M1841 Mississippi rifle in civil war

When Eli Whitney III took over management of the Whitney Armory in 1842, he set about tooling up under his new contract from the U.S. government for making the model 1841 percussion rifle. Machinery and fixtures for making the 1822 contract flintlock musket had to be retooled or replaced in order to produce the lock and barrel of the new model. Whitney hired armourer Thomas Warner as foreman, who, as master armourer at Springfield Armory, had been implementing similar changes there. Warner spearheaded the drive to equip the Springfield Armory with a set of new, more precise machines, and a system of gauging that made it possible to achieve interchangeability of parts in military small arms. Under Warner's tutelage, Whitney equipped the Whitney Armory to do likewise.

The Mississippi rifle was the first standard U.S. military rifle to use a percussion lock system. Percussion lock systems were much more reliable and weatherproof than the flintlock systems that they replaced, and were such an improvement that many earlier flintlock rifles and muskets were later converted to percussion lock systems. The Mississippi rifle was originally produced in.54 caliber, using 1:66 rifling and no provision for fixing a bayonet. In 1855, the Mississippi rifle was changed to.58 caliber, so that it could use the.58 caliber Minie Ball that had recently become standard. Many older Mississippi rifles were re-bored to.58 caliber. The rifle was also modified to accept a sword type bayonet. The first Mississippi rifles had a v-notch sight. This was later replaced with leaf sights with 100, 300, and 500 yard ranges. A ladder sight with ranges from 100 to 1100 yards in 100 yard increments was fitted on some later rifles.

The nickname "Mississippi" originated in the Mexican–American War when Jefferson Davis was appointed Colonel of the Mississippi Rifles, a volunteer regiment from Mississippi. Colonel Davis sought to arm his regiment with Model 1841 rifles. At this time, smoothbore muskets were still the primary infantry weapon, and any unit with rifles was considered special and designated as such. Davis clashed with his commanding officer, General Winfield Scott, who said that the weapons were insufficiently tested and refused Davis' request. Davis took his case to President James K. Polk who overruled Scott. The incident started a lifelong feud between Davis and Scott. The Mississippi rifle was sometimes referred to as a "yagger" rifle, due to its smaller size and its similarity to the German Jäger rifles. Overasll, roughly 70,000 Model 1841s were produced by the Harpers Ferry National Armory and contractors between 1846 and 1855. In 1861, both the United States and the Confederacy put many of these Model 1841 rifles back into service.