yulzari
Private
- Joined
- Jul 25, 2017
- Location
- Plymouth and Basse Marche
From the Musee de l'Armee in Paris here is a bolt action Springfield 1861 as used in the 1870 War.
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With the loss of so many weapons at Sedan in 1870 the French National Government bought many, many tens of thousands of surplus ACW rifle muskets from the USA. With the shortages of both the regular army Chassepots and the Guard Mobile Tabatieres other methods of breech loading conversions were tried. In Lyons (and also elsewhere by a variety of variable quality manufacturers) the Samain bolt action conversion was the choice and more than 100,000 were made. Usually on the Modele 1822 base but surplus Springfields were also turned to. The Modele 1822 based ones used the same short 18mm bore Modele 1867 Gevelot centre fire cartridge as the Tabatiere. Used by the National Guard (no relation to the US National Guard) especially in the Lyon region in the centre of France. The Springfield's used a .58 centre fire cartridge.
So this is one place where post ACW surplus Springfields went to continue their trade as breechloaders. Another was Turkey (via Belgium) with a Polivache or Snider conversion and a few ended their days in Yemen in WW1.
Post the 1870 Samains they were quickly withdrawn and many went to Belgium to be dealt with much as the 'Zulu' conversions of the Tabatieres. Converted to 12 bore shotguns and sold extremely cheaply to the bottom end of the USA civilian market. Stout black powder 12 gauge breechloading shotguns. However. I have never found any reports of the Springfields thus converted and marketed. One wonders where they all went to? Nor have I noticed any Springfields in original Samain Rifle form other than this museum example but there must have been thousands returned to store.
With the loss of so many weapons at Sedan in 1870 the French National Government bought many, many tens of thousands of surplus ACW rifle muskets from the USA. With the shortages of both the regular army Chassepots and the Guard Mobile Tabatieres other methods of breech loading conversions were tried. In Lyons (and also elsewhere by a variety of variable quality manufacturers) the Samain bolt action conversion was the choice and more than 100,000 were made. Usually on the Modele 1822 base but surplus Springfields were also turned to. The Modele 1822 based ones used the same short 18mm bore Modele 1867 Gevelot centre fire cartridge as the Tabatiere. Used by the National Guard (no relation to the US National Guard) especially in the Lyon region in the centre of France. The Springfield's used a .58 centre fire cartridge.
So this is one place where post ACW surplus Springfields went to continue their trade as breechloaders. Another was Turkey (via Belgium) with a Polivache or Snider conversion and a few ended their days in Yemen in WW1.
Post the 1870 Samains they were quickly withdrawn and many went to Belgium to be dealt with much as the 'Zulu' conversions of the Tabatieres. Converted to 12 bore shotguns and sold extremely cheaply to the bottom end of the USA civilian market. Stout black powder 12 gauge breechloading shotguns. However. I have never found any reports of the Springfields thus converted and marketed. One wonders where they all went to? Nor have I noticed any Springfields in original Samain Rifle form other than this museum example but there must have been thousands returned to store.
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