CHAPTER 11 Federal Carbines

Fertility of invention bloomed in fitting out the Northern cavalry. By war’s end, so many as 44 different breech-loading carbines could be presented to the Ordnance Department for test. Several—the Henry, the Spencer—were old favorites. Others were known by the names of the men who presented them, but reflected the workings of large contractors (Wolcott, of Starr Arms, and E. A. Straw, of Amoskeag) in a bid for postwar business. All proved unsuccessful in attracting the attention of the Federal Army for any re-equipping.

No dangerous enemies were in sight. The greatest army the world had seen marched for three days in review in the Capital of a reunited nation. There were a million Springfields and Enfields on hand. Why bother to get more than the barest essential transformation? Accordingly, the Cavalry wielded the Spencers while the Infantry and Artillery right-shouldered their Allintransformed M1865, M1866, and later new-make Springfields, with the Civil War dates on the lockplates. But while the patronage of the Government was strong, equally novel, though less diverse, were the creations of the carbine contractors during the war.

Illinois Carbines

The Henry, Sharps, Spencer, Greene, Maynard, Smith, and Starr carbines have all been treated elsewhere in this book. But though these were supplied in numbers of major importance, many state units had their own ideas as to what carbines they wanted. One such weapon was the variously-called Union, or Grapevine (from trigger guard lever form), or Gross (after inventor), or Ohio. Collector-student Thomas B. Rentschler of Hamilton, Ohio (old factory site of the companies making the several styles of carbine mentioned above), declares these names, so commonly used, are quite incorrect when compared with the specimens actually used in the war. He is right; if any name other than the full factory designation should be applied to this family of cavalry arms, it is Illinois. They first appear in the records with an order from General John Wood of Illinois to Major Hagner, as follows:

HEADQUARTERS QUARTERMASTER GENERAL’S DEPARTMENT

Springfield, Illinois, December 12, 1861

Major Hagner:
Sir: This will introduce to you Edward Gwyn, esq., of Hamilton, Ohio, who is the manufacturer of the Cosmopolitan breech-loading carbine. This celebrated firearm is the same that I made requisition for at Washington for the Governor’s Legion. The order to purchase was sent (to) you without stating the kind of carbine I asked for.
Mr. Gwyn visits you with a view of obtaining the order to furnish this carbine to the Governor’s Legion, and I earnestly request that you give him the order to furnish them at once.

JOHN WOOD

Quartermaster General, State of Illinois

Major Hagner asked General Ripley, in strongly flattering terms, to approve. Gwyn offered the 1,140 arms required, with implements, at $27, delivery in 60 days. Stating his views on policy, Hagner noted that he felt he should be permitted to buy arms like the Cosmopolitan, which had been reported on favorably. Mr. Allyn (sic) at Springfield, reports very favorably to this, he said. The price, too, is in this offer lower than is usual for this kind of arm.

Cosmopolitan Arms

Still smarting from losses at the battlefronts, Ripley at once agreed to Hagner’s two requests: order the Cosmopolitan arms, and order such other arms as Hagner thought necessary to meet pressing want, reporting what you order in each case immediately to this (Ordnance) office. The formal order of Hagner, one of some dozen officers of the United States Ordnance Department authorized to buy arms in the field, went out:

ORDNANCE OFFICE 

No. 55, White Street, New York, December 23, 1861

Gentlemen: In conformity with orders from chief of ordnance, you will please furnish United States ordnance department 1,140 of your cavalry carbines, at the rate of $27 each.
You will alter your pattern gun to make it stronger where you can, and especially use wrought iron for the breech box,

Cosmopolitan No. 1 of military-use arms was pre-production specimen having flat-side hammer and rounded lockplate held deringer-fashion by wood screw. Breech tipped for loading when lever was lowered. Barrel bump is sling band.

instead of malleable; strengthen the pivots of box and box cone; do away with sharp angles and round projections in trigger, tumbler and bridle; and increase the metal around lock screw in front. The arms are to be delivered for inspection to some United States ordnance officer, to be appointed as soon as you may report yourself ready.
I desire that you should prepare, as soon as possible, and send to me, a pattern gun altered from the present, as above suggested, which I will examine and return to you, or retain for a sample.
The arms must be properly boxed, to hold 20 guns each, unless they are required to be issued to troops in your city. It is intended to issue the above number to Governor Yates, of Illinois, as requested by him.
Payment will be made by me upon certificates of inspection, signed by the officer who may be appointed to inspect.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

P. V. HAGNER, Major Ordnance 

To: COSMOPOLITAN ARMS COMPANY, Hamilton, Ohio 

P.S.—The implements required are screw-driver and cone wrench, spare cone and wiper for each gun, to be furnished without additional charge. Boxes to be paid for, if furnished, at $2 each, to be made like our musket boxes.

P. V. HAGNER, Major Ordnance

Messrs. Edward Gwyn and E. C. Campbell, both of Hamilton, began work on the carbines at once. When Stanton called for information about contracts, they responded on February 4, writing on the letterhead of the Cosmopolitan Arms Company, setting forth pretty fairly the fact that the gun should be known by the name of the firm, as the Cosmopolitan. They supplied Holt and Owen with the facts of the December 23 order. This order was so recent and the term of delivery so indefinite, that Holt and Owen did not choose to investigate the matter; on the face of the record all was in order, and with Major Hagner’s approval of the gun there seemed little to occupy their attention. Not only had Master Armorer Allin at Springfield okayed the carbine, but the Navy gave it a shakedown on June 19, 1860, at the Navy Yard.
Undisturbed, Gwyn and Campbell continued to work on the guns, improving and strengthening as Major Hagner directed. First delivery of 840 Cosmopolitan carbines and appendages on June 18, 1862, was paid for a month later at the rate of $27 per gun. The 300 to complete Governor Yates’ order came in on July 2, 1862.    Then a delay occurred and not until April 11, 1863, were a further 1,000 Union carbines accepted by Ordnance. These were the first delivery under a formal contract of August 4, 1862, directly with Gwyn & Campbell for 2,000 Cosmopolitan carbines to be in all respects identical with a standard pattern carbine to be deposited by the party of the first part, and to be approved by the Chief of Ordnance. One hundred cartridges for each carbine were wanted; $20 each carbine and cartridges $15 per thousand. As surety and possibly subcontractor for parts in this was William Beckett, manufacturer, and also lawyer Alexander F. Hume, both of Butler County, Ohio.

Cosmopolitan No. 2 has rounded hammer, flat lockplate, and head of screw is enclosed by metal of plate. Stamped union rifle on breech box. this gun was issued to Governor’s Legion of Illinois, is marked Gross Patent on lockplate.

Cosmopolitan No. 3, First type, has same round hammer but breech is Gwyn and Campbell patent though old company name with Gross Patent is still stamped on lock. Lever screw enters from left of breech box. Not marked union rifle.

Production had so improved, though the firm never achieved high volume, that by April of 1863 the partners offered to furnish 10,000 carbines at $20 if a further contract would be extended. Ripley upon orders from Stanton agreed in principle; he wanted to take all that could be made ready for inspection by November 1, 1863. His dating was partly from military expediency; such arms might be phased into the cavalry operations in time to do battle before the Army went into winter quarters. Stanton, fiduciarily inclined, preferred to bring the accounts up to the end of the calendar year and Ripley bowed to this decision, ordering therefore all the Cosmopolitan carbines which could be delivered up to December 31, 1863.
These 10,000 represented some changes from prior lots as on September 18, 1863, the then assistant Chief of Ordnance, Colonel Ramsay, asked that two sample carbines be sent on, one to the Department and the other to now Lieutenant Colonel Hagner at the new Inspecting Office at 77 East 14th Street, New York.
On 27 February, 1864, a new contract was signed for 3,000 carbines at $20, with cartridges at $18 per thousand. Then a price increase was negotiated during the late summer and on November 18, 1864, a final contract set the price at $22.50 each, and $24 for cartridges. These carbines were of a type evidently covered by the two sample carbines and were specifically referred to as in all respects identical with the carbines and appendages of the February 27 contract.
Within the Cosmopolitan series are changes which with some certainty can be linked to these contracts and the modifications implicit in the guns by reason of the references or terms of the contracts. The earliest type of course is not even embraced within the contracts, nor is it properly a Civil War arm, being an earlier commercial-military development of the breechloading invention of one Henry Gross.
Gross enters and exits from the history of Gwyn and Campbell early and quick. In connection with Charles B. Gross, believed a brother, he worked in Tiffin, Ohio, between 1852 until the mid 1860’s. While he manufactured in 1864 or thereabouts the Gross patent .22 rimfire seven-shot revolvers, his carbine was patented August 30, 1859, No. 25,259.
In this gun, says collector Tom Rentschler, who has fortunately obtained specimens of this exceedingly rare limited production series, the paper or linen cartridge is inserted into the breechblock, which moves backward and tilts up (the gun is a lever-action breechloading single shot design). The patent papers also allow for a variation which has the breechblock moving back and down, and the cartridge inserted into an enlarged chamber of the barrel. Rentschler owns No.
19, No. 112, No. 150, and No. 186 of this series, varying slightly in presence or absence of ramrod pipes and detail form of lever and also hammer. No. 19, the earliest, has a lighter breechbox than later patterns, too. It is tinned finish and may have been one prepared for

Again marked union rifle this Cosmopolitan No. 4, last type, has improved carbine rear sight and flat hammer adapted for machining. Lever screw is larger head, from right of breech. Lever has improved rear end catch.

