Yesterday's Weapons Forums

:this was quite interesting to me - thought id share it with you , from another site i frequent

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Forums Whitworth Sharpshooter Rifle
Articles › Whitworth Sharpshooter Rifle


by Bertil Häggman, LL.M.

(The original text of this article appeared in issue 66 (September 2001) of Crossfire, the magazine of the ACWRT (UK) as 'Confederate Imports of Whitworth Sharpshooter Rifles from England 1861-1865')

Civil War re-enactor Bertil Häggman, a member of the Swedish Authors Association, is researching one of the lesser known imports of arms from Britain to the Confederacy, the Whitworth rifle. In his research he has found that the Manchester-made weapon is said by some to be one of the most accurate rifles used in the Civil War.

At the first meeting of the British NRA at Wimbledon in 1860 Queen Victoria opened the meeting by firing a specially prepared Whitworth from a mechanical rest at a target 400 yards away. It was a bull's eye, the bullet striking very close to the centre.

Little is public about Confederate imports of Whitworth sharpshooter rifles from England during the War Between the States.

During the course of the War Between the States, both the Confederate States Government and the individual Southern States sought to import necessary supplies and material from Britain. These vital stores were delivered by blockade runners. Running the blockade was extremely dangerous, but also extremely profitable. Many blockade runners came in off the coast of Cape Fear, North Carolina, under the protection of Fort Fisher.

The great lack of arms of the CSA was overcome by importation of arms from abroad, mainly England. Around 400,000 arms of various types came from that powerhouse of industrialism of the era.

Britain was officially neutral but there was strong sympathy among segments of the English aristocracy for the Southern cause. The private English small arms makers had no problems with neutrality. They naturally wanted to sell as many arms as possible including to the South.

The Confederate authorities tried to purchase arms in an organized fashion, but communication was so slow that often instructions were obsolete before an agent reached England by ship. Confederate authorities thus tried to do the best they could under circumstances forced upon them.

Two Confederate-financed companies were established in Britain: Sinclair, Hamilton & Co. and Isaac Campbell & Co. The initials "SH over C" and the name "Isaac Campbell & Co". will be found on some arms. The South also established five primary English suppliers.

Among British companies established in the arms trade who acted as purchasers for the Confederate Agents were Bond, Freed & Co. and James, Kerr and Scott & Son. Arms acquired by each of these
suppliers can be determined by a capital letter stamped in the corner of the stock in the front of the butt tang.

The Confederate Government also set up a marking system. Each arm had a number from 1 to 10,000 engraved on the butt tang and shank of the ramrod, the hilt on the socket of the bayonet and the bayonet scabbard stud. Upon reaching 10,000 the numbering began again from 1 to 10,000 over the letter "A". To date, on the first 20,000 arms imported by the Confederate Central Government have been so identified. At the same time a Confederate government agent applied his inspection/acceptance mark to the belly of the stock but also occasionally to the comb of the stock.

"JS over Anchor" mark is seen on many of the guns. Georgia State purchases had their own series of numbers and the obverse stock was struck with a large "G". The same was true for South Carolina. Their stocks have a prominent "SC" on the obverse butt.

Louisiana arms were usually marked with a diamond with an inset "L" or had the numbers stamped on the stock behind the trigger guard. By comparison of known arms, it has been determined that rifles and rifle-muskets each had their own series of numbers, and some arms bought by private speculators only have initials on the comb or belly of the stock such as "SH over C" as discussed above.

In conclusion, one can identify at least 20,000 Confederate Central Government guns: numbers 1-10,000 over A, 10,000 G (Georgia) arms, and 10,000 SC (South Carolina) arms. Also readily identifiable are private purchases by the use of "SH over C" (Sinclair-Hamilton), "CH over I" (Caleb Huse Inspected) and IC (Isaac Campbell). The "JS over Anchor" is an inspection mark readily identifiable for Southern import.

At best one can positively identify less than 25% of the 400,000 or so arms imported from England by the Confederate Central Government and individual Southern States.

Whitworth Background

Sir Joseph Whitworth of England created a rifle with a twisted hexagonal bore and then shaped bullets to match this bore. (1) He patented his hexagonal bore in 1854. (2) A Confederate weapon in the Civil War, when outfitted with a telescopic sight this firearm had an effective range of 1,500 yards. The twisted hexagonal bore imparted a steadiness of flight to its .45 caliber bullet, and made this rifle the favorite of Confederate sharpshooters.

