CHAPTER 10 Breechloaders of Chicopee

Ultimately, this was a War between breechloaders. Though the transitions, the development of technology in manufacturing and gun design which permitted abandonment of the single shot muzzle-loader, were rapid in coming, most informed military men realized the replacement of the musket by the rapid fire breechloader was inevitable. In the line, the needs of War for cannon fodder caused resistance to novel forms of small arms being used. But in the elite corps, the cavalry, inheritor of the dandy troop reputation of the famous 1st and 2nd Dragoons, considerable variation in equipment was permitted. The enlisted men’s uniform for cavalry was similar to that of infantry and the other arms, officially. Instead of the infantry’s hiplength blouse the cavalryman wore a waist-long jacket of dark blue laced with yellow; high standing collar and trousers of sky-blue (1857 regulation) or dark blue (1861 regulation) bearing a yellow stripe down each leg. About his waist was wound twice a red silk or worsted sash over which was buckled a wide black leather saber belt. From his left hip two sling straps supported the saber, either Model 1840 dragoon pattern or new light cavalry of 1860 style. A shoulder strap attached to D rings supported the weight of the saber which could be put reversed on a belt hook when not in use. His hat could be that dark-blue forage kind dryly described as of pattern in the Quartermaster-General’s office, but more romantically called Sherman’s bummer cap by later scribes. For dress he wore a high-crowned stiff dark blue felt hat, Jeff Davis style so-called in honor of Secretary of War Davis who authorized it in the 1850’s as an improvement over the heavy, sweaty leather shako. But the implement of dress which distinguished him from all others, which proclaimed from a distance that here stands a cavalryman, was the 2-inch black leather belt crossing his right shoulder and supporting, upside down from a snaffle hook clipped onto a frame-attached ring, one of the many patterns of breech-loading carbines in use.

Activation of Cavalry Units Stimulates Production

Like mushrooms overnight the business of supplying Uncle Sam with breechloaders sprang up. Activation of the cavalry sent heavy demands for small arms to General Ripley’s office. Though the good Chief of Ordnance was of the opinion that there was no better arm in the world for ordinary service than the Springfield rifle musket, he acceded to demands for breechloaders for the horse soldiers. And when Ripley bought carbines, he really bought ’em. The cavalry unit commander had upwards of 25 different arms to choose from, each one distinctively different from its competitors in respect of some claim or other of its agent or inventor. Some were notably unsuccessful, such as the Symmes (drop block with Maynard primer), the Schenkl and Schroeder (needle-fire of the Dreyse German patent type) and other experimental and prewar limited issue test guns. Others were quite successful, either in the field or commercially in being bought in quantities. Some have come down to us as almost household words: Sharps, Spencer, Henry. These were the best, the Big Three of the Union carbines.
Those bought privately, such as the Henry which sold briskly in Cincinnati, and those captured or copied, such as the Sharps made in Richmond, Virginia, did good service for the South as well. While many arms were carbines exclusively, those such as the Sharps were employed in rifle form by the infantry, and the Spencer-armed infantrymen of the Union, Michigan brigades especially, are credited with materially affecting the outcome of battle.

The Maynard

One arm which enjoyed considerable popularity was a tipping barrel breechloader invented by Dr. Maynard. Though but a single shot arm, using an unprimed but perforated-base brass shell cartridge, the Maynard was very practical. Its simplicity made it a favorite of non-mechanical farm boys, while the reloadable brass cartridge could be used in the gun again. It was fired either by roll caps from the Maynard primer magazine or, as on the later models which were made without the primer, using ordinary musket or rifle caps on the nipple. The design of this arm, which moved the barrel slightly forward and allowed it to tip downwards, upon unhinging the under-lever that also served as a trigger guard, influenced the arms of the Stevens Arms Company.

Maynard First Model carbine calibers on same breech. With army.”

also supplied as a rifle and, rarely, as a complete sporting outfit with extra barrels of different Maynard primer magazine on frame, this is evidently the rifle of Toby in the Mississippi

