How To Load And Fire A Civil War Rifle

While modern weapons fire hundreds of rounds in a minute, in the Civil War, a good rifleman could only fire three in that amount of time.

As I wandered around the Civil War encampment at the James A. Garfield National Historic Site this past weekend, I ran into re-enactor Tom Viezer, who showed me how to load his 1860s Enfield rifle.

To fire a rifle in the Civil War, a soldier had to follow nine steps.

“If you skipped a step, all you had was a 10-pound club,” Viezer said.

Here are the nine steps:

1.)Remove cartridge from pouch and tear it open with teeth.

2.) Pour cartridge down barrel of rifle and drop in minie ball.

3.) Withdraw the ramrod from gun.

4.) Jam ramrod down gun barrel to pack in ball and powder

5.) Return the ramrod to original position with pinky finger to avoid hand getting shot off during possible premature firing.

6.) Pick up rifle and pull back hammer.

7.) Remove cap from cap box and place on cone of rifle.

8.) Make sure hammer is fully cocked.

9.) Aim and shoot.

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