"Whitney Rifles" were contract versions of the U.S. Army's M1841 rifle (also called the "Mississippi rifle") which were made on Eli Whitney's company at the Whitneyville manufacturing plant in New York. These show up in period references as "Harpers Ferry rifles" as well, since the Army depot version was made only at the Harpers Ferry arsenal. M1841s were originally made in .54 caliber, after standardization on the Minie rifle ball in 1855, a goodly number of the old M1841s were re-bored to .58 caliber and refitted to use a sabre bayonet.

Eli Whitney died in 1825; it was his son, Eli Whitney Jr., who was running the business at the time they were making the contract versions of the M1841s and also retrofitting the rifles to .58 caliber.

Tom Ezell
The Capitol Guards