The Confederacy imported a small number of the rifles from the Whitworth Rifle Company of Manchester, England, beginning in 1862. (3) A total of 13,400 Whitworth muzzleloading rifles, including 5,400 for the military, were produced from 1857 to 1865. Generally the early Whitworth rifles were marked on the lock "Whitworth Rifle Co. Manchester." After about 1860 the locks were marked "Whitworth." In the spring of 1862 the lock markings were changed to " Manchester Ordnance & Rifle Co." In the latter part of 1863 the lock markings were changed indiscriminately and will be found marked "The Whitworth Company Limited" and "Manchester Ordnance & Rifle Co."

The military rifles were made in groups of 1000. When the next batch of 1000 was begun, numbering started with 1 and a prefix of A, B, C, D, E, or F. By 1864 (the beginning of the demise of the muzzleloader), the lock markings on the high "E" numbers and the rest of the "F" numbers were worded "The Whitworth Company Limited" and "J. Whitworth & Co. Manchester". Often the inside of the lock is marked "Joseph Brazier, Ashes " indicating the name of the lock maker who is still in business. There are examples where Joseph Brazier is simply noted by the initials "J.B."

A very limited but unknown quantity of Whitworth rifles was marked "2nd Quality" on the rearstrap of the triggerguard. These rifles were purchased by the Confederate service during the Civil War.

The balance of the production of the 13,400 pieces were commercially produced by Bissel, Beasley Brothers, McCririck, the British Small Arms Company and others.

Cased rifles that were presented through military or civilian channels for certain events are known. The varnished oak case is unlined and finished in natural color. In 1860, Whitworth rifles sold for about US $96 for the rifle alone, or US $120 with cased accessories. But I have seen prices ranging up to US $ 500.

The Imports

It has not been possible to find any concrete evidence or material on the actual purchase by Confederate agents of Whitworths in England.

I have seen a quote on a first visit made by Confederate agents at the factory in Manchester but no record of purchases. Some sources indicate that the Whitworth Rifle Co. of Manchester went bankrupt after the war and that the records of the company are not preserved.

Based on information in Anderson Morrow (4), 'The Confederate Whitworth Sharpshooters' in the United States (privately printed book -1989), I believe that arms importing companies in New Orleans, LA, Memphis, TN, Charleston, SC, Lynchburg, VA and elsewhere in the South imported the rifles on blockade runners (very often via Mexico) and sold them or even presented them free of charge as gifts to the Confederate army.

One way to continue the research is of course to try to find the records of these companies in the United States in archives of respective cities. But there is of course a great risk that such records are not preserved. They were private and may not be preserved in public archives.

Anybody with information on importers and the way of purchase and import of Whitworth sharpshooter rifles in the Confederate States of America is most welcome to contact me.


The Inventor

Sir Joseph Whitworth was born 1803 in Stockport (the son of a schoolmaster) and as a young boy went to Derbyshire and learnt about textile machinery. At the age of 22 to he went to London working for Maudsley & Co., a leading engineering firm in Britain. In 1833 he returned to Manchester, where he had worked before going to London. He founded a company named after himself producing machine tools but gradually shifted to arms.

Possibly his greatest invention was the Sharpshooter Rifle, which was hexagon-bored but Confederate Sharpshooters seem mainly to have used cylindrical bullets.

Whitworth Rifle Company, 51 Sackville Street, Manchester, was the outlet from 1860-1862. The rifles were almost certainly constructed by J W Edge of Manchester, using Brazier locks and metal components from Preston and Palmer.

Manchester Ordnance & Rifle Co., the follow up, seems to have been in business from 1862-64 at Sackville Street in Manchester.

Confederate purchasers thus certainly visited Sackville Street in Manchester many times during the war.

The Whitworths surpassed modern sniper rifles. The sniper with most "kill-confirmations" seems to be Matthias Hetzenauer, WWII German soldier on the Russian front, with 345 certified "kill-confirmations" (that is with probables or unconfirmed excluded). His longest kill was 1,000 meters. There are numerous verified reports of "kills" at far longer distances by Confederates with Whitworths. But the CSA had no system of "kill-confirmation", so we do not know the actual figures.

I am now looking toward further information on the actual sales and how the rifles were received in the Confederate States of America. Any information would be greatly appreciated.

Bertil Häggman
SCV Europe Camp # 1612
E-mail: mvk575b@tninet.se

Notes

(1) Pageant of the Gun, by Harold L. Peterson.

(2) The Gun and its Development, by W.W. Greener.

(3) Information about Whitworth rifles can be found in the Dixie Gun Works Catalog, USA.