This firm succeeded to some of the interests of the Massachusetts Arms Company that in its last days, post-bellum, took the name “Maynard Rifle Company,
and in honor of the Washington dentist designated one of their popular cheap little single shots at the turn of the century, the Maynard, Jr. Though a sensible gun, it was hardly the paragon of armaments virtue which some unsung publicist tried to persuade his Southern readers to believe in Marginalia, published in 1864. They were told that:
Toby is a high private in the first regiment of the Mississippi Army. His company is armed with the breech-loading Maynard rifle, warranted to shoot twelve times a minute and to carry a ball effectively 1600 yards. Men who fought at Buena Vista and Monterey call the new-fangled thing a pop gun. To test its efficacy, Toby’s captain told the men they must try their guns. In obedience to the command, Toby procured the necessary munitions of war, and started with his pop gun for the woods. Saw a squirrel up a high tree, took aim, fired. Effects of shot immediate and wonderful. Tree effectually topped, and nothing to be found of the squirrel except two broken hairs. Pop gun rose in value— equal to a four-pounder. But Toby wouldn’t shoot towards any more trees, afraid of being arrested for cutting down other people’s timber. Walked a mile and a quarter to get sight of a hill. By aid of a small telescope, saw hill in distance; saw a large rock on hill; put in a big load; shut both eyes— fired. As soon as breath returned, opened eyes, could see, just could, but couldn’t hear; at least couldn’t distinguish any sounds; thought Niagara had broken loose or all outdoors gone to drum beating. Determined to see if shot hit.
Borrowed horse and started towards hill. After traveling two days and nights, reached place; saw sun setting through the hill. Knew right away that was where the shot hit. Went closer—stumbled over rocky fragments for half a mile in line of bullet. Came to hole—knew the bullet hit there, because saw lead on the edges—-walked in, walked through; saw teamster on the other side, indulging in profane language, in fact, cussin’ considerable, because lightning had killed his team. Looked as finger directed, saw six dead oxen in line with the hole through the mountain; knew that was the bullet’s work but didn’t say so to angry teamster. Thought best to be leaving; in consequence, didn’t explore path of bullet any further; therefore don’t know where it stopped; don’t know whether it stopped at all, in fact, rather think it didn’t. Mounted horse, rode back through the hole made by the bullet; but never told captain a word about it; to tell the truth was a little afraid he’d think it was a hoax.
It is a right big story, boys, said Toby in conclusion, but it’s true, sure as shooting. Nothing to do with Maynard rifle but load her up, turn her north, and pull the trigger; if twenty of them don’t clear out all Yankeedom, then I’m a liar, that’s all.
While no one would dare accuse Toby of a falsehood, his narrative of the great Maynard Rifle shot does read like an exaggeration of some modem advertising claims for super velocity and magnum sporting rifles. Doubtless the 1st Mississippi (CS) Regiment was invincible, but in this case, at least, the Maynard rifle did not affect the outcome of the war.
Two slightly different Maynard rifles were in service during the war. The earliest follows Maynard’s patents of May 27, 1851 (No. 8126) and December 6, 1859 (No. 26364), having a primer magazine on the right of the breech, feeding the pelleted tape forward each time the hammer is cocked. A total of 400 of these were purchased by the United States in 1857. The barrel is pivoted to the action which extends forward of the solid breech several inches, beneath the barrel. When the lever-trigger guard is lowered, the barrel tips down at the hinge, exposing the chamber for loading or unloading. The case, straight-walled in the early models, has a wide flanged base. The barrel being beveled slightly at the rear edges, the fingers can grasp this flange or rim and pull the fired cartridge out. Appleton’s American Annual Cyclopedia for 1864 eulogizes the dentist’s delight thusly:
Springs, bolts and catches are not used in this rifle, but the ends required are attained by the careful adjustment and excellent finish of the several parts, which work with mathematical precision, and give it the solidity of a mass of steel, which is not affected by any strain to which it can be exposed.
Sounding about as fact-packed as the average modern cigarette ad, this gibberish does hide a really distinctive and distinguished arm. The lever is attached by a movable pivot pin somewhat like that of the Sharps form. The pivot pin’s arm being locked back, it also secures the Maynard primer door which is hinged at the bottom edge to swing out and down. The butt plate is unique, being rounded toe and heel, almost symmetrical, and formed to act as base for the patchbox. The box holds two extra rolls of Maynard caps. While the carbine has a fixed rear sight blade mortised crossways on the barrel above the hinge, some are fitted with early tang sights. A typical U.S. issue carbine has a 20-inch barrel, and the action is stamped Maynard Arms Co., Washington, Manufactured by Massachusetts Arms Company,

Regular U.S. Cavalry issue Maynard carbine. Patent dates can be seen stamped on left side of receiver. Barrel tips up at hinge to load from rear with flanged metallic cartridge having pierced base, uses cap on center nipple.

Chicopee Falls, Maynard Patentee, September 22, 1845, May 29, 1851, June 17, 1856.
Caliber is nominally .50, taking a brass reloadable case with a central flash hole.
The second type of Maynard carbine is far more common, and does not have the Maynard primer magazine. It is the model obtained during the Civil War, of which 20,002 were purchased by the Federal Government, and thousands more by states North and South. With cheerful impartiality, the Massachusetts Arms Company fabricated and Dr. Maynard sold many of the First Model primer guns to the South.

Cut of Maynard issue cavalry carbine, from Official Records Atlas.

The Confederate Field Manual for the Use of Officers on Ordnance Duty states: Maynard’s carbine has a fixed chamber. There are two calibers in our service. Large size, caliber .52 (.50)-inch. Small size, caliber .36 (.35)-inch. Maynard’s primer, attached to this carbine, contains 60 primers in a row, on a tape or ribbon of paper. A primer is moved under the hammer by the act of cocking. The charge is enclosed in a cylinder of sheet brass.
Because of the easily removed barrel, which lifts off the frame when the hinge pin is withdrawn, Maynards were among the first arms to have different calibers and lengths of barrel supplied. One main breech and
stock would do for various types of shooting and hunting. But few long barreled Maynards of military form, suitable to be called rifles are known; possibly the redoubtable Toby’s 1st Mississippi Regiment had carbines, probably of the first type Maynard primer model.