the Navy tests conducted with some approval and success on June 19, 1860.
Gross and Edward Gwyn together made some firearms in Tiffin, but the venture failed. Apparently Gwyn took as his share the patent rights, and, moving to Hamilton, formed the well-known partnership with Abner C. Campbell. As the Cosmopolitan Arms Company they began to make carbines under Gross’ patent. These arms are properly designated the Cosmopolitan carbine. It is this arm, Cosmopolitan No. 1, that Hagner wanted strengthened. In his letter he made an obvious mistake; he referred to increasing the metal around lock screw in front. The Cosmopolitan No. 1 carbine has the Gross rifle type lockplate, an odd backaction pattern with a rounded flat area or pad behind the hammer and with the tang of the plate at rear held by the head of a stock screw. Hagner wanted the metal of the plate increased to surround the screw entirely, making a stronger fastening to the stock. The hammer is flat on the body, with a rounded head and spur. While a few of this pattern were made and may have been sold to individual military purchasers locally, The Governor’s Legion of Illinois received the Cosmopolitan No. 2 which in its later issue bore the breech stamping (forward on breechbox near barrel) of union/ rifle. With lockplate held at rear by a screw head entirely surrounded by metal, this was the first Gross patent gun to see battle in quantity. The hammer is smoothly curved on body and head. The lockplate is flat, no longer having the pad or flat typical of earlier Gross arms; the bottom edge of lockplate is arched up as other Gross arms. Quickly distinguishing Gross arms from the later design of Gwyn and Campbell (if the workings of the breech innovations are not too clear in your mind) is the location of the leverpivot screw. On Gross guns it is forward of that point where the lever enters the breechbox by nearly 2 inches. On Gwyn & Campbell patent guns, the screw is almost at the point where the lever enters the breechbox, when viewed from the side.
Cosmopolitan No. 3 was made under patent No. 36,709, October 21, 1862, issued to Gwyn and Campbell. Gross’s guns have a double cam movement to open the breech, but the G & C patent operates the breech mechanism with a single eccentric cam, dropping the block down and back. Probably this was designed in the spring of 1862 and contracted for August 4, 1862.
Tooling for the improved carbines, which simplified the breech pieces of the Gross and permitted greater production with higher profits and the lower price, was not ready until the winter of 1862-63. First delivery of 1,000 pieces of Cosmopolitan No. 3 was in April 11, 1863. They were stamped union/rifle and referred to as such in the contract. The rear lock screw head was to the right of the gun; the lever curves were rather open and large on some of this issue. Lockplate shape had been simplified to basically a triangle shape with rounded comers, easy for machining. But 4,200 Union carbines of the Type 3 were delivered to contract expiration 31 December, 1863. Still, Gwyn and Campbell were not satisfied, and they made a final variation, Cosmopolitan No. 4, under their patent.
The No. 4 differed most obviously from No. 3 in the shape of the hammer; it is flat on the shank and flat on the side of the head. The cause is twofold. The round shape of the No. 3 hammer required expansive and slow hand filing to achieve the exact shape. The No. 4 can be roughed out by machine, requiring mostly deburring on the edges to clean up.
The No. 4 lockplate is tapped at the rear for the rear plate screw, which now enters from left of stock. All drill and tap work on the lockplate is done at one time, and there is no need for a separate threaded fitting to anchor the lock screw. The lever latch on the Gross guns, and Cosmopolitans No. 1, 2, and 3, catches the lever which turns forward upon itself in a curl to engage the latch. On No. 4 the catch is simply at the end of the lever.
Tactical changes seem to have modified the machinery a little; Gross guns and No. 3 Cosmopolitan have leaf rear sights slightly like the Enfield, graduated to the optimistic distance of 900 yards. In the No. 3 series 600-yard sights appear and the series of No. 4’s is fitted with 600-yard sights. Only 4,502 of the No. 4’s were delivered to Uncle Sam, the last 1,000 at an increased price of $22.50. A change not mentioned in the contract but evidently covered by technical advice during production of models for inspection or Ordnance approval was that of caliber size; No. 1 and No. 2 Cosmopolitans are .50 caliber. To make the bore uniform with the Spencers and Sharps the caliber was

Major General Ambrose Everett Burnside commanded Rhode Island Volunteers armed with his patent breech-loading carbines for the manufacture of which the governor of Rhode Island had signed as a surety on the contract.

increased to .52 in the last No. 3 and 4 series of Gwyn and Campbell design.
Few of these Cosmopolitan arms were made. The partners Gwyn and Campbell seem to have been major pioneers in machine manufacturing methods. Most of the guns made have seen hard service. In design, they contributed nothing to the development of arms generally, but in the engineering lavished upon the models made, they did their share to move the locus of machine industry westward and build a stable self-sustaining economy in the Middle West.

Burnside Rifles

Of 407,734 carbines purchased by the Union from 1861 to 1865, in 19 patterns plus foreign types and musketoons, none was more colorful and none better built than the Burnside. Fifty-five thousand five hundred sixty-seven were received over the War years, of several patterns, and the record of their production embraces the formation and dissolution of two companies.
Of the same species of breechbox construction as the Cosmopolitan, the Burnside gun has a receiver to hold the cartridge, like the Hall. An under lever tips the receiver upward to take the foil or copper cartridge, which is loaded from the front of the receiver’s chamber. In the final motion of closing, the big ring of metal about the bullet serves as a gas seal between chamber and bore, and a separate percussion capignites the flash-hole cartridge, from a nipple placed on top of the receiver, what today would be called the breechblock.
Designed by Ulinoisian Ambrose Everett Burnside, after whom the whiskers called sideburns are named, it reflected familiarity with the Hall and its defects, while the inventor was a cadet at the United States Military Academy at West Point. Burnside graduated from West Point in 1847. but became interested in arms design and resigned in 1853. In 1855 he organized the Bristol Firearms Company at Bristol, Rhode Island, to manufacture the breechloader he invented, supposedly while carrying dispatches in 1847.
Early specimens of his sporting rifle have a tape primer, but not the Maynard patent nor design. A strip of pelleted priming tape is fed forward from a slot in the top of the breechbox, and the hammer connects with a cap as it hits the nipple. Burnside was hopeful of far-reaching sales for his gun. Two flashily engraved specimens, Nos. 12 and 34. with short 24-inch carbine barrels, are today in the museum of the Military Academy at Tehran, capital of Iran. Other examples are known of pre-military Burnside rifles, sporting type, finished with varnished rifle butt plate stocks and brilliant bluing and fine engraving. An important dis-

Wrapped foil Burnside cartridge is shown with improved drawn brass type. Case had hole in base, and flash from cap ignited charge. Bulge was at joint of breech and barrel; case extending into barrel helped seal the gas.

Early Burnside sporter made by Bristol Firearms Co. had safety lever on side of ^breech box. Inner receiver tips up at front when lever is dropped, to receive tapered metallic cartridge. Postwar sporter (bottom) is unusual combination of last model breech with custom octagon barrel, fine wood.

tinction between early Burnside arms and later massproduced guns is that the early guns do not have a forestock.
With the coming of war, Burnside ceased to take any part in the affairs of the firm. At the age of 37 he commanded Rhode Island troops, ranking as Major General of United States Volunteers. Though talented, he lacked experience and organizational ability and this served to account for his disastrous charge upon well entrenched Confederates at Marye’s Heights in the Battle of Fredericksburg, Virginia. After the War he helped organize and was first president of the National Rifle Association, and was active in Rhode Island politics.
Early sales to the Government were few. On April 21, 1856, 200 Burnside carbines were bought at $30 each. Possibly these had the tape primer, for most of the guns bought under direction of Secretary of War Jefferson Davis had some such feature. Bristol Firearms Company then sold 709 Burnsides to the United States on September 21, 1858, at $35. Details of these specific lots of arms are lacking at present, but it is assumed they were with the tape primer and a side lever lock. Possibly the tape primer serial numbers ran in its own series and the firm started anew with the more or less conventional Burnside as later made.
It is the Second Model Burnside which was the first official War model. The lever and latch were improved by G. P. Foster, Taunton, Massachusetts. A peripatetic contracting gunmaker, Foster had made rifles for Colonel Porter and for New Yorker Philip H. Klein, United States patent communicant of Nicholas von Dreyse, inventor of the Prussian needle gun. He may have been the manufacturing superintendent of Bristol Firearms and the later Burnside Rifle Company, moving to Bristol and then Providence from his earlier location of Taunton, Massachusetts. Foster improved the lever latch of the Burnside carbine by making a rocking curved piece which fitted inside the bow of the lever and naturally unlatched when one’s trigger finger was brought against it in a downward motion. A patent was granted Foster April 10, 1860, on this idea, and the date stamp appearing on, for example, No. 378 of the Second Model Burnside carbine without forestock, suggests that but few could have been

Official Records illustration shows second model Burnside carbine with no forestock as made by Bristol Firearms. Some of these were issued early in the war but contracts later specified wooden forearms and one barrel band.

made of this pattern by Bristol before April, 1860.
General Ripley remembered the Burnside gun and when Governor Sprague of Rhode Island requested enough to arm a mounted brigade, the Ordnance general at once sent out the order. It was addressed to Charles Jackson, Treasurer, of Bristol Firearms:

Washington, July 16, 1861

Sir: There are required immediately by this department eight hundred of Burnside’s carbines, for which the same price last paid will be allowed. Please inform me of the shortest time possible you are prepared to furnish them.

Jackson during the past two years had perfected the gun, including Foster’s lever, and within the past two months had dissolved the old Bristol Company and moved to Providence. I have recently reorganized, under the name of the Burnside Rifle Company, Isaac Hartshorn, agent, he responded July 18, 1861. We will take your order for the eight hundred carbines, to be delivered in December next, in whole or in part, probably the whole.
The lead time Jackson needed reveals pretty conclusively that the new firm was not in full swing and could not ship from shelf stock.
But the Burnside sales folks were not lazy. Ground was broken for a new armory in Providence in July. Production of about 2,000 per month was the superintendent’s program. By December, guns were ready for delivery. Ripley was anxious, Governor Sprague having been pestering him. On November 5, Ripley wrote to Hartshorn, saying Please have ready for Governor Sprague, as soon as possible, 632 carbines on account of the order to you of the 27th August last. Captain Rodman at Watertown Arsenal, Massachusetts, outside of Boston, was to inspect these guns.
Hartshorn was momentarily disturbed by this notice. The order of 27 August was a large contract which he had obtained to supply 7,500 carbines, but they had some special characteristics different from the forearm-less Second Models which were then in current production. The order of 27 August read:

The carbines to have steel barrels, twenty-one inches long, to be half stocked, bore .54 inch, weight from seven and a quarter to seven and an eighth pounds. . . . Payments . . . $35 for each carbine, including appendages, which are to be one wiping thong and brush, one spare cone, one screw driver and wrench for each arm, and one spring vise and one bullet mould for every ten arms.
Hartshorn, not prepared to introduce the modified model so soon, asked Ripley to consider the carbines for Sprague (Rodman to inspect) as coming under the order of July 16, which was agreed to. Of these unstocked barrel Second Models it appears deliveries were at least as follows:
October 5 and 12, 1861, 480 on State of Indiana contract of September 21, 1861. December 11, 580 Second Models to Rodman.

