Our Ranges

In the early days, London Armoury Company (LAC) produced Enfields with machine-made, fully interchangeable parts. The company had the distinction of being the sole supplier of these arms to both the Unionists and the Confederates during the American Civil War.

The guns are instantly recognisable by the brass lock escutcheons, which have rounded wings instead of the usual square wings; the use of Baddeley patent barrel bands in the lower and middle positions; and the use of screws with domed heads, instead of screwheads filed down to be flush with the gun.

The Baddeley patent barrel bands were an improvement on the standard Palmer clamping bands that were used on the typical Type III P-1853. They used a smaller, recessed tension screw and a more rounded profile of the band to reduce the chances of the bands and screws catching on uniforms and equipment. These improved bands were adopted by the British military for the Type IV P-1853 and became standard during the mid-1860s.

Only those arms produced at the London Armoury Company and the Royal Small Arms Factory (RSAF) at Enfield Lock (the British National Armory) were manufactured with Baddeley bands during the American Civil War.

The top-quality, interchangeable-part muskets from LAC were very desirable for both sides in the US civil war. However, the British government also preferred the London Armoury guns to those of other contractors. Only LAC arms were considered by the government to be up to the standard of those produced at the RSAF. As a result, the majority of P-1853s produced by the London Armoury Company until 1862 (when the British contract expired) were delivered to the British War Department.

Southern purchasing agent, Caleb Huse, certainly felt he had an inside track with the London Armoury Company, as the Managing Director was none other than Archibald Hamilton, who was also the principal in the firm Sinclair, Hamilton & Company, a primary supplier of arms and equipment to the Confederacy.