The Springfield Model 1861 was a Minié-type rifled musket used by the United States Army and Marine Corps during the American Civil War. Commonly referred to as the "Springfield" (after its original place of production, Springfield, Massachusetts). It was the most widely used Union Army shoulder weapon during the Civil War, favored for its range, accuracy, and reliability. Overview The barrel was long, firing a .58 caliber Minié ball, and the total weight was approximately . The Model 1861 had a general effective range of but could reliably hit man-sized targets out to when used by marksmen, and used percussion caps which were much more reliable and weather resistant to fire (rather than the flintlocks of the 18th century; the last U.S. flintlock musket was the Springfield Model 1840). Well-trained troops were able to fire at a rate of three aimed shots per minute while maintaining accuracy up to , though firing distances in the war were often much shorter. The most notable difference between the Model 1861 and the earlier Springfield Model 1855 was the elimination of the Maynard tape primer for the Model 1861 (the Maynard primer, a self-feeding primer system, was unreliable in damp conditions, and the priming mechanism was expensive and time-consuming to produce). Further, unlike the Model 1855, the Model 1861 was never produced in a two-banded rifle configuration. The Model 1861 was aimed using flip-up leaf sights. The sight had two leaves, one for and the other for , and with both leaves down, the sight was set for a range of . By contrast, the British Enfield Pattern 1853, favored by the Confederate military, utilized a ladder-sight system with 100-yard (91 m) increments, using steps from and a flip-up ladder for ranges beyond . While the Enfield's sights did allow finer range settings, the Model 1861 rifled musket's simple leaves were more rugged and were less expensive to produce. The Enfield's sights extended to (and further, on later models), compared to the 500-yard (460 m) maximum range of the Model 1861 rifled musket sights. Realistically, though, hitting anything beyond with either weapon was mostly a matter of luck. While the sight designs were very different, the two weapons were otherwise very similar, and had very similar effective ranges. The Model 1861 cost around $15 each at the Springfield Armory where they were officially made. Overwhelmed by the demand, the armory opened its weapons