More than this number existed at the time Holt and Owen stepped into the case. When Hartshorn reported to Stanton the status of orders, he showed the firm to be in good shape, with an armory capable of 25,000 to 30,000 rifles yearly, and about 1,130 carbines actually on hand in finished state ready for inspection during February and March. Some 6,000 were in progress with delivery estimated commencing April, 1862. Of Second Models made, there were 60 ready for delivery in February, for Rodman to inspect for Governor Sprague. Hartshorn stated that the 1,130 included 520 final lot for State of Indiana contract, assumed by Government, and will be our first delivery under contract of August 27. These 1,130 must therefore be the first-made Third Model Burnsides with the first appearance of the wooden forearm.
It is fairly conclusive that none of the wood-forearm guns were ever made at Bristol Firearms, but were the second pattern of Burnside made at Providence. The 9 Vi-inch long wooden forearm is held to the barrel by an oval steel band, blued. The barrel to conform to the contract was marked cast steel and sometimes with the date of fabrication. It is supposed from an examination of production delays related to contracts that this pattern without the additional improvements which distinguish the Fourth Model Burnside is one of the rarest of these carbines. But at the moment, the biggest production delay was Holt and Owen.
Robert Owen was not a stranger to this case. Having ordered 1,000 of the Second Model Burnsides for his boss, Governor Oliver P. Morton of Indiana, he knew a little of the business before he dropped his role of arms buying agent and began to assume the judge’s robes more usually worn by his colleague Judge Holt. Hartshorn came before them and set forth simply the company’s situation.
This situation included two orders for long guns, never filled. On August 28, 1861, Ripley ordered 1,000 Burnside rifle muskets, to have angular bayonets, steel barrels 37 inches long, full stocked, weight from 9 to 1/2 pounds . . . Payments . . . $38.50 for each musket, including appendages, which are to be one wiping thong and brush, one spare cone, one screw-driver and wrench for each arm, and one spring vise and one bullet mould for every ten arms. A following order of November 21, 1861, covered the need for 2,500 Burnside’s breech-loading rifles, with sabre bayonets, Harper’s Ferry rifle length, calibre .58 inch . . . $38.50. Colonel B. R. Lewis (Small Arms and Ammunition in the United States Service) treats the Bumside cartridge as a nominal .54 caliber, but notes that bullets of two types are .565 inch diameter, which is close to .577, which was enough to be considered a

Fourth model carbine had Foster’s improved lever, and barrel band held by spring on under side of stock. In fifth type, side screws were added in breech box to guide motion of receiver, which had corresponding cam cuts in its sides.

.58. The likelihood of a beat-up caliber .58 U. S. Rifle Musket being assembled by someone fraudulently about a Burnside breech mechanism now becoming more probable, it would be wise to examine such an arm most carefully, when one proposes to add it to one’s collection. Jackson in correspondence was quite certain none of the rifles or rifle muskets had been prepared on these two orders; he did offer to supply cartridges electro silver-plated cases, at three dollars per hundred. The cases now used (July 18, 1861) are tinned . .
During March, 1862, the transition from Second Model to Third took place, and there is a suggestion that the first forms of the Fourth Model were established at that time. To attach the forearm, a band of malleable iron was first used. This simplified manufacture, since the band could be cast to shape and would need only file finishing and possibly internal swedging to form. The cast grey iron was rendered malleable by soaking in a uniform heat for a long time. The rear sight base also was of cast malleable iron. Inspector Major George Balch from Springfield Armory, who was doing Rodman’s job of inspecting at the Burnside Rifle Company armory, required changes in the band and sight. The sight change may be the new form of leaf sight now graduated to 100, 300, and 500 yards. Earlier sights were not so marked. A band spring also was added to hold the band in place. Internal changes in the lever, making it bend in two pieces to more easily open and close when fouled, were also devised by the rifle firm’s engineers, perhaps Foster. Okayed by Rodman.
“These improvements, with the permission of the department, will be ingrafted upon the arm in a few weeks, wrote Hartshorn to Major Hagner of the Commission on April 7. By April 21, Hartshorn had sorted out the different contracts and overlapping orders and figured out which of earlier patterns he wanted to deliver to whom.
On February 10, 1862 he had delivered to Watertown Arsenal military storekeeper L. Leonard the last of the 640 Second Model carbines for Governor Sprague. On 13 March an added 260 carbines went to Governor Sprague which should (if Hartshorn’s statements are correct) have conformed to the Third Model with malleable iron band. The sight leaves may not have been graduated. On 20 March a further lot of 800 Third Models were ready, and by April 21, 530 had been inspected and minor changes made to the wishes of Major Balch. Of these 520 were destined for the Indiana border. And among the 6,000 carbines in various stages of fabrication, 600 had the Third Model locking system. Hartshorn wanted to deliver these on the order for 7,500 carbines and then change to the ingrafted improvement of Foster’s lever. In this last type of Burnside carbine, says Gluckman, the action was improved by double pivoting of the breechblock and the substitution of an easily removed latch hinge pin, at the forward hinge pivot. A further improved or Fifth Model has a stud screw in the middle of the breechbox, and a sine-curve cam groove in the chamber block, to prevent jamming on closing.
Price as well as quality came to the minds of Judge Holt and Ohio agent Owen as they conferred with Major Hagner on the Burnside project. Should they confirm the 7,500 order? How should they permit Hartshorn to deliver the various sub-patterns of Third and Fourth Models? They appealed to Ripley for a guide on pricing but the general had no means of estimating the cost of the Burnside carbine and could not therefore, say what price would afford a fair profit to the manufacturers. But Hartshorn, seeing the firm, of which he owned %th share, about to suffer loss, volunteered to surrender the rifle and rifle musket contracts and take a reduction to $30 on the carbines. Assured that the Governor Sprague cavalry really needed his guns, Hartshorn agreed to take out a contract in proper form to cover the 7,500 order. This was signed 19 June, 1862, and so strongly did Governor Sprague feel the need for this locally-made gun, that he signed as a surety to pay the Government indemnity if Burnside Rifle Company should default!
The terms required first delivery of 1,000 guns in June and July, 1862. The guns actually delivered totalled 520 which were accepted June 24 and paid for at $35.75 under the terms of the State of Indiana contract. The same shipment included a further 80 Third Models accepted under the June 19 contract with Ripley at $30. In July, but 200 more Third Models were taken at $30 under the new contract. This finished up the 800 guns which Hartshorn had on hand, but there seems no indication that the remaining 600 of this Third Model, presumably without the double link to the Foster lever, were taken by the United States from Burnside directly. Instead, a delay occurred through the rest of the summer and not until October were 1,000 Fourth Model Burnsides ready for acceptance. Four hundred and eighty-nine were inspected October 20, 1862, and paid for in full; a balance of 11 were second grade guns paid for at $29. Why these guns were worth a dollar less was not recorded, but deliveries of this cut-rate nature continued throughout the production of 5,906 till March 5, 1863, under this contract.
The next contract for Burnside carbines was signed by Hartshorn and Ripley 29 December, 1862, for all the carbines that could be made during nine months after first delivery commencing in February, 1863. Not more than 25,000 carbines could be delivered under this contract, which was at the reduced price of $25. So far as is known, though these arms were to conform to a standard model to be deposited with the Chief of Ordnance, they did not represent any model changes or innovations in manufacture. Hartshorn was preparing a large armory, capable of volume production, and the product did not vary.
In spite of labor shortages, rising costs of materials, and difficulties in getting machinery, the production spiral continued until, after slow deliveries for several months, the Burnside factory was delivering batches of 1,000 Fourth Models regular as clockwork. A peak of 3,000 was delivered in September, 1863; 2,860 in February and 2,500 in March, April, and May of 1864. Two thousand six hundred and fifty-one were shipped in June and in August with the commencement of a last and final order, the enormous total of 3,500 Burnside Fourth Model carbines was delivered. On September 30, 1863, the company’s production rate was so favorable that Hartshorn received a further order by letter from General Ramsay, requesting 12,500 carbines with the proviso that deliveries under the prior contract would be completed by January, 1864. The delivery under the order for 12,500 could not be less than 2,500 carbines monthly, at $25. Though Burnside Rifle Company did not quite make the January deadline, the contracts were not interrupted, and the guns continued to flow from the machines.
The Burnside carbine is a handsome piece of manufacture. The gaily mottled casehardened breechbox and lock parts contrast with the deep satin blue-black of the barrel and the burnished blues of the heatcolored bands and screw heads, sparkling highlights to the ensemble. It is to the Burnside Rifle Company production rate of 3,000 guns monthly that the collector owes the existence today of the prized like new specimens on hand. Double the production of even the most favorable estimates of 1862 was achieved by the end of 1864; while for precision of manufacture and excellence of finish this company with its absentee inventor yielded supremacy to no gunmaker.
Hartshorn was drunk with the money, there is no doubt about that. In a burst of manufacturing zeal which paralleled the avaricious patriotism of the agents in the good old days of Simon Cameron, the Burnside financier plunged to his fiscal neck into manufacturing not only the breechloaders which gave him his start, but a companion contract for Spencer repeating carbines.
Between April 15, 1865 and October 31, 1865, Burnside Rifle Company delivered 34,496 Spencer carbines. In September alone, 6,000 Spencers were delivered! The contract of 27 June, 1864, called for all the Spencers they could deliver up to 31 August, 1865; evidently the Ordnance Department was willing to continue to accept them until October.
A final contract for 3,000 Burnside carbines was negotiated 6 July, 1864, by Hartshorn, who had been elected president (replacing Earl P. Mason), and General Ramsay. Price was $19 each. Somewhat more than this number were prepared and Charles Jackson, who had been the Bristol Firearms Company treasurer but now took over Hartshorn’s duties as registered agent, wrote to Ramsay about them. The general approved Jackson’s offer to supply 4,500 first class Burnside carbines at $19 on December 2, 1864. Actually, 9,800 Burnside Fourth Models were accepted at $19 under these two proposals. The saga of Burnside was at an end. Most of the Fourth Model guns were of the sub-type with stud screws in a frame box we have called a Fifth model.
Over 55,000 carbines invented by a major general of Volunteers had been purchased by the Union. That they had been ordered mainly to arm Rhode Island troops; that a surety in one of the contracts was the Governor of Rhode Island himself; that their inventor had been appointed a general commanding Rhode Island troops armed with carbines of his own invention, was neither an expression of irregularity in administration nor corruption in conduct. It combined rapid breech-loading with the sturdiness of the metallic cartridge and the reliability of the common percussion cap (not all cartridge primers were reliable then). When war’s end pulled the plug on Major General Ambrose Burnside’s and his friend Isaac Hartshorn’s profits, the company went out of business. To say that it failed is a distinct error, though it did not make its obvious mark on the future of the arms trade. Foster took up with a new design, that of the Howard breechloader surnamed The Thunderbolt. Though superstreamlined, it was not a success commercially. Foster and the complex of manufacturing know-how faded into the pattern of shops and mills in postwar Providence that were to make the lazy town a Little Sheffield of New England.

