the Confederates thought more highly of these imported arms than Union soldiers. Liège-Belgium was a center for manufacturing a variety of military and sporting firearms. It is one of the oldest centers of gun-building in the world, and home of the oldest continually running proof house (1672) still in operation.
During the Civil Warera an unknown number were imported to the U.S. and C.S. Liege had been producing military muskets at a rate of less than 10,000 per year until 1849, but by 1860 the proof house was testing and accepting over 500,000 barrels per year. Belgian gun making used a system where the division of labor was carried out to great extremes, with each of approximately twenty different trades specializing in one individual aspect of producing the firearm. About ninety different manufacturers registered for proof performing the final set up and assembly.
Malherbe, Ancion, G. Schupen, Dumoulin, A. Francotte, and Lemille were some well-known “houses”
THE BELGIAN MUSKET IN THE CIVIL WAR
By Craig L. Barry
here were many European smoothbore muskets in use on both sides early in the U.S. Civil War. In general, if the quote in the heading is to be believed, “Our army was rigged out in full suits of Yankee clothes yesterday, but as several had been taken up for Yankees by our cavalry, Gen. Jackson ordered the clothes to be given up, so again we see our old Confederate gray, while yesterday everything was Yankee blue. I do not care to get any clothes, but I have one of their famous Belgian muskets and indeed it is an arm to fear, a perfect cannon.” – Charles Turner, Liberty Hall
Volunteers, May 27, 1862.”
(manufacturers), in Liege during the War. The Belgian gunmaker’s business plan was to “produce cheaper copies of well-known arms” such as the Prussian (German) Potsdam, British Brown Bess, and French Charleville muskets. Later, hundreds of thousands of British Pattern 1853 rifle muskets, including a fairly large number for the British, and French
The U.S. and C.S. governments both had purchasing agents in Europe by mid-1861. The memoirs of Marcellus Hartley, a Federal purchasing agent in Europe records the following from his extensive correspondence to Secretary of War, E.M. Stanton in 1862: Minié rifles with backlocks and enormous snout-like hammers were turned out.
The lack of any easily discernible maker’s mark was a dead giveaway a particular musket was produced by the Belgians and not a French or English manufacturer. Most gun-makers made sure their marks were unique and plainly visible. The illegal engraving of fake British gun-maker marks on Belgian muskets was a problem in the gun trade. W. Greener and Isaac Hollis (Birmingham) both won judgments against a competing gun making firm engaged in the practice.
Of the accuracy limitations of smoothbore muskets, General Grant further recalled:
Grant is perhaps exaggerating for effect or else he is making excuses for poor marksmanship. He is also lumping together both U.S. Model 1822s with the Belgian type percussion conversion, as well as actual muskets imported from Belgium. Perhaps the same complaints are true of both, and these “old style muskets” were already considered “second class arms” by the Ordnance Department and put into service out of desperation. It is true that at distances greater than 100 yards, the “hit rate” of a smoothbore musket shooting a single round ball at a solitary target down range is, on average, 42 out of 100.
However, a smoothbore musket using buck and ball rounds, which consisted of one .656 or .626 sized round ball and three smaller .31 buckshot, the “hit rate” at anything less than 200 yards becomes dramatically higher, 79 to 84 hits out of 100 rounds fired. Round balls from a smoothbore, barrel leveled, will stay in the head-to-ankle “anti-personnel” height for most of its entire trajectory while the buckshot spreads out, causing collateral damage. The muzzle velocity of a smoothbore is about 1,600 feet per second, compared to 970 feet per second for a riflemusket, so it also packs more punch. While you would not be pleased to be struck by a missile fired from either arm, this much can be said of the smoothbore musket; Firing at massed formations in a battle line at anything less than 200 yards, the smoothbore musket loaded with buck and ball was a more than formidable weapon. At anything over 200 yards, the buckshot will have lost the ballistic energy, decelerated, to do as much damage.
“…at that time most of the western troops were armed with foreign made muskets imported from Europe.” He further described the weapons as follows; “Many regiments had old Belgian muskets, a heavy, cumbersome piece, awkward and unsatisfactory in every way.”
No doubt exaggerating for effect, an Illinois Colonel once quipped,
When asked how one could make such a determination, the officer responded
Craig L. Barrywasbornin Charlottesville, Va. Heholdshis BA and Mastersdegreesfrom UNC (Charlotte). CraigservedThe Watchdog Civil War Quarterlyas Associate Editorand Editorfrom 2003– 2017. The Watchdogpublishedbooksandcolumnson 19th-centurymaterial. Heistheauthorofseveral booksincludingThe Civil War Musket: A Handbookfor Historical Accuracy(2006, 2011), The Unfinished Fight: Essayson Confederate Material CultureVol. I and II (2012, 2013). Hehasalsopublishedfourbooksinthe Supplierstothe Confederacyserieson English Arms & Accoutrements, Quartermasterstoresandother Europeanimports.
“In platoon firing with the Belgian muskets, I can tell what I can not with any other arm; that is how many pieces have been fired.”
“Oh, by counting the men on the ground…the Belgian muskets kick like a mule, and burst with the greatest facility. We have lost several men in our company this way.”