Harpers Ferry Model 1803

Last updated
Harper's Ferry M1803 - (33" barrel, 49" overall.)
Harpers Ferry Model 1803-NMAH-AHB2015q037902.jpg
Type Muzzle-loading rifle
Place of origin United States
Service history
In service1803-1841
Wars War of 1812, Mexican–American War, American Civil War
Production history
Manufacturer Harper's Ferry Armory
Produced1803-06, 1814-19
No. built~20,000 [1]
VariantsTypes 1-3
Specifications
Mass9 lbs (4.082 kg)
Barrel  length33" (838 mm)
Cartridge .525 (13.335 mm)
Caliber .54 (13.716 mm)
Action Flintlock/percussion lock (conversion)
Feed system Muzzle-loaded

The Harper's Ferry M1803 rifle was the first standard rifle (as opposed to a smoothbore musket), made by an American armory.

Contents

History

Rifles existed long before the 17th century, but were rarely used by military forces. In order to be effective, the round in a rifle had to fit snugly into the barrel. This would allow the round to grip the barrel's rifling as the weapon was fired, and the rifling would impart a spin onto the round which would make it more stable and accurate. However, 16th and 17th century weapons were muzzle loaded, and the black powder that was used at the time would quickly foul the barrel. Rifles, with their tight fitting rounds, would quickly become unusable. Smooth bore muskets with looser fitting rounds were much less accurate, but did not suffer from this problem. Armies therefore tended to favor smooth bore weapons.

The U.S. military did however take note of the accuracy of rifles. The accuracy of American long rifles like the Pennsylvania and Kentucky rifles far exceeded that of any smooth bore weapon. Rifles would not replace muskets on the battlefield until the invention of the Minie Ball solved the problem of barrel fouling, but prior to that, many rifles were used by U.S. forces.

The first rifles used were imported from foreign gun makers. In 1803, Secretary of War Henry Dearborn wrote about the utility of a short barreled rifle, it being easier to charge enemy positions with, and "less likely to foul by firing". He specified that the new rifle that should "not exceed 33 inches" and have a ball "one thirtieth of a pound weight, about .54 caliber". [2] Under Dearborn's direction, the war department issued an order for the new rifle on May 25, 1803. Joseph Perkin, superintendent of the recently created Harper's Ferry Armory, was placed in charge of the design of the new rifle. Perkin and several other armorers created several patterns from Dearborn's instructions, and in November 1803 these patterns were presented to the War Department. With a few minor changes, one of these patterns was approved and became the M1803 rifle. Dearborn was so impressed that he complimented Perkin for submitting such "an excellent pattern", and an order was placed for 2,000 rifles. Based on the rifle's success and performance, Dearborn later expanded the production from 2,000 to 4,000 rifles. In November 1805, Dearborn also asked Perkin to create a horseman's pistol that was in many ways a scaled down version of the M1803 rifle. [3]

Perkin and Dearborn originally planned to produce 2,000 rifles per year. The rifle proved to be more difficult to produce than expected, due to mechanical difficulties as well as a large amount of handwork required to finish each rifle. Production was also slowed by outbreaks of malaria in the summers of 1805 and 1806, which reduced the available manpower at Harpers Ferry. The order of 4,000 rifles was eventually completed in 1807.

A second production run was ordered in 1814. This production lasted until 1819, and a total of 15,703 rifles were produced at this time.

The M1803 rifle was later replaced by the M1814 common rifle, the M1817 common rifle and the M1819 rifle, when it was decided that a more rugged weapon was needed.

Design features

The M1803 rifle used a flintlock firing mechanism. Some were later converted to percussion cap in the mid-19th century.

The barrel of the M1803 rifle was intentionally short. While this made the weapon less accurate[ citation needed ] than a long rifle like the Pennsylvania or Kentucky rifle, the shorter barrel did not suffer as much from loading problems due to fouling. The barrel was octagon to round in shape, and was 33 inches in length, per Dearborn's specification. The weapon fired a .54 caliber round. Later rifles had a 36-inch barrel.

The stock was made out of walnut wood, and featured a well defined comb and a narrow wrist. The stock contained a brass patch box, and brass furniture was used throughout the rifle.

The rifle was 49 inches in length. Later rifles had a longer barrel, which increased their overall length to 52 inches.

Variants

Early production

Some historians believe that a small number of early 1803 type rifles were produced for the Lewis and Clark expedition. [4] It is also possible that contract rifles of 1794 were modified at the arsenal at Harper's Ferry, by shortening the barrels and reboring and rerifling them to .54 caliber. The records at the arsenal are not exact on the matter, as it appears the first 1803 prototype was produced six months after Lewis departed Maryland. The later 1803 rifles had a slightly lighter barrel than the first production run version, and had other slight differences such as a thinner lock plate and a narrower trigger guard. The barrel was 36 inches in length on the second version.