Other Carbines

Some half-dozen makes of carbines were bought in

Burnside carbines are popular shooting irons today and scarcity of ammunition has prompted some enthusiasts to turn cases up by hand. Shown are new cases made 1956 for Burnside and Maynard carbines, compared with antique loads.

Merrill, Latrobe & Thomas carbines were made by Remington for Government test before the war, to order of proprietors who were Baltimore, Md. firm. Bar on top of stock small lifted up, opening breech. Primer was Maynard’s.

a quantity barely sufficient to arm a regiment—approximately 1,000 units more or less for each. These were: Ballard, 1,509; Ball, 1,002; Gibbs, 1,052; Lindner, 892; Palmer, 1,001; Wesson, 151. Of Warner’s carbine only 4,001 were obtained, and the Joslyn (11,261) and Merrill (14,495) must be considered fairly limited in issue in spite of the numbers bought. Only a few of these are shown illustrated in the Atlas of the Official Records. Along with the Sharps slant-breech Model 1859, the Ballard full-stock rifle, Remington’s split-breech, and Maynard’s tip-barrel carbine, are shown the Burnside Second Model military carbine with Foster’s lever but no forestock, and the Merrill capping breechloader. A Smith is also illustrated, but the presence of the thumb-lifter for locking bar on top of the action reveal it to be incorrectly the Model 1865 metallic cartridge Smith instead of the percussion Civil War type. A Starr and a Henry are also shown, and— also mistakenly—the Spencer Ml865 two-band postwar rifle. Of these all, the Merrill in both rifle and carbine version is one of the most interesting, and yet little known.

Merrill Weapons

Mechanically, the Merrill is an adaptation of the earlier Jenks system, as made by Ames and Remington. Two patterns of arm exist. The first is known as the Merrill, Latrobe and Thomas carbine, and was fabricated by Remington under contract with the proprietors, who were of Baltimore, Maryland. A faucet breech gun, the rear lever lying a-top the small of the stock upon being lifted pivoted a cross-block and opened the back of the barrel, allowing a cartridge to be inserted. Firing was by percussion side lock. With the ubiquitous Maynard tape primer fitted, 170 of these carbines were bought by the United States on July 26, 1855, for $35 each. While they were marked Patent Applied For on top of the receiver, in addition to S. Remington, Ilion, New York, and Merrill, Latrobe & Thomas, Baltimore, Maryland, the patents that covered the final design were issued to James H. Merrill himself July, 1858, and May, 1861. Instead of a turning breech, a reciprocating plunger connected by a toggle link to a forward-folding lever a-top the stock small was used. With the lever forward a latch caught at the rear sight base to lock the lever down. In this position the thrust of the cartridge explosion against the breech plug was distributed in a straight line to the mechanism through the several pivots.
With Philip E. and Lewin W. Thomas, Merrill phased Latrobe out of his business and organized as Merrill, Thomas & Company in Baltimore, with offices and plant at 239 Baltimore Street. Baltimore St. addresses are today in that sector known as East Baltimore Street. Where the Merrill carbines once were made and rifle muskets converted to breechloaders, is now a dance hall under the shadow of the Drunk Tank at Central Police Station, Fayette and Fallsway. In Washington, S. P. Dinsmore looked after the business of the company at Clay’s Hotel. He offered Assistant Secretary of War Scott these different Merrill arms: caliber .54 rifles weighing 9 lbs. 3 ozs., muskets caliber .58 with 40-inch barrels, and carbines caliber .54. Selling prices hitherto, i.e., prior to October, 1861, Dinsmore said were $40 for the rifle (with sword bayonet), and $35 for carbine. A price quoted of $28 for musket is probably in error; $48 would be more consistent though actually an excessive cost, as Colt’s revolving muskets could be bought for less, and they were repeaters. Production capacity of the works was quoted at 600 rifles, 800 carbines, and 600 muskets per month, beginning delivery within 30 days of order.
The Merrill shop was large, and was increased to make the carbines. At war’s end, terminating manufacturing, the Merrill factory was offered for rent, and up to 100 horsepower, steam, was available. Rooms were light, airy, comfortable, and heated by steam," their for rent ad read.
The Federal officers looked over an assortment of guns sold to the War Department June 5, 1861. The batch consisted of 20 Merrill’s carbines, 1 Merrill’s Minie musket, 3 Merrill’s breech-loading rifles, 3 Remington carbines (Merrill), and 9 Harper’s Ferry rifles, (Merrill). Colonel Dichell and General Stoneman were impressed, and Dinsmore made a sale.

“By direction of the Secretary of War, Ripley wrote to Merrill, Thomas & Company on October 25, 1861, I will purchase 600 of your breechloading carbines, at thirty dollars each, with 600 cartridge boxes, belts, and cap boxes, at $2.50, and 600 slings,

at $1, as stated in the letter of the 17th instant from Colonel Dichell and others to General Stoneman; also 60,000 cartridges for these carbines, at $18 per thousand; 80,000 Hick’s caps, adapted to the carbine, at $1 per thousand.
These 600 carbines were accepted at Washington Arsenal November 5 and paid for in full on November 7, 1861. But Stoneman’s cavalrymen in the Army of the Potomac were not the only troops to have Merrills. Invading the western provinces of Cosmopolitan and Burnside, Merrill guns were ordered by Wisconsin and Indiana volunteers in quantity; while locally raised Maryland Union fighters expressed a decided preference for the rifles. Colonels Purnell and Petheridge of the Maryland (U.S.) Volunteers urged the gunmakers to keep writing to Simon Cameron, and inclose price lists of the arms.
Not financial interest nor cupidity but apparently a sincere desire to have the local arms caused Purnell and Petheridge to want the Merrills for their men. Both sword-bayonet rifles and carbines were needed, and Merrill, Thomas & Company’s price list to Cameron cited prices as follows:
Carbine, $32.50 each; infantry rifles with sword bayonet, $42.50 each; carbine slings, $1; cartridges, $18 per thousand; caps $1; cavalry cartridge box, belt and cap box per set $2.50; infantry cartridge box, belt and cap box per set $3.
Patent breech-loading rifles were not of much interest to General Ripley, but he had a use for carbines. The night before Christmas he sent likewise to James H. Merrill his order for 5,000 carbines, but he shaded the price a little, possibly in response to negotiations in the interim between Cameron and the proprietors of the design. The contract price was $30. As the stomachs of the New Year’s revelers settled down on 2 January, Merrill, Thomas & Company accepted the order at the beginning of 1862. The terms were specific: 500 in 30 days from date of order, (24 December; therefore say 24 January) and another 500 in 60 days (by February 24) and monthly deliveries of not less than 1,000 thereafter till completed. An additional 200 carbines were delivered to General Stoneman through acceptance by the Ordnance Department at Washington Arsenal, who issued them to Colonel Dickel of 1st New York Mounted Rifles. Indiana Volunteer General John A. Dix, stationed in Baltimore, also sought and received 200 of the carbines and his boys liked the design. Colonel McMillan, of the 21st Regiment Indiana Volunteers, he wrote to the new War Secretary, Stanton, January 31, 1862, is desirous of procuring Merrill’s rifles for his regiment.
I know the arm and think very highly of it, Dix noted.

If 566 (of the carbines) could be exchanged for the larger arm (enough for the 21st Indiana regiment) by arrangement with the Ordnance Department, I would recommend it. Colonel McMillan has 192 of these rifles already and 242 Enfield rifles. The residue of his arms are Belgian and Prussian, for the most part unfit for service and diverse in construction, Dix scornfully concluded.

The swap was suggested to Merrill on his contract for 5,000 and he cheerfully assented to deliver rifles instead of carbines, but he priced the rifles now at $45 instead of $42.50 (perhaps labor costs had gone up). Though General Ripley put his endorsement on the order as I think the charge for the rifles is too high, Dix stuck to his wants, and the arms were made and delivered, the first lot of 40 rifles being accepted April 25 at the full $45 agreed, weeks after Holt and Owen had got their teeth into the case. Wisconsin troops also received these Baltimore breechloaders; Colonel W. A. Barstow during February and March ordered 1,400 carbines for his 3rd Wisconsin Cavalry then training at Janesville, Wisconsin.
When, in response to Secretary Stanton’s advertisement for all contractors to come forward and tell of their dealings, Merrill did so. Holt and Owen spent little time on the case. As Merrill apparently had made enough guns, though had only offered 500 for inspection spread over the first two months of production, the commissioners confirmed the contract except for short deliveries. As deliveries rolled on, Merrill made a new offer to sell carbines at $28 and Ripley extended the contract by another 1,400 carbines completed on November 28, 1862. Then, in the dark days of the spring of 1863, the Department will receive from you as many carbines, Merrill’s patent, as you may have ready lor inspection, not exceeding 2,800 . . .’’Major Hagner on March 30, 1863 was instructed to inspect and receive these guns. And then from the Army of

Production Merrill carbine had top lever latched at front end to rear sight fixed base. Raising lever pulled back toggle plug in barrel for loading with combustible cartridge. Second type omitted patchbox, changed shape of lever latch piece to round nuts from elaborate filed contours of first type.

Jenks navy carbine made by Remington was among older types of arms converted or remanufactured to Merrill breechloading system. Harpers Ferry rifles were also converted, and several thousand new Merrill rifles built in 1861-65.

 the West came a demand for them; 1,000 were next ordered June 8, 1863, at $25, to be delivered to Major Callender, commanding St. Louis Arsenal, St. Louis, Missouri. An additional 200 were taken under order of July 1, and then 800 more, on July 11.

