Enfield Pattern 1853
The Pattern 1853 Enfield used a smaller .577 calibre Minie bullet. Several variations were made, including infantry, navy and artillery versions, along with shorter carbines for cavalry use. The Pattern 1851 and Pattern 1853 were both used in the Crimean War, with some logistical confusion caused by the need for different ammunition. The Pattern 1853 was popular with both sides of the American Civil War; both the Confederacy and the Union imported these through agents who contracted with private companies in Britain for production.
The Enfield 1853 Rifled Musket (also known as the Pattern 1853 Enfield, P53 Enfield, and Enfield Rifled Musket) was a .577 calibre muzzle-loading rifled musket, used by the British Empire from 1853 to 1867, after which many Enfield 1853 Rifled Muskets were converted to (and replaced in service by) the cartridge-loaded Snider-Enfield rifle.
History & Development
The term “Rifled Musket” meant that the rifle was the same length as the musket it replaced, as a long rifle was thought necessary so that the muzzles of the second rank of soldiers would project beyond the faces of the men in front, ensuring that the weapon would be sufficiently long enough for a bayonet fight, should such an eventuality arise.
The 39" barrel had three grooves, with a 1:78 rifling twist, and was fastened to the stock with three metal bands, so that the rifle was often called a "three band" model.
The rifle's cartridges contained 68 grains (4.4 g) of black powder, and the ball was typically a 530-grain (34 g) Prichett or a Burton-Minié, which would be driven out at about 850-900 feet per second.
The Enfield’s adjustable ladder rear sight had steps for 100 (the default or “battle sight” range), 200, 300, and 400 yards (370 m). For distances beyond that an adjustable flip-up blade sight was graduated (depending on the model and date of manufacture) from 900 to 1,250 yards (1,140 m). With practice a good marksman could hit a man-sized target at about half that distance.
The 1857 Indian Mutiny
The Enfield Rifled Musket was a major contributing cause to the Indian rebellion of 1857- Sepoys in the British East India Company's armies in India were issued with the new rifle in 1856, and rumours began to spread that the cartridges (referring here to cardboard wrapped powder and shot, not metallic cartridges) were greased with either pig fat or beef tallow - an abhorrent concept to Muslim and Hindu soldiers, respectively, for religious reasons. British military drills of the time required soldiers to bite open the cartridge, pour the gunpowder contained within down the barrel, then ram the cartridge paper down the barrel to act as a wad, before finally ramming a musketball down the barrel, removing the ram-rod, shouldering the rifle, adding a percussion cap, and firing. The idea of having anything which might be tainted with pig or beef fat in their mouths was totally unacceptable to the sepoys, and when they objected it was suggested that they were more than welcome to make up their own batches of cartridges, using a religiously acceptable greasing agent such as beeswax or vegetable oil. This, of course, served only as "proof" that the issued cartridges were, in fact, greased with pig and/or beef fat, and a further suggestion that the sepoys tear the cartridges open with their hands (instead of biting them open) was also rejected as being impractical - many of the sepoys had been undertaking musket drill daily for years, and the practice of biting the cartridge open was second nature to them. The indifference of many British Commanding Officers to these concerns only added more fuel to the already volatile situation in India, and helped spark the eventual Mutiny in 1857.
Crimean War
With war breaking out between the Russians and the Turks, Britain realized that it was only a matter of time before they would be drawn into the conflict. The British Army was in the midst of a significant weapons transformation from smoothbore muskets to rifled muskets. While a number of regiments had been supplied with the pattern 1851 Minie Rifled musket, the majority of the army still carried the 1842 pattern smoothbore musket. By the end of 1853, the Enfield Rifled musket as approved by the War Department for the army and was put into production. The Enfield saw extensive action in the Crimean War which lasted from 1854-1856.
American Civil War use
The Enfield 1853 Rifled Musket was also used by both the North and the South in the American Civil War, and was the second most widely used infantry weapon in the war, surpassed only by the Springfield Model 1861 Rifled Musket. The Confederates imported more Enfields during the course of the war than any other small arm, buying from private contractors and gun runners when the British government refused to sell them arms after it became obvious that the Confederacy could not win the war. It has been estimated that over 900,000 P53 Enfields were imported to America and saw service in every major engagement from the Battle of Shiloh (April, 1862) and the Siege of Vicksburg (May 1863), to the final battles of 1865. At the Battle of Gettysburg on July 2nd, 1863, the 20th Maine Volunteer Infantry, led by Colonel Joshua L. Chamberlain, were armed with Enfield 1853 Rifled Muskets during their famous bayonet charge against a relentless attack by Confederate Forces attempting to destroy the left flank of the Union Army on Little Round Top. Here is an excerpt from Chamberlain's Official Battle Report:
"The intervals of the struggle were seized to remove our wounded (and those of the enemy also), to gather ammunition from the cartridge-boxes of disabled friend or foe on the field, and even to secure better muskets than the Enfields, which we found did not stand service well."
The ferocious charge of the 20th Maine, with bayonets fixed to their Enfield Rifled Muskets, was victorious against the stunned Confederates, and Colonel Chamberlain received the Medal of Honor for his day on Little Round Top.