Friday, August 07, 2026
The Guns that Actually Won the West
From 1866 to 1873 the standard army rifle was the 50-70 trapdoor Springfield, and the standard cavalry carbine was the 50-70 Sharps. Both of these were cartridge conversions of percussion cap guns used in the War for Southern Independence. These were the guns that forced the Indian tribes onto the reservations, and these were the main guns that destroyed the Indians’ larder, the buffalo herds, to keep them there. After they had done their job, the West was won and open for settlement. Why then did they not get credit as the guns that won the West? The answer is simple. The army had committed so many atrocities in the occupied South and in the West, where they often sided with the rich interests against the settler and common man, as in the Johnson County War in New Mexico, that they were despised by the average man. The outrages grew so extreme that it led to the passing of the Posse Comitatus Act prohibiting the army from taking part in law enforcement. The public was in no mood to honor them directly or indirectly by honoring their tools. Therefore, only civilian guns would be glorified.
