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The Enfield Rifle
The Patent 1853 Enfield Rifle that started it all.
Some basic stats:
The barrel had three grooves and was about 39″.
The rifle’s cartridges contained 68 grains (about 4 grams) of black powder.
The ball was typically a 530-grain (about 35 grams) which would be driven out at about 850-900 feet per second.
The range was typically up to 900 yards but a good marksman could probably shoot farther.
The process of firing the rifle was complex: it required soldiers to bite open the cartridge, pour the gunpowder contained within down the barrel, then ram the cartridge paper down the barrel to act as a wad, before finally ramming a musketball down the barrel, removing the ram-rod, shouldering the rifle, adding a percussion cap, and firing.
The armies in India were issued with the Enfield rifle in 1856, and rumours began to spread that the cartridges (referring here to cardboard wrapped powder and shot, not metallic cartridges) were greased with either pig fat or beef tallow.
Somewhere about the end of the third week in January 1857, a khalasi, that is to say a labourer, accosted a high Brahmin sepoy and asked for a drink of water from his lotah (water-pot). The Brahmin refused on the score of caste. The khalasi then said, “You will soon lose your caste, as ere long you will have to bite catridges covered with the fat of pigs and cows,” or, it is added, “words to that effect.”
Palmer, J.A.B. The Mutiny Outbreak at Meerut In 1857. Cambridge: University Press, 1966.
The idea of having anything which might be tainted with pig or beef fat in their mouths was totally unacceptable to the sepoys, and when they objected it was suggested that they were more than welcome to make up their own batches of cartridges, using a religiously acceptable greasing agent such as beeswax or vegetable oil. This, of course, served only as “proof” that the issued cartridges were, in fact, greased with pig and/or beef fat.
Members of the 3rd regiment of light cavalry in Meerut, were awaiting sentencing and imprisonment for refusal to obey orders and put the Lee-Enfield .303 caliber cartridge into their mouths. On 10th May, the 11th and 20th cavalry assembled and broke rank and turned on their commanding officers : the start of the Rebellion.
Even more details about the rifle:
Without Bayonet Weight 8lb 14 1/4oz
Length 4ft 6 1/8in
Barrel Weight 4lb 4 1/4oz
Length 3ft 3in
Bore dia. .577in
No. of grooves 3
Twist of rifling 1 in 78
Sighted up to 900 yards
Bayonet Weight 0lb 13 1/2oz
Length beyond muzzle 1ft 5 1/2in
Ammunition Charge of powder 2 1/2drs
Weight of Bullet 535grs
Lubricator Tallow and beeswax on paper
