Enfields Made in America

The Ml853 Enfield long rifle was first manufactured in the United States. In 1853 a revolution was in progress—a revolution in manufacturing. That same Major Anderson, who later was Southern agent in Birmingham was, at the time, master armorer of Enfield. This factory had existed for a number of years principally as a barrel mill and parts storehouse. The trouble leading up to the Crimean War suggested to the Crown the advisability of putting arms procurement more directly under control of the government, by expanding the Enfield establishment and introducing machinery and mass production. The example of the Colt factory in Pimlico, and the growth of machine tool firms like Naysmith, Whitworth, and others, showed that the time was right for mass production.

The “Enfield Commission” visited the Springfield Armory and toured the Yankee gun mills. Of particular interest to the British experts was the Robbins & Lawrence works in Windsor, Vermont. The Enfield Commissioners were following up an initial order for Enfields which the Robbins & Lawrence firm is said to have completed. No specimen of this contract, reported to have been 20,000 rifles, has come to the attention of the author, but it is believed to be the 1851 Tower Minie rifle.
This contract, it is thought, was completed, and the rifles delivered. The War in the Crimea does not record many uses of rifled British muskets, but a few of the new .577 Enfield type did get into service and when used, were very effective with their long range accuracy potential. Certainly when the Enfield Commission came to the United States, Robbins & Lawrence had every reason to expect some business. They were given another contract, this time for 25,000 rifles. The locks were marked Windsor, the crown, and 1856. Presumably these were the Ml853 long Enfield, with bands spring-fastened; a specimen in the author’s collection is a short sergeant’s rifle. They pushed ahead with the work and laid plans to turn out a further order of 300,000 rifles, but the order never materialized.
Robbins & Lawrence supplied machinery to the Enfield works in England. This was the source of their own collapse, since the Royal Small Arms Factory took over the job for the Crown, and Robbins & Lawrence did not have either the agents to promote nor the facilities to cheapen their work, to compete with the Birmingham and Liege trades. The month to six weeks minimum shipping delay alone cut them out of the European-Eastem-African market, and their interests were placed in bankruptcy and sold at auction to Lamson, Goodnough & Yale.
Other machine companies in New England contributed to the Enfield works. Operating by 1857, Enfield was turning out, by machinery, long rifles of excellent quality. They became the standard by which others were to be judged.