Chassepot
Chassepot rifle with bayonet
Type	Needle gun
Place of origin	France
Service history
In service	1867–1874
Used by	France Monaco Qajar Dynasty Tokugawa shogunate Greece
Wars	French colonial conflicts, Franco-Prussian War, other conflicts
Production history
Designer	Antoine Alphonse Chassepot
Designed	1866
No. built	~2,000,000
Specifications
Weight	4.635 kilograms (10 lb 3.5 oz)
Length	1.31 m (without bayonet) 1.88 m (6 ft 2 in) (with bayonet)
Barrel length	795 mm
Cartridge	Lead bullet 25 g (386 grains) in paper cartridge charge 5.6g (86.4 grains) black powder
Caliber	11 mm (.433 inches)
Action	Bolt action
Rate of fire	8-15 rounds per minute
Muzzle velocity	410 m/s (1345 ft/s)[1]
Effective firing range	1,200 m (1,300 yd)
Feed system	Single-shot
Sights	Ladder

The Chassepot, officially known as Fusil modèle 1866, was a bolt action military breechloading rifle, famous as the arm of the French forces in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/1871. It replaced an assortment of Minié muzzleloading rifles many of which were converted in 1867 to breech loading (the Tabatière rifles). A great improvement to existing military rifles in 1866, the Chassepot marked the commencement of the era of modern bolt action, breech-loading, military rifles. Beginning in 1874, the rifle was easily converted to fire metallic cartridges (under the name of Gras rifle), a step which would have been impossible to achieve with the Dreyse needle rifle.^[2]
It was manufactured by MAS (Manufacture d’armes de Saint-Étienne), Manufacture d’Armes de Châtellerault (MAC), Manufacture d’Armes de Tulle (MAT) and, until 1870, in the Manufacture d’Armes de Mutzig in the former Château des Rohan. Many were also manufactured under contract in England (the “Potts et Hunts” Chassepots delivered to the French Navy), in Belgium (Liege), and in Italy at Brescia (by “Glisenti”). The approximate number of Chassepot rifles available to the French Army in July 1870 was 1,037,555 units.^[3] Additionally, State manufactories could deliver 30.000 new rifles monthly. Gun manufacturers in England and Austria also produced Chassepot-rifles to support the French war effort. The Steyr armory in Austria delivered 12.000 Chassepot carbines and 100.000 parts to France in 1871.^[4] Manufacturing of the Chassepot rifle ended in February 1875, four years after the end of the Franco-Prussian War, with approximately 700.000 more Chassepot rifles made between September 1871 and July 1874.^[5]

History[edit]

The Chassepot was named after its inventor, Antoine Alphonse Chassepot (1833–1905), who, from the mid-1850’s onwards, had constructed various experimental forms of breechloaders.^[6][7] The first two models of the Chassepot still used percussion cap ignition. The third model, using a similar system as the prussian Dreyse needle gun, became the French service weapon in 1866. In the following year it made its first appearance on the battlefield at Mentana on 3 November 1867, where it inflicted severe losses upon Giuseppe Garibaldi‘s troops. It was reported at the French Parliament that “Les Chassepots ont fait merveille!“, or loosely translated: “The Chassepots have done wonderfully!” The heavy cylindrical lead bullets fired at high velocity by the Chassepot rifle inflicted wounds that were even worse than those of the earlier Minié rifle.
In the Franco-Prussian War (1870/1871), the Chassepot met its Prussian counterpart, the Dreyse needle-fire rifle. The Chassepot had several advantages over the Dreyse. It featured a rubber obturator on its bolt head to provide a more efficient gas-seal. Although it fired a smaller caliber (11 mm vs. 15.4 for the Dreyse), the Chassepot ammunition had more gunpowder (5,68 grams vs 4,85 grams), resulting in higher muzzle velocity (436 meters per second, 33% over the Dreyse), a flatter trajectory and a longer range. Thus the sights on the Chassepot could be elevated up to 1600 meters, while the maximum sight setting of the Dreyse was only 600 meters.^[8] The Chassepots were responsible for most of the Prussian and other German casualties during the conflict. After the war, 20,000 captured Chassepot rifles were sold to the Shah of the Qajar Dynasty.

Technology[edit]

Bolt mechanism[edit]

Chassepot bolt mechanism

The breech was closed by a bolt similar to those of more modern rifles to follow. Amongst the technical features of interest introduced in 1866 on the Chassepot rifle was the method of obturation of the bolt by a segmented rubber ring which expanded under gas pressure and thus sealed the breech when the shot was fired. This simple yet effective technology was successfully adapted to artillery in 1877 by Colonel de Bange, who invented grease-impregnated asbestos pads to seal the breech of his new cannons (the De Bange system).