Arms Manufacturers in Massachusetts

The arms-making combine, Massachusetts Arms Company, which produced the Maynard guns, built and also patented arms of other inventors. Within the Chicopee Falls area north of Springfield, Massachusetts, existed several firms which were interlocking in either management or in cooperation. For example, the Smith carbines, of which large numbers were ordered by the Government, were built in part by Massachusetts Arms, and in part by the nearby American Machine Works in Springfield. The odd turning-barrel Greene carbines ordered by the British in 1857 were made by Massachusetts Arms; and there is some reason to suppose the Greene oval-bore breechloading rifles were also made at Chicopee during the war. Behind this weapons combine lies the little-known person of Daniel Leavett, and an almost unheard of factory entity, the Chicopee Falls Manufacturing Company.
The name of this firm was first brought to the attention of arms men by the noted collector-dealer, W. G. C. Kimball, himself of Woburn, Massachusetts, near Boston. Writing in The American Rifleman, September 1948, Kimball pictured an odd light flintlock rifle. It has a back action flintlock and is marked with the signature ‘Chicopee Falls Mfg. Co.’ On the barrel of the rifle near the breech is the Government

inspector’s initials ‘N W P’ for N. W. Patch, who was sent out by the Springfield Armory to inspect contract arms between 1839 and 1848,
Kimball recounts. While he speculates briefly on the nature of this odd military-type piece, a look at the type of lock tends to reveal its antecedents. The lock is of a type pioneered in the French fusil a la ligne Mdle 1840, percussion. The French arm has the lockplate end just forward of the front edge of the hammer. In transforming these arms to smoothbore flintlocks for the African trade, the gunmakers of Liege attached a supplementary plate forward of the hammer, which they had changed to a flint cock, and on the supplementary plate they attached a pan and flint battery or pan cover. (Curiously, a similar lock is on the almost unique Jenks First Model carbines.) The appearance of the musket shown by Kimball suggests that he has a Belgian trade gun using a U.S. barrel. The bands fitted to the arm Kimball shows resemble currentlyused cheap bands on trade arms now much sold in the United States. Whether this little-known musket in some fashion served as a model for the Liege trade, or is a case of parallel invention by the American gunsmith, is beside the point. In researching the marks on the gun, Kimball pieced together a good deal of the business background which went into the Massachusetts Arms Company complex. The names are those of famous gunmakers; and their connections are surprising.

Chicopee Falls Concerns

In 1836 monied men of Chicopee organized a company for the manufacture of guns and hardware. The package is not unusual; many companies of that time were organized to include gun-making potential, and never made a gun. Colt’s early company at Paterson, New Jersey, formed in 1836, was organized to make arms, tools and cutlery, but no butcher knives have as yet turned up marked Patent Arms Mfg. Co., Patterson, N. J. with the city name characteristically misspelled. Few indeed must have been the guns made directly by the Chicopee Falls Manufacturing Company as these gentlemen called their local concern. Incorporated for $25,000, it was raised in 1839 to $100,000. President was T. W. Carter, who was also agent for the Chicopee Manufacturing Company, a textile machinery firm owned by Daniel Leavitt.
It appears possible that the company at first intended to manufacture a revolver based on Leavitt’s patent issued April 29, 1837, No. 182 (new series). A hand-turning cylinder gun, this pistol was made as a patent model featuring a military style stock. In the temper of the times, with prospect of War over many issues in the 1830’s, if Uncle Sam could only settle in his mind who he planned to fight, military gunmaking was a popular, though expensive, form of investment. No pure Daniel Leavitt revolvers were ever produced.
Gluckman does list a percussion cadet musket, back action lock, marked Chicopee Falls Co. Certainly
neither names nor precise manufactured articles are clear in these beginning stages of Chicopee gunmaking. Interested men in the concern were David M. Bryant, an early merchant in Chicopee Falls and Carter’s partner; John Chase, Springfield Canal Company manager who would expect to profit from increased trade as the wares of the firm were boated to market; and Benjamin Belcher, T. W. Buckland, and Nathan Peabody Ames.

Ames

Ames owned another arms works, the Ames Manufacturing Company, also in Chicopee. Formed in 1829, the Ames company by 1831 was a primary sword maker for the U.S. Government. By 1836 Ames employed 35 men and removed to a suburb known as Cabotsville. In 1840 the Chicopee Falls Manufacturing Company failed, from inefficiency and bad management. Early in 1841, Ames, feeling that Government work was more steady, bought the Chicopee Falls Manufacturing Company plant for expansion; then went abroad to study arms manufacture in the centers of Europe. He returned with a reputation as an expert and was able to fabricate the Navy pistol of 1843 for the United States as well as keep a steady supply of the Artillery Swords, Ml840, and other edged weapons flowing from his forges. The Mexican War caused an increase over his 1845 work force of 130 men, and Ames turned out swords, carbines, pistols, and was especially noted for manufacture of field and light artillery, the bronze howitzers with which young United States officer Braxton Bragg fought against the Mexicans.
In 1849, Ames decided to confine his work to Cabotsville and dispose of his Chicopee Falls property. Some of the original investors, now increased by Leavitt and Edwin Wesson, of a famous gunmaking family, bought the unhappy firm back from Ames and decided to make it go. Wesson himself had added improvements to the revolver of Leavitt, including mechanically turning the cylinder by the act of cocking the hammer.
Dr. Maynard’s priming device seemed about all that was necessary to make it perfect. Rights to use this design were obtained but at about this time, Edwin Wesson died, January 31, 1849. His affairs were taken over by his younger brother, Daniel Baird Wesson, whose name is well known as founder of the present firm Smith & Wesson. The connection between Smith and Wesson may date from this time, instead of several years later as most writers have put it. For it was a man named Smith who paid out the money which Massachusetts Arms Company had to remit to Colt in royalty fees for making proved infringements of his revolver patents the following year.

