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U.S. Harpers Ferry Model 1855 Percussion Rifle Musket
This is a Bannerman-altered short "cadet" rifle, made from a condemned rifle-musket. SN NONE
The town of Harpers Ferry is nestled into a valley at the
confluence of the Shenandoah and Potomac Rivers. Originally located
in Virginia, Harpers Ferry became part of the new state of West
Virginia in 1863. The region abounded with natural resources,
including abundant water power, and it was also isolated from the
coastline and therefore secure from possible enemy attacks.
Riflesmiths, artisans, and other skilled workers also made their
homes in neighboring areas of Virginia, Maryland, and
Pennsylvania.
In 1798, President George Washington selected Harpers Ferry, as
well as Springfield, Massachusetts, as the location for a national
armory where small arms, ammunition, and other accouterments would
be produced for use by the new nation's military forces. In 1798,
tensions between the United States and France were on the rise, and
American militia forces drilled on the heights overlooking the
town. As the threat of war passed, the troops dispersed, leaving
Harpers Ferry to the care of armory workers and other
residents.
Arms production began in 1800. The first guns to be manufactured
at Harpers Ferry were the Model 1795 muskets. These were patterned
after the French Model 1763 Charleville musket, and were the first
standardized U.S. martial arms. Springfield Armory also produced a
Model 1795 musket, but these were distinctly different from those
manufactured at Harpers Ferry. In the early 19th century, Harpers
Ferry began production of the Model 1803 flintlock rifle. These
distinctive arms, with their Kentucky styling and half forestock,
are considered by some to the most beautiful rifles ever produced
by the United States government. The Model 1816 was first
standardized U.S. martial arm to be manufactured at both Harpers
Ferry and Springfield.
These arms enjoyed the longest production run in U.S. history,
lasting until 1844, with nearly 700,000 muskets turned out during
this period. Both armories also produced the Model 1842 percussion
musket and Model 1855 percussion rifle-musket. These arms are
significant in that the Model 1842 was the last U.S. regulation .69
caliber smoothbore, as well as the first to be made at both
armories with completely interchangeable parts, while the Model
1855 rifle-musket was the first rifle-musket to be produced by the
United States, the first to be produced in the new regulation .58
caliber, and the last arm to be produced at both government
armories. In addition to commonly produced arms, each armory was
the sole producer of certain other designs, such as the Model 1855
percussion pistol-carbine and various musketoons and cadet muskets
that were produced solely at Springfield, or the Model 1803
flintlock rifle, and the Model 1841 percussion, or "Mississippi"
rifles that were produced only at Harpers Ferry.
In addition to its role in turning out government longarms,
Harpers Ferry also was home to John Hall's rifle works. Hall, a
Maine native, was an inventor who held various patents for
breech-loading rifles based on a removable pivot-mounted
breechblock. These arms were more expensive than muzzle-loaders,
but they could be loaded more quickly and were just as accurate. In
addition, Hall's rifles featured precision-manufactured
machine-made parts that were completely interchangeable, thus
eliminating the need for skilled craftsmen to repair broken
arms.
The Hall rifle was the first in U.S. military history to use
fully-interchangeable parts. In 1817, at the invitation of the U.S.
Army, Hall relocated his operations from Maine to some unused
armory buildings on Virginius Island, located near the banks of the
Shenandoah River in Harpers Ferry. Originally designed as
flintlocks, later versions of the Hall rifle featured a percussion
ignition system. The first Hall rifles were produced in 1824, and
manufacture of these arms continued until at Harpers Ferry until
1843. In addition, Hall rifles and carbines were also produced by
Simeon North of Middletown, Connecticut. These arms served in the
Black Hawk War of 1832, the Seminole War in 1836, the Mexican War,
and, although outdated, Hall rifles also saw action with
Confederate troops during the Civil War.
The presence of the armory in Harpers Ferry, as well as its
location on the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers, and the presence of
the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad and the Chesapeake & Ohio
Canal, made the town strategically important. Prior to the outbreak
of the Civil War, Harpers Ferry became known as the site of John
Brown's failed slave insurrection in 1859. After Virginia voters
passed an ordinance of secession in 1861, the town was occupied by
Confederate soldiers under the command of Colonel Turner Ashby.
Retreating U.S. troops had tried to burn the armory complex, but
local residents, fearing that the entire town would be engulfed,
quickly extinguished most of the fires. The Confederates removed
armory machinery, tools, rifles, and parts to Richmond, Virginia
and Fayetteville, North Carolina, where the Confederate government
began to manufacture longarms based on the U.S. Model 1855 rifle
design.
Before the war ended in 1865, the town had changed hands no less
than eleven times. Many buildings had been looted or burned, and
the B&O railroad bridge had also been destroyed and rebuilt
several times. Townspeople were forced to flee both the advancing
armies and the lack of economic opportunity that resulted after the
armory had ceased operations.
The Civil War brought an abrupt and premature end to arms
production at Harpers Ferry. This armory was never as progressive
as its sister arsenal at Springfield, where enterprising Yankees
more readily seized new technologies, while their southern brothers
were more likely to stick to tried-and-true but often more
labor-intensive production techniques. Springfield workers also
outproduced those of Harpers Ferry to a significant degree, but
part of Springfield's advantage might lay in its less diversified
product line. In addition, production costs were higher at Harpers
Ferry than at Springfield, and the town was subject to repeated
disruption due to frequent flooding of its surrounding
rivers.
Despite these shortcomings, Harpers Ferry Armory achieved
notoriety as the birthplace of what became known as the "American
System of Manufacture," in which full interchangeability of
precision-made parts between mechanical devices manufactured in
more than one location was achieved for the first time. This
feature would later play an important role in the Industrial
Revolution and in the rise of the United States to the position of
"workshop of the world."