During the summer Merrill had made some changes in the gun which permitted cheaper manufacture, and proposed to make the carbine at only $22.50. Ripley demurred, but with the prospect of decreasing the price while all about him others were raising theirs, he went after Merrill and got a concession to continue deliveries of the “old model carbines, as they were now called, at the same $22.50. On August 11, 1863, an all you can manufacture during 1863 order for the old model Merrill at $22.50 was issued by the Ordnance general. But business problems intervened. The Merrill company was reorganized, incorporated as Merrill’s Patent Firearms Company, between July
11 and August 11, 1863, when the contract order was given, and deliveries were not regular. Yet Merrill was able to accomplish greater production with economy, and in October bayonet rifles at $30, he offered to furnish 200 saber which was accepted. Then June 8, 1864, a formal contract was signed for delivery of 1,200 Merrill’s improved breech-loading carbines, at $18 each—evidently Merrill was able to cut his prices even more, and General Ramsay, who signed this contract for the Ordnance Department, proved himself as hard a bargainer as his predecessor, Ripley. That this was a distinct new model of arm, one referred to in Merrill’s offer to make at $22.50 as declined, is shown by the contract terms requiring two model carbines to be deposited with the Department as guides for inspection. The inspecting was probably to be done by Colonel Hagner.
At present, detailed recognition of the differences between the First and Second Model Merrill carbines appears based on the finger latch, and absence of patchbox. The first has a knurled latch; the second one of button form, cheaply made, and no patchbox.
A total of 10,055 Merrill First and Second model carbines were delivered, with the final 4,100 being delivered of the improved model under the terms of August 11, 1863 contract. Four hundred and six Merrill’s breech-loading rifles were also obtained, the last 200 being of the Improved or Second model, delivered 30 November, 1863, by Merrill’s Patent Firearms Company as reorganized. The assembly line where James H. Merrill’s faithful Union workmen labored is now replaced by the “runway bar where plump and plush cuties peel to Dixieland jazz.

Objections to the Gallager Carbines

  When Thomas Poultney, partner in Poultney & Trimble of Baltimore, and proprietor of the Smith’s patent carbine, offered to supply Ripley with 25,000 arms for cavalry, the Ordnance general was not impressed. On August 15, 1861, the debacle of Bull Run having not yet been forgotten, he still resisted, and responded to Assistant Secretary of War Scott’s query about the proposal by saying,

This proposition is objectionable on account of its introducing an arm untried in the field, of its requiring a special cartridge, and of the price charged ($32.50); the best of Sharps’

Philadelphians Richardson & Overman supplied carbines designed by Georgian Mahlon Gallagher. Inventor’s friends it is believed had approached Colt before the war with proposition to manufacture tipping barrel breechloader in South.

carbines cost $30 each, including appendages.” He concluded by referring to recent orders concerning the equipment of the cavalry of The Army of the Potomac: The orders in this division are, to arm the cavalry with sabres and pistols only. He considered that since orders or contracts for 17,000 carbines had already been let, these would be enough. But when the horse soldiers began to call for harder-hitting arms than a .44 pistol, Ripley’s total of 17,000 carbines was soon swelled in contract and order to more than 117,000. Among the lesser known but invaluable guns, which had all the objections that Ripley first voiced against the Smiths, was the Gallager carbine, a contribution of Richardson and Overman, Philadelphia, to winning the war. Including 200 bought in open purchase September 10, 1861, over 20,000 Gallager capping breechloaders taking a special wrapped tinfoil cartridge were bought by the spring of ’65. The important design feature of this invention of Georgian Mahlon J. Gallager was the trigger guard lever which, when pressed downwards, swung the barrel forward from the standing breech and allowed it to tip for loading the chamber. Originally, Gallager hoped to manufacture in Georgia. The back-action lock suggested the Cosmopolitan or the Sharps or others in its form, but it was not interchangeable with any other arm. Gallager received Patent No. 29,157 on July 17, 1860, and Richardson & Overman liked it well enough to obtain the rights and commence perfecting the model.
Ripley accepted their proposal on direct orders of Thomas A. Scott who noted The sample carbine is highly approved. The price is less than offered by others. We should be glad to have 5,000 of these guns provided they can be delivered at the rate of, say, 1,000 by the close of October (1861) and 1,000 each month thereafter. Ripley’s order of September 17, 1861, required delivery for inspection at Frankford Arsenal, Philadelphia, in lots of not less than 500 per month. Each carbine was accompanied by 40 metallic cartridges, a screw driver and nipple wrench, and an extra cone and for every ten carbines, a bullet mould, and one loader. A tool existed to reload Gallager ammo.
Ripley’s terms were not met, for Richardson & Overman were not actually in production when they submitted the sample to Scott. Months were consumed, and first delivery was 100 guns and 4,000 cartridges on January 23, 1862. Lieutenant Treadwell had taken delivery by March 16 of 840 Gallager carbines and 30,000 rounds of ammunition, when Holt and Owen reviewed the case.
Their decision was to recommend accepting further deliveries, as Richardson & Owen seemed able at last to live up to their promised delivery schedule of 200 a week and had all the forging work finished ready for final machining. George J. Richardson and William W. Overman lived up to their obligations and by the end of their four contracts for Gallager’s carbines, were delivering in batches of 1,000 guns.
The first three contracts in addition to Ripley’s order were in proper form executed with sureties and totalled 5,000 for the first, as many as they could make for the second, and 10,000 for the third. Under these three contracts plus the Ripley order, a total of 18,748 capping carbines were bought by the time of negotiating for the final Gallager order, the contract of March 11, 1865. Under its terms, 5,000 improved cartridge arms adapted to the Spencer carbine cartridge 56/52 were received and paid for, the last delivered and paid for in June, 1865.

Lindner Guns

One carbine which saw little use in the War still reaped considerable profit from it: the breechloader of Edward Lindner. Patented March 29, 1859, this arm also used a fixed breech and moved the breechblock between barrel and fixed breech by means of a turning sleeve with a thumb piece attached. Often lost or broken off, the thumb piece was necessary to rotate a sleeve over the breech so as to free the breechblock and allow it to be tipped up for loading with a combustible cartridge. The design which seems complicated in description, was actually simple enough though with some defects. The Royal Bavarian Army adopted the system about 1860. In the United States, the Lindner was Amoskeag’s entry in the carbine race; added to rifle muskets and the great steam pumper horse-drawn fire engines which clanged down cobbled streets in a thousand towns across the divided nation was Edward Lindner’s carbine produced at Manchester, New Hampshire.
Agent for the sale of 892 of these guns to the United States was Samuel B. Smith, a New Yorker headquartering at the Kirkwood House in the suite of A.J.F. Phelan. Smith had plunged heavily in the foreign musket market, scurrying from Cameron to Boker with contracts and buying arms from Boker subject to future delivery and inspection. But with the Lindner guns he was dealing on home ground, with Amoskeag.
As an independent contractor, Smith offered the Lindner guns to Colonel Broadhead’s regiment. Secretary Cameron approved the requisition and Colonel Maynadier during a temporary absence of Ripley from the office on November 6, 1861, approved the order for 400 Lindner carbines at $25, and 40,000 cartridges, but all had to be delivered within eight days. Apparently 395 were actually delivered, or 400 of which five failed inspection. They were handed to Lieutenant Colonel Ramsay, commanding Washington Arsenal at the time.
These were not United States purchase guns, but were paid for out of the Militia Appropriation of 1808 which had annually appropriated $200,000 for the purchase and manufacture of small-arms, ordnance, and ordnance stores, to equip the state troops. But Lindner himself got into the act when it appeared that E. A. Straw of Amoskeag was not pushing his guns enough, and Smith, by the Holt and Owen team, had been pushed out of the picture on his foreign musket deal. A year later Maynadier on November 4, 1862, informed Straw that Lindner could deliver all he could

Edward Lindner’s patent consisted of a turning barrel sleeve (to which was attached a thumbpiece) then could be rotated to unlatch rear nippled chamber which tipped up for front-loading a combustible cartridge. Amoskeag made guns, in very limited quantity. Design was extensively used abroad in Bavaria.

make up to the first of December next. Maynadier’s time was one calendar year and a part of a month, but Lindner must have been making guns slowly by hand. The delivery on January 9 of 1863 was for but 501 carbines, paid for at $20 each; a total of 892 in all for the Union officially. More state forces may have esteemed the gun but production was extremely limited; Lindner’s carbine was little more than experimental, though Straw seems to have caught the bug and designed a sliding-forward barrel carbine which he entered in the trials of 1865, without success.

Gibbs Carbines

Small success characterized also the connection between inventor Lucius H. Gibbs, promoter-financier William F. Brooks, and gunmaker W. W. Marston, in the contract for Gibbs’ carbines.
Brooks, a brass and flue manufacturer who had done work for Marston, collaborated with Marston in the promotion of the Gibbs carbine. An under-lever sliding barrel capping breechloader, it was patented January 8, 1856, No. 14,057. In 1857 twenty were made, probably by Marston, by hand for test; one was shot with favorable comment by a board of officers in 1858 at West Point. Now Brooks offered to supply 10,000 of the Gibbs guns, together with 10,000 Springfields. The order was issued by Ripley on December 13, 1861 and accepted by Brooks, who was on hand the same day in Washington to make sure there was no slip-up.
He at once began to prepare to meet the need for carbines. Small parts were to be forged by J. Stephenson and sent to Marston for finishing. The famous gunmaker was also to finish up the stocks using his full suite of stocking machinery, capable of turning out fifty buttstocks a day (10 hours). Steel drilled barrels were to be supplied, as rifled and turned blanks, by Dinslow & Chase of Windsor Locks, Connecticut; but by the spring of 1862 Brooks had failed to supply even the model carbine for inspection standard which was required.
Because of machinery delays and other hazards of tooling up in the face of price competition in the Northern War industries, Marston was behind schedule by several months. Holt and Owen persuaded Brooks, who had done nothing toward making his Springfields, to give up that order. Brooks also wanted to surrender the Gibbs order of 13 December and take out a new contract; the time elapsed would be in his favor if renegotiated as to deliveries. The commissioners saw the joker in Brooks’ favor but okayed it that way. The contract for 10,000 Gibbs carbines was signed 21 June, 1862, with the provision that the first 1,000 were to be delivered by August, 1862. But Marston still fell far short of expectations.
On December 1, Marston was bought out by George Opdyke, Mayor of New York, with an advance of $65,000 in cash and authority to draw on him, Opdyke, up to $67,000. Loren Jones was factory superintendent, and received a fee of 75^ on each gun delivered to the United States, plus his salary. Early in January, a new superintendent was called in, John Kane, but the mechanical supervisor or foreman was John W. Keene,

Lucius H. Gibbs invented another tipping barrel capping breechloader which went into production under superintendency of W. W. Marston of New York. Lockplate resembles a cross between front action and back action systems.

who actually made the guns. Keene had been 22 years in the gun making trade, and went into the Marston shop (now controlled by Opdyke) in February, 1863, to set things right.
By May 30, a first delivery of 550 Gibbs carbines was accepted by Major Hagner; 502 were ready June 24, and delivered. By July 13, another 500 had been finished in their several parts and were ready for inspection. On that day a great riot was spreading across the city. As Loren Jones recalled it later,
On the 13th, in the morning, I went to the Armory; everything was going on as usual; I went down town for supplies; did not see Mr. Opdyke; got back about 12 o’clock; found 34 policemen there; they said they had come to protect the property; the men were furnished with the guns we were making; each policeman had a gun and ammunition; I furnished them and Mr. Kane furnished them; they were in the lower part of the building; the hands were discharged for the day—some sixty five; they were sent away, as the police were there to defend the building; soon after an attack was made by the mob, who commenced beating on the paneling of the door; the policemen cautioned them to retire, but the mob kept on battering the door, and then the policemen fired through the door; the leading man was killed instantly and two others were wounded, and the mob left immediately.