Other Revolver Makers

To begin more or less at the beginning, Wesson and Leavitt commenced production of the Leavittmodified revolver under Patent No. 6999 issued to Wesson executor E. J. Ripley. As principal workmen
they employed William Henry Miller and Joshua Stevens, who in 1848 had worked for Colt’s in Hartford. As employees of Sam Colt, under contract to supervise modification of Whitneyville-Walker parts to the 1848 Dragoon type, Miller and Stevens were bound to devote their time while in the shop to Colt’s interests. However, due (as they claimed) to slow delivery from workmen who preceded them in the process of manufacture, they found a little spare time on their hands. Being of an inventive turn of mind and much struck by a critical deficiency in the Colt principal of assembly, with the barrel mounted upon a rather weakly fixed cylinder pin, Miller and Stevens decided to improve it.
They took as the basis for their improvement an odd revolving rifle designed by Elija Jacquith in 1838. In the Jacquith design, the cylinder is mounted above the line of barrel and there is a strap which holds barrel to frame below the cylinder. Sight is taken through the hollow cylinder arbor. Few Jacquith revolving guns were ever made, but to Stevens and Miller it seemed to possess fundamental principles they could profitably apply. Their model was the basis for the Massachusetts Arms revolvers.
Then Colt discharged Stevens and Miller. He wrote to Senator Rusk in fear the story might jeopardize his business with the Government, on July 19, 1848, as follows: I discovered yesterday that two of my principal workmen are engaged with several other persons in getting up a repeating pistol with the hope of avoiding my patents, and that they are in correspondence with the Ordnance Department which encourages them in every way.
The several other persons included Daniel Leavitt, who contributed to the new revolver his own patented concept of a bevel-faced cylinder (according to the theory, so a side flash could not enter an adjoining chamber and set off a second charge accidentally). That July Leavitt traveled to Washington with a model pistol to display to the Ordnance officers, on behalf of the new syndicate. Other partners included the three Wesson brothers: Edwin, Daniel and Frank. Edwin operated a rifle-making shop in Hartford, specializing in heavy match rifles of false-muzzle and bullet-starter type. At least one revolver exists, described by Sawyer (Vol. II, The Revolver) and evaluated by Chapel. It is of the general top-strap side lock form of the Wesson & Leavitt guns, but bears the inscription, Wesson, Stevens & Miller, Jacquith’s Patent, Hartford, Ct. 1849. With the establishment of the works once again in Chicopee, being bought back from Ames, and upon the discharge of Stevens and Miller by Colt, the whole project was moved up the river to the Springfield area.
In 1849 additional capital had been pumped into the dormant Chicopee Falls Manufacturing Company. T. W. Carter (again superintendent), James T. Ames (father of N. P. Ames), John Chase, Thomas Warner, Chester W. Chapin, and R. W. Chapman, incorporated the Massachusetts Arms Company in 1849 to the tune of $70,000. It was formed for the purpose of manufacturing firearms, sewing machines, and other machinery. And of the names above, Thomas Warner was one of the most important, mechanically. He had once been Colt’s employer. On January 18, 1847, as boss of the Whitneyville Armoury, Warner had hired Sam Colt to supervise the manufacture of the Walker pistol lock frames, Colt having assigned the contract in toto to Whitney. Now he was master mechanic in a firm which intended to show the upstart Sam Colt how a set of businessmen ran a pistol company. Now, with the rise of gun making in Chicopee, some of the best men Colt knew were hired to buck him: Warner, who had become a master armorer at Springfield Armory in 1842, was one; Stevens and Miller, Daniel Wesson, and Horace Smith were others.

