The Henry rifle was a breech loading, tubular magazine, lever action rifle designed by Benjamin Tyler Henry. Manufactured by the New Haven Arms Company in Connecticut that was owned by Oliver Winchester, the Henry was effectively the immediate forerunner of the famed Winchester rifles that would come after[1] and was considered the most advanced weapon of the American Civil War.[2]
History[]
The Henry was an improved version of the earlier Volcanic repeating rifle made by Smith & Wesson.[2] It was designed in 1860 and nine hundred were manufactured between summer and October 1862; by 1864, production had peaked at 290 per month. By the time production ended in 1866, approximately 14,000 units had been manufactured.
At the start of the American civil war starting in 1861, Oliver Winchester had tried to sell Henry rifles to the Union army. However the Henry rifle cost around $50 while a Springfield 1861 musket only cost $14. Although never officially adopted by the Union army, many soldiers purchased Henry rifles with their own funds. Soldiers who saved their pay to buy one often believed it would help them survive. Winchester gave Union President Abraham Lincoln a gold plated engraved Henry rifle hoping the Union army would adopt it,[3] although it was never officially adopted the Union army.
To the amazed Confederates who were armed mainly with muskets, they nicknamed the Henry rifle "that damned Yankee rifle that can be loaded on Sunday and fired all week",[1] and was often times called the Sixteen or Seventeen Shooter.[4] Confederates lucky enough to capture a Henry rifle had little ways to obtain its cartridges. This meant that wide use of the Henry rifle by the Confederates was impractical. The rifle was, however, known to have been used at least in part by some fifteen different Confederate units. These units included cavalry units in Louisiana, Texas, and Virginia, as well as the personal bodyguards of Confederate President Jefferson Davis.
The Henry rifle's main competition at the time was the seven-shot Spencer repeating rifle. The Spencer fired a heavier and more powerful .56 rimfire cartridge and was also cheaper and simpler in construction compared to the Henry. The Spencer was actually adopted for service by the Union cavalry, however the Spencer used a manual hammer which had to be cocked manually with the shooter's hand every time the lever was worked to eject a cartridge while one pull on a Henry rifle's lever loaded and ejected in one pull.
After the war, the Henry rifle went west and was used against the Native Americans in Redcloud's war of the late 1860s. Many Indians used Henry rifles at the battle of the Little Bighorn on June 25th 1876 against Custer and the 7th cavalry. The rapid rate of fire the Henry gave to the Indians helped them defeat the 7th cavalry who were using single shot Springfield carbines.
Production of the Henry rifle ended in 1866. The Henry rifle, though effective, had its problems; it used a slot in the tubular magazine for loading which allowed dirt to enter the weapon and would eventually make it fail to fire. There were no side plates on the rifle and the shooter's bare hand holding the rifle would get burned as the rifle heated up as it was fired.
The Henry rifle was redesigned, in 1866 the New Haven arms company was renamed Winchester Repeating Arms and a new improved version of the Henry made its appearance. The new rifle used a loading gate and had sideplates and was quicker to load and safer to shoot.[2]
In recent years, the weapon has re-entered production, with replicas being produced by Uberti and Henry Repeating Arms (no relation to the original company).[5][6]
Design details[]
The Henry rifle is a lever-action rifle which incorporates a toggle-link bolt which operates like a knee joint; this bolt moves when the lever is pulled. This knee joint is flexed when the lever is pulled down, pulling the bolt back and pulling a fresh round from the tube magazine and into the ejection port; the action is then closed by pushing the lever back into position. After the weapon fires, pulling the lever again causes the cartridge carrier to move up, aligning a fresh cartridge with the ejection port and throwing the just-fired empty cartridge out of the gun; the gun does not have an ejector.
Ammunition[]
The Henry used copper and brass .44 rimfire cartridges. It was a major improvement over muzzle loading muskets of the period, as it held 16 rounds of .44 rimfire and could fire 28 shots in one minute. Modern replicas of the weapon use more common rounds such as .44-40 Winchester and .45 Colt.[6]
Gallery[]
References[]
- ā 1.0 1.1 http://americanshootingjournal.com/history-of-a-henry/
- ā 2.0 2.1 2.2 https://www.ammoland.com/2015/08/henry-rifles-history/#axzz5lQrfIstc
- ā https://amhistory.si.edu/militaryhistory/collection/object.asp?ID=3
- ā https://www.militaryfactory.com/smallarms/detail.asp?smallarms_id=356
- ā https://www.uberti-usa.com/1860-henry-rifle
- ā 6.0 6.1 https://www.henryusa.com/rifles/the-original-henry-rifle/