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CIVIL WAR ENFIELD BARREL BANDS
By Craig L Barry
By Craig L Barry
This is an example of the Baddeley Patent barrel band on a Pattern 1853 Enfield long rifle made at the Royal Small Arms Factory for the British Government. Note: British Broad Arrow and WD (War Department) marks. These were not widely found on Birmingham and London commercial P53 Enfield rifles used during the US Civil War.
One way to quickly tell the difference between the machine made, parts interchangeable British Ordnance Pattern 1853 Enfield long rifle made at Royal Small Arms Factory and a hand-made non-interchangeable version made by one of several hundred commercial gun-makers in London and Birmingham in the 1860s (which were used in the US Civil War), is to make note of the barrel bands. Most of the British Government guns made at Royal Small Arms beginning in 1862, as well as those made on contract by London Armoury Company for the Ordnance (formerly War) Department feature the so-called Baddeley Patent barrel bands. The bands were approved for use in mid-1861. The Baddeley Patent barrel bands are rounded, smooth-sided and feature smaller recessed screw heads. During the same early 1860s time period, the hand-made versions of the P-53 Enfield made on commercial contract almost always had what are known as “Palmer type” barrel bands which clasp at the bottom with larger exposed screw heads.
Who was Baddeley and how did he come to patent his improved design for barrel bands? John Fraser Loddington Baddeley was born in Ireland on August 10, 1825. He was the sixth child of Major John Baddeley, former Superintendent General of Barracks in Ireland. [1] At age fifteen, “Fraser” as he preferred to be called, attended the Military Academy at Woolwich and obtained his commission in the Royal Artillery at age seventeen. He volunteered for service in the Crimean War in 1854 where he was seriously injured at the Battle of Inkerman in November 1854. Shortly afterwards he was breveted to the rank of Major and appointed second officer of the Royal Powder Works (Waltham Abbey) where he remained for five years. While at Waltham Abbey, Baddeley wrote the famous “Pamphlet on the Manufacture of Gun Powder” (1857) which was highly regarded as a scientific treatise on what had been historically a trial and error process. It is still in print. When the Confederate Government built its own Powder Works at the Augusta (Georgia) Arsenal, they based their manufacturing processes on those described in the Baddelely/Waltham Abbey pamphlet of 1857. [2]
Major Fraser Baddeley left Waltham Abbey and became Assistant Superintendent at the Royal Small Arms Factory in 1860. [3] At the time, the Chief Engineer of the factory was the well-known American James Henry Burton, former Superintendent of Harpers Ferry Armory in Virginia and designer of the improved minie ball bearing his name. Baddeley was his new boss. Burton was obviously not pleased with this arrangement and he wrote, “I have been long enough in England and can now return (to America) satisfied with my experience here or rather dissatisfied as I cannot think that the British Government has behaved well toward me as I was led to expect…” [4] James Burton resigned from RSAF on September 6, 1860, and by November 8, 1860, he was back in Richmond employed at the Virginia Manufactory of Arms, later the CS Richmond Armory, where he was instrumental in creating the Confederate arms manufacturing program from scratch. [5]
In the meantime, Major Fraser Baddeley turned his attention to making some minor improvements into what was already the “state of the art” European military small arm of the day, the machine made Pattern 1853 Enfield long rifle. He noted that the barrel bands had exposed screw-heads which became snagged on the soldier’s uniform, leather belts and accoutrements while maneuvering the weapon. Baddeley designed a new type of barrel band with recessed screw heads to prevent this problem. According to the Patent Office, the following design changes were recorded:
1861, May 10.—N° 1190.
BADDELEY, John Fraser Loddington.—"Improvements in bands for rifles and other fire-arms."