Career of Horace Smith

How Horace Smith came to be tied up with the Massachusetts Arms Company is a nebulous story, part supposition, part negative evidence. He was another of the Springfield Armory alumni of 1842. It is probable, due to the exceptional mechanical competency of these several men, that he worked in direct association with Master Armorer Thomas Warner. The interchangeable system of manufacture had been introduced by Warner in a highly perfected form in connection with production of the Model 1842 musket. According to Charles W. Fitch, Special Agent of the Census Bureau in 1880, surveying arms manufacture in New England, In 1840 Thomas Warner, master armorer, introduced improved methods and machinery at the Springfield Armory. He gained interchangeable work by the use of milling machinery, by jig-filing, and by careful inspection. Receiver gauges were used, and it is stated that at this time the locks were not marked for hardening. This improved system was introduced by Warner at Whitneyville in 1842, where, prior to this time, the locks had been assembled and fitted soft and marked for hardening in sets of ten.
Whitney needed Warner’s genius to help set up production of the M1841 U.S. rifle or Jaeger or Mississippi rifle. Colonel Talcott having come into power in 1842 to assist Bomford and replace him, Whitney was beginning to feel the freeze from Washington on the six private armories. He went to the Capital himself in September 1842 and although Talcott was away from the office he evidently succeeded in getting what he wanted. Result, a contract dated October 22, 1842, to supply 7,500 Model 1841 rifles at $13 each, first deliveries to begin by January 1, 1847. Doubtless it was to set up this production that Warner went to Whitneyville. He must have taken along Horace Smith, for Smith is listed as working for Eli Whitney, but from 1851 he is well recorded in his association with Dan Wesson.
Warner went to Massachusetts Arms Company about 1850, probably upon the death of Edwin Wesson, to take over the mechanical supervision of the factory in Chicopee Falls. They turned out ap
proximately 3,500 Wesson & Leavitt revolvers in pocket, Navy, and Dragoon sizes, though the big Dragoon .44 is a very rare, seldom-seen arm.
When Colt realized the magnitude of the business in Chicopee, staffed by his former associates, he at once had his patent attorney, Edward N. Dickerson, bring suit for patent infringement. The trial was a most interesting one; it had its moments of humor and chicanery, as when the Massachusetts Arms Company faked up a restored old model of a revolver to prove Colt’s was not the first. But the Boston judge found for the plaintiff. The sum of the damages was not a part of the suit, but was to be decided later. After the trial, Dickerson (in Colt’s absence) was approached by Smith with an offer of $5,000 to settle. Ned just laughed, and Smith upped the ante to $10,000. When he hit $15,000 Dickerson thought it best to grab the deal; it was about a $4 royalty on each mechanicallyturning Wesson & Leavitt revolver made, by Dickerson’s calculation. He wrote to Colt that, including his fee of $3,000, the costs of the trial came to $9,450, which left $5,000 profit and sustained the patent.
Smith, apparently financially burned by this, separated his shadowy connection with the Massachusetts Arms Company. He had other fish to fry. If everything Massachusetts Arms was to put on the market was to be tainted by association with Colt’s former mechanics, Stevens and Miller, whom Colt now commenced to sue (March-June 1852), Smith preferred to go it alone.
There is a hiatus of some months in the history of Horace Smith. But it is believed that he attended the Great Exhibition in London, opened in May of 1851, and that he also journeyed to France. What is more certain is that one of the things he developed was an evolution from the French Systeme Flobert cartridge which was the basis for what a recent scholar on metallic ammunition, Charles R. Suydam, has called The American Cartridge. This distinctive rim fire ammunition, it seems on second look, is actually evolved from the Flobert bulleted breech cap, with an assist from Horace Smith and his sometime partner, Daniel Wesson.

Meanwhile, with Smith out of the Massachusetts

Arms Company and Daniel Wesson less interested, now that the management had decreed they could afford to make no more Wesson & Leavitt revolvers, the Massachusetts Arms design staff had to prepare new models and look for more business. They did this by contracting to make special patented carbines and rifles, and by tying up Dr. Maynard pretty securely for private industry. A variety of arms were turned out from the Chicopee Falls shops showing the patent stamp in some particular of Dr. Maynard.

Greene’s Breechloader

One of the most interesting was the swinging barrel breechloader of Lieutenant Colonel James Durrel Greene, United States Army. Although patented by Colonel Greene November 17, 1857, No. 18,634, this arm is believed to have an improvement upon R. S. Lawrence’s rifle of the same basic principle, of which a specimen is shown in the United States Cartridge Company catalog No. 353 patented January 6, 1852, No. 8637. A percussion breechloader, the barrel of the Lawrence and the later Greene arm is supported on a frame pin, and, when it is released from the standing breech, swings to the side around the long axis of the pin, for loading. On the Lawrence rifle, of which very few were made, the latching is a top piece that holds a stud on the barrel. Colonel Greene conceived an easier way to release the barrel. In his carbine, there are two triggers. The front locks the barrel. By pressing the front trigger, the barrel, mounted inside a sleeve, can be rotated to the left, disengaging two massive locking lugs from corresponding fixed frame shoulders. Then the barrel inside the sleeve can be slid forward and the barrel-sleeve unit rocked to the right, exposing the chamber for loading. A combustible cartridge was used. When the barrel was pressed back again to the last rotation for locking, a hollow needle in the face of the breech pierced the cartridge and carried the cap flash into the interior of the charge.
Tests with the Greene by the United States in the 1857 period showed 16-inch penetration of the bullet at 600 yards in pine boards. Test carbines were .45 caliber, for the bullet was .45 inches and the cartridge

Greene turning-barrel British carbine had Maynard primer. Barrel is released by front trigger to twist and pull forward for loading. About 300 Greenes were bought by U.S. for test 1857; it is doubtful if any were used in the war.

