CHAPTER 16. Vulcan Hammers at Ilion’s Forge

When Ripley gave Eli Remington II the contract for 10.000 rifles with sword bayonets he set in motion the wheels of industry that were brought to a shattering halt by Secretary Stanton’s proclamation. Like everyone going up unto his own city to be taxed, the arms makers descended upon the chambers of Holt and Owen in Washington. In jeopardy was the contract for 10,000 rifles and 5,000 .44 caliber revolvers. The firm—for E. Remington & Sons no longer boasted the steady and patriarchal hand of Eli II at the helm, he having died in August, 1861—was about to suffer much loss. Philo, the eldest son, born 1816, was the inventive one, and later was responsible for the breech-loading Remington rifle upon which the firm rode the postwar tide. His younger brother Samuel was the general agent, making selling contracts and concluding purchases of materials and machines but also doing design work. Eliphalet Remington, later also to be called Junior, was the youngest of the three brothers. Known for his command of language and skill in penmanship, he had charge of the correspondence of the firm and the accounting. The three brothers had been taken into partnership in 1856 with the extra s added to & Son. Now it fell to Samuel to confer with Messrs. Holt, Owen, and his friend Major Hagner, as to the outcome of their small but precious contracts.

Remington War Contracts

  While Colt had tackled the matter first and foremost, and set the $20 price for all Springfield musket contracts, Samuel went at it in a different manner. He had Eli calculate the smallest margin they could work on with profit, jacked it up a little for profitable padding, and then journeyed to Washington to pull the skids out from under the competition. Instead of clamoring for
50.000    or 100,000 Springfields in addition to their other guns, Remington simply offered to make 40,000 Springfields at a nominal $16 each, four bucks less than Government price, and for this he promised firstclass arms. He told the commissioners that the 5,000 pistols were well under way by May, 1862, and the 10.000    rifles in parts were going through the works. The brothers had plowed back $100,000 into enlarging the factory and they are working zealously and extra hours to expedite their work.
Remington stated that he desired to commit his factory entirely to the uses of the Government (for obviously the sporting rifle business had just gone out the window with the cannon shot at Sumter). He offered to make an additional 40,000 M1855 (’41 type) rifles with sword bayonet, or 40,000 Springfield rifled muskets, $17 for the rifles with sword bayonets, $16 for Springfields. If the first 10,000 rifles were confirmed to them, they would then charge in all only $17; and if the 5,000 revolver order was confirmed, he would be willing to include it as part of any larger order and at the same price of $12 each (Colt was still getting $25 for his New Model Army).
With this sort of hard bargaining in cash terms staring them in the face it did not take the commissioners long to decide. They confirmed the Harpers Ferry-type rifle order for 10,000, and the 5,000 of what collectors now call the Beals Model .44, and added 40,000 Springfields at $16 and 20,000 revolvers at $12. Hagner urged that General Ripley approve all this. In making his report to the War Department, Judge Holt asked Samuel Remington’s permission to use his name in connection with fixing this low contract price. Characteristically self-effacing, for individuals do not stand out in the galaxy of stars at Ilion like the nebulae of Sam Colt in Hartford, came back the reply:
OFFICE OF REMINGTON’S ARMORY Ilion, New York, June 25, 1862 SIR: We have your favor of the 20th instant, addressed to one Mr. S. Remington, and, in reply, have to say that we have no objection to your using our name, as suggested, in your report to the Secretary of War in connexion with the manufacturing of Springfield muskets, &c.
We are, very respectfully, your obedient servants,
E. REMINGTON & SONS
Though Eliphalet Remington III penned the letter, not a hint of personal achievement or setting one brother above another was permitted to issue from Ilion’s new armory buildings. The oldest gunmaker in America was determined that the firm should continue,

Detail of Remington Harpers Ferry rifle shows similarity of lock and cone seat to Ml841; rest of rifle was finished like U.S. M1855. First delivered were five-groove rifling; later were three-groove. Sight is type found on Whitney militia rifles. Design probably was originated for Southern order.

not dependent upon the glamor of a single person. Come in with the low dollar and produce up to a maximum standard of quality—then the Springfield Rifled Musket—came to be a sort of trade mark of the Remington line henceforth.

