This is a FINE condition example of a rarely encountered Civil War socket bayonet for the Lindner Alterations of the Mississippi Rifle. As only 303 rifles were ever altered by the Lindner system, these socket bayonets are rather scarce.

In March of 1859 Edward Lindner patented a new breechloading system for percussion ignition firearms. The patent covered a breech loading percussion ignition design, which used a hooded rotating bolt collar to lock and unlock the breech, allowing the breech to tilt up under spring pressure for loading in a manner reminiscent of the Hall’s patent rifle. The system was unique and somewhat cumbersome. The mating of the grooved tilting chamber with the hooded collar was intended to provide the gas seal that the Hall did not have. Like any arms inventor, Lindner’s first thought was to obtain government contracts for arms built around his breechloading system. Interestingly, the system had the advantage of being equally applicable the alteration of existing muzzleloading arms as to newly made ones. This was actually Lindner’s initial approach in submitting his design to the Ordnance Department for evaluation. 

Lindner submitted a Swiss M1838 Engineer’s Musket that had been converted to breechloader by the Lindner system for Ordnance Department evaluation in January 1859. Between January 22 and 24 the gun was tested, with the design being rejected. The complaints were several, with the first being that the female groove in the tilting breech was likely to become dirty, rusted or fouled; making the operation of the system difficult. Second, the testing officers felt that the gas seal was based entirely upon the tight mechanical fit between the grooved chamber and hooded collar. Should this wear due to gas erosion, rust or any other reason, the resulting gapping would allow the release of gas. Additionally, it was found that the projecting operating handle from the hooded collar was somewhat troublesome both because it stuck straight out from the gun creating an awkward poking hazard, and from the standpoint that it was likely to become broken in the field. The report firmly castigated the design by concluding of the design; “In our opinion it does not possess either the simplicity or durability required for an arm for military purposes.”

But Lindner was not deterred. He approached the Navy for a test of his design. Admiral Dahlgren tested Lindner’s gun by firing it some one hundred and forty times with positive results, although nothing ever came of the testing for Lindner. Lindner also continued to make applications to the army via Secretary of War John B. Floyd and somehow persuaded Secretary Floyd to request the army perform additional tests. This time two altered guns were submitted for review, with at least one of them being of Swiss origin again. As before, the arms performed less than spectacularly, with the primary objection centering around the inconvenient operating handle, a complaint from other testing as well. Additionally, the fact that the gun had the ability to fire up to five rounds a minute allowed the gun to heat up sufficiently that it made the gun too hot to touch and difficult to operate the breech hood lever. Interestingly, the less than spectacular accuracy delivered by the gun was not considered a particular issue. However, at the conclusion of the report, the testers noted that should Lindner be able to address these design issues that possibly fifty guns should be acquired for further testing.

As the Civil War erupted, Lindner continued to pursue any way to obtain a contract to alter arms to his system for the US government. One of Lindner’s proposals was the alteration of existing stocks of obsolete Hall carbines to his system, thus eliminating the gas leakage problem inherent in the Hall. Lindner was rebuffed, with the Ordnance Department more interested in selling off the old carbines than modifying them. Interestingly, this set the scene for the Hall Carbine Affair. Arthur Eastman of Manchester, NH also tried to sell the Lindner alteration of Hall carbines as well, but his offers were also rejected. Eastman subsequently agreed to purchase the old Hall carbines from the government and intended to proceed with the alterations, using the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company’s facilities to perform the work. Eastman had two samples produced, but again the proposal was rejected by the Ordnance Department. Eastman then decided to cut his losses and sold off the guns to other speculators,  who “modified” them to .58 caliber, rifled them and then resold them to the government via General Fremont for a fantastic profit. Lindner was not involved in this sale but was on the fringes of what would become the first large-scale military industrial complex scandal that would launch a Congressional commission to investigate military contracts and war profiteering.

Eastman then took a new approach and proposed altering the flintlock Hall rifles in the possession of the state of New Hampshire to the Lindner percussion system. The governor agreed to the proposal and Eastman had Amoskeag alter two hundred flint Hall rifles for the state, charging the state of New Hampshire $10 to convert each rifle. The process took several months, with the guns being delivered to Amoskeag in July of 1861 and the work not being completed until the end of November. This delay likely involved making the required jigs and specialized tooling to produce the Lindner breech blocks and collars and suggests that the work was not easy. Upon completion, the state decided not to accept the guns, for a reason that is not immediately known. In the end, the Lindner altered Hall Rifles were sold off to William Read & Son of Boston, at the low price of $11.50, which suggests that everyone involved in this deal, other than William Read & Son, likely lost money on the transaction. The only potential upside was that Amoskeag was now in possession of the necessary equipment to produce the Lindner breech systems.

Another entrepreneur who tried to capitalize on the Lindner design was E.G. Allen of the National Steam Gauge Company in Boston. Allen obtained a Pattern 1853 Enfield Rifle Musket from the state of Massachusetts and paid Amoskeag to alter it to the Lindner system. This was no doubt intended to be a sample to obtain a contract to convert the numerous English rifle muskets that the state was buying from England into breechloaders. This plan did not meet with success, but after the state acquired some four thousand older US Model 1841 “Mississippi Rifles”, Allen managed to obtain three of these to have them altered to the Lindner system as samples for the state. Allen came to a patent agreement with Lindner regarding patent royalties and agreed to pay the inventor for the right to use the Lindner patent to both alter guns for the state of Massachusetts, as well as to alter guns in the state of Massachusetts for sale elsewhere. Allen formed the partnership of Morse & Allen for this business venture, but in the end only one hundred and three Model 1841 rifles were altered to the Lindner system for the state of Massachusetts, including the three sample guns. Morse & Allen then managed to obtain two hundred more Model 1841 rifles from the state of Massachusetts which they had Amoskeag alter to the Lindner system. They also added wrist mounted peep rear sights, and then these guns were sold to the “Department of New England”. This “Department” was in fact General Benjamin Butler’s command that had been established to organize the force that would plan and execute the attack, invasion and capture of New Orleans.