weight complete was 266 grains, loaded with Williams’ bullet for bore-scraping. Length overall was 2.25 inches. The common Greene cartridge was 2 inches overall, with a 480 grain bullet of .546-inch diameter, 54 grains of powder. Two production carbines are found of this design. The first is the British contract arm, and may occasionally have been associated with private Civil War use, though by far the greater majority of them are post-World War II surplus sale arms, especially those in fine condition not showing battle use. The second type is similar, does not have British marks, and is United States trial issue.
During 1855 when the British purchasing commissions toured the United States, they gave large orders for small arms and machinery. An order for 2,000 Greene carbines was placed with Massachusetts Arms Company, from whom they also procured gun making machinery. The Greene carbine order gave a boost to the firm’s fortunes, which had flagged during the winter of 1852-53 while they recouped their losses from the Colt patent suit payoff.
The lockplates of these British contract guns are stamped before polishing and casehardening with the British Crown over VR. It would appear that a British inspector or someone especially commissioned to do this inspecting was at hand in Chicopee, since the usual practice was to have the Crown over VR stamped on lockplates taken by the manufacturer to the Tower of London for the armorer’s viewing. If found acceptable, the part in white would be stamped Crown, Tower, and the queen’s initial, then hardened and returned to the Tower for storage and issue to another contractor who would fit them up into complete muskets. At Massachusetts Arms, with all the work being done under one roof, it seems likely British inspectors were on hand to approve and stamp the queen’s cypher on the arms.
These British arms have an 18-inch barrel of chunky proportions, and the Maynard tape primer in front of the hammer. A sling loop is fixed to the trigger guard tang. On the lockplate, Mass. Arms Co./Chicopee Falls/U.S.A./1856 ties down maker and date. Although it is often said some of these 2,000 carbines were sold back to us during the Civil War, all found have one distinctive characteristic which seems to mitigate against this possibility. They bear the broad arrow tip to tip of British ordnance disposal or condemnation sometimes called Triple cross, and an S for obsolete Service not needing re-proof. The several specimens seen with these marks all conform exactly to a new mint specimen bought by the author in Bapty’s in London in 1948 for about ten dollars, suggesting that all were scrapped at the same time; and that date was some time more recently than the Civil War. Those arms sold by the British to United States and Confederate States purchasers in the War did not bear scrap marks; indeed, mention was sometimes made of the boldness with which British agents shipped arms to the Confederates bearing mark of current government issue, the Broad Arrow under a Crown, undefaced! More probable candidates for Civil War use are those Greene carbines tried out by our own government.
Between 1855 and 1857, Greene carbines were purchased by the United States. Major differences include attachment of the sling ring to back of trigger guard, a 22-inch round barrel, and a brass patch box instead of the blued iron box of the British carbine. The first 200 were obtained May 24, 1855, at a cost of $30 each. In 1857, 170 were issued for test by the Army. It is recorded that in all, 300 Greene carbines were purchased between those years. Maynard’s primer was of course a principal feature of this Greene carbine, too. Though the Greene is a beautifully constructed weapon, the many surfaces of the sliding barrel turning lug lockup contributed to its failure as a practical weapon in the emergency. Failure to clean a Greene was a quick way to put it out of order. But it did keep the wheels at Massachusetts Arms turning until they teamed up with the Robert Adams interests and Dr. Maynard designed his simple tipping barrel carbine.
Some of the Greene carbines, or perhaps early Maynards, may have gone out to John Brown. In 1856 from Kansas Territory, Brown wrote to Carter, whom he knew from having lived in Springfield, that I very much want a lot of carbines as soon as I can see my way clear to pay for them and get them through safe. Carter, willing to help the cause of Abolition privately as his company did publicly by its excellent production record during the war, told Brown he could have carbines at 50 per cent reduction because, as Carter replied, he wished to help ... in your project of protecting the free state settlers of Kansas and securing their rights in the institutions of free America . . . We have no fear that they will be put to service in your hands for other purposes. Indeed, had old Brown been a better businessman, he might have taken shipments of good guns offered him at an all-heart discount, sold them for whopping big profits right and left, and plowed his proceeds right back into the purchase of even larger supplies of armaments with which he then might have been able to achieve what he desired. Right or wrong, it was an army he needed, and the arms to equip one; not a motley crew of errant slaves and wildly visionary white men waving pikes. He could have bought cheaper Maynard rifles.
At the outbreak of the Civil War, Massachusetts Arms employed 80 men on the Maynard rifle. In 1861 the work force was doubled; by 1864 with improved machinery and the influx of considerable capital from profits, 200 men were at work. While producing 20,002 Maynard carbines for the Union, and additional pieces for commercial and militia, kept the men busy, the major work on which the force was engaged was manufacture of the carbines of Gilbert Smith.

