Rifle & Drill: the Enfield Musket, 1853 and Drill of British Soldier Mid-Victorian Period

Soldiers and their weapons These two military instruction guides have been published together because they are the work of a common author, S. Bertram Browne, and because both concern aspects of the business of soldiering from the perspective of ordinary soldiers in the British Army of mid nineteenth century. The young Queen Victoria came to the throne in 1837 and by the time the new Enfield Rifle Musket was introduced, some sixteen years later, her armies were engaged in colonial wars across the world and were on the verge of substantial conflicts in the Crimea and India. Their weapon was a .577 calibre muzzle loading 'Minie' rifle-musket of the type used by the British Army until 1867, when it was replaced by (or in many cases converted to) the cartridge-loading Snider Enfield rifle. The Enfield Rifle Musket was used by several armies and was notably employed in the Crimea and the New Zealand Wars by the British. Its particular notoriety arises from the Indian Mutiny, for it was this weapon-especially the method of loading it and the pig fat that allegedly protected the cartridge, thus defiling their caste-that has been cited as one of the principal causes of disaffection among the ranks of the Bengal Army, the outbreak of mutiny and its rapid spread. The Enfield Rifle Musket was also used in the American Civil War where, among others, Chamberlain's legendary 20th Maine were armed with it as they defended Little Round Top at Gettysburg. This 'companion' naturally explains to the reader everything about the gun's, use, care, construction and maintenance. The second guide in this volume contains a very interesting text best defined by its title and includes many diagrams which will be informative to the student of the period and instructive for re-enactors etc. Leonaur editions are newly typeset and are not facsimiles; each title is available in softcover and hardback with dustjacket.