(4) Morrow is a Georgia-born great-grand nephew of Confederate Partisan Ranger Col. John S. Mosby. He is a teacher and has served with the 101st Airborne Division and with Special Forces.

these were said to have been used by the sharpsooters in the devils den at gettysgurg , somewhere i have a nice coffee table book on gettysburg that has photos of this location at that time .........i gotta look it up

It is interesting how the CSA used snipers. The Federals had dedicated units, but the Rebs had their best shots issued the rifles, the Whitworth and 2 band Naval service Enfields. The rebels were scattered through out the skirmishers in front of the main force and did their "hunting" on the move and from cover. A number of the Federal brass could testify as to the accuracy of the Rebels and their English rifles (at least to Saint Peter).

http://www.cfspress.com/sharpshooters/arms.html

http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~orpha ... ooters.htm



THE KENTUCKY SHARPSHOOTERS

Elite Corps of the Orphan Brigade

Geoffrey R. Walden



... The scene is the Confederate line along Kennesaw Mountain, during the Atlanta Campaign of 1864. The puff of smoke from the Federal artillery position a half mile across the valley, followed by the report of the cannon and the scream of the shell passing overhead, signaled the beginning of another day. "You get a range on it, Taylor?" asked a well-concealed Southerner. Hurriedly adjusting the brass pocket stadium (a primitive rangefinder), his companion replied, "Set your sights at 800 and aim at the opening."

A flurry of activity at the gun embrasure in the enemy's fortifications, the result of sponging and ramming the muzzle-loading cannon, provided a convenient target, and the sharpshooters fired almost simultaneously. A long instant later, an unfortunate gunner was seen to fall forward through the opening, dropping the rammer staff as he fell. Along with their companions in other picked positions, the two Kentucky marksmen began a slow but effective fire. In less than twenty minutes the Union battery had suffered a number of casualties, and was forced to limber to the rear ....

The above scenario is fiction, but just such actions as this took place nearly every day of the long Atlanta Campaign for the sharpshooters of the General Lewis' Kentucky Brigade. Known to posterity as the "Orphan Brigade," this command had a history unique in the Confederate army. Its members were recruited from all over Kentucky, a state officially declared neutral at the beginning of the Civil War. The command fought in such memorable battles as Shiloh, Murfreesboro, and Chickamauga.

April 1864 found the Kentuckians in camp at Dalton, Georgia, as part of General Joseph Johnston's Army of Tennessee. An English friend of the Brigade's beloved commander, General John C. Breckinridge, had given him eleven special target rifles, which he donated to his old brigade. A shooting match was held to determine the best marksmen in the Brigade, and two men were chosen from each of the five regiments. Second Lieutenant George Hector Burton of Company F, Fourth Kentucky Infantry, was picked to command this exceptional corps.

Burton.jpg (38453 bytes)

Lt. George Hector Burton
cdv, ca. 1865, author's collection

From its inception, this group of Kentucky sharpshooters was an elite unit. Its members were exempt from all drill (except target practice) and guard duty, and there was never a lack of volunteers to fill the places of the wounded. Lieutenant Burton, himself a first-rate marksman and "dare-devil fighter," chose only the most reliable men. To test their coolness in action, he would accompany new volunteers to an area of heavy artillery fire. Those who stayed with Burton without seeking cover, he considered to be sufficiently composed to carefully load and sight their precision target rifles while under the wrathful return fire that their efficient work frequently attracted.

No complete roster has survived, but the following men were known to have served as sharpshooters:

Lt. George Hector Burton, commander (Columbia, KY) -- Co. F, 4th Ky. Inf.

N. Frank Smith (Cynthiana, KY) -- Co. F, 2nd Ky. Inf.

Steve Estill (died at West Point, GA, 27 Oct. 1864) -- Co. H, 2nd Ky. Inf.

Corp. Taylor McCoy (Barren Co., KY) -- Co. A, 4th Ky. Inf.

Sgt. Thomas Owens (Maysville, KY) -- Co. I, 4th Ky. Inf.

James T. Guilliam (Russellville, KY; lost right arm at Resaca, 14 May 1864) -- Co. I, 4th Ky. Inf.

Henry S. Dedman (Kenton Co., KY; killed in action at Dallas, GA, 28 May 1864) -- Co. A, 5th Ky. Inf.

Jerry Spalding (Bridgeport, KY) -- Co. K, 5th Ky. Inf.

John Y. Milton (Nelson Co., KY) -- Co. A, 6th Ky. Inf.

William H. Morgan (Nelson Co., KY) -- Co. A, 6th Ky. Inf.

James Tennell (Nelson Co., KY) -- Co. A, 6th Ky. Inf.

William H. Anderson (Barren Co., KY) -- Co. E, 6th Ky. Inf.

William H. VanMeter (Hardin Co., KY; died of wounds received at Jonesboro) -- Co. H, 6th Ky. Inf.

Sgt. William Ambrose (Bardstown, KY; replacement, June 1864) -- Co. B, 9th Ky. Inf.

