Sebastopol 1854-1855: this epic Crimean War siege saw a wide mix of small arms, from fie archaic to the most up-to-date. Here we look at a pair of the most widely used--one British, the other Russian.
The Crimean War (1853-56), fought between Russia on one side and Britain, France, Turkey and Sardinia on the other, came at a time when there was much experimentation and innovation in military small arms. Notable for such military legends as "The Thin Red Line" and "Charge of the Light Brigade," it was also the first major conflict in which the Minie ball saw widespread use in Britain's Pattern 1851 and 1853 rifle muskets.Still, smoothbores were employed in large numbers on both sides, as were more archaic rifles. This month we'll look at one of each: the British Pattern 1842 musket and Russian Liege rifle.
The Crimean War was one of those conflicts that was stoked as much by anxiety as by any actual threat or affront. From 1815 to 1854, Britain had not been involved in a European war and was fast becoming the foremost power in the world. As such, the British were extremely protective of their newly-acquired territories and rising in the world.
Russia had been targeting Turkey, as the Turks controlled naval access to the Mediterranean. This, coupled with Britain's paranoia over supposed Russian interests in British territories, especially India, resulted in a tinderbox situation just waiting for a convenient spark.
That spark came in the form of a squabble between Orthodox and Roman Catholic monks over the custodianship of the keys to the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, then under Turkish control. Scuffles ensued, resulting in the death of some Orthodox monks.
Czar Nicholas I blamed the Turkish police for allowing it to happen. He marched into the Turkish provinces of the Danube and declared himself protector of the Orthodox subjects under Turkish rule. France, after being assured of British support, championed the Roman Catholics and declared war on Russia. England soon followed suit.
Despite their shortcomings, the Allies ultimately prevailed after the siege and fall of the Crimean port at Sebastopol, home to the Russian Black Sea fleet and the major objective of the campaign.
BRITISH PATTERN 1842 MUSKET
By the time Sebastopol fell on September 9, 1855, most British troops had been issued the new Pattern 1851 Minie Rifle or, to a lesser degree, the Pattern 1853 Rifle-Musket. Still, there was a smattering of smoothbores seen in the trenches, though by 1855 most had been relegated to reserve troops.
OK, you ask, why did we choose the Pattern 1842 instead of the P51 or P53? Well, first, I thought it might be interesting to compare a state-of-the-art smoothbore to an on-the-way-out rifle design. Second, P51s are so darned scarce I was unable to find a specimen that anyone would let me shoot.
Though flintlocks had served the British military for close to two centuries, with the invention of the percussion system and subsequent development of the percussion cap, the Board of Ordnance began looking around for a suitable musket to take advantage of this more efficient ignition setup.
In 1838 there was a limited adoption of a back-action percussion musket (Lovell's Pattern of 1838). The lock was loosely modeled after a French contemporary. Production began, but it was soon recognized things were not progressing as rapidly as might be desired. So in 1838 it was decided that 30,000 flintlock New Land Pattern muskets would be converted to percussion as a stopgap, resulting in the Pattern 1839.
Finally, a more traditional sidelock version of the P38 was authorized, creating the Pattern 1842. As the P38 had primarily been issued to Foot Guards regiments, the P42 was the first newly manufactured percussion musket to be issued to frontline troops.
It was a handsome, sturdy piece and, like its U.S. Model 1842 and French Modele 1842 counterparts, represents a highwater mark in smoothbore design. As with earlier service arms, the P42's 39(1/4)-inch barrel was pinned to its full-length walnut stock. The overall length was 55 inches, and the caliber was .758. A square front sight/bayonet lug and simple fixed notch rear provided for rudimentary aiming. Furniture, to include the forend cap, triggerguard, buttplate, "side-nail cups" (lockplate screw escutcheons) and ramrod pipes, was of brass.
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Pattern 1842s were equipped with 17-inch-bladed triangular bayonets. Beginning in 1844, the "Lovell" catch was employed--a paddle-shaped spring that caught on a bolster on the bayonet socket as the bayonet was being twisted onto the barrel lug, holding it into place. The bayonet was removed by thumbing back the catch to free the bolster. A notch on the bayonet allowed the shooter to see the front sight when the blade was in place.
The musket is loaded via a paper cartridge in a series of formalized movements. Basically, the soldier first bit off the rear of the cartridge, poured in the powder and rammed the ball, paper and all, down on top of the charge. A percussion cap was then taken from a cartridge box "magazine" or (by the time of the Crimean War) a cap box on his crossbelt and placed on the nipple. The gun was then put on full cock, aimed and fired. With practice, this operation could be performed three to four times a minute.
