Henry's repeating rifle is a leveraged, tubular magazine rifle famous for both its use in the Battle of the Little Bighorn and being the foundation of the American Wild West's iconic Winchester rifle.

Designed by Benjamin Tyler Henry in 1860, the original Henry was a sixteen-shot .44 caliber rimfire breech-loading lever rifle. It was introduced in the early 1860s and was produced in the United States in 1866 by the New Haven Arms Company. Henry was adopted by the Union in the Civil War in small quantities and preferred for higher firepower than the standard carbine. Many later found the way to the West, particularly in the hands of the Sioux and Cheyenne, while destroying Custer's US Cavalry troops in June 1876.
The original Henry rifle was a sixteen-shot .44-caliber rimfire breech-loading rifle patented by Benjamin Tyler Henry in 1860 after three years of design work. [2] Henry was an improved version of the previous Volition and later the Volcanic. Henry used copper (later brass) rimfire cartridges containing 216 grains (14.0 grams, 0.490 ounces) rounds of black powder (1.6 g, 0.056 oz.) On 25 grains.

Initially, only 150 to 200 rifles were produced per month. [Citation needed] Nine hundred were produced between summer and October 1862. [Citation needed] Production peaked at 290 per month until 1864, [citation needed] totaling 8,000. [3] By the time the work ended in 1866, approximately 14,000 units were produced.

It was a source of pride for a Civil War soldier to own the Henry rifle. [4] House letters would call them "Sixteen" or "Seventeen" shooters depending on whether a bullet was loaded in the chamber. [Citation needed] Only 1,731 of the standard rifles were purchased by the government during the Civil War. [5] The State of Kentucky bought 50 more. But between 6,000 and 7,000 saw the Union used on the field through special purchases by soldiers who could afford it. Another weak point for Henry was that he could not be equipped with a bayonet. Many infantry soldiers bought Henrys with their recruiting awards in 1864. Most of these units were linked to Sherman's Western troops.