One of the Union infantry regiments in the battle in the afternoon was the 38th New York Infantry, armed with M1855 rifle-muskets. In the afternoon’s fighting, the regiment suffered 15 killed, 55 wounded and 58 captured. The New Yorkers recaptured three of Rickett’s artillery battery from the Confederates and dragged them to the rear, but the 38th was forced to leave them in the road. The last of the Union regiments to leave the field of battle was the 3rd U.S. Infantry. Additional Union infantry regiments engaged in the battle armed with the M1855s were the 1st Michigan, the 1st and 2nd Connecticut, and the 2nd Vermont.

The 42nd New York Infantry was one of several regiments that took part in the debacle at Ball’s Bluff, Va., on Oct. 21, 1861. A reconnaissance in force was ordered to determine the activity of Confederate forces in the area. Having insufficient boats to transport all the troops over to the southern side of the Potomac River, many of the Union solders never reached the battlefield. Better-led Southern forces routed the attackers. In their retreat, the Union infantrymen threw their muskets into the river and attempted to swim to safety, and many of the 42nd’s M1855 rifle-muskets were lost in this manner.

A year later, in the fall of 1862, Gen. Robert E. Lee made his first invasion of the North. On Sept. 17, 1862, at the Battle of Antietam, the bloodiest day of the war occurred with more than 22,000 casualties reported. In the battle, the 11th Connecticut, armed with both Sharps rifles and M1855s rifle-muskets, was attached to IX Corps led by Gen. Ambrose Burnside (later NRA’s first president in 1871). Burnside’s objective was to cross over a stone bridge—that now bears his name—and attack the Confederates. The plan called for the 11th to go forward as skirmishers and drive the Confederates from the bridge. The remaining troops would then charge across the bridge.

It was a hard fight, and it took several hours before the Union forces captured the bridge. The infantry then proceeded across, and was on the outskirts of Sharpsburg when Gen. A.P. Hill’s Confederate infantry arrived from Harpers Ferry. Hill’s troops counterattacked and drove the Union forces back. In the day’s action, the 11th suffered 37 killed and 102 wounded. The battle ended in a draw, but Lee’s army retreated back into Virginia.

The M1855 rifle-musket remained in service throughout the war on both sides. Although parts and tooling for the M1855 were moved from Harpers Ferry to Richmond in April 1861 to make the C.S. Richmond guns, the distinctive humpback lockplate remained, but without provision for the Maynard tape primers. But the C.S. Richmond muskets are a story for another day.