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Cartridges consisted of a .685-caliber 483-grain round ball backed by 4(1/2) drams (123 grains) of coarse-grain blackpowder. They were issued to soldiers in paper packets of 10 rounds each.
Weighing in at close to 10 pounds, the P42 musket is a hefty piece of hardware. Still, it was well enough thought of to provide the basic lines for the Pattern 1851 Minie Rifle. In fact, the two look almost identical, the only difference being the rifle's more sophisticated sighting arrangement.
RUSSIAN LIEGE RIFLE
Though more sophisticated rifle systems had been developed and were in use by the time of the Crimean War, the Russians were content to field a Belgian-made copy of Britain's recently discarded Brunswick, a longarm that first came into service in 1837. Called the Liege or Luttich rifle ("Luttich" is German for Liege) and manufactured by Phillipe Joseph Malherbe, it was used because the Russian military was patterned after that of the Prussians.
The Brunswick/Liege rifle is an interesting arm. Based on earlier German "Jaeger" designs, it has a barrel rifled with two deep grooves. The bullet was round, cast with a belt circling its entire circumference. The belt corresponded to the grooves, and when muzzle-loaded into the gun with an appropriate patch, effected a good fit.
It was said to be easy to load (10 rounds in 7lA minutes--about half the rate of a musket), superior in accuracy and less liable to strip than some earlier flintlock rifles.
Liege rifles had a 704-caliber, 30-inch browned barrel with a 1:28 twist and a hook breech. Furniture, which included butt box cover, ramrod pipes, trigger-guard, buttplate and fore-end cap, was of brass. The back-action lock was casehardened, and the sturdy iron ramrod was polished bright. Weight was slightly over nine pounds.
The bayonet chosen for the Liege has a heavy brass grip with short, turned-down quillons and a 22-inch leaf-shaped double-edged blade and fastens to the rifle by means of a long slot that snaps over an iron bar brazed to the gun's muzzle--very similar to the system used earlier by the British Baker. The bar is set far enough back so that the rifle can be loaded with the bayonet attached, thus correcting a major fault of some its predecessors. Its brass-appointed leather scabbard incorporates a longitudinal channel to hold an auxiliary wood ramrod.
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Tests showed that the rifle could be expected to keep 24-inch groups at 200 yards, though at 300 not all of the bullets would necessarily stay on a three-foot-square target board. At 50 to 100 yards performance was said to be roughly equivalent to that of the Baker, in that an adversary would be struck in the vitals with reasonable certainty.
Adopted by the Russians in 1843, like the British arm, the Liege rifle fired belted round balls. The rear sight was a flip-up style graduated to 200 and 300 yards. In 1848, following modern trends in riflery, the Russians adopted a 765-grain conical-shaped "Kulikov" bullet which replaced the round ball's belt with two flanking square studs. The earlier rear sight was exchanged for an elaborate dial/leaf-style graduated to 1,200 arshins or 917 yards (an arshin is an archaic Russian measurement equal to 28 inches).
Also, the simple button ramrod was exchanged for one with a brass cup-shaped head which covered about one third the bullet, ensuring the tapered projectile would not be canted on its journey down the bore. The powder charge was 83 grains, supplied in separate paper cartridges.
While not a common longarm per se, the Liege was a favorite keepsake of British officers; many were sent back to Britain after the war. I've owned three of them, one of which has a patchbox cover engraved with "Taken from the Redan/9 September 1855/by Lieut. SFP Leith 63rd Reg." I discovered that Lieutenant Leith had written a memoir of his war experiences. I got a copy of the book and found a passage where he describes taking souvenirs during the siege. You can't get much better provenance than that!
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SHOOTING IMPRESSIONS
For my range evaluation I rustled up a very good condition Pattern 1842 dated 1850 with a perfect bore. It's engraved on its buttplate tang with property markings of 90th Light Infantry, which was present at the assault on the Redan at Sebastopol. (Fallen soldiers of the 90th were found at the farthest point of the British advance.)
The chosen Liege Rifle is also in quite good condition with an excellent bore--clean, sharp rifling and only slight pitting in the rearmost portion of the lands. Its markings include a thumbpiece with the cipher of Czar Nicholas I, and the buttplate tang has a rack number and the Russian imperial double eagle.