Gilbert Smith’s Carbine

Gilbert Smith is believed to be no relation to Horace Smith, coming as he did from Buttermilk Falls, New York, where on August 5, 1856, he obtained his first
patent for a breech-loading percussion carbine (No. 15,496). An improvement was patented June 23, 1857, No. 17,644. Smith achieved some notice abroad, and a most unusual and massive breechloader built upon his principles is in the Belgian Musee de la Porte de Hal, in Brussels. Apparently Smith had been working on his design for some years. W. W. Greener in The Gun, 1st Edition, describes the arm and illustrates it. Though not very precisely drawn, Greener illustrates a sporting version with detail differences from the military carbine. Says Greener, In this arm . . . the the cartridge, which
Gilbert Smith’s American Rifle, barrel drops for the insertion of is of india-rubber, with a perforated cardboard base. The barrel breaks off in the middle of the chamber, and falls at nearly right angles to the stock . . . The cartridge being flexible, it readily accommodates itself to the fixed portion of the chamber, and the base being perforated, an ordinary cap is sufficient to ignite the charge. This weapon was brought over to England about 1858, and submitted to the British Government; but the escape of gas at the joint—which it was thought would be avoided by having the breech in the center of the cartridge—was sufficient to condemn it. This gun is fastened at the top by means of a horizontally-sliding bar actuated by a small trigger-lever in front of the lock-trigger.
Unsuccessful with a sliding bar lock, Smith modified the design and, as patented in the United States and manufactured, the top bar is a spring member having its front end cut in a rectangular hole. Fixed to the top of the barrel is a stud which neatly fits the hole. In front of the lock-trigger that fires the hammer is a push-pin, which can be raised upward by the top of the trigger finger. This push-pin raises the spring bar from off the stud, allowing the barrel to flop forward.
Proprietor of this invention by 1860 was Thomas Poultney, of Poultney & Trimble, 200 West Baltimore Street, Baltimore, Maryland. Commission merchants, importers of arms and military good, Poultney & Trimble were one of the largest outfitters of the kind in the country before the War and for several years after. In 1860 Thomas Poultney proposed to sell the Ordnance Department a trial lot of 300 Smith carbines at $35. By August of 1861, Poultney had not delivered one gun. Apparently he had tried to get up enough orders to warrant large scale manufacture but had up to that time not succeeded. The advent of War allowed him to proffer his property once more, and he wrote to Assistant Secretary of War Scott, saying (during August ’61) that he wanted an order for 25,000 Smith carbines at the price agreed upon, $35. Scott passed the proposal to General Ripley and the Ordnance Chief respectfully returned it negatively. The 300 ordered the year before had not been delivered; it was an untried arm, needed a special cartridge, and was too high priced. It was pointed out that The best of Sharpe’s (sic) carbines cost $30 each, including appendages.
Poultney himself was in Washington, hounding the Secretary of War. Ripley’s rejection was promptly bounced back along with Poultney’s counter-proposal
to supply only 10,000 carbines at $35. And again, Ripley rejected it:

ORDNANCE OFFICE Washington, August 17, 1861 Sir:    I have carefully considered the proposition of Mr. T.

Poultney to furnish ten thousand of Smith’s patent breechloading carbines at $35 each. I would gladly avail myself of any opportunity of obtaining at this time, at any price not beyond reason, such arms as are required for the troops called into the service. The carbine is only, however, a cavalry arm; it is used only by dragoons when dismounted and fighting on foot, and the orders, in the division of the Potomac, are to arm the cavalry with pistols and sabres only.

Ripley again stated the price was too high, 17,000 carbines of other types had already been contracted for, he doubted the emergency was so great as Mr. Poultney believed, and he asked for specific instructions from the Secretary on the matter. Poultney having already broached the subject to Massachusetts Arms Company and presumably gotten price quotes, he again made a reduction in price, to $32.50. And in response to a note from Poultney clarifying price and delivery schedule to which he proposed to adhere, General Ripley sent him the order:

ORDNANCE OFFICE Washington, August 27, 1861 Sir:    By    direction    of the Secretary of War, I offer you an

order for ten thousand Smith’s patent breech loading carbines on the following terms and conditions: The carbines, with appendages, are to be delivered at the factory of the Massachusetts Arms Company, Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts; the first delivery to commence in the month of September next, and other deliveries to continue at the rate of 1,000 per month thereafter, until the whole 10,000 are delivered. The carbines and appendages are to be subject to inspection by such officer as this department may designate for the purpose. In case of a failure to deliver in or within the times before specified, the Government is to be under no obligation to take the arms or appendages, but may or may not do so at its option. Payments are to be made in such funds as the Treasury Department may provide, on certificates of inspection and receipt by the United States inspecting officer, at the rate of thirty-two and a half dollars ($32.50) for each carbine, including appendages.
Please signify, in writing, whether you accept the foregoing order on the terms and conditions specified herein.

Respectfully, your obedient servant,

JAS. W. RIPLEY, Brevet Brigadier General T. Poultney, Esq., Washington, D. C.

The following day Poultney replied with his acceptance and the Smith carbine manufacture got under way full blast. Among the first maker’s names in the 10,000 was that of American Machine Works, Springfield, Massachusetts. Stamped almost illegibly manufactured by/am’n m’ch’n wks/springfield, mass, this marking appears on the action sideplate, underneath the frame bar on the left, along which the sling ring slides. Above the bar, prominently visible for the cavalryman who might be curious, is the commercial designation: address/poultney & trimble/baltimore u.s.a. The mark smith’s patent/june 23, 1857 appears also underneath the sling bar.

Hinged breech was feature of Gilbert Smith’s carbines made by Mass. Arms, American Machine Works of Springfield and American Arms of Chicopee Falls, for Poultney & Trimble of Baltimore who contracted for them with the Government.