The contracts given were confirmed, and the Remingtons entered into new contracts during the war. Sureties on these documents are George Tuckerman and H. H. Fish—their names may be significant on any Remington arms. One Abraham Fish is listed as an early village officer, poundmaster of Ilion. Possibly Henry H. Fish was of his family, though in 1862 of Utica. The tabulation of contracts is as follows:
Contract
13 June 1862
5.000    Navy revolvers cal. 36 @ $12.
13 June 1862
20.000    Army revolvers cal. .44 @ $12. Of these, 5,000 were to be of the first model already deposited; the 15,000 after a pattern to be deposited.
11 August 1862

Symbolizing the role of Remington in arming the North is photo of original nickle and ivoryhandle New Model .44 laid across Civil War map of Union successes. Pistol is in collection of and photo by Don Simmons.

10.000    Harpers Ferry rifles with sword bayonets @ $17.
6 July 1863
All the army .44 revolvers they can deliver within the present year (i. e., until December 31,    1863)    @
$12.
Delivered
4,000 (plus 8,251)
12,505 (5,102; 14,402)
March 31, 1862—June 22, 1863
10,001—April    18,    1863—
January 8, 1864
13,908—July 8, 1863—November 10, 1863
21 November 1863
64,900 army revolvers cal. .44 @ $12.
13    December 1863
2,500 Harper’s Ferry rifles with sword bayonets @ $17.
14    December 1863
40.000    Springfield rifle muskets with appendages at $18 (not $16)
24 October 1864
15.000    Remington breechloading carbines at $23
24 October 1864
20.000    Army revolvers cal. .44, same as the 64,900 delivered, but at $15.50
62,003—November 23, 1863 —December 31, 1864
2,500
40.000—May    31, 1864—May 24, 1866
15.000—September    30, 1864 —May 24, 1866
20,000— January 12, 1865— March 23, 1865
To final payments in May of 1866 for arms contracted for and delivered during the war, Remington received a total of $2,837,332.26.
Of 12,251 Navy revolvers delivered and paid for, most were accepted at the $15 original price and renegotiated $12 contract price. But a few were taken with blemishes or minor defects not functional in nature, at $11. Of 114,513 Army revolvers of both types accepted, most were paid for at $12; a few at $11.82. While condemned work was not common at Remington’s, it did exist. Uncle Sam paid out $1,191.65 in labor of Government inspectors for examining pistols at Remington that were not accepted by the Government. A rejection rate of less than 1 per cent is a commendable record under those conditions; about $1 an
arm was budgeted for the labor of Government inspection.
Possibly as many as 5,100 of the first or Beals Model Army .44’s were delivered; 4,250 at $12 on contract and 850 earlier at $15.0368(1). Immediately after that, a lot of 502 Army revolvers is listed (December 31, 1862. This doubtless included two sample revolvers of the second series of 15,000 new model to complete the first confirmed contract of 20,000 pieces. While the Navy revolvers never achieved great production, only about 5,000 of each of several patterns being made, the Army ,44’s topped 140,000 in quantity with sales being made through Schuyler, Hartley & Graham and other firms to the trade and to military men who preferred to own their handguns. Most of these pistols were full blued finish with varnished walnut grips for commercial sale and plain oiled dark walnut, with the inspector’s stamps on each plate, for the military arms. Sub-inspectors’ initials also appear on minor parts, typically on the frame near the barrel
and on the barrel flat at that point; also on the cylinder near one shoulder.

Four Basic Remington Handguns

Collectors confuse terminology slightly because of dates in describing these revolvers. There are four basic Civil War Remington handguns; of the second pattern there are again two variations, tabbed generally 1861 and New Model 1863; in all, six distinctly different handguns in two calibers, .36 and .44. The name of inventor Fordyce Beals is attached to these guns, all made under his basic Beals Patent September 14,
1858,
as it is usually stamped along the barrel top flat. This patent applied to the use of the hinged lever as a retainer for the cylinder pin. Beals could not patent the solid frame of his revolver, certainly its most important practical feature. Colt in 1850 had anticipated solid frame patents by making and claiming in shadowy fashion some Dragoons modified with top straps and hinges on the barrels top and bottom. But a solid frame,

Fordyce Beals developed tiny solid frame revolver before War that had screw-in barrel and cylinder pin taken out from front. Shown is original outfit in cardboard box with mould, flask, loading plunger. Handle is gutta percha.