About two hours after the rioters had fled, the police were ordered to leave. Loren Jones went to Captain Cameron of the 22d Street Station house but was unable to get more protection. Jones then went to the City Hall to see Opdyke but instead found Opdyke’s son-in-law, in whose name the ownership of the former Marston Armory was actually listed. G. W. Farlee, the son-in-law, referred Jones to the St. Nicholas Hotel, where Jones found Opdyke but was unable to get him stirred up over the fact the city had withdrawn its defense of the factory; Opdyke was more concerned over the fact he had no lunch, and went out in search of a meal, leaving Jones to return alone to the Armory. When he got back to 22d Street he saw the works in flames, with approximately 6,000 Gibbs carbines in various stages of production inside being consumed, plus the 500 ready for acceptance by the Government inspectors, and materials for the remaining thousands also damaged by fire. Cost of manufacture of the fifty guns daily was $14 each; the Government paid $24.70, and the total loss was about $200,000.
G. W. Farlee put in a claim for the loss before the Commission of Supervisors of New York, studying the claims against the city because of damage from the terrible July Draft Riots. Sitting on the Commission as supervisors, among others, were Orison Blunt, riflemaker, and George Opdyke, Mayor of New York. Before Opdyke came, Farlee who, according to an editorial by Thurlow Weed in the 8 June, 1864 issue of the Evening Journal, testified falsely;
G. W. Farlee, Opdyke’s son-in-law, made a claim upon the supervisors for damages sustained by the destruction of guns in the process of manufacture under a contract with the Government. Mayor Opdyke was, by virtue of his office, a member of the committee before which the claim was allowed. Opdyke disclaimed any personal interest in the gun claim. Farlee denied in the journals that Opdyke was interested, and made an affidavit, which was submitted to the committee, swearing that he was the sole owner of the gun contract. Opdyke, therefore, sat in the committee, investigating the claim of his son-in-law, and at an early day received a check for $190,000.
The explosion which resulted from this and other charges against Opdyke put both Weed and Opdyke into libel court. The searcher can dig deeper by referring to The Great Libel Case: Opdyke vs. Weed, which was published by the American News Company, 1865. Sufficient it is to say that no more Gibbs carbines were made.
John W. Keene, as a result of investigating costs for Gibbs guns at Ilion, took employment with Remington Arms as a contractor and remained with them for many years. The Draft Riots ended Marston’s Armory.

Ballards

A more solid New York enterprise was that of Merwin & Bray, agents for numerous patent arms, Pond’s, Plant’s, Smith & Wesson’s, and the to-be-famous Ballard carbine. In the mainstream of Ballard production is the theme of the Marlin and Stevens factories of later years. The design of the famous single shot match rifles of the early twentieth century is the almost unchanged conception of Charles H. Ballard of Worcester, Massachusetts. His patent of November 5, 1861, No. 33,631, covers a breechloader with the remarkable concept of having the hammer and seartrigger hung inside the dropping breechblock so that one stroke of the lever performs the opening, extracting (sometimes, in some models), and half-cocking

Marston was major gunmaker in New York, spanned period from Allen-type single shots and pepperbox pistols with bar hammers (top) to special breechloading pistol of 1849. During war, Marston made flare pistols.

the hammer. At first a rim fire cartridge design, the shortage of proper ammunition in the field suggested the merit of adapting the gun to percussion cap fire a la Maynard carbine. This modification was patented by Joseph Merwin and Edward P. Bray, Merwin & Bray, agents, on January 5, 1864, No. 41,166 and consisted of a percussion nipple fitted below the striking arc of the rim fire hammer nose. Either the cap could be detonated or the primed rim fire cartridge discharged without any adjustment one to the other, except for capping the nipple.
The first Ballard carbine of the Civil War seems to have been a rather mysterious one which Gluckman lists as caliber .54, rim-fire, 22 inch round rifled barrel, rifled with 5 grooves. Total length 38 inches. Weight 7 pounds. While the listed specimen Gluckman describes as being marked on the right frame side: ballard’s patent November 5, 1867 (sic, should be 1861) and on the left frame side, merwin & bray agts, N. y., he declares that some were also made by the Ballard Arms Company of Fall River, Massachusetts. Eldon G. Wolff, curator of arms at the Milwaukee Public Museum, in his well organized monograph, Ballard Rifles in The Henry J. Nunnemacher Collection, argues that no proof exists of any Ballard Arms Company anywhere, and cites a specimen listed as having been so marked, as not actually having this mark when he examined the particular gun. Satterlee is also unclear on the calibers, saying the No. 56 Ballard cartridge was quickly superseded by the .56-56 Spencer, which is, however, not correct for it. Satterlee was in part referring to such sources as the Rem UMC cartridge catalogs which as late as the winter of 1913-14 listed .56-.56 Spencer Carbine. Black powder, per 1,000 . . . $40.00 . . . Adapted to Spencer, Ballard, Joslyn, and other carbines . . . The correct load is slightly longer in the case than the Spencer shell, and is identified by Colonel Lewis as va .54 for what was known during the middle of the War as Ballard’s Carbine, O.M., for Old Model.
First producer of the Ballard system was the firm of Ball & Williams, in Worcester. The linkage of the Ballard patent extractor was not used, but a button sliding manually in a groove in the forestock below the barrel was the successful first type of extractor. It attached to the extractor bar which pushed straight back, engaging the cartridge rim at its bottom quadrant. Merwyn & Bray were successful in selling a good many of these arms to the State of Kentucky, claiming in Harpers Weekly ads by 1865 that These rifles were used by Captains Crawford and Fisk on the Overland Expedition to the Pacific, under orders of the United States Government. The General Government and the State of Kentucky have about 20,000 now in active field service, of which the highest testimonials are received.
Some of the first Ballards differ in the proportions of the breechblock to the later type; Wolff lists one serial number 223 as having a tumed-up hammer ear and a large solid block not fitting into any obviously later models of Ballard. A cut-out on its left side permits the mainspring to be removed. The sear nose of the trigger is sprung into the hammer notch by means of a plunger and coil spring acting against the hammer, and inserted from the front face of the block; later models with the characteristic Ballard split breechblock have a U-shaped spring for the trigger.
In these First Model details, the arm is materially altered from the original patent of Charles Ballard,

Ballard Kentucky carbine was sold to U.S. by Merwin & Bray, agents, but made by Ball & Williams in Worcester where inventor lived. Some arms had Merwin & Bray invention of nipple in breechblock for alternative percussion cap fire using metallic cartridges, a la Maynard carbine. Peg below stock is ejector head; pulled back it popped out cartridge case.

which had a single leaf spring acting in a notch in the hammer and a single leaf spring notched into the front of the trigger, bearing against a fixed pin in the block. Spring disassembly in Ballard’s patent drawing was from the bottom of the block; in the First Model changes appear which may have been made by Hartley Williams and R. Ball, witnesses to Ballard’s first patent.
In spite of the grandiose claims of Merwin and Bray as the War drew to a close, it appears that for the first several years Ballard had a hard time making anything. The rather rare First Model may have been a blind alley in construction and not until the idea of the split breechblock was conceived was it possible to produce the rather tricky Ballard action in quantity. Though the Official Records Atlas illustrates the Ballard 3-band infantry rifle with upturned hammer as an official pattern, none were bought by the Union during the war, only by the state troops, presumably Kentucky.
In the Cavalry Bureau, a study of carbines was under way. A single Ballard carbine was purchased from Merwin and Bray for $25 on September 14, 1863. It was among carbines surveyed by a board of officers which convened September 24. Caliber was probably .54, taking the Ballard cartridge and alternatively but not very well, the Spencer .56-.56 cartridge. Meanwhile, the Springfield Armory experiments leading to the development of the Spencer .56-.52 carbine cartridge were progressing. The Board, under Lieutenant Colonel Hagner, consisted of Major Dyer, Major T. T. S. Laidley, Captain Benton, Captain S. V. Benet, Captain Silas Crispin, and Captain Balch. Each made his individual recommendation for caliber to be adopted but General Ramsay seemed to have the last say-so, boosting for .44 caliber in his letter to Secretary Stanton October 20, largely because it was said that the State of Massachusetts had ordered Spencer carbines in this caliber. The matter was kicked around, and finally .50 caliber settled upon. The Ballard proprietors were notified how to proceed:

ORDNANCE OFFICE, WAR DEPARTMENT

Washington, November 24, 1863

GENTLEMEN: This department, having adopted a general plan for cavalry carbines, has decided that all such carbines as may be ordered in future, shall conform to that plan, the principal features of which are, that the barrel shall be twenty inches long, with a calibre of half an inch, (.50), and that the weight of the arm shall not be over eight nor under six pounds. With a view to making experiments to determine the best charge for these arms, you will be pleased to make for this department, with the least possible delay, six of these Ballard carbines upon the foregoing general principles—the chamber of each one to be counterbored to fifty-two hundredths of an inch (.52), and of the proper length to receive the cartridges, as follows:

1    for    a    35-grain    copper    cartridge

1    for    a    40-grain    copper    cartridge

1    for    a    45-grain    copper    cartridge

1    for    a    50-grain    copper    cartridge

1    for    a    55-grain    copper    cartridge

1    for    a    60-grain    copper    cartridge

Be pleased to signify your acceptance or non-acceptance of this order, and if you accept, please state the time when the six carbines will be furnished and the cost of each.