Walker Nash (Grayson Co., KY) -- Co. G, 9th Ky. Inf.

A glance at this list makes it obvious that the sharpshooters suffered a number of casualties, since there were a maximum of ten men plus Lt. Burton in the corps at any one time (one of the rifles was disabled with a bullet stuck in the barrel during training, and one was lost in action early in the campaign, leaving but nine rifles to go around).

Lt. Burton was given quite a bit of latitude in his orders. He was directly subordinate to the brigade commander, and his only general order was not to take his men nearer the enemy than a quarter of a mile. The sharpshooters usually operated in groups of two to four men, infiltrating into concealed positions along the army front during the night. When day came, they would pick off enemy cannoneers, pickets, officers, or any other Federal who was careless enough to show himself.

Their favorite target was the Federal artillery. General William T. Sherman's gunners had plenty of ammunition to expend in an incessant bombardment of the Confederate lines, to which the Southern artillery could not afford to reply. The sharpshooters provided a valuable service indeed in silencing the offending batteries.

The Atlanta Campaign is well-known for its grueling and almost unceasing combat, which the sharpshooters suffered more than any others. They spent day and night in cramped, concealed positions in the dangerous no-man's land between the lines. They fought in every battle involving Hardee's Corps, plus daily skirmishes. Their normal routine of stealth was broken once, when the Kentucky Brigade made an attack at Dallas, near New Hope Church, on 28 May 1864. Unable to resist the excitement of the charge, Lt. Burton and his men joined in, with the loss of one man and his valuable rifle.

One of the most memorable actions involving the Kentucky sharpshooters took place on Pine Mountain in June 1864. Army commander General Johnston, along with Generals Hardee and Polk, made a reconnaissance of the enemy lines, in full view of the Federal artillery. A Union battery took this group of officers under fire, and General Polk was struck in the chest by a shell, killing him instantly. Incensed by the loss of this popular leader, the Confederates returned fire, and the Kentucky sharpshooters were credited with silencing the Federal battery and driving it from the field.

The special weapon used by the Orphan sharpshooters was the English Kerr rifle. Made by the London Armoury Company Ltd. specifically for British long-range target matches, it was similar to the more famous Whitworth rifle. It had a .45-caliber bore (as opposed to the .577-caliber bore of the standard Enfield rifle-musket used by the Civil War infantry) with special patent 6-groove ratchet rifling.

Copy of kerr_set.jpg (45063 bytes)

London Armoury Co. Ltd. Kerr Rifle
author's collection

Precision target rifles such as the Kerr required special ammunition. The bullet was a long cylindrical lead slug, wrapped in paper, and the required powder was a special small-bore rifle powder made in England. Accordingly, British-made cartridges run into the Confederacy through the Union naval blockade were essential. Even though Kerr rifles were quite accurate at long ranges (they regularly competed at 1000 yards in England), they had a fairly high trajectory compared to modern highpowered rifles, and precision long range fire required careful determination of the range to the target. This was accomplished by using a stadium, a small hand-held instrument that allowed the shooter to estimate range based on the visual size of a target.

Ammunition as used in the Kerr Rifle
Top - cardboard tube cartridge
Middle - bullets, cylindrical, left; Whitworth hexagonal, right
Bottom - paper cartridge for cylindrical bullet
all reproductions, author's collection

The service of the Kentucky sharpshooters came to an end after the battle of Jonesboro in September 1864. The Orphan Brigade was practically destroyed as an effective unit in this battle, and they were subsequently transferred to General Joe Wheeler's cavalry command as mounted infantry. Their special service no longer required, the sharpshooters turned in their Kerr rifles and returned to the ranks as infantry.

Such units as the Kentucky sharpshooters receive little mention in official histories, so how can we judge their effectiveness? The sharpshooters themselves claimed to have spared the soldiers of the Army of Tennessee much of the harassment that Sherman's artillery was prepared to dole out, and this is doubtless true. Certainly, they were feared by the Federal soldiers. Many soldier letters and diaries mention the accurate fire of snipers during the Atlanta Campaign, and Federal prisoners reported that they were so exasperated at having to remain constantly concealed, that they would kill any Confederate who was captured with a Kerr rifle in hand.

Perhaps the greatest testimony to the value of the sharpshooters is found in their corps commander's farewell address. Before Lieutenant Burton and his men left to become mounted infantry, General Hardee summoned them to his headquarters to receive this compliment: "Men, I am sorry to part with you; I hate to give you up. Had every man in our army been as effective as you, had they every one done as much execution as each of you, Sherman would not now have a man left."

great info , thank you for adding that and great photos [did i mention great looking rifles ?]