TOCWOC – A Civil War Blog

Some time ago I put up a post asking about the rifles carried by the Second Iowa, and now I finally have an answer thanks to Bill Adams, who kindly looked it up for the Corinth battle.

52nd Illinois – Enfield Rifle .577 cal.
2nd Iowa – M1842 rifled musket .69 cal.
7th Iowa – 72 US .58 rifled musket, 154 .577 Enfield RM; 46 M1842 .69 RM; 72 .69 French/Belgian RM; 72 .58 Austrian RM; 11 .54 Austrian RM

So everyone had a rifle although at this point it was still a pretty eclectic mixture, especially for the 7th Iowa.

The M1842 Rifled Musket was a beast — a direct descendant of the M1816, a flintlock, and a later variation of the M1842 smoothbore musket, it fired a .69 caliber Minié ball and reportedly had one helluva of a kick. Although not as accurate as the smaller bore rifles, it was certainly good enough for shooting at 200 yards, which is where Will Holden said they opened fire at Corinth.