The Springfield Model 1812 Musket is a .69 caliber, flintlock musket manufactured by the

Springfield Armory The Springfield Armory, more formally known as the United States Armory and Arsenal at Springfield located in the city of Springfield, Massachusetts, was the primary center for the manufacture of United States military firearms from 1777 until ...

. The War of 1812 revealed many weaknesses in the earlier

Model 1795 Musket The Springfield Model 1795 was a .69 caliber flintlock musket manufactured in the late 18th and early 19th centuries in the United States. The Model 1795 was the first musket to be produced in the United States by Eli Whitney at both the Spring ...

. The Model 1812 was an attempt to improve both the design and manufacturing process of the musket. The design borrowed heavily from the French Charleville model 1777 musket. The Springfield Model 1812 musket arrived too late to be of use in the War of 1812 but would later become standard issue to regular infantry and

militia A militia () is generally an army or some other fighting organization of non-professional soldiers, citizens of a country, or subjects of a state, who may perform military service during a time of need, as opposed to a professional force of r ...

units. The Model 1812 was a .69 caliber

smoothbore A smoothbore weapon is one that has a barrel without rifling. Smoothbores range from handheld firearms to powerful tank guns and large artillery mortars. History Early firearms had smoothly bored barrels that fired projectiles without signi ...

musket, with a 42-inch (107 cm) barrel and a 54-inch (137 cm) stock, and a total length of 57-inch (145 cm). The Model 1812 was produced only at Springfield: the M1795 would continue in production at Harpers Ferry into 1818. The Model 1812 was produced in a quantity of almost 30,000 between the years 1814 and 1816. It was replaced by the

Model 1816 Musket The Springfield Model 1816 was a .69 caliber flintlock musket manufactured in the United States during the early 19th century. History The War of 1812 had revealed many weaknesses in American muskets. The Springfield Model 1812 was created ...

. However, the Model 1812 remained in service for many years, and was even used in the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...

, mostly by the Confederate forces. By the start of the Civil war, the weapon was considered to be old and obsolete but was needed to fill arms shortages."A Civil War Treasury" By Albert A. Nofi, Published by Da Capo Press, 1995 Some Model 1812 muskets were later converted to percussion lock firing mechanisms. The

percussion cap The percussion cap or percussion primer, introduced in the early 1820s, is a type of single-use percussion ignition device for muzzle loader firearm locks enabling them to fire reliably in any weather condition. This crucial invention gave rise ...

system was much more reliable and

weatherproof ''Weatherproof'' is the debut EP by American hip hop artist Cage. It was released on Eastern Conference Records on July 29, 2003. It was released between his two collaboration albums with Camu Tao ( Nighthawks, 2002) and Tame One (Waterworld ...

than the flintlock system used on the Model 1812 in its original configuration.

References

{{USCWWeapons Muskets Weapons of the Confederate States of America American Civil War weapons Firearms of the United States Springfield firearms

See also

References