Ancestor's Enfield

KHyatt

Corporal
Joined
Jan 7, 2019
Greetings, All. I am trying to identify the type of Enfield that would have been issued to my ancestor's regiment, the 127th Illinois Vol. Infantry. The regimental history says that they were issued "English Enfields" when they were mustered in, in the Fall of 1862, in Chicago. This is confirmed in Coates' and Thomas' Civil War Small Arms (I trust that is a reliable source?). I have questions, however: (1) Is it possible to know from official records exactly which Enfield type the regiment would have been issued? (2) If not, how would I know if this was a two-band or three-band Enfield, or any one of the other Enfield types? (3) Can manufacturers be identified from the official records? And finally, (4) would this have been the only weapon issued or might the regiment have been issued Springfields or something else later? I would appreciate any insight y'all can provide.
 
The Regiment most likely would have eventually upgrade to the M1861 series which lumps the M1861/63/64 and Special Model M1861 in together even including the occasional M1855.

As to the Enfield it was most likely the standard cottage industry Brit made P53 Enfield. The P56 is a possibly but the law of averages would be the standard 3 band P53.

Many of the men doing the paperwork didn’t know an Enfield from a Brown Bess and poring through the records can be a real chore for the detail oriented.

That said it is worth looking for memoirs and Regt Histories as those can sometimes include extra detail.
 
I think there is something about the ratio of long Enfields (P53) to short rifles (P56) in Suppliers to the CS and it was about 20:1 in favor of P53 long rifles. The P56 was about 25% more expensive and most of them were issued to marksmen because they were considered more accurate at longer ranges. So the odds are greatly in favor of an individual Enfield being a P53. Further, since it was noted by US Consul FH Morse (in correspondence back to Washington) that the Commission Houses of Sinclair, Hamilton and SIC & Co had tied up the capacity of many of the London gunmakers for the CS early in the Civil War, the most probable origin of the P53s issued to US troops like the 127th IL prior to mid-1863 would be from one of the Birmingham Small Arms Trade gunmakers.
 
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Thanks all for the additional information. Y'all are great for helping others, especially neophytes like myself.
 
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