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28th New York Infantry Regiment

Civil War and Reenacting Articles

The Rifle of the 28th New York

There has been much debate regarding the rifle which the men of the 28th New York were issued when they enlisted. The history of the regiment makes reference to the regiment having been armed with “Remington Rifles with sabre bayonets”; however it goes into no additional details.

Below is one of the only known picture of an enlisted man of the 28th NY in full uniform, and he happens to be holding his rifle in that picture. It is Private William Sims who served with Company C. The picture was taken in March 1862 at Woodstock, Va.

William Sims. 28th NY, Co. C.

Taken that the person in this picture is seated, the rifle is definitely a shorter barrel than would be seen on the Springfield or Enfield rifles of the day and only two barrel bands can be identified in the picture.

Based on a search through the History of Remington Firearms, we find a reference to an order submitted by the State of New York to have 5,000 Model 1841 “Mississippi” rifles altered to allow the provision for sword-bayonets and for the barrels to be rifled to a caliber of .54 (increased from the .52 smoothbore caliber of the M1841 Rifle)

Remington went to Collins & Co. of Connecticut to provide 5,000 brass handled sword-bayonets and the contract between E. Remington and Sons and the State of New York was signed on May 30, 1861 to carry out the alterations.

However, once the contract had been signed it became apparent that the race to arm the volunteer regiments of New England was putting a strain on the capabilities of the arms manufacturers and Collins & Co. was only able to supply 2,500 of the requested 5,000 sword bayonets.

On June 23, 1861, the 28th New York received 720 Model 1841 Altered Rifles, complete with sword bayonets, and began the march to Washington the next day.

The remainder of the 2,500 altered M1841 rifles was delivered to the State of New York two days later, on June 25, 1861. Over the next few months, Collins & Co. was able to provide an additional 768 sword bayonets to Remington, which were fitted to the M1841 Rifles and these additional 768 were delivered to the State of New York in September 1861. The remaining 1,732 unaltered M1841 rifles were sent to F.H. Grosz in New York City to be fitted with angular socket bayonets.

Remington M1841 Altered “Mississippi” Rifle with Sword Bayonet Attachment

In total, Remington altered 3,268 M1841 rifles fitting each with a sword bayonet. Based on the New York Adjutant Generals Report from 1862, the rifles were quickly issued to the volunteer regiments being recruited by New York and were distributed as follows:

13th NYV

740 Issued (Replaced the M1840 Smoothbore)

20th NYV

720 Issued (Replaced the M1842 Smoothbore)

28th NYV

920 Issued

45th NYV

752 Issued

55th NYV

100 Issued (Two Companies Only)

A total of 3,232 were issued.

Additionally, only the 7th NYV is known to have been issued with M1842 Altered Rifles which had been fitted with angular socket bayonets, of which the regiment received 720.

The Model 1841 Altered Rifles by Remington were known to be very accurate rifles and they were the precursor of the Remington “Zouave” Rifle which was one of the best muzzle loading rifles to come out of the war.