Respectfully, your obedient servant,

GEORGE D. RAMSAY

Brigadier General, Chief of Ordnance

Merwin and Bray did not at once deliver the carbines, as difficulty arose over the actual bore diameters to be made. Six Ballard carbines listed as caliber .44 inch were accepted from M & B July 2, 1864, under this order of 24 November, and paid for at $28 each. But while the uncertainty of caliber may have existed in the Ordnance Department, Ballard, Ball, and Williams had no such perplexity. They had decided to make the gun in .44 caliber, what today is sometimes noted as .44 Long Rimfire, and were tooled up at the time of the six-carbine order to fabricate in caliber .44. On January 7, 1864, they prevailed upon General Ramsay to sign a contract ordering 5,000 carbines, .44 caliber. Though delivery was not as per schedule, it was quick and on March 18, 1,000 Ballards were accepted under this contract at $23 each, with all the appendages required for their use in the service. But the nature of appendages is unspecified; possibly a wiping thong and brush, and a screw driver. The mechanism is a little more slender than the .56 caliber arm; and it appears from the existence of half-stock rifles fitted in a military fashion, with barrel band but a 30-inch half-octagon barrel, stamped KENTUCKY on the top facet of the breech, that the estimated 15.000    rifles made for that state were supplied partly from this Second Type series. With solid breechblocks, though smaller than the .56 (caliber .54 nominally) type, this Second Type military model, including many of the Kentucky state rifles, was made up to about 10.000 serial number.
The Ballard is not looked upon as any kind of Secondary Confederate; but the irregular militia and guerrilla forces in the border states seemed to find its simple mechanism and positive push-plunger extractor a welcome improvement over the percussion Sharps they had preferred a decade before. An interesting manufacturing detail of these early Ballards is the use for the receiver or frame housing of malleable cast iron. This detail was specifically mentioned as a part of the contract of January 7 by Ramsay, who ordered them with the malleable cast-iron lock frame. Cast-iron frames, cored out to reduce cost of machining, were used through the postwar period, succeeding Merrimack Arms Company, Brown Manufacturing Company, and even into the J. M. Marlin, New Haven, series of Ballard rifles. Made first for peace by the simple addition of adjustable sporting war, the Ballard was effectively turned into a tool for sights.
After the delivery of the 6 special-chamber .44 Ballards, an added lot of 500 in .44 Long Rimfire was accepted from Merwin & Bray under the contract on August 1, 1864. But perhaps the makers in Worcester had scrapped their tools for the larger frame, or in some other way made it difficult for them to compete. The fabrication of .44 cartridges in the winter of 1863, 2,000 of each of the six types, at the Springfield Armory, was not enough to wage a shooting war. Opinion wavered between .50 and the smaller .44, but meanwhile the arms in being were of the .52-.56 series, and these were the calibers in both metallic cartridge and combustible cartridge form that continued to be produced in an accelerating spiral for the War effort. And while Burnside Arms, for example, tooled up and turned out a fantastic number of Spencers for a few months, Ballard failed to get the war recognition that the merits of the design warranted.
Yet Ballard is still with us, while the Spencer is relegated to a collectors’ novelty. Under the aegis of John Mahlon Marlin, fanatic for deep-grooved accuracy, the post-war Ballard sporter took on new luster. Its wood-wiping rod model, looking a little like a Hawken of the 1840’s, was in the period of 1870 immensely popular as the Pacific Ballard. The fine rifling imparted high accuracy to sporting calibers which were then under intensive and competitive development. Even today the simple, strong Ballard action is prized for shooting purposes by older riflemen who mix the legend of Ballard accuracy with a modem need for a single shot match rifle. Among the last in war, the Ballard came to achieve a first place in peace in the hearts of riflemen.

Lamson

When Goodnow and Yale saw the last shipping chest of 20 Springfield rifle muskets off by the steam cars for New York, they breathed a sigh of relief. The date was about December 10, 1864, for it was on that date that the final 1,000 arms were accepted at the full contract price of $20 as No. 1 grade Springfields. But though they had finished their participation in the Lamson, Goodnow & Yale contract, their erstwhile partner, Ebenezer G. Lamson, was by no means through with the gun business. He had, sometime before the summer of 1864, bought out their interest and reorganized under the sobriquet E. G. Lamson & Company. Your author once owned an almost new specimen of E. G. Lamson & Company rifle musket, Springfield pattern, dated on the barrel tang 1865. The stock cheek did not have the U.S. Inspector or Sub-Inspector stamps usually placed there; only the three tiny initials of the parts inspector, so small as to be illegible though perfectly imprinted. Lamson apparently planned to continue in the gun business if he could find a good inventor to team up with and, not being shy, teamed up at first with two of them. On June 20, 1864, Lamson signed contracts with General Ramsay to supply 1,000 each, a sort of field test lot, of .44 caliber cavalry carbines designed by Palmer and by Ball.
New Yorker William Palmer patented December 22, 1863, a turning bolt breech-loading cartridge arm which was to be the first bolt action cartridge arm in the United States service. The only prior model in any way resembling it in operation was the capping breechloader of James Durrell Greene. The Palmer gun had a conventional back action side lock, the pointed hammer striking the cartridge rim directly. The extractor hook was connected to the top of the bolt. Appendages to be furnished were one brush thong and one screw driver. The guns had to conform to a pattern carbine. Two of these were to be supplied, one for the Ordnance Office and the other for the inspector’s office in New York. One carbine only was delivered in addition to the 1,000 contracted for. On June 15, 1865, the shipment was accepted by the inspectors but the guns never saw battle.
Had reports of their use even been filed, the decision to adopt a flip-up breechblock rifle in the transformation work after the War might have been avoided, and the bolt action era, far more versatile in application in terms of strength and magazine loading, have been ushered in 30 years before it was in 1892. (The Krag bolt action rifle was formally adopted after Army and Navy tests with others on a desultory basis during the years following the Civil War).
Lamson’s other bet to build an arms empire was equally a failure, though of a clever and practical design. This was the carbine designed by Albert Ball of Worcester, who went to Windsor, Vermont, from his home in Massachusetts, to supervise the manufacture. There is some suggestion here that Ball was of the Ball & Williams firm, though this is not documented. The contract to furnish 1,000 Ball’s breechloading repeating cavalry arm was signed the same date, June 20, 1864, and the guns delivered May 14, 1865. Two additional guns were delivered, samples for inspection, making 1,002 in all.

The Ball gun was a clever design but was damned because of its large caliber, .50, taking the new Springfield Armory designed .56-.52 Spencer rimfire

Early Joslyn breechloader was lift-lever type resembling Merrill. Gun was made for Army test by Waters in Millbury, Mass., before the war. Not made in volume.

Ball repeater took seven cartridges in under-barrel magazine entirely surrounded by wooden forestock. A total of 1,002 were obtained from Lamson but not issued.

cartridge.Seven of the fat cartridges were stored beneath the barrel in a tube magazine, which was loaded through the ejection port which also served as a loading port. The trigger guard was the charging lever, and the breech housing terminated to the rear in a back action sidelock plate upon which a Spenceresque hammer was hung. Two barrel bands were fitted, the front of slanting shape as a front to the magazine. A useful accessory, a steel wiping rod, ran the length of the barrel. Barrel length was 2OV2 inches, but Gluckman says some were made in .44 caliber. The statement by Sawyer that this is Calibre .56, center fire metallic cartridge, is believed an error. While the name of Lamson remained active in Vermont machine tool business, the record of his gunmaking seems to come to a halt at the end of the war.

Four Other Carbines

Four remaining patterns of carbine, the Hall percussion breechloader, the Joslyn transformation, which had some characteristics of a cartridge conversion of a musket, Warner’s brass-framed single shot and the tipping barrel light carbine of Frank Wesson, complete the list of United States bought carbines by name. There were two other batches: 10,051 foreign carbines at an average price of $6.50 were obtained, and a miniscule lot of 587 musketoons for $5,815.50 were purchased. Several other makes such as the Triplett & Scott were purchased by state troops on their own account, but were not funded later by the United States. One of the most interesting, the simple little Lee sideswing barrel .44, was the start of the fabulous record of James Paris Lee. From this beginning of 1,000 refused carbines, the total of Lee arms ultimately grew until in 1944 the last Lee rifle, the Russian Nagant Model 1944, was put into production, finis to perhaps 10,000,000 arms in whole or major part designed by Lee. Even afterward, the modern Russian semiautomatic short rifle in its magazine construction embodies features once patented by James Paris Lee. But his first 1,000 arms were refused because of an error in the chamber dimension!
Of the carbines bought by name, the Joslyn was the most numerous. Invented by Benjamin F. Joslyn of Worcester, these arms were made by the Joslyn Fire Arms Company at Stonington, Connecticut. Of a prolific family of arms inventors—a relative, Milton Joslyn, was a top executive in Colt’s works—Benjamin F. Joslyn had patented several developments in firearms including the side-hammer Joslyn revolvers made by W. C. Freeman. Why some of these diverse manufacturing interests could not be brought together under one roof for economy in production and to reduce the competition in market for tools and labor is not thoroughly understood. It is possible, however, that the existing labor pool in Worcester was overtaxed by arms factories in or near that city, and that Ball had to go to a labor surplus area, Windsor, Vermont, while Joslyn had to go to another, Stonington, Connecticut, in order to get work done at all.
That Joslyn carbine has a side lock which in postwar versions is a modified Springfield mechanism but in the earlier patterns is of Stonington make and bears the company’s name. Later Government locks seen on Joslyn breechloading muskets, .50 caliber centerfire, have the name of the armory stamped sp ringfield, with a trace of a gap in spacing between the letters P and R. Others have the word stamped normally, but the 1864 locks seen have the gapped Springfield name— not significant, merely odd.
Joslyn who got off to a late start in the great arms race, managed to get the attention of the Government first by approaching Major Hagner. Empowered to buy arms in the field from sources as he saw fit, Hagner was inclined to take a flier in Joslyn carbines. The breech was simplicity itself. The barrel sat up high and could be loaded easily from the back. The sidelock hammer was bent inward to strike in the center of the block. The block itself was cut with a ring to lock over a groove turned on the back of the barrel, and could be swung easily to one side, exposing the barrel for loading. In practice the knurled finger stud on the right side of the breechblock, that had to be grasped and pulled outward to free the catch and permit the breechblock to be rotated upward and to the side, may have been a little slippery in the heat of combat when one’s fingers were slick with blood. Two hundred were purchased by Hagner in November and December of 1861, from Bruff Brothers & Seaver of New York at $35.
Joslyn’s first carbine, of which a small number were obtained for United States Army and Navy test in the mid-1850’s, was a lifting lever type of breechloader taking a percussion cap. The lever lay on top of the stock small and latched against the front of the comb, like the Fusil Robert of 1836. A. H. Waters made these guns, after the Militia Appropriations had been shut off, but this business was not enough to keep the Waters enterprise alive.
W. C. Freeman also made a few in his Tower

Basic wartime Joslyn was made at Stonington, Conn., to use metallic cartridge. Breechblock when swung aside automatically cammed ejector back. Three-band Rifle Musket was also made, using lockplates marked sp ringfield with a space.