Bands for attaching the barrel of a gun to the stock are made thick enough at the lower part to allow a connecting screw to be inserted in the band, without any projecting part being left to inconvenience the hand. The sharp edges of the ordinary lug are thereby avoided. [6]
The improved barrel band design which still bear Baddeley’s name were approved for use at Royal Small Arms Factory beginning in mid-1861. The British Ordnance Department announced the following changes:
“A new pattern for the lower and middle bands of rifles was approved on the 3rd June 1861. These are now made without projections for the screw, by which economy of manufacture is attained, and liability to injury of the soldiers' accoutrements is diminished. The new pattern bands are called ‘Baddeley's bands’ having been invented by Lt Col. Baddeley, R.A. [7]
These were not the first changes to the P53 Enfield long rifle which was a continually evolving design ever since the first models were produced on contract by four Birmingham gun-makers beginning in 1854. For example, soon after that in 1855, a re-design of the P53 Enfield utilized solid barrel bands with band springs with a swelled ramrod similar to the Civil War-era US Model rifle-muskets. We refer to this version today as the type II. In 1856, a two band Enfield short rifle was introduced. A few years later, the P53 Enfield long rifle design reverted back to screw held barrel bands of the Palmer type, progressive depth rifling and straight ramrods with a slot in the tip, which we now call the type III. Made by commercial gun-makers in Birmingham and London after 1858, this was by far the most common version used by both sides during the US Civil War.
Type II Enfield long rifle made in 1856 as part of the contract with the British Ordnance Department during the Crimean War. The solid barrel bands are held in place with band springs. These were in production until 1858. Image courtesy public domain.
At Royal Small Arms Factory the design evolution continued. The latest machine made type IV P53 Enfield long rifle (beginning in late 1861) was distinguished not only by the “Baddeley Patent” clamping barrel bands, but also by the rear sling swivel which is oval in shape rather than tri-angular. The only major commercial manufacturer to adopt the new Baddeley Patent band design was London Armoury Company. The obvious reason for this was that they were required to do so in order to fill their existing P53 Enfield long rifle contracts with the Ordnance Department. On their contract arms for the Union and CS, they still used the older Palmer bands until 1865.
A limited number---fifty or so---Whitworth and Kerr (LAC) small bore (.451) long range target rifles were imported to the Confederacy in 1863. These specialty rifles had Baddeley Patent bands. They were issued to elite Confederate marksmen assigned to Patrick Cleburne. With those few exceptions noted, the overwhelming majorities of P53 Enfield long rifle used in the US Civil War would not be found with the improved Baddeley Patent barrel bands. [8]
Fraser Baddeley’s tenure with RSAF was to be tragically short-lived. In February 1862 there was a minor diphtheria epidemic in London and Baddeley fell ill. In the early 1860s infectious diseases were a riddle, and little could be done to save him. He died within a week at age 36. Baddeley was buried with full military honors at Hereford Road Cemetery. [9] While not in wide use during the US Civil War, the barrel bands which bear his name were used for another twenty years afterwards on British Snider-Enfields and Martini-Henry rifles.
NOTES
1. Illustrated London News, Volume 40, p. 266. Article dated March 1, 1862
2. C.L. Bragg, Charles D. Ross, [et alia], Never for Want of Powder: The Confederate Powder Works at Augusta, Georgia, University of South Carolina Press (Columbia, SC) 2007, p.83-4.
3. Ibid, Illustrated London News Obituary
4. Thomas K. Tate, From Under Iron Eyelids: The Biography of James Henry Burton, Author House, (Bloomington, IN) 2006, p. 141. Underlining of the word dissatisfied was in Burton’s own hand.
5. Ibid Tate, p. 144
6. Patent Office, Patents for inventions. Abridgments of specifications 1858-1866, Spottiswoode & Eyre, (London) 1870 p. 160
7. Queen’s Revised Regulations for the Army and Annual Report on Arms Printed by Her Majesty’s Stationery Office (London), 1864, p. 38.
8. Craig L Barry, The Civil War Musket: A Handbook for History Accuracy, Watchdog Publishing (2011), p. 78. At least two reproduction arms makers used Baddeley Patent barrel bands for their version of the P53 Enfield: Parker Hale and Euroarms. Neither manufacturer is in the reproduction Civil War arms business at the present time. The Parker Hale is a quality reproduction otherwise, and in de-farbing my Birmingham made Parker Hale the Baddeley Patent barrel bands were replaced with original Palmer type bands.
9. James Forrest (ed), Minutes of the Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers Volume XXII, Published by the Institute (London), 1863, p. 123. See also: Grace’s Guide to British Industrial History, Obituary of John Fraser Loddington Baddeley (1825-1862).