If ever there is a time to witness the guns that made history in the army, then British guns should be at the center of attention. British guns not only armed the British Empire but also shaped armies from the field of battle at Birmingham and London works worldwide. They were seen on soggy Gettysburg battlefields to sun-baked savannas of Africa to even revolutionary and rebel hands.
Take the Pattern 1853 Enfield rifle-musket, for example—an absolute technological revolution of warfare. The .577-calibre rifled musket wasn’t merely an evolution of the French Minie Rifle but a design multiple orders of magnitude more so much as accuracy, range, and dependability were concerned. Historically documented, the evidence attests that during the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863, up to 85% of Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia were issued rifled muskets, the vast majority of them Enfields.
That figure is not an academic guess—it informs us of the extent to which British industrial design and mass production shaped the outcome of one of the most important battles in the history of the United States.
The adaptability of the Enfield was also a definite boon. It fired the same .58-caliber rounds as the Union Springfield rifles, so resupply and field supply were easy. While arguments brewed whether or not one rifle was superior, they were equal in battle—the difference was only the man who wielded it.
The Brown Bess musket preceded the Enfield and had already made military arms fashionable. Despite being clumsy and unwieldy, the 1722.75-caliber flintlock musket was an in-close assassin. It had a smoothbore that allowed it to shoot “buck and ball” bullets, effectively making the musket an in-close shotgun on massed volley. Apart from its firepower, the Brown Bess transmitted British determination to standardize, which increased economy and efficiency in producing and supplying ammunition—a strategic edge which endured long after the fight.
British brains were lost in the Whitworth rifle, a Victorian tour de force of engineering. Sir Joseph Whitworth’s .451-calibre hexagonal barrel and bullet and 1,000-yard range—three times that of the Enfield. The very first true modern sniper rifle in all respects, it was. Even Queen Victoria herself was authorized to fire the Whitworth, and she scored within an inch of the bullseye at 400 yards. Though too expensive and delicate to be seen much in British military service, it was lethal in battle during the American Civil War, when employed by Confederate sharpshooters.
Even revolvers were enhanced. The Adams revolver emerged when Colt patents had expired in England, and it had a double action mechanism that allowed quick firing without handcocking the hammer. Its .50 calibre was extremely efficient in killing targets. It was defective in early models with faults like pulling the trigger too hard and no recoil shield, but Beaumont’s and Adams’ improved versions made it a staff favorite and the cavalry’s favorite. Beaumont’s and Adams’ adjustment made it so popular that the London Armoury Company sold thousands to the Confederates, and they had a reliable sidearm with which to fight in close quarters.
British arms did not lie dormant in the British Isles. Confederate Americans depended heavily upon British imports, ranging from Enfield rifle-muskets to Adams revolvers, and wrote even Brown Bess muskets into disfavor. Supply lines were complex and typically soiled, with Birmingham civilian gunsmiths producing thousands of rifles under government contracts, so that even sub-elite-graded equipment would remain fairly capable.
British guns are pre-19th-century. Enfields, Whitworths, and Adams revolvers are now bought today as antiques and relics of the past. The price is anywhere from a hundred dollars or so for percussion-converted Brown Bess muskets to Confederate-provenance Whitworth rifles that sell for tens of thousands. These rifles are not to be found on museum shelves—rather, they represent direct connections to the battles, tactics, and engineering feats that defined the visage of war brought into the modern era.
Tactically, British guns afforded some extremely interesting advantages. Mass-produced ammunition kept things simple to keep track of, imagination offered open space and accuracy with access, and adaptability enabled armies to use whatever ammunition was accessible to them. These guns revolutionized tactics, formation, and even the nature of war.
In no time, British rifles not only armed men but also revolutionized war. Whatever a Confederate sharpshooter, a redcoat swaggering, or a Zulu warrior, who had added rifle to his arsenal, had understood about rifles, the latter were far more than equipment—they were shaping history.