First production run

The first production run rifles had a 33-inch barrel. Early models had the bottom of the octagon portion of the barrel rounded. In 1805 this was changed and the bottoms were left octagonal, which resulted in a slightly heavier barrel. The wood screws used were hand forged. All first production run rifles were given a serial number.

Second production run

Several minor changes were made for the second production run. The barrel length was increased to 36 inches. Minor changes were made to the trigger, and the lock plate and hammer were significantly modified. The patch box was increased in size. All screws were machine made instead of hand forged. The second production run rifles were not given a serial number,

Lewis and Clark controversy

The rifle was cited as being carried by Lewis and Clark on their expedition in a National Park Service pamphlet park-service by historian Carl P. Russell. He wrote that it is known "that Lewis picked up some of the new M1803 rifles in preparation for the expedition". [5] Since then there has been controversy over that statement. Some have claimed that none of the M1803 rifles would have been available, and that the expedition would have taken shortened U.S. 1792 or 1794 contract rifles. [6] [7] [8] Others have claimed that the expedition took pre-production rifles, prototypes for the M1803 rifle. [9] [10] Still others think that the 1792 contract rifles that the expedition modified and took were the inspiration for the rifles that became the M1803 rifle. [11]

Use

Regardless of its use by Lewis and Clark, the rifle was carried into battle at York during the War of 1812 by the men of the 1st U.S. Regiment of rifles, led by Benjamin Forsyth. Leading the American landing, they inflicted heavy casualties on the 8th Regiment of Foot, practically wiping out its grenadier company. It was presumably issued to the other companies of the Regiment, such as that under Daniel Appling. It would thus have seen good service throughout many engagements, including the American victory at Big Sandy Creek. Also during the War of 1812, Harrison's scout Peter Navarre carried an 1803 rifle which is still in possession of the Toledo Public Library. Peter posed with the rifle in several photographs taken in preparation for his painted portrait by William Henry Machen which still hangs at the Toledo Public Library. [12] By the time it was replaced by the M1817 rifle and the M1819 rifle, the M1803 rifle had been carried by regular army troops throughout what would later become Kansas, Arkansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Colorado, Nebraska, South Dakota and Texas. It influenced the market so that smaller rifles became more common, and inspired civilian gunmakers, who made the plains rifles and mountain rifles, used in the west by the mountain men and explorers and everywhere by civilians as sport rifles. [13]

See also

Related Research Articles

Long rifle Muzzle-loaded long gun

The long rifle, also known as longrifle, Kentucky rifle, Pennsylvania rifle, or American longrifle, was one of the first commonly used rifles for hunting and warfare. It is characterized by an unusually long barrel, a development in American rifles that was uncommon in European rifles of the same period.

M1903 Springfield American bolt-action main battle rifle

The M1903 Springfield, officially the United States Rifle, Caliber .30-06, Model 1903, is an American five-round magazine-fed, bolt-action service repeating rifle, used primarily during the first half of the 20th century.

The Baker rifle was a flintlock rifle used by the rifle regiments of the British Army during the Napoleonic Wars. It was the first standard-issue, British-made rifle accepted by the British armed forces.

Springfield Model 1861 Rifled musket

The Springfield Model 1861 was a Minié-type rifled musket used by the United States Army and Marine Corps during the American Civil War. Commonly referred to as the "Springfield".

A rifled musket, rifle musket, or rifle-musket is a type of firearm made in the mid-19th century. Originally the term referred only to muskets that had been produced as a smoothbore weapon and later had their barrels replaced with rifled barrels. The term later included rifles that directly replaced, and were of the same design overall as, a particular model of smoothbore musket.

M1819 Hall rifle Rifle

The M1819 Hall rifle was a single-shot breech-loading rifle designed by John Hancock Hall, patented on May 21, 1811, and adopted by the U.S. Army in 1819. It was preceded by the Harpers Ferry M1803. It used a pivoting chamber breech design and was made with either flintlock or percussion cap ignition systems. The years of production were from the 1820s to the 1840s at the Harpers Ferry Arsenal. This was the first breech-loading rifle to be adopted in large numbers by any nation's army, but not the first breech-loading military rifle – the Ferguson rifle was used briefly by the British Army in the American Revolutionary War. The Hall rifle remained overshadowed by common muskets and muzzleloading rifles which were still prevalent until the Civil War. The early flintlocks were mostly converted to percussion ignition.

The British .577 Snider–Enfield was a breech-loading rifle. The American Jacob Snider invented this firearm action, and the Snider–Enfield was one of the most widely used of the Snider varieties. The British Army adopted it in 1866 as a conversion system for its ubiquitous Pattern 1853 Enfield muzzle-loading rifles, and used it until 1874 when the Martini–Henry rifle began to supersede it. The British Indian Army used the Snider–Enfield until the end of the nineteenth century.

