Springfield Model 1873

Origins

At the end of the American Civil War the United States Army owned vast stocks of muzzle-loading rifle-muskets and had little money for new arms. Erskine S. Allin, the master armorer at Springfield Armory in Massachusetts, found a cheap way to turn them into breech-loaders. The top of the barrel at the breech was cut open and a hinged breechblock was fitted that swung up and forward like a trapdoor. The first conversions of 1865 were made from rifle-muskets of the Springfield Model 1861 family and fired a .58 rimfire cartridge. The Model 1866 changed to a .50-70 centerfire cartridge, and improved models followed in 1868 and 1870. In 1872 and 1873 a board of officers under Brigadier General Alfred H. Terry tested roughly a hundred American and foreign breech-loaders. It recommended keeping the Springfield system in a new .45 caliber. The result was adopted in 1873.

Design & Construction

The Model 1873 fired the .45-70-405 cartridge: a .45 caliber lead bullet of 405 grains over 70 grains of black powder. The cavalry carbine used a lighter 55-grain charge to reduce recoil. The infantry rifle had a barrel of about 32 5/8 inches, a full-length stock held by two bands, and a Socket Bayonet. The carbine had a 22-inch barrel and a half stock, and it hung from a sling across the trooper's shoulder. To load, the soldier drew the hammer to half cock, pressed a thumb latch and flipped the breechblock up. This threw out the empty case. He pushed in a fresh cartridge, closed the block and brought the hammer to full cock. A trained man could fire perhaps twelve rounds a minute for a short time.

The action was strong and simple, and the heavy bullet carried well beyond the reach of most repeating rifles of the day. Its weak point in the 1870s was the ammunition. Early cartridges had soft copper cases. In a hot, fouled chamber a case could stick, and the extractor could tear through the rim and leave it in place, to be dug out with a knife. Brass cases later cured the fault. The Army revised the weapon several times. From 1877 the carbine had a jointed cleaning rod stored in the butt, the Model 1884 had the long-range Buffington rear sight and was used with a heavier 500-grain bullet, and the Model 1888 rifle had a sliding rod bayonet under the barrel.

Combat Use

The Trapdoor was the Army's main arm in the campaigns on the Plains and in the Southwest. Infantry valued the long rifle's reach in fights with mounted warriors. The carbine armed the cavalry regiments, including the Black troopers of the 9th and 10th Cavalry, remembered as the Buffalo Soldiers. At the Battle of the Little Bighorn in June 1876 the 7th Cavalry carried the carbine and the Colt Single Action Army revolver. Some survivors reported jammed carbines, and for years the copper cartridge was blamed for the defeat. Archaeological study of fired cases found on the battlefield in the 1980s found signs of extraction trouble on only a small share of them, and most historians now think jamming was a minor factor. Many of the warriors had repeaters such as the Winchester Model 1873, which fired faster at close range but used a much weaker cartridge.

The Springfield also served in the Nez Perce War of 1877, the Apache campaigns and at Wounded Knee in 1890. In the war with Spain in 1898 most regular troops had newer rifles, but many volunteer regiments still carried Trapdoors. Their black powder smoke gave away firing positions to Spanish troops using smokeless Mauser rifles.

Legacy

The Army chose the Krag-Jørgensen magazine rifle in 1892, and it reached the regular regiments from 1894. Springfield Armory had by then made about half a million .45-70 rifles and carbines, though totals differ between sources. State militia units kept them into the early 1900s. The Model 1873 was the last single-shot, black powder rifle of the American regular army, and the .45-70 cartridge is still loaded today for sporting rifles. It is described with other United States Arms & Weapons.