Civil War Long Arms

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Civil War Long Arms

In the Civil War up 95% of the total long arms were muzzle loading. In the early days of the war almost 100% of the rifles were muzzle loading.
The muzzleloading rifle goes back to the midvil times. The popularity started in the early 1400's. Back then the firearms were bascicly hand held canons and you would like a fuse on a tube that was fastened to a wood handle. They wieghed in excese of 50 pounds in a lot of examples. They were unrielable, crude and often dangerous to the operators. In the early 1600's a new ignition system would change that forever. There was a trigger that when it was related would make the canon fuse spin against a flint and steel “frizzen” that would cause it to ignight the primary charge. These were called matchlock rifles. Then in the 1700's an even better system of ignightion would come about. This system eliminated the cannon fuse and had a piece of flint that when the trigger was released would strike it against a piece of steel. The sparks were directed into a small dish filled with finally granulated powder “pan” that this powder in it that led to the primary charge . This system was called the flintlock and was far supiorerior to the matchlock. It was superior in that it wasn’t as easily affected by moisture and much more reliable, especially in wet conditions. Another system was developed in the early 1800's called the percussion system. The percussion system had a hammer strike a nipple which has a percussion cap on it which was a primer that was incased in brass. The hammer struck it which created a spark into the pan and set the chain reaction for the rifle to go off. This system was even more reliable and durable then the flintlock.
During the early years of the war a sudden rush to get arms was demanded by both sides. Also both sides were trying to come up with an arm to out perform the other side that they could avoidably make. Tec...