Cartridge[edit]

The Chassepot used a paper cartridge, that many refer to as being ‘combustible’, whereas in reality it was quite the opposite. It held an 11mm (.43 inch) round-headed cylindro-conoidal lead bullet that was wax paper patched. An inverted standard percussion cap was at the rear of the paper cartridge and hidden inside. It was fired by the Chassepot’s needle (a sharply pointed firing pin) upon pressing the trigger.
While the Chassepot’s ballistic performance and firing rates were excellent for the time, burnt paper residues as well as black powder fouling accumulated in the chamber and bolt mechanism after continuous firing. Also, the bolt’s rubber obturator eroded in action, although it was easily replaced in the field by infantrymen. The older Dreyse needle gun and its cartridge had been deliberately constructed in a way to minimize those problems but to the detriment of its ballistic properties.
In order to correct this problem the Chassepot was replaced in 1874 by the Gras rifle which used a centerfire drawn brass metallic cartridge. Otherwise, the Gras rifle was basically identical in outward appearance to the Chassepot rifle. Nearly all rifles of the older Chassepot model (Mle 1866) remaining in store were eventually converted to take the 11mm Gras metallic cartridge ammunition (fusil Modèle 1866/74). About 665.327^[9][10] Chassepot rifles had been captured by the German coalition that defeated France in 1871. Large numbers of these captured Chassepot rifles were converted to 11 mm Mauser metallic cartridge and shortened to carbine size in order to serve with German cavalry and artillery until the early 1880s. Others were disposed of “as is” with British surplus dealers. In most but not all cases, the French receiver markings on these German-captured Chassepot rifles had been erased.

Gallery[edit]

• 

  Chassepot paper cartridge and boxes.
• 

  French soldier with Chassepot rifle.
• 

  From left: .22 Long Rifle;
  11mm paper cartridge for Chassepot/Fusil modèle 1866;
  11mm×59.5R metallic cartridge for Fusil Gras mle 1874
• 

  Close-up, with cartridge
• 

  Bayonet assembly
• 

  1867 newspaper illustration including a cross-section
• 

  Chassepot gun, model 1866, Mutzig, 1869.

See also[edit]

• Antique gun

Notes[edit]

References[edit]

• Ford, Roger. The World’s Great Rifles London: Brown Books, 1998. ISBN 1-897884-33-8.
•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Gilman, D. C.; Peck, H. T.; Colby, F. M., eds. (1905). “^{article name needed}“. New International Encyclopedia (1st ed.). New York: Dodd, Mead.

External links[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Chassepot Mle 1866.

• The French Army 1600-1900
• Forgotten Weapons – Chassepot Needle Rifle

[hide] v t e  French weapons of the 19th century
Small arms	Delvigne rifle (1826) Thouvenin Carabine à tige (1846) Lefaucheux M1858 revolver Minié rifle (1849) Tabatière rifle (1864) Chassepot rifle (1866) Gras rifle (1874) Lebel rifle (1886) Modèle 1892 revolver
Machine guns	Reffye mitrailleuse (1866) Hotchkiss “Canon-Revolver” (1872) Mitrailleuse Gatling modèle APX 1895 (1895) Mle 1897 Hotchkiss Machine gun (1897)
Cannons	Year XI system (1803) Paixhans gun (1823) Valée system (1828) Canon obusier de 12 (1853) La Hitte system (1858) Reffye 85 mm (1870) Reffye 75 mm (1873) Lahitolle 95 mm (1873) de Bange 80 mm (1877) de Bange 90 mm (1877) Canet 320 mm (1880) Canon de 75 (1897)
Warships	Steam battleship Napoléon (1850) Ironclad floating battery Lave (1854) Ironclad Gloire (1858) Mechanical powered submarine Plongeur (1863) Steel battleship Redoutable (1876) Armoured cruiser Dupuy de Lôme (1890) Electrical submarine Gymnote (1888)
Ammunition	Lepage fulminate (1807-10) Pauly-Prélat integrated cartridge (1808) Prélat percussion cap (1818) Lefaucheux cartridge (1836) Tamisier ball (1841) Minié ball (1847) 8 mm Lebel smokeless powder cartridge (1886)
Systems	Lepage percussion system (1807) Marié-Davy naval periscope (1854) De Bange breech obturator (1872) Du Temple high-circulation steam engine (1876) Krebs naval electric gyrocompass (1880) Smokeless powder Poudre B (1886)
Operational usage	Napoleonic Wars French Intervention in Spain French conquest of Algeria Crimean War Second Italian War of Independence French Intervention in Mexico French weapons in the American Civil War Franco-Prussian War Tonkin Campaign Sino-French War