Unusual English Rifle

[Johan Steele]

A note from after the battle for Nashville.

"We found two old English rifles on dead skirmishers, they had ben converted from flint and were shorter than the Enfield. The bullets in the cartridge boxes were wrapped in a leather patch. They shot very true but were hard to load."

The writer goes on to describe other items taken from the dead, in particular mentioning that very few carried US made weapons. He mentions the "Austrian Springfield"... I believe this means the Lorenz but am not certain.

Anyone have any ideas what kind of rifle is being spoken of?

[1stMaine]

Re: Unusual English Rifle

Comrade,

IMHO, the author is probably describing a Baker Rifle. These were certaionly shorter than an Enfield, about the length of the M1841, and had a sword bayonet that also doubled as a short sword. The originals were made with flint locks, and were used by the famous 95th Rifles and the 60th, if my memory serves correctly.
See here: http://www.southessex.co.uk/ on the left of the page, select weapons, and then Baker Rifle.

respects,

[rebyank]

Re: Unusual English Rifle

Yep, Brit Baker Rifle

These were very lovely weapons, It's interesting to hear about that. Was this a federal or confederate acount?

[Johan Steele]

Re: Unusual English Rifle

THe author of the note was Union... Baker rifle, been around a while, I wonder what the men thought of them in comparison to an Enfield.

[justthemiller]

Re: Unusual English Rifle

Well,

What he could be talking about was a Brunswick Rifle which is basically an up-dated percussion version of a Baker Rifle. The Brunswick was issued to British Rifle battalions in the era just before the Crimean war and was used by them during that War by both sides (British & Russian). The ammunition used was basically a ball that was wrapped in a leather "washer" of sorts to aid in the ball grabbing onto the rifling of the barrel. It is interesting to find two of these in Confederate hands however.