Greg, I appologize. 1861's Springifields did have swelled rods, my last post should have read 1863 Springfield, straight, no swell, tulip design.

Burton, the pre-war superintendant of U.S. Aresenal at Harper's Ferry VA recommended in 1860 that the swell be discontinued from the rammers due to extra costs and it not being necessary. Following this recommendation, the Confederates produced straight rods.

Paul Davies work, "C.S. Armory Richmond" is the definative work on Richmond arms. I recently have been reading this work following my conversation with the author last week. He notes that all Richmond produced Richmond arms used the the straight diameter rod, with the iron tulip head.

Consequently, Davies states, that there could be about 2,000 Richmonds that had the 1855 style rammer, because 2000 or so rods were captured at Harper's Ferry, per my last post.