Burnside Carbine
- Category
- Carbine
- Barrel
- 533 mm
- Weight, empty
- 3.20 kg
- Introduced
- 1857
About
What it is, and why it matters
The Burnside Carbine was a single-shot, breech-loading percussion cavalry carbine designed in the 1850s by Ambrose E. Burnside, who patented it in 1856 before rising to Major General in the Civil War. Its defining feature was a conical .54 brass cartridge that wedged tightly into a matching tapered breech, sealing the chamber against the hot-gas leakage that plagued other early breechloaders. The U.S. government ordered some 55,000 Burnsides, making it the third most widely used carbine of the conflict.
Ambrose Burnside's carbine made his name before his luxuriant whiskers did, the very whiskers that gave us the word 'sideburns'; the rifle business bankrupted him years before he commanded armies at Antietam and Fredericksburg.
Manufactured by the Burnside Rifle Company (and earlier the Bristol Firearms Company) of Providence, Rhode Island. Later models incorporated George P. Foster's improvements to the breech latch. The torch-shaped metallic cartridge resisted moisture far better than period paper cartridges.
Specification
Everything measured
IdentityWhat it is, who built it and when.
- Manufacturer
- Burnside Rifle Company
- Category
- Carbine
- Country
- United States
- Status
- Out of production
- Produced
- 1857 to 1865
DimensionsAs issued, without a magazine or an optic.
- Barrel
- 533 mm
- Overall length
- 1003 mm
- Weight, empty
- 3.20 kg
ActionHow it cycles, what trips it, and what feeds it.
- Action
- Break action
- Firing mechanism
- Hammer fired
- Trigger
- Single stage
- Capacity
- 1
- Magazine
- Internal
MaterialsEach swatch is the material itself, not a colour chosen to stand for it.
- Frame
- Steel
- Barrel
- Steel
- Stock
- Wood
- Finish
- Blued
BallisticsFrom the service cartridge, not a handload.
- Muzzle velocity
- 290 m/s
- Effective range
- 183 m
- Maximum range
- 550 m
- Rate of fire
- 10 rpm
Trajectory
What the round does downrange
Solved from the muzzle figures and the bullet. The dashed rule is the effective range on the record, and the crosses are the steps the solver returned.
No load solved for this record yetThe flight path is computed from a cartridge and a bullet. This record has no ammunition filed against its chambering, so there is nothing to solve.
Features
What it has
What the record lists as fitted, drawn from the catalogue.
Tilting breechblock- Conical brass cartridge gas seal
Moisture resistant metallic cartridge
Saddle ring
Standing
How it compares
Each figure against the firearms of the same type and cartridge that record it, or of the same type where that cartridge has too few. Positions are read to the nearest tenth.
| Measurement | This firearm | Median | Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| Empty weightAmong 409 carbines | 3.20 kg | 3.00 kg | Heavier than about 70% |
| Overall lengthAmong 407 carbines | 1003 mm | 895 mm | Longer than about 90% |
| Barrel lengthAmong 423 carbines | 533 mm | 406 mm | Longer than about 90% |
| Magazine capacityAmong 423 carbines | 1 | 21 | Holds fewer rounds than about 90% |
Answers
Questions about the Burnside Carbine
How much does the Burnside Carbine weigh?
The Burnside Carbine weighs 3.20 kg (7.05 lb) empty.
What caliber is the Burnside Carbine?
The Burnside Carbine is chambered in .54 Burnside.
How many rounds does the Burnside Carbine hold?
The Burnside Carbine holds 1 rounds, fed from an internal magazine.
How long is the Burnside Carbine?
The Burnside Carbine is 1003 mm (39.5 in) long overall, with a 533 mm (21.0 in) barrel.
Who makes the Burnside Carbine?
The Burnside Carbine is made by Burnside Rifle Company (United States). It was designed by Ambrose Burnside.
When was the Burnside Carbine introduced?
The Burnside Carbine was introduced in 1857 and discontinued in 1865.
How does the Burnside Carbine operate?
The Burnside Carbine uses a break action, and its firing mechanism is hammer fired.
Compatibility
Which parts fit this firearm
Studio
Every part that mounts on this, resolved
Not a list the maker typed out: the answer comes from the mounts this firearm exposes and the interface each part needs, so it stays right when either one changes.
- Every part that mounts on any firearm in the catalogue
- Interface standards, platforms and fit overrides
- The same answers through the API and the MCP server
Requires a signed-in GunSpec account on the Studio plan. The answer is computed per part, so it is not part of the public record.
Provenance
What the record holds
Every figure above was taken from one of these pages. The confidence reflects how much of the record came from a page a claim can be checked against.
In service
- United States Army
- 1858
- Confederate States Army
- 1861
Provenance
Confidence in this record
70%
Stockists
Where to buy
Offers link straight to the shop. GunSpec never takes the order.
No shop has listed this firearm yet
Stock and prices come from the shops themselves. If you sell this firearm, you can list it and it appears here.
List a firearmMCP
Ask an assistant about it
The same record, reached the way a person asks for it rather than the way a program does.
Ask GunSpec
Works with
Point an MCP client at GunSpec and it answers from the catalogue rather than from memory. A free key covers the read tools.
API
The call that returns this record
The same fields, in the same units, from the same endpoint the page reads.
curl --request GET \ --url 'https://api.gunspec.io/v1/firearms/burnside-carbine' \ --header 'X-API-Key: your_key'{ "id": "burnside-carbine", "name": "Burnside Carbine", "manufacturer": { "id": "burnside-rifle", "name": "Burnside Rifle Company", "countryCode": "US", "foundedYear": 1860, "website": null, "logoUrl": null, "description": null, "status": null, "defunctYear": null, "stateOwned": null, "makesFirearms": null, "parentId": null, "predecessorId": null, "createdAt": "2026-06-21 23:00:46", "updatedAt": "2026-06-21 23:00:46", "version": "019798320f28d305c5ba70dab44b4714e733826e56fef9c3f7e3749f3ab2401f" }, "category": { "id": "carbine", "name": "Carbine", "description": "Shortened rifles for close-quarters use" }, "country_of_origin": "US", "year_introduced": 1857, "barrel_length_mm": 533, "weight_empty_g": 3200, "action_type": "break_action"}