I prepared British-style cartridges using a .685 round ball backed with 123-grains of Goex blackpowder. For the Liege, I had a maker fabricate a mold for a Kulikov-style bullet, maintaining the correct weight and diameter of .685 at the widest portion of the bullet and .71 across the studs.
These dimensions simply didn't allow enough room to employ a patch (such as with the belted ball), so I must assume the bullet was loaded naked. However, I did coat the bearing surfaces with a vegetable shortening/beeswax lube. The powder charge was 83 grains of FFg loaded from a measure.
The P42 was loaded in the proper fashion: powder, paper, ball and all. At 50 yards I got surprisingly good accuracy, with groups tightening as the bore became more fouled and windage was reduced. In fact, from a rest I was able to achieve a best spread of five inches. Not all were that good, with most running in the 10- to 12-inch range. At 100 yards, patterns spread out considerably, and while most hit in or near vital areas, a killing shot was by no means assured. Despite the gun's weight, with the 123-grain charge, recoil was pretty stout from the bench. Offhand it was a bit better but by no means pleasant.
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As I've been shooting smoothbores for years, the P42's performance wasn't all that unexpected. The Liege, however, was a whole new deal--especially with the Kulikov bullet. I've shot British Brunswicks in the past using round balls and had reasonably good performance, but this new projectile was taking me into uncharted territory. My first rested shots were taken at 50 yards, and while spreads were no great shakes, I was pleased to see the bullet was--at least--stabilizing.
In firing over 30 rounds during this and a subsequent shooting session I did not have one keyhole. After things settled down, 50-yard groups came in at close to those of the P42, with my best spread measuring 454 inches. At 100 yards, like with the Brit gun, shots dotted the torso-sized target board from top to bottom. Frankly, based on my 50-yard groups, I'd hoped for a little better accuracy.
While Sebastopol was primarily an artillery slugging match, there is no doubt that infantry and small arms fire played a decisive part in the outcome. As I've had considerable experience with the Pattern 1853, I know for a fact, at least based on my recent results, it outclassed the Russian Liege--as I suspect did the P51. Still, if you were armed with a P42, especially at close quarters, you'd have been fairly well-served. And getting hit with the nasty-looking Kulikov bullet from the Liege would have been something to be avoided at all costs.
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BATTLE BRIEFING
Sebastopol is a harbor on the southern tip of the Crimean Peninsula. During the Crimean War it was home to the Russian Black Sea fleet and a major objective of the Allies (Britain, France, Turkey and Sardinia). The siege began on October 17, 1854, at which time the Russian commanders decided to remove many of the defending troops, thinking they would be better utilized elswhere. After the Allied victory at Inker-man, however, wiser heads prevailed, and the city was-reinforced and fortified. Much of the fleet was scuttled, and the artillery from the ships was taken to Sebastopol for defensive purposes. Eventually, trenches were built around the city, similar to those that would be seen some 60 years later in the World War I For close to a year, Allied and Russian forces slugged it out, but finally on September 9th, after a heavy bombardment, the Redan fell and the Allies took the city, effectively ending the war. Casualties on the Allied side numbered some 128,387 from death, wounds and disease-the greatest number from sickness, with the French taking the heaviest losses. The Russian defenders sustained some 102,000 casualties.
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THEY WERE THERE: Leo Tolstoy
Acknowledged as one of the preeminent writers of all time, Leo Tolstoy was born into Russian nobility in 1828. His parents died when he was young, and after spending his early years being brought up by relatives on the family estate, he attended the university to study Oriental langages. His lack of interest and poor performance were responsible for him leaving after only a short time. He then went to St. Petersburg and Moscow, running up large gambling debts. Tolstoy and his brother left the city and joined the army. Commissioned a second lieutenant, during the Crimean War he commanded an artillery battery during the Siege of Sebastopol and subsequently wrote three short articles which were later combined into a book, Sebastopol Sketches, Tolstoy's service in the Crimea are responsible for the realistic battle scenes in War and Peace, considered by many to be the greatest novel ever written. His army experiences also led to a lifelong pacifism. After a long, productive and somewhat controversial life, Tolstoy died in 1910.
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PHOTOGRAPHY BY JILL MARLOW
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| Author: | James, Garry |
|---|---|
| Publication: | Guns & Ammo |
| Geographic Code: | 1USA |
| Date: | Mar 23, 2012 |
| Words: | 2491 |
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