A .577 cal. carbine not often seen ---lock dated Tower 1861.
- Thread starter drm3m
- Start date
Some comments from an expert back when I made the trade.
Your carbine is a standard P56 East India Pattern carbine, but was issued to a British regular unit, hence the numeral 1 and the Tower roundel. The 1 signifies issue to a regular Army/cavalry unit.
Some VR marked Enfields were imported, but only those made by London Armoury Company as they used the same locks on their commercial arms as they used for the British government contract pieces.
That is a nice carbine. It appears to be a straight British issue piece as it has the WO stamp and a 1 class designation. The marks should all be covered in The British Soldier's Firearm. Congratulations on acquiring a crisp specimen.
The British Soldier's Firearm, 1850-1864 (subtitle: From Smoothbore to Smallbore) by C. H. Roads - it is the in-depth reference work for all British regulation arms for the era stated. It contains all of the various stock roundels, proof marks, etc. The book is often hard to find and was reprinted once. An original has better photos than a reprint. You should be able to find a copy for sale on line. It has very few errors (that were not corrected in the reprint).
"The large figure beneath the roundel denoted the class of arm. Those in the first class were for issue to regular troops, those in the second for the volunteers and the Militia, whilst the third class were reserved for recruit drilling in regimental depots. Any first class arm which had been repaired to any great extent was regarded as second class and the stock marked with a figure '2' in place of the '1'." - Subsequent repairs resulted in additional figure 2's. It is not uncommon to find a weapon with a 1, sometimes struck through, and also a large 2, but occasionally a piece will have a 1, and two 2's.
The P56 carbines are fascinating because there were many variants. I once owned one made at the Madras Arsenal and so marked; it had seven groove rifling. A friend really wanted it and swapped me something interesting for it. The arms made at Madras and at Fort William Arsenal in India were of excellent quality.
I think that it would be nice to have a P56 cavalry carbine in your CW collection. They are a fine weapon and were very popular with the Confederates. They are excellent shooters. It's very difficult to find one that was actually used in the War and even harder to find one that retains its original sling ring and bar. It seems that many of the carbines were used as barn guns following the War. The P56 was much liked by Jeb Stuart and his ordnance officer John Esten Cooke. I have one carried by a trooper in the Georgia cavalry and several others without provenance to an individual.
This is what I traded to get the carbine.
THE BOOK THAT HE REFERRED TO.
Your carbine is a standard P56 East India Pattern carbine, but was issued to a British regular unit, hence the numeral 1 and the Tower roundel. The 1 signifies issue to a regular Army/cavalry unit.
Some VR marked Enfields were imported, but only those made by London Armoury Company as they used the same locks on their commercial arms as they used for the British government contract pieces.
That is a nice carbine. It appears to be a straight British issue piece as it has the WO stamp and a 1 class designation. The marks should all be covered in The British Soldier's Firearm. Congratulations on acquiring a crisp specimen.
The British Soldier's Firearm, 1850-1864 (subtitle: From Smoothbore to Smallbore) by C. H. Roads - it is the in-depth reference work for all British regulation arms for the era stated. It contains all of the various stock roundels, proof marks, etc. The book is often hard to find and was reprinted once. An original has better photos than a reprint. You should be able to find a copy for sale on line. It has very few errors (that were not corrected in the reprint).
"The large figure beneath the roundel denoted the class of arm. Those in the first class were for issue to regular troops, those in the second for the volunteers and the Militia, whilst the third class were reserved for recruit drilling in regimental depots. Any first class arm which had been repaired to any great extent was regarded as second class and the stock marked with a figure '2' in place of the '1'." - Subsequent repairs resulted in additional figure 2's. It is not uncommon to find a weapon with a 1, sometimes struck through, and also a large 2, but occasionally a piece will have a 1, and two 2's.
The P56 carbines are fascinating because there were many variants. I once owned one made at the Madras Arsenal and so marked; it had seven groove rifling. A friend really wanted it and swapped me something interesting for it. The arms made at Madras and at Fort William Arsenal in India were of excellent quality.
I think that it would be nice to have a P56 cavalry carbine in your CW collection. They are a fine weapon and were very popular with the Confederates. They are excellent shooters. It's very difficult to find one that was actually used in the War and even harder to find one that retains its original sling ring and bar. It seems that many of the carbines were used as barn guns following the War. The P56 was much liked by Jeb Stuart and his ordnance officer John Esten Cooke. I have one carried by a trooper in the Georgia cavalry and several others without provenance to an individual.
This is what I traded to get the carbine.
THE BOOK THAT HE REFERRED TO.
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