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{{Infobox weapon
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The '''Harper's Ferry
▲== History ==
Rifles existed long before the 17th century, but were rarely used by military forces. In order to be effective, the round in a rifle had to fit snugly into the barrel. This would allow the round to grip the barrel's rifling as the weapon was fired, and the rifling would impart a spin onto the round which would make it more stable and accurate. However, 16th and 17th century weapons were muzzle loaded, and the black powder that was used at the time would quickly foul the barrel. Rifles, with their tight fitting rounds, would quickly become unusable. Smooth bore muskets with looser fitting rounds were much less accurate, but did not suffer from this problem. Armies therefore tended to favor smooth bore weapons.
The U.S. military did however take note of the accuracy of rifles. The accuracy of American long rifles like the Pennsylvania and Kentucky rifles far exceeded that of any smooth bore weapon. Rifles would not replace muskets on the battlefield until the invention of the [[Minie Ball]] solved the problem of barrel fouling, but prior to that, many rifles were used by U.S. forces.
The first rifles used were imported from foreign gun makers. In 1803, Secretary of War [[Henry Dearborn]] wrote about the utility of a short
A second production run was ordered in 1814. This production lasted until 1819, and a total of 15,703 rifles were produced at this time.
The
==
The Model 1803 used a [[flintlock mechanism|flintlock]] firing mechanism.▼
The barrel of the Model 1803 was intentionally short. While this made the weapon less accurate{{Citation needed|date=February 2016}} than a long rifle like the Pennsylvania or Kentucky rifle, the shorter barrel did not suffer as much from loading problems due to fouling. The barrel was octagon to round in shape, and was 33 inches in length, per Dearborn's specification. The weapon fired a .54 caliber round. Later rifles had a 36-inch barrel.▼
▲The barrel of the
The stock was made out of walnut wood, and featured a well defined comb and a narrow wrist. The stock contained a brass [[Patch box (firearms)|patch box]], and brass furniture was used throughout the rifle.
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The rifle was 49 inches in length. Later rifles had a longer barrel, which increased their overall length to 52 inches.
==
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Some historians believe that a small number of early 1803 type rifles were produced for the Lewis and Clark expedition.<ref>"American Rifle: A Biography" By Alexander Rose</ref> It is also possible that contract rifles of 1794 were modified at the arsenal at Harper's Ferry, by shortening the barrels and reboring and rerifling them to .54 caliber. The records at the arsenal are not exact on the matter, as it appears the first 1803 prototype was produced six months after Lewis departed Maryland. The later 1803 rifles had a slightly lighter barrel than the first production run version, and had other slight differences such as a thinner lock plate and a narrower trigger guard. The barrel was 36 inches in length on the second version.
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The first production run rifles had a 33-inch barrel. Early models had the bottom of the octagon portion of the barrel rounded. In 1805 this was changed and the bottoms were left octagonal, which resulted in a slightly heavier barrel. The wood screws used were hand forged. All first production run rifles were given a serial number.
===
Several minor changes were made for the second production run. The barrel length was increased to 36 inches. Minor changes were made to the trigger, and the lock plate and hammer were significantly modified. The patch box was increased in size. All screws were machine made instead of hand forged. The second production run rifles were not given a serial number,
==Lewis and Clark
The rifle was cited as being carried by Lewis and Clark on their expedition in a National Park Service pamphlet park-service by historian Carl P.
Russell.
Regardless of its use by Lewis and Clark, the rifle was carried into battle at York during the War of 1812 by the men of the 1st U.S. Regiment of
▲== Use ==
▲Regardless of its use by Lewis and Clark, the rifle was carried into battle at York during the War of 1812 by the men of the 1st U.S. Regiment of Rifles, led by Benjamin Forsyth. Leading the American landing, they inflicted heavy casualties on the 8th Regiment of Foot, practically wiping out its grenadier company. It was presumably issued to the other companies of the Regiment, such as that under Daniel Appling. It would thus have seen good service throughout many engagements, including the American victory at [[Battle of Big Sandy Creek|Big Sandy Creek]]. Also during the War of 1812, Harrison's scout [[Peter Navarre]] carried an 1803 rifle which is still in possession of the [[Toledo-Lucas County Public Library|Toledo Public Library]]. Peter posed with the rifle in several photographs taken in preparation for his painted portrait by [[William H. Machen|William Henry Machen]] which still hangs at the Toledo Public Library.<ref name="Navarre">{{cite web|last1=Lloyd|first1=Marshall|title=Peter Navarre Homepage|url=http://mlloyd.org/gen/navarre/peter.html|website=Mlloyd.org|accessdate=23 September 2016}}</ref> By the time it was replaced by the [[Model 1817 Common Rifle|Model 1817]] and the [[M1819 Hall rifle|Model 1819]], the Model 1803 rifle had been carried by regular army troops throughout what would later become South Dakota, Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Texas. It influenced the market so that smaller rifles became more common, and inspired civilian gunmakers, who made the plains rifles and mountain rifles, used in the west by the mountain men and explorers and everywhere by civilians as sport rifles.<ref>{{cite book|last = Russell|first = Carl|title = Guns on the Early Frontiers|publisher = Bonanza Books|year = 1957|page = 181|isbn = }}</ref>
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==See also==
*[[List of individual weapons of the U.S. Armed Forces]]
==References==
{{reflist|2}}
[[Category:Early rifles]]▼
[[Category:Rifles of the United States]]▼
[[Category:American Civil War rifles]]
▲[[Category:Rifles of the United States]]
[[Category:Muzzleloaders]]
▲[[Category:Early rifles]]
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