Springfield Model 1840 flintlock musket Musket

The Springfield Model 1840 was a flintlock musket manufactured by the United States during the mid-19th century. The .69 caliber musket had a 42-inch (107 cm) barrel, an overall length of 58 inches (147 cm), and a weight of 9.8 pounds (4.4 kg). More than 30,000 were produced by the Springfield and Harpers Ferry armories and two independent contractors between 1840 and 1846.

The Springfield Model 1812 Musket is a .69 caliber, flintlock musket manufactured by the Springfield Armory.

The Springfield Model 1795 was a .69 caliber flintlock musket manufactured in the late 18th and early 19th centuries in the United States.

Springfield Model 1865 Breech-loading rifle

The Springfield Model 1865 was an early breech-loading rifle manufactured by U.S. Armory in Springfield, Massachusetts. It was a modification of the Springfield Model 1861. It was later replaced with the Springfield Model 1866.

Springfield Model 1868 Breech-loading rifle

The Springfield Model 1868 was one of the rifles which used the trapdoor breechblock design developed by Erskine S. Allin.

The M1841 Mississippi rifle is a muzzle-loading percussion rifle used in the Mexican–American War and the American Civil War.

Harpers Ferry Armory

The Harpers Ferry Armory, more formally known as the United States Armory and Arsenal at Harpers Ferry, was the second federal armory created by the United States government. It was located in Harpers Ferry, Virginia. It was both an arsenal, manufacturing firearms, and an armory, a storehouse for firearms. Along with the Springfield Armory, it was instrumental in the development of machining techniques to make interchangeable parts of precisely the same dimensions.

Richmond rifle Rifled musket

The Richmond rifle was a rifled musket produced by the Richmond Armory in Richmond, Virginia, for use by the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War.

During the American Civil War, an assortment of small arms found their way onto the battlefield. Though the muzzle-loading percussion cap rifle was the most numerous weapon, being standard issue for the Union and Confederate armies, many other firearms, ranging from the single-shot breech-loading Sharps and Burnside rifles to the Spencer and the Henry rifles, two of the world's first repeating rifles, were issued by the hundreds of thousands, mostly by the Union. The Civil War brought many advances in firearms technology, most notably the widespread use of rifled barrels.

Springfield Model 1842 Musket

The US Model 1842 Musket was a .69 caliber musket manufactured and used in the United States during the 19th Century. It is a continuation of the Model 1816 line of muskets but is generally referred to as its own model number rather than just a variant of the Model 1816.

Springfield Model 1855 Rifled musket

The Springfield Model 1855 was a rifled musket widely used in the American Civil War. It exploited the advantages of the new conical Minié ball, which could be deadly at over 1,000 yards (910 m). It was a standard infantry weapon for Union and Confederates alike, until the Springfield Model 1861 supplanted it, obviating the use of the insufficiently weather resistant Maynard tape primer.

1792 contract rifle Muzzle-loading rifle

The 1792 contract rifle is not a specific model of gun, rather it is a modern way to categorize a collection of rifles bought by the United States government in that year. United States 1792 contract rifles are Pennsylvania-Kentucky Rifles with a 42-inch octagon barrel in .49 caliber, with a patch box built into the buttstock. What distinguishes them from civilian rifles is that they were bought by the government under military contract.

Model 1814 common rifle Muzzle-loading rifle

The U.S. M1814 rifle was designed by Robert T. Wickham. The manufacturing was contracted out to Henry Deringer and R. Johnson to make rifles for use by the military.

References

  1. ↑ "Confderate-Altered M1803 Harper's Ferry Rifle". Lodgewood Mfg. Retrieved 2020-09-28.
  2. ↑ Russell, Carl (1957). Guns on the early frontiers. Bonanza books. p. 176.
  3. ↑ "Harpers Ferry armory and the new technology: the challenge of change" By Merritt Roe Smith
  4. ↑ "American Rifle: A Biography" By Alexander Rose
  5. ↑ Michael F. Carrick. "U.S. Model 1803 prototype rifle" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-04-26. Retrieved 2011-12-17.
  6. ↑ Michael F. Carrick. "U.S. Model 1803 prototype rifle" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-04-26. Retrieved 2011-12-17.
  7. ↑ lewis-clark.org. "Army rifles of 1800" . Retrieved 2011-12-17.
  8. ↑ S.K. Wier. "Firearms of the Lewis and Clark expedition" (PDF). Retrieved 2011-12-17.
  9. ↑ Michael F. Carrick. "U.S. Model 1803 prototype rifle" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-04-26. Retrieved 2011-12-17.
  10. ↑ lewis-clark.org. "Army rifles of 1800" . Retrieved 2011-12-17.
  11. ↑ S.K. Wier. "Firearms of the Lewis and Clark expedition" (PDF). Retrieved 2011-12-17.
  12. ↑ Lloyd, Marshall. "Peter Navarre homepage". Mlloyd.org. Retrieved 23 September 2016.
  13. ↑ Russell, Carl (1957). Guns on the early frontiers. Bonanza books. p. 181.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.