The Enfield in the Civil War

Geoff Walden

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"To Blue, or Not to Blue ..."

Images of Civil War Soldiers with Blued Enfields

 

  The following tables list published period images of Civil War soldiers holding Enfield arms that appear to retain their blued finish on the barrel.  Some of these show finishes that appear a shiny black, as when the musket was newly issued.  Others show finishes that are somewhat vague, but that are clearly dark, not polished bright.  As per examination of hundreds of originals, it is assumed the finishes shown here were the standard period rust bluing.  In some of these cases, judgment of the finish is based on comparison of the upper part of the barrel to the finish on the rammer and/or nosecap.  In cases where only the dark bayonet socket can be seen contrasting with the bright blade, it is assumed the barrel was similarly blued.  (See the section on period photo analysis on the main page.)

 

Federals with Blued Enfields

92nd Ill. Inf., ca. Sept. 1862 - Voices of the Civil War - Soldier Life (Richomd, VA: Time-Life Books, 1996), p. 85

9th Ind. Inf. - This is a company image ca. 1863, showing Western Federal infantry with mixed Springfields and Enfields.  The Springfields in the company outnumber the Enfields, but all of the Enfields except one clearly have a darker finish when compared to the Springfields of the men standing adjacent.  William C. Davis, ed., The Image of War, Vol. 5 (Garden City, NY, 1983), p. 39.

19th Iowa Inf. - Military Images, Vol. 15, No. 1, Nov-Dec 1993, p. 29

19th Iowa Inf. - America's Civil War, Vol. 7, No. 2, May 1994, p. 31

Maine Inf. - William G. Gavin, Accoutrement Plates, North and South (York, PA: Geo. Shumway, 1975 ed.), p. 345

18th NY Inf. - Gavin, p. 337

23rd NY inf. - William C. Davis, ed., The Image of War, Vol. 1 (Garden City, NY, 1981), p. 159

31st Ohio Inf. - Civil War Times Illustrated, Sep-Oct 1993, p. 90 (very blued)

103rd Ohio Inf. - Digbey G. Seymour, Divided Loyalties (Knoxville: East Tenn. Hist. Soc., 2^nd Ed., 1982), p. 105

149th Pa. Inf. - Military Images, Vol. 15, No. 2, Sep-Oct 1993, p. 7

2nd Vt. Inf. - Emil and Ruth Rosenblatt, eds., Hard Marching Every Day (Lawrence, KS: Univ. Press of Kansas, 1992), dust jacket cover and frontispiece

U.S.C.T. - Image of War, Vol. 3 (1982), p. 233

Unk. US - William C. Davis, Touched By Fire, Vol. 2 (Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1986), p. 172

Unk. US - Gavin, p. 347 (very blued)

Unk. US - Goldberg Textile Co. catalog, 1996

Unk. US - Philip Katcher, The Civil War Source Book (NY: Facts on File, 1992), p. 78

Unk. US - Time-Life Books, Echoes of Glory, Federal volume (cover) (very blued)

 

Confederates with Blued Enfields

31st Ala. Inf., ca. 1863 - Michael A. Grissom, When the South Was Southern (Gretna, LA: Pelican Pub. Co., 1994), p. 122

Alabama (unit unidentified)  - Still More Confederate Faces, p. 156; also Military Images, Vol. 12, No. 4, Jan. 1991, p. 16)

3^rd Ga. Inf. - Rod Gragg, The Illustrated Confederate Reader (NY: Harper & Row, 1989), p. 7 (also Military Images, Vol. 14, No. 1, Jul-Aug 1992, p. 14)

4th Ga. Inf. - soldier with a 2nd Model P53 (this is another widely-published image; for example, Confederate Calendar, November 1997; Military Images, Vol. 8, No. 3, Nov-Dec 1986, p. 7; Civil War Times Illustrated, Vol. 29, No. 5, Nov-Dec 1990, p. 56; Ron Field, American Civil War, Confederate Army (London: Brassey's, 1996), p. 44)

46th Ga. Inf. - D.A. Serrano, Still More Confederate Faces (NY: The Metropolitan Co., 1992), p. 83 (very blued)

48th Ga. Inf. - Military Images, Vol. 25, No. 4, Jan-Feb 1994, p. 18; also Confederate Veteran, May-June 1994, p. 8.

2nd NC Arty (36th NCST) - Confederate Calendar, May 1993

61st NCST - Military Images, Vol. 11, No. 3, Nov-Dec 1989, p. 24

5th Tx. Inf. - Felder brothers (this image has been published in lots of places; for example, Confederate Calendar, March 1988, and Military Images, Vol. 12, No. 4, Jan. 1991, p. 27)

Texas Infantry - Confederate Calendar, January 2000

13th Va. Inf. - Time-Life Books, Echoes of Glory, Confederate volume, p. 203

Unk. CS - CWTI, Vol. 16, No. 6, Oct. 1977, back cover (very blued)

Unk. CS - Wiley Sword, Firepower from Abroad (Lincoln, RI: Andrew Mowbray, 1986), pp. 8, 20, 30

Unk. CS (maybe Georgia) - Confederate Calendar, November 2000

 

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This page initially uploaded on:  27 February 2000 
This page last updated on:  22 January 2007

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