Minié rifle
Popularized as ‘Minnie rifle’, this was the term adopted in the English-speaking world to describe a muzzle-loading percussion rifle firing a cylindro-conoidal bullet with a concave base containing a cup. This type of bullet was patented by Capt Claud-Etienne Minié of the French army in 1849 from an idea by his fellow countryman, Gustave Delvigne. The bullet had greased grooves running horizontally around its base, which facilitated its loading into a rifled barrel. When fired, the skirts of the bullet expanded to fit the rifling, resulting in improved accuracy and range. Adopted in Britain as the Pattern 1851 Rifle-Musket, the British Minié rifle had a 39 inch barrel of .702 inch calibre and fired a 680 grain Minié bullet; fitted with its triangular-section socket bayonet, it weighed 11 lb (5 kg) and stood 6 feet (1.82 metres) from butt-plate to bayonet-tip; it was superseded in 1853 by the Pattern 1853 Rifle-Musket. The Minié bullet was adopted by many nations in their earliest forms of muzzle-loading service rifle and it accounted for a large proportion of the casualties during the American civil war of 1861-5.
Bibliography
- Peterson, Harold L. (ed.), Encyclopaedia of Firearms (London, 1964).
- Roads, Dr Christopher H., The British Soldier's Firearm 1850-1864 (London, 1964)
— Stephen Wood
