Here's my next "old warhorse" installment

I had been looking for one of these for several years, and at the end of this past June, I snagged what I think is a pretty nice example in a live online auction out of South Carolina. According to the auction house, it came out of a collection belonging to a Greenville, S.C. family. Unfortunately, the auction house could not, or would not, provide any more information than that.

It’s a US model 1841 rifle designed to shoot a .54 caliber patched round ball—commonly referred to by collectors in the modern era as the “Mississippi” rifle. It measures 48.5 inches overall with a 33-inch long barrel. From 1846 until about 1855, around 25k of these were manufactured by the Harpers Ferry arsenal while another 60k or so were produced by various contract manufacturers such as Eli Whitney, Remington, Tryon, Robbins & Lawrence, and Palmetto. None on record were manufactured by the Springfield arsenal. My example was made by Robbins & Lawrence and has a lock date of 1848 which was the first year of their 5-year contract to produce 15k rifles. Due to the failure of the government to follow through on some contracts, some rifles produced by the various contract makers were subsequently sold to the public and these handy compact rifles became the perfect choice for many settlers headed west during this period.

While my rifle was probably made too late to have actually seen service in the Mexican war it did get issued to the military as evidenced by the inspector’s stamps. It was evidently well-taken care of and is in fairly good condition for a 170-year-old military-used rifle. Its bore is quite usable with well-defined shiny rifling. The lock is mechanically perfect so I do intend to shoot it once I can get a new nipple installed. Finding this in shooting condition was an unexpected bonus. There is a two-digit number stamped on the butt plate which is likely a rack number stamped by some state armory and used by the local militia. These would have come from the manufacturers with browned barrels and color case hardened lockplates. The rear area of the barrel protected by the stock still shows evidence of the original browning but otherwise, there is no original finish left---just a mottled gray color all over.


The M1841 was the first designed percussion muzzle-loading rifle to be used by the US military. With their bright brass furniture, they are considered by many to be one of--if not the most aesthetically pleasing, military long guns made. However, they were never intended to be issued as a main battle weapon so they had no provision to mount a bayonet. They instead were intended for well-trained specialty units such as skirmishers, scouts, and what were sometimes referred to as flanking units. During this same period, the main battle longarm of the US was the model 1816 flintlock smoothbore musket as previously posted. The military thinking at the time was still entrenched in the idea that since smoothbore muskets required less training and were faster to load, they would remain the main battle longarm. Massed volley fire over individual marksmanship was the order of the day for the general infantry.

Once the .58 caliber Minié ball was adopted in 1855 by the US military, many of the "Mississippi" rifles were reworked by re-boring and re-rifling to .58 cal along with adding improved sights and adding several systems to mount bayonets--mostly the overly heavy and unpopular brass handled saber types. Since the walls of the barrels on the M1841s were quite thick, this presented no safety issues.

Here's an example of one of the M1841s with a saber bayonet converted for the military by Colt firearms.



Many of the M1841s saw service in the ACW—both with the North and the South. My example escaped any of the later revisions and is still in its original configuration. Here's a close-up of the lock plate showing the Lawrence & Robbins stamp in the middle of the plate while just behind the hammer is the manufacture date of 1848 under Windsor, VT (Vermont).

Since this example has evidence of being issued to state militia but never converted, it’s very likely that it saw service in the ACW for the Confederacy. Many used by the South were never converted to .58 cal. They simply issued bullet molds for .54 cal Minie balls instead.


The original inspector's cartouche is still mostly intact on the side opposite of the lock plate. I posted this shot previously in the thread about the Springfield M1816 but to repeat---The Initials stand for William Anderson Thornton-Capt. U.S. Army, (1840-1866)


Here's a shot inside the patch box with an extra percussion nipple screwed into its cavity. From the vintage hourglass channel design and minor surface oxidation of the nipple, it appears to be a period original while the patches which look like stone-washed denim are probably not.


The M1841 was reportedly first used in combat by the 1st volunteer Mississippi Rifles, a regiment commanded by Jefferson Davis during the Mexican-American war (1846 to 1848). Davis--a former West Point graduate, resigned his seat in the US House of Representatives to go back to his home state in 1846 to help raise a regiment of volunteers for the Mexican War. He was also elected as their Lt. Colonel to command. Volunteers made up about 2/3rds of the forces that fought in the Mexican-American war so each state contributed one or two regiments. While the federal government provided their weapons, it was up to each unit to come up with a uniform.

Davis had requested the new M1841s for his Mississippians but Winfield Scott the commanding general of the army refused--indicating that they were untested for battle. Davis went over Scott's head to President Polk and got the rifles anyway---causing Scott and Davis to become bitter political enemies later on in life. Davis and his Mississippi regiment were instrumental in turning the tide of the battle of Buena Vista and became heroes of the war. This is how the rifle earned the "Mississippi" sobriquet that is used to describe it today. Since the M1841s did not have a fixture to mount a bayonet at this point in time, the Mississippians were issued large Bowie knives.

After the battle of Beuna Vista, Davis and his Mississippians became heroes of the war. After the war, Davis went on to get elected as one of Mississippi’s two US senators and then later to get appointed as US Secretary of War. Of course, when Mississippi seceded from the Union, Davis resigned and offered his services as a military officer to the South. As fortune would have it, he instead got elected president of the Confederacy. His commander in the battle, General Zachary Taylor capitalized on his fame to get elected our 12th president in 1848. However, Tayor died in office 16 months later of some unknown stomach disease.

If you want to read a quick history of the 1st Mississippi regiment in the Mexican American war, check out the following link:
the Mississippi volunteers in the Mexican American war

The regiment still exists today in the form of the 155th infantry regiment of the Mississippi National guard
155th infantry regiment--Mississippi National guard

Below, the illustration on the left depicts both a regular army Dragoon (the general term for a US cavalry during this period), and to his right is a depiction of one of the members of the 1st Mississippi rifles with their bright red over shirts and wide-brimmed straw hats. The oddball-looking longarm that the Dragoon is sporting is a Hall's breechloading percussion carbine. Yes, these predate the M1841 but they were originally designed as flintlocks then later easily both converted and adapted to percussion.

Eventually, once in Mexico, the US did provide new uniforms for the volunteers since what most state volunteer units wore on the trip down to Mexico usually ended up in tatters. The larger panel on the right is meant to depict the Mississippi regiment at Buena Vista---having halted the Mexican lancer's charge with several volleys from their rifles, they then charged the demoralized lancers with nothing more than their oversized Bowie knives.


As already stated, my rifle would have been produced too late to have seen service in the Mexican war but probably saw service in the ACW. However, I couldn't resist setting up a "Mississippi" rifle Mexican War themed layout for a photo. The front barrel band/nose cap spring was broken and I found a replacement at a vendor who stocks such parts. While browsing their other M1841 rifle parts, I noticed they had a repro Mexican war white buff rifle sling and a rifleman's pouch with a sling on sale which were the perfect accessories for the picture. The wide-brimmed straw hat came from Pennsylvania Dutch country but it was a perfect match for those that some of the Mississippians wore. I finished it out with a huge custom Bowie with a period-correct type sheath, a wooden cask style canteen, and an original clay pipe that's been in my family since the 1840s.


Thanks again for reading. I'm sorry if this is too much information. Believe me when I say that I could have made this much longer.

Comments and questions are welcome.

Cheers

Just right FO.

Thanks again for sharing.

These are the kinds of posts that keep me coming back to SimHQ Forums. Very interesting stuff.

Yes, be sure.

Absolutely. We need more stuff like this to keep SimHQ from joining the garbage heap of dead online forums.

Thanks for the kind words gentlemen.

Cheers