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Civil War Rifled Muskets; Two or Three Band?


439th Signal Battalion
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439th Signal Battalion

Just curious as I am an avid reader on the Civil War, but were two-band style rifles (Enfield, Fayetville, Mississippi, etc.) issued to CS units in large numbers and used throughout the entire war or has this been convoluted by the Reenacting community in their preference for the three-band rifle?

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Geoff Walden

Two-band Enfields, at least (P56/58/60 variants), were issued to CS troops and used throughout the war, but never in numbers approaching the 3-band P53. Really, this was mainly because the 3-band P53 was available in much larger numbers in England and was therefore imported into the South in larger numbers than the 2-banders.

I think the reenacting community developed some feeling that 2-banders were somehow unsafe to fire from the rear rank, back in the 1970s. Or, maybe this came about when 3-band repros became readily available ca. 1980. In any case, any feeling that 2-banders were somehow less safe was misguided, unless the unit is full of inadequately trained members (yeah, OK, I know that has always been an issue in some units/groups).

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