Old long gun

[Greg]

Yes, there were some imported early in the war, but they were greatly outnumbered as imports by the British rifles. The first arms buyers who went to Europe (especially those buying for the North) sent back anything they could get their hands on, but that quickly ended as Northern production geared up and Southern buyers concentrated on the British weapons.

Best,
Greg

[WerderBremen]

as Greg said, yes they were used, virtually every shootable pre civil war gun was used somehow in the Civil war. Belgian,German, French, English you name it, they imported guns.

Greg is also correct in his statement that they were FARRRRR outnumbered by English Enfields...Enfields were probably the most common weapon in the civil war as they were imported to both sides in vast quantities, springfields were probably the second most prominant..


Yes that is deffinately an 1840 French percussion conversion musket

[FestungSpanien]

Thanks for the reply
Were also flintlock muskets used in the CW?
I am trying to learn something more on the CW guns.
Can anybody provide me with a good link to a CW webpage?
Thanks
Ace

[WerderBremen]

Like i said virtually every type of gun was used. in 1861 (when the war was still too young and most figured it would be very short, just one summer) Much of the forces called up for both sides were simply militias who were equipped with whatever they brought with them, they ranged from highly trained and excellently equipped Federal and Virginia Military institution troopers to poor farmers who dusted off their father's old musket from the war of 1812....In fact a virginia county militia under the command of Thomas Jackson wore their COLONIAL period attire for the battle at Manassas...The war for independence was about a hundred years before!!

After Bull Run (Manassas) Both sides realized it was to be a long war, and they needed to equip and mobilize. That is when the southerners started importing weapons from britain, mainly the new Enfield 1853 3 band rifle-musket. probably the most common rifle of the war, as it was imported in great numbers by both sides.

The federals manufactured alot of their own arms. The springfield armoury turned out thousands of Springfield 1842's and 61's. The 42's being the smoothbore percussion model and the 61 being the highly accurate springfield percussion model.

Many guns already in service which were flintlock were simply converted to percussion caps as it was far easier to stick a cap on the nipple than it was to prime a flashpan with powder from a horn....


Just do a Wikipedia search on civil war guns, you will get all you need to know!!
But in short, the answer to your question is YES flintlockes were used in moderation in the beginning of the war, but were exchanged for percussion cap firing rifle-muskets such as the 61 springfields and the 53 enfields.

[FestungSpanien]

Thanks pal
Ace