as in the sidehammer 1855 series of Colt pocket pistols, meant the cylinder pin had to be withdrawn somehow. Colt’s cylinder pin was removed from the back; ergo, Beals removed his from the front of the frame. There was no patentable distinction in this detail; Beals was but following his mentor, Eli Whitney Jr., once Colt’s partner (in the Walker pistol contract), and soon thereafter Colt’s competitor in the pistol business. It was Whitney who set up the basic solid frame which Beals later used in his Remington arms; and Whitney’s first solid frame guns, much like the Colt in outline but with the important innovation of grip straps in one piece with the frame, also had pins that removed from the front, below the barrel. Whitney did not achieve a good loading lever with this combination; hence his arms were not successful as percussion guns.
Beals joined the lever to the base pin; it was held in the frame by means of a cross screw through the frame below the barrel. He then modified this to use a T-head pin, locked into place by the butt end of the loading lever when latched up. The lever was independently hinged and, when dropped, the pin could be pulled forward to free the cylinder. It was this basic construction, using a somewhat simplified single action lockwork, that grew into the Beals Remington Army and Navy revolver after a diversionary and diverting but highly impractical series of pocket revolvers with external cylinder turning hands and jazzy new fangled gutta-percha grips.
These big pistols were heralded to the trade as A New And Superior Revolver in a brochure of 1857. Though Major Hagner wanted all he could get for the western army they did not catch on commercially and when Sam Remington went to Washington, it was to sell these guns to the Ordnance Department.
A sale to the State of South Carolina of 1,000 Remington revolvers in 1860 is recorded (C. L. Karr, Jr., Remington Handguns). Karr notes it as Beals ,44(?). Remington informed Judge Holt they had turned down trade orders from the South after November, 1860. A contract offered by Jefferson Davis to Remington to make 5,000 rifles for the State of Mississippi, in November, 1860 . . . was also peremptorily declined. Meanwhile, the Beals loading lever in production on the big solid frame .36 and .44 revolvers was soon to be shelved in favor of an improved lever, designed by Wm. H. Elliott. Beals, who had come to Remington’s in 1846 in connection with the Jenks carbine contract, evidently possessed general mechanical skill. He may have remained as a superintendent or subcontractor within the Remington Armory on pistols, but Elliott’s design supplanted his in the lever-pin arrangement.

The Elliott lever was more symmetrical in form, not square but streamlined in a curve beneath the barrel. The solid frame was basic Beals-Whitney, from the inventor’s tenure of service in working out a special revolver for Whitney in 1854. But the T-headed cylinder pin was shaped to fit on either side of the top of the lever, which itself was cut away slightly to permit

Beals type pistol is distinguished by frame covering back of barrel and square shank of loading lever. Arm was sold to Union in .36 and .44 sizes, identical in design but differing in size.

New Model .44 was introduced about 1863 at new reduced prices. Remington sold handguns lower than most other contractors. Full blue finish. Specimen shown has inspection stamp of Major James Hagner on grip.