Junction Shop in Worcester, but these are believed to have been the swinging breechblock Joslyn which was ultimately patented October 8, 1861, No. 33435 (improved June 4, 1863, No. 39,407 and March 22, 1864, No. 42,000). Two hundred were bought from Freeman on June 14, 1861, at $35 each. But Freeman had difficulties over his delivery of the Joslyn revolvers, q.v., and it appeared to hamper his business enough to end it. Only 225 Joslyn revolvers at $22.50 were delivered by Freeman through Bruff, Brothers & Seaver and it is possible that the tools and equipment which made the revolvers actually delivered later by Benjamin F. Joslyn included Freeman’s carbine equipment.
From Stonington the first delivery of carbines was 100 shipped as an open purchase along with 150 revolvers on January 11, 1862. Thereafter, by the hundreds or less, Joslyn carbines were delivered up to August of 1863. The actual delivery quantities, sometimes twice monthly, of Joslyn carbines, ran 200 (Freeman), 100 (cited), 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 100, 100, 50, 50, 10, a total of 860. These had been taken by Hagner when offered to him. Then Joslyn worked like mad and made up 1,000 guns for sale. Hagner wrote to General Ramsay suggesting that since these guns had some value to the United States, they ought to take a few under contract. Ramsay agreed and Hagner bought them on August 20, 1863, two months after the offer to make them available had come from Joslyn. Apparently they were sold to the United States before being entirely finished at the Stonington works.
A succeeding contract, of October 26, 1863, for 1,500 carbines was issued by Ramsay but only 1,200 were delivered. Then Joslyn and his general manager R. P. Bruff felt confident enough to push ahead on full-scale production. Backers James I. Day of Stonington and Cyrus S. Bushnell of New Haven had sunk a little money into the firm. Signing as sureties to the contracts gave them some of the joys of participation, but they wanted to see the firm make profits.
On November 18, 1863, Bruff agreed to deliver 15,000 carbines at $23.50; but only 1,000 were actually shipped, on July 2, 1864. Minor changes in the side-swing breechblock latching and extractor seem to have handicapped Joslyn so far as modifying tools and getting quantity production going are concerned. The 14,000 balance was forfeit and no more were taken by the United States. Yet Joslyn persisted, and a final contract of July 6, 1864 was negotiated at the same price. Doubtless from the coincidence of date and delivery of July 2, Joslyn and Bruff argued they could do better and needed only another chance. The quantity was but 7,000 carbines, and the contract was filled. In one month alone, December 1864, 2,000 carbines were delivered. Few if any of these latter carbines were used. Those of the earlier deliveries were issued on state requisitions, but the delivery schedule reveals the smallness of Joslyn’s shop. Unlike, say, the Henry arms, of which only approximately 1,700 were bought officially but nearly 10,000 made and usedby independent outfits, there is little to suggest that Joslyn was a powerhouse of productivity un til the last, and then it was too late. Probably the total of Joslyn carbines made does not much exceed 11,261 bought and paid for by the United States. With the shipment of February 25, 1865, the story of Joslyn’s carbine in the Civil War came to an abrupt end.
A good breechloader, concerning which there is very little battle romance in spite of its delivery in time for conflict, is the brass-framed model of James Warner. Fabricated by the Springfield Arms Company as Warner’s enterprise in Springfield, Massachusetts, was called, it is in a sense a forebear of the trade named Springfield shotguns and rifles fabricated today by the Savage Arms Company in nearby Westfield, Massachusetts. Savage, upon acquiring the Stevens Arms Company factory in Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts during WWII, also acquired the right to the brand name Springfield Arms Company which Stevens had used in the 1920’s and 1930’s. Apparently the Warner interests were absorbed by Stevens after the Civil War —the Warner carbines seem to have been the last arms actually made by Warner himself as Springfield Arms Company. With Warner in their production were Charles O. Chapin of Springfield, and merchant John L. King. Four thousand and one Warner carbines were received but the contracts covering delivery were confused. Warner, one of the most experienced manufacturers in the United States at the time, associated with Chapin, equally experienced in metal working, appears to have made an error of $2 in his price quotation for the guns. On January 13, 1864, Warner obtained a contract for 1,000 of his guns at $ 18 and delivered one sample carbine at that price purchased January 24. This gun was used by Colonel Thornton as an inspector’s model. All the 1,000 were to be turned in by May 1.
By 25 April only 500 more had been delivered, at $18, but the last 500 were accepted June 23. Then Warner delayed some months, building up a parts supply and preparing to put together more guns. Though he did not have a contract he proceeded as if he had an order from Government.
On October 22, 1864, he notified the new Chief of Ordnance, A. B. Dyer, that he had 500 carbines ready for inspection and delivery and sought instructions as to how the boxes should be marked. The tone of his letter suggests he planned to bull his way along and get the guns into Thornton’s hands and inspected; then with certificates of inspection he presumed he could get payment made without difficulty. Why he would not have wanted to open the question of negotiation for a new contract is not known, but at any rate Dyer on November 11 referred the query to Thornton, who will please make arrangements for the shipment of the carbines. Dyer treated it as if Warner had an order.
Meanwhile, Warner had been asked on November 5 at what price he would furnish 2,000 carbines, and in promptly replying he advised Dyer the price would

Brass-framed Warner carbine had swinging breechblock that lifts from left side with thumb piece. Action is very much like the Snider later adopted by Britain. Later guns in batch of 2,500 delivered are believed made by Greene.

be $20. When Thornton’s order to accept the proffered 500 guns went out, Thornton treated it as a continuation of the old arrangement at $18, and Warner complained. Dyer, less cautious with the Government’s money than Holt and Owen, or even Ripley, accepted Warner’s arguments and because the okay for accepting the 500 had been issued after Warner’s proposal to make them at $20, he upped the ante $2, for $20 each for the 500. Then, disavowing the wish to buy 2,000 at $20, he informed Warner that if he, Warner, would ream the chambers to take the new Spencer carbine cartridge (.56-.50) he would issue an order for 2,500 at $20. This second contract for 2,500 Spencerchambered Warner guns was dated 26 December, 1864, and all 2,500 were delivered by March 15, 1865.
The Warner has an outside hammer, a back-action lock mechanism and a side-swinging breech astonishingly like the Snider action of 1865. The breech is of brass, the butt being fitted to the back and the 20-inch round carbine barrel, with typical wooden forestock and one band, on front. The early Warners are chambered for a rimfire cartridge of .52-inch chamber diameter, .75-inch long in the case and an overall length of 1.56 inches. The Spencer round was about 1.56-inch overall length also, but the chamber was .56-inch diameter and the cases approximately .88inch long in the Spencer and Joslyn carbines. Makers’ marks of james Warner Springfield mass warner’s patent on one model and green rifle works, Worcester, mass. pat. feb. 1864 are listed. It is thought the last batch of Warners in Spencer caliber are related to the Green marking, for the sureties on his contract are not local Springfield men, Chapin and King, but two men in Yonkers, New York. One, William Warburton Scrugham, was a New York State Supreme Court justice; the other, Dewitt C. Kellinger, was a clerk in Yonkers. Both swore they had property over $5,000 value each and both were interested in the Warner contract. That they were major stockholders in the Green Rifle Works is a possibility, though not proved. The guess is not out of order; in spite of having been part of the mainstream, part of the foundations of the largest gun factory in the United States today, Savage Arms, little is known of James Warner of Springfield and of his simple and efficient brassframed Civil War carbine.
Even less is known of the carbines of Frank Wesson.A brother of Edwin and Daniel Baird, maker of the revolvers, Frank Wesson ran a small rifle shop in Northboro, Massachusetts. He had designed a tip-down barrel action having a separate barrel releasing trigger in its own trigger guard, forward of the regular trigger and guard. The hammer was hung in the middle of the standing breech; the cartridge was a .44 rimfire. Agent for Wesson was Ben Kitteridge of Cincinnati. While 150 of these light rifles—a plain sporter rather than a true military carbine—were purchased by the Union, July 7, 1863, at $23, they were more popular with the guerrillas and irregular troops in the border fighting. In mechanical ways suggesting the Lee—both variations on a theme, so far as breech construction went— the Wessons did not last long in the gun picture. August 1, 1863, one more Wesson was bought from Schuyler, Hartley and Graham for $24.25. After the war Frank continued in the sporting rifle business but though he achieved limited fame in his day for premier

Front trigger of Frank Wesson military carbine releases barrel which tips down for loading. Later commercial products of this maker are distinguished by astonishing variety of chamber dimensions. Civil War Guns came from agent Ben Kittredge of Cincinnati. Only 151 were bought but numbers run to over 800.

match rifles, in volume his output was among the smallest of any handicraft gunsmith in those early days of mass production.
Unquestionably most sensational of the carbine purchases was the affair of the Hall carbines. It stimulated a Senate investigation of Fremont’s command of the Army of the West and led to persistent editorial attacks on the House of Morgan through the ages to the present day. Over-simplified, as the peace-mongers usually are wont to do, the story of the Hall carbines was used with good effect during the 1920’s and 1930’s. Then, Communist-tinted writers sought to discredit the financier and the arms merchant by pointing to this supposedly nefarious tie-up between money lender John Pierpont Morgan and gun speculator George Eastman in the affair of the Hall carbines. But that, as they say, is another chapter.