachusetts. No. 11 is early flintlock Tower-marked trade musket sold by Birmingham smiths after percussioning at inflated prices to Yankee buyers.

Many Enfield-type arms were obtained by the North as a second-line rifle. In this plate only No. 14 is post-War, a Snider breechloading M1866 conversion. Item 3 is a Tower Minie rifle M1851, while Item 13 is same pattern by Barnett of London but does not have long range rear sight. No. 4 is 1862 Tower gun but there is no VR under lockplate crown, and vendor’s name W. E. Brown, Gloucester, is engraved on edge of lockplate. Brown evidently fitted special bayonet stud with short guide rib, differing from regular two-band export Tower 1861 rifle No. 5. Item 10 is No. 1 machine-made London Armoury long Enfield stamped 1862 L.A.Co. on lock, and seal of firm on stock. Gun is possibly one of initial contract made by Mc-Farland for State of Massachusetts. No. 11 is early flintlock Tower-marked trade musket sold by Birmingham smiths after percussioning at inflated prices to Yankee buyers.

Alleged breechloading Civil War rifles are (top) Westley Richards M1860, .450 Whitworth caliber, with bayonet stud on front band; Wilson’s sea-service or sergeant’s rifle with bayonet stud on barrel, and, bottom, “Breechloading Gun Co.” .577 Leetch patent short rifle with side-swing block. Bayonet stud resembles that for Sharps, Spencer rifles.

5, 1862. Richard Irwin & Company, New York, sold 1,020 Enfields, August-September 1862.
Philip S. Justice may seem to have had a rough deal (see Chapter 7) but it was a case of what he made on the peanuts he lost on the dam’ banan’. Defraying his losses on the special models of rifles and muskets he made for the United States, were his sales of Enfield imported rifles and muskets at top prices, almost all above $20, many including short rifles at $27.50. He was also a major commercial source for Whitney’s revolvers at retail prices which somehow the United States seemed unable to obtain directly from the old patriot’s factory until later in the War.
Charles W. D. Jefferys, New York, sold 1,920 long Enfield rifles, caliber .577, on August 5, 1862, at $15.52!/2 each.
J. Kirkpatrick, New York, sold 80 long Enfields, at about $16, on September 12, 1862.
J. B. Kinsman on January 2 and 13, 1862, delivered a total of 200 “breech-loading rifles” at $40 each. The exact nature of these arms is not known; however, we think it possible these were the rifles of James S. Leetch, patented in England September 23, 1853. Certain “facts” exist in the foregoing descrip- tion of arms. First, they were probably not of conti- nental make, for Major Hagner or Captain Crispin would never (to judge from their evidenced attitude) have paid $40 for a French, Belgian, or German breechloader. Second, they were not long rifle or rifle muskets, but simply “rifles,” which pretty definitely requires, in the parlance of the time, that they be of rifle length, i.e., about a 33-inch barrel. That they had military usefulness is without saying, from the
very high price. To be worth that, they were probably standard caliber. That they were mechanically operated and of a certain standard of finish and excellence, is attested to by the price of $40—in the purchasing of- ficer’s eyes they must have been about the equal of a Sharps rifle bought in open market. Had they been American—Smith’s, Burnside, etc.—it would be stated. Since the great probability is that they were English, of the Enfield short rifle form and .577 caliber, and worth $40, it is reasonable to seek among Enfield-like breech-loading arms in a hope of finding some hint of what they might have been, these elusive and rare 200 “breech-loading rifles.”