pulling the pin forward. This allowed dropping the cylinder without unhinging the lever. It would have an advantage in reloading on horseback, using a freshlyloaded spare cylinder. Both Beals’ 1858 and Elliott’s 1861 revolvers had cylinders without the safety-stop notches introduced on the third New Model pattern.
The pin that could be withdrawn without dropping the lever was not such a good idea. Although two pistols apparently of this pattern were supplied as models along with a delivery of 500 arms on December 31, 1862, the design was very soon modified to prevent entirely the slipping forward of the pin unless the lever was hinged down. Too commonly the pin would jump forward from recoil inertia, jamming cylinder rotation and causing a stoppage of firing. Elliott’s design to ease out the cylinder was not a success. The odd result of this was the abandonment of the only patented feature on Remington’s big military handguns and the delivery throughout the War of almost a hundred and a half thousand first-class firearms featuring details which were all in the public domain!
Details distinguishing between these three types and two calibers are:
Beals MI 858
Front sight: dovetail, brass or German silver cone.
Frame, solid, shrouds barrel threads completely.
Loading lever: Square at back end with web of streamline form connecting it to loading plunger. Must be dropped to withdraw T-head cylinder pin.
Cylinder: Smooth, no safety notches, nipple cuts narrow as seen from side.
Calibers: .36 and .44.
Barrel: Octagon, 8-inch in Army, 7‘/i-inch in Navy. Marked BEALS PATENT SEPT. 14, 1858 MANUFACTURED BY REMINGTON’S ILION NEW YORK. Elliott M1861
Front sight: dovetail, brass or German silver cone.
Frame: Solid, transitional, may expose threads of barrel end, or may be flush with face of cylinder.
Loading lever: Web runs forward to reenforce beneath cut-out rear section where cylinder pin rides when drawn forward. T-head cylinder pin specially grooved to slide over lever.
Cylinder: Smooth; no safety notches.
Calibers: .36 and .44.
Barrel: Octagon, 8-inch in Army, 7V4-inch in Navy. Marked: PATENTED DEC. 17, 1861. MANUFACTURED BY REMINGTON’S ILION N. Y.
New Model 1863
Front sight: Iron blade cut by scooping sides of a cylindrical piece which is screwed into place; not dovetailed.
Frame: Solid, does not shroud barrel threads.
Loading lever: Must be dropped to pull T-head cylinder pin forward. No slot in cylinder pin head.
Cylinder: Smooth. Safety notch between each chamber for nose of hammer to rest when chambers are capped. Nipple cut-outs seem wider when viewed from side.
Calibers: .36 and .44.
Barrel: Octagon, 8-inch in Army, 7‘/2-inch in Navy (sometimes 7 3/8-inches, perhaps cause for government inspection rejection?). Marked: PATENTED SEPT. 14, 1858. E. REMINGTON & SONS, ILION, NEW YORK, U.S.A. NEW MODEL.
While the detail differences noted above caused patent claims to come and go, the major improvement in the Remington system was the manufacturing economy. Remington’s claimed they could make the Colt gun as cheaply as their own; in this they were not mistaken, but made a boast not strictly true. The Colt construction with major groups: barrel with lever, cylinder, lock frame, AND back strap and trigger guard, represents more machine and set-up time than the simple slabbed Remington barrel plus lever, forged frame of shape encompassing both handle straps that were separate pieces on the Colt, and the non-engraved cylinder. Remington made one part do what Colt used three parts for, and by reason of the advanced state of machine technology, drawing from Colt’s the lessons learned in producing the more archaic pattern, Remington built the more modem handgun at a less price. Although there were noncritical areas inside the Remington frame for hasty manufacture, such contours as the grip straps fore and aft were closely controlled; Remington-make replacement handles from century-old war surplus storehouses fit snappily and accurately to old Remington frames. Remington likewise joined the cylinder stop bolt and trigger onto the one pin or screw, instead of staggering them on two screws as in the Colt

Sam Remington made modifications to pistols but apparently this improvement of loading lever-cylinder pin linkage was not produced. Patent No. 37921 dated March 17, 1863, pictured Beals Navy revolver as model.

Split-breech carbine is shown with block partially rolled back. Arm was contracted for by Sam Norris but not actually delivered until after war. With Rider’s improvements, design became famous Remington Rolling Block single shot.

frame. Not patentable, these simplicities greatly reduced cost, made the quiet and unassuming Ilion gunmakers still challengers in quality and price.