The American Machine Works was a tool-making enterprise founded in 1843 by Philos B. Tyler. It is presumed the contract was lived up to, in that American Machine Works guns were taken to Massachusetts Arms Company after finishing, for delivery to the United States inspectors. Closer to the main plant, the American Arms Company of Chicopee Falls also made carbines for Poultney & Trimble; the difference being in the name stamp of the maker.

American Arms was not a fly-by-night outfit, but one which survived for a good many years, from 1861 to 1904. The late A. Merwyn Carey (American Firearms Makers) indicates that although the plant was at Chicopee Falls, the main office was at 103 Milk Street, Boston, from 1866 to 1893. Rollover double barrel cartridge derringer pistols were made under patent of Henry F. Wheeler, October 31, 1865; and also Whitmore patent shotguns. The plant was moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 1897 to 1904. Third factory of course was Massachusetts Arms, which Poultney had expected all along would fabricate the carbines. Delivered in all to the United States of the three makes was a total of 30,062 Smith carbines including accouterments priced at $745,645.24, plus 13,861,500 Smith’s cartridges of two varieties, rubber and tinfoil, valued at $377,569.78.
Two patterns of Smith’s exist, superficially similar but differing in their chambering. Those for the rubber cartridge, adapted only to Smith’s carbines, had chambers a trifle larger than those later ones made to use Poultney’s patent (assigned to him by inventor Silas Crispin) soldered foil and paper cartridges. These had a thinner wall than the rubber cases, though the rubber cases, it was claimed, could be reused 15 times.

Toward the end of the War when Massachusetts Arms and Poultney attempted to adapt the Smith to metallic cartridges, a few were made for test which used the odd Crispin belt-fire copper case. This bulgy load had a priming belt about its middle, and the Smith chamber fore and aft was relieved with a bevel to accommodate the rim. The percussion cone which ordinarily fired the rubber or foil-paper cartridges was replaced by a firing pin striking forward to hit the primer belt. In the Crispin-cartridge model Smith, a significant modification is made in the unlatching; a top thumb lever, pressed down upon the small of the stock, rocks upward at its front end, lifting the latch bar. Confusingly, it was a photo of such an arm which the illustrator used in later years preparing the drawings of U.S. guns for the Atlas of the Official Records. A Smith carbine is shown, such a carbine as the cavalry never saw.

Instead of the sling bar, Smith carbines could be had with a conventional swivel mounted on the toe of the stock, and on the bottom of the barrel band. Among mechanical details pioneered by the Smith is the attachment of the stock by a single through-belt, with the front of the wood finished off square to fit flush against a flat frame back. This detail is a characteristic of Chicopee Falls guns to this day. But in spite of the Massachusetts Arms’ infatuation with the Maynard primer, none was ever fitted to the Smith carbine.

Massachusetts Arms Company is Terminated

With the end of war, having produced approximately 3,000 Greene twist-barrel guns, at least 20,000 Maynards, and 30,000 Smiths for the cavalry, Massachusetts Arms Company was overexpanded. In the sudden cessation of business they were unable to cope with changes in the market. The water-power rights reverted to the Chicopee Manufacturing Company, while the

Smith was clean-styled carbine and examples show magnificent machine and finishing characteristic of Chicopee industrial complex. Modem inheritors of this capacity are the Savage Arms Corporation—Stevens—Fox combination.

factory itself was sold to the newly organized Lamb Knitting Machine Company in 1866, and the gun business under the name Massachusetts Arms Company terminated. T. W. Carter retained the rights to make the Maynard rifle, and continued it in production as a quality sporting and target arm until about 1890. The idea of the basic breech to take a selection of barrels resulted in many handsome trunk-type cased sets containing rifles for from rabbits to rhinos, and a shotgun bore to boot, all for installing on the same breech. At the last, William F. McFarland, nemesis of Huse and a former Springfield Armory man, was in charge of production.
More famous to be was Joshua Stevens, who turned to the single-shot cartridge breechloader to found his fortunes, leading ultimately to the great Savage Arms Corporation combine of today. The handful of Yankee mechanics who earned their keep making carbines at Massachusetts Arms learned their trade well.
Though Appleton’s Cyclopedia (1864) was as obtuse in describing the Smith as in telling of the Maynard, there is truth in its declaration: There is nothing about it which can get out of order. Its range is 2,000 yards or more and it can be fired ten times a minute (Ordnance tests in 1866 showed it could be fired 14 shots a minute). The cartridge used for this rifle is a metallic one (Poultney’s foil) but the case collapses after firing, and can be withdrawn with a single motion of the finger. Whether Smith, Maynard, Stevens, or even Adams or Greene, the epitaph is not too far wrong: There is nothing about it which can get out of order. Not so lucky were the two friends, Horace Smith and Daniel Wesson, who left Massachusetts Arms early, when the going got rough, to fend for themselves. They had as principal assets Horace Smith’s improvement of the French Flobert metallic cartridge. Before they had finished, they were to found not only two gunmaking firms of lasting fame, but the metallic cartridge industry as well! Their company Smith & Wesson is well known today; less well known are the roles they played in developing the copper self-primed cartridge, and launching Winchester.