CHAPTER 17 The Starr Rises

From the catalog of Wallis and Wallis, British gun auctioneers (1962) at Lewes in Sussex, we read of the sale of a Starr revolver:
Lot 1060 ... A 6 shot .44 Starr SA Army Perc Rev 14", brl 8", No. 51594, the top strap bearing old engraving Col. Colt Address New York, Good Condition but action As Found & frame screw not orig.
Eben T. Starr of Yonkers, New York, might not have smiled at this latter day whimsey. Marking his revolver with the name of the man he dared challenge by launching a new revolving pistol business in 1858 was to him not funny. Though the modern gun bug who fraudulently marked this in the hope someone would bite on it as a hitherto unknown Colt double action revolver we trust was unsuccessful in his piracy, perhaps the buyer at the Wallis and Wallis auction cherishes his purchase for what it is: one of the best and most modem revolvers of the Civil War era. Though complex inside at first glance, its parts are well thought out and reveal Starr as an exceptionally gifted inventor.
To generations of gun collectors who pored over Bannerman’s catalogs, Starr is best known as the proprietor of a factory subsequently taken over by a mysterious merchant known only as Jones of Binghamton. He Pays The Freight. Few have bothered to find out who Jones was, but history should do better by Starr. His double action revolver was a rugged and successful handgun; his breech-loading percussion carbine resembling the Sharps was a distinct improvement upon that famous arm. Adapted later to cartridge, the Starr carbine had leverage in closing to make it chamber even dented ammunition in a dirty gun. But with the flood of surplus arms, the westward expansion away from sources of metallic ammunition and business recessions attacking the fortunes of firms not otherwise diversified, Starr folded, and Jones stepped in. While active, Starr gave Colt a run for his money and produced thousands of good arms that saw battle and were of great value to the North.

Starr’s First Patents

Starr in 1856 obtained his first patent. Though the drawings illustrate a pepperbox firearm, the patent date was to be stamped on the frame right side below the cylinder of all Starr revolvers: starr’s patent jan. 15, 1856. The claims referred to two features unique with Starr. First, the actual trigger was but a stub behind a lifter lever of form similar to our accepted idea of trigger shape today. The sear was one end of the trigger, and the construction is somewhat like the modem Harrington & Richardson or Iver Johnson separate sear behind the lifter lever trigger. Secondly, the lifter lever had a sliding piece on its rear curve to restrict the motion at will of the shooter. It could be set to permit continued firing by straight-through double action, or it would allow the lifter to raise the hammer to full cock and then the stub of a trigger could be pulled by a firm and steady single-action pull. This mechanism is little understood by the modem collector for two reasons: good manners and a desire to avoid battering the percussion cones denies the modern Starr owner a chance to try out his gun by snapping it and, secondly, seldom is the sliding lifter piece working easily.
Starr’s second patent No. 30843, issued December 4,
1860, illustrated the perfected type of Starr doubleaction revolver, the .36 Navy size.
Starr assigned his two patents plus a further patent on the breech-loading carbine to a group of New York financiers headed by H. H. Woolcott and Everett Clapp. The former was president of the Starr Arms Company, while Clapp was treasurer. T. B. Stout was secretary; in addition, the group including Starr and one more, F. J. Clark, formed the trustees of the patents. As sureties on some of their contracts with the United States, John Mack of New York signed as a freeholder with property valued at over $40,000. The syndicate by the spring of 1862 had paid Starr $200,000 for the patents and an added $90,000 as commission or salary for his employment in perfecting the mechanical aspects of the design.
The first factory was at Binghamton, and by 1858 Starr had begun to deliver guns.
We had only made one thousand for the Government in 1858, declared Treasurer Clapp before the War Contracts Commission on April 10, 1862, and five hundred for the trade, prior to August of 