Part of the deal to produce these breechloading guns was apparently that they were to be delivered with bayonets. As the Mississippi Rifle was not manufactured to accept a bayonet and the surplus rifles did not have bayonets, Morse & Allen had to obtain them. The firm had three potential options in terms of adapting the rifles that were not designed for bayonets to accept them and to acquire bayonets. The option that the Ordnance Department had pursued in the pre-Civil War period had been to add a saber bayonet lug to the barrels of the guns, modify the upper barrel band to make room for the saber bayonet’s hilt and add newly made saber bayonets to the guns. While this was potentially the most elegant solution, it was also the costliest in terms of time, work and newly acquired materials, like the saber bayonets themselves. The second and third options revolved around adding socket bayonets to the rifles. As the Mississippi Rifles had larger barrel diameters than other the guns in the US Ordnance system at the time, that meant there were no socket bayonets in the US Ordnance system that had sockets large enough to fit on them. This meant the guns needed to have their barrels turned down to a smaller outer diameter to allow them to accept bayonets that were already available. A number of Mississippi Rifle alterations were done during the early days of the Civil War by various states and gunsmiths that turned down the barrels to accept nominally .69 socket bayonets, like the US Model 1816 or the US Model 1835. This required some careful machining of the first 3” or so of the barrel and then required that some surplus socket bayonets be located and purchased. The third and final option was to have newly made socket bayonets produced to fit the guns. None of the options were perfect choices, but the second and third options were cheaper than the first one. In the end, the decision was taken to pursue option three and have new socket bayonets produced for the Lindner altered Mississippi Rifles.

Morse & Allen approached the Bay State Tool Company of Northampton, MA to make the bayonets. Bay State Tool had acquired bayonet manufacturing machinery from the English firm of Greenwood & Batley and was producing socket bayonets for Spencer Rifle. The firm also produced the socket bayonets for the A.J. Drake alterations of Mississippi Rifles for the State of Masschusetts. It is not clear if the Drake contract or the Lindner contract with Bay State Tool occurred first, but the reality is that the both the Drake and Lindner alteration bayonets are essentially identical and can only be differentiated by the way in which they are marked.

These bayonets have a somewhat unique appearance, with a sharp junction at the blade to shank joint. This profile is only found on two patterns of bayonets not produced by the Bay State Tool Company. These include the Confederate Fayetteville Armory socket bayonets and the Spanish Modelo 1857 socket bayonets. As the Fayetteville Armory received its bayonet making machinery from Greenwood & Batley as well, this makes perfect sense. The three bayonets produced by Bay State Tool have this profile and include the early production Spencer Rifle socket bayonets, the Drake and the Lindner.

The Drake and Lindner bayonets have a huge, nominally .918 socket diameter to fit the large diameter of the Mississippi Rifle’s barrel. They had longer than standard blades that were nominally 19 7/8” in length, roughly 2” longer than the current issue US Model 1855 socket bayonets. This extra length was intended to help make up for the fact that the Mississippi Rifles had 33” barrels, rather than the standard 40” barrels of the rifle muskets in use. The blades were nominally 27/32” wide and had a nearly full-length face flute. The bayonets had the standard 3” socket length and was cut with a standard two step mortise cut for a top lug and used a rotating locking ring to secure them to the gun. The bayonets were not marked with the exception of an alphanumeric code that was used to mate the bayonets to the guns. The Drake contract bayonets were marked on the top of  their sockets, and the Lindner bayonets were marked on the bottom of the socket, between the locking ring and the shank.

As noted, the Lindner Mississippi Rifle Socket Bayonet offered here is in FINE condition. The bayonet is full-length with a nominally 20” blade with an 18 ¾” face flute. The 3” socket retains the original locking ring, which is a little loose but just needs to have the tension screw tightened up. The key identifying feature is the alphanumeric mating code 53F under the socket, between the locking ring and shank. The bayonet remains mostly bright and shows some cross polish machining marks in about the last 4” of the face flute, near the socket. The metal shows scattered freckles and splotches of surface oxidation and age discoloration. The majority of the metal has toned to a medium pewter patina with only those darker, mottled freckles scattered over the blade and socket. The locking ring functions correctly and the socket remains in good condition with no damage that would prevent it from going over the muzzle of a rifle.

Overall, this is a rarely encountered Civil War variant socket bayonet for the US Model 1841 Mississippi Rifles that were altered to breechloaders by the Lindner system. This would be a fine addition to the display of your Lindner altered Mississippi Rifle or to add to an advanced collection of Civil War era socket bayonets. These bayonets do not appear on the market on a regular basis and over my 30 or so years in this collecting hobby and business, I have never owned one. Don’t miss your opportunity to add this rare Lindner Mississippi Rifle socket bayonet to your Civil War arms or bayonet collection.

SOLD