The Rebs fatally sharpshot Fort Sanders’ namesake Union Gen. William P. Sanders, with a thirteen-pound English Whitworth rifle like this one. It was fired more than a mile away, from the tower of the Bleak House mansion, Gen. Longstreet’s headquarters.
The muzzle-loading, percussion rifle fired a one-inch projectile powered by a three-inch powder charge. It usually mounted a 14.5-inch sighting telescope. In the 1860s, the Whitworth cost about $1,200. Now you can own one (sans telescope) for around $10,000.