Geiger’s Rolling Block

While Beals had his brief day at Remington, and Elliott remained to prepare cartridge designs of variant novelty, the greatest man at the Ilion forge outside of the firm’s founder was to be Leonard M. Geiger. Hatch does not indicate where Geiger came from. Gluckman and Satterlee list a V. Geiger in Towanda, Pennsylvania, in the late flintlock period, say 1830. Conceivably this could have been a forebear of Leonard Geiger, the man who invented the famous Remington Rolling Block single-shot rifle and pistol breech mechanism.
In its perfected form the rolling block system appeared markedly modified by Remington engineer Joseph Rider. But as the pioneer gets the credit for opening the wilderness, not the man who builds the homes, so Geiger it is who should reap the credit for this milestone in musket making: the rolling block system.
Geiger’s breech system had a hinged block that swung up and down behind the chamber. The frame was L shaped, with the foot of the L upright into which the barrel screwed. Hung in this was the rolling breechblock, and the hammer which supported it in the fired position. The hammer in Geiger’s original design acted directly to lock the block, and was shrouded inside the rear curve of the block; hence the modern cognomen split breech Remington. It was this pattern of breechloader that Remington proffered to the Government; Leonard Geiger did not have the distinction of even obtaining a patent directly upon it. The carbines made under Dyer’s contract with Remington’s agent Samuel Norris of Springfield, on 24 October 1864 were marked on the breech tang: REMINGTON’S ILION, N. Y. PAT. DEC. 23, 1863, MAY 9 & NOV. 16, 1864. Joseph Rider had refined the Geiger design and patented it, all in the name of Remington Arms, of course, December 8, 1863, No. 40,887, reissued May 3, 1864, No. 1663, and Patent No. 54,123 of November 15,
1864. Chambered for the .56-.50 Spencer rimfire cartridge, 14,999 Geiger split-breech carbines were shipped out of Ilion beginning with 1,000 delivered September 30, 1864, up to May 24, 1866. An additional 5,000 similar carbines in caliber .46 rimfire were delivered between March 30 and June 30, 1865. The .56-.50s were at contract price of $23; for the last 5,000 Eli Remington dropped the price to only $17.
Remington’s War Contribution But it was not carbines, but rifles and muskets of the more conventional form, on which Remington’s contribution to the Union cause must stand. It was on the Harpers Ferry modified, sometimes called 1862 Remington rifle and the Springfields at $17, that Remington in causing prices to fall all along the line made his presence felt.
First came the famous Zouave rifles. Though most Zouave regiments went into battle in 1861 and 1862 Rider also designed double action system applied to Navy frame of New Model characteristics. First issue had fluted cylinders; later type were round, caliber .36. Cased sets were popular with officers in the field.
with foreign arms or transformed Springfields, the title Zouave rifle has clung to this special weapon. It is much like the elegant French Chasseurs de Vincennes rifle in style and bright brass trim, so the name is apt if the association is not. Actual issue of the special Remingtons is not properly documented at this writing; a suspiciously large number of them seem to have found their way in brand new condition to the shops of Liege in the post-war trade, there to become bored smooth for shot and shipped out to Africa or South America at prices cheaper than junk guns cost to make. Like so many others of the special or limited issue weapons ordered in the first days of the war, they may have served most of the time reposing quietly in their arms chests, awaiting a call to duty that never came. Exactly 10,001 of these rifles and sword bayonets complete were delivered between April 18, 1863, and January 8, 1864. Though the contract price was $17, nearly 10 per cent were accepted only as arms of the second class at $16.90. The second contract for 2,500 rifles apparently was to insure acceptance of rifles otherwise forfeited by reason of failure of the contractor to deliver in time, as provided by the confirmed contract for 10,000. The extra rifle is inferentially the model arm held by the inspector at the New York Ordnance office.
More important were the 40,000 Springfields. In production Remington experienced difficulty in meeting the Government standards. Of the total delivered between May 31, 1864 and March 24, 1866, 326 were accepted only as 4th class arms, and a considerable number of each delivery, again about 10 per cent, were taken as arms not equal to the standard, and at lower prices.
In spite of Hagner’s haggling over the values of muskets, Remington’s did not exactly suffer from want of work during the war. Once, back in 1835-40, the entire machine shop of the Remington works comprised one turning lathe, one stocking, and four milling machines; the fixtures and tools had to be changed about as occasion demanded.
Now, a great corporation had emerged from the fires of war. Incorporated under the laws of New York, with capital stock owned by the Remingtons, and Philo’s son-in-law, W. C. Squires, save for a few hundred shares to qualify local citizens as board members, E. Remington & Sons, Inc. took its place in the world January 1, 1865. Philo Remington was of course president; gogetter Samuel vice president, and Eli secretary and treasurer.
During the war, production of 3,000 revolvers a month had been achieved. Soon after the close of war, the Remington Rolling Block rifle proved a ready seller in the hands of Samuel Remington, who was elected president to give him more prestige in traveling through the War ministries of the world. Five years after the War ended and hard times seemed to settle upon the country, E. Remington & Sons, Inc., and 1,400 workmen labored two shifts 20 hours at 400 milling machines to produce a daily sustained total of ONE THOUSAND FIVE HUNDRED THIRTY RIFLES, tallying 155,000 rifles shipped to one customer (France) between May and September, 1870. Whether flintlock or pill-lock or percussion, whether lap welded or spiraled around a mandrel, whether tested by surprise at a bear or at a target match, or on a deer, Lite Remington’s little rifle had scored a bullseye in America’s history.