Austrian breach loader

[Jim in Wisconsin]

I am reading "Fire Within" by Kerry A. Trask. It is about the exploits of the 5th Wisconsin Volunteers from Manitowoc. In the spring of 1862 a young soldier named James Anderson wrote that they had just been issued new breech-loading Austrian rifles to replace the "old Harpers Ferry Muskets". He said these new rifles could be fired "with great precision and at a good distance".
What would these rifles be? Did he mean breech loading but still using a minnie ball and paper wrapped powder with a percussion cap?
Or did he mean a rifle with an actual self contained cartridge?

 

[Don Dixon]

The 5th Wisconsin Infantry was issued Muster 1854 System Lorenz muzzle loading rifle muskets in late January 1862 to replace its "old Harper's Ferry Muskets." Assuming Trask quoted Anderson correctly - which is always an issue - this is yet another example of a soldier who was utterly clueless about his regiment's armament. The 5th was favorably disposed toward its Austrian rifle muskets and carried them in numbers for the balance of its Civil War service.

 

[Jim in Wisconsin]

Being from Sheboygan, I always suspected that those Manitowoc guys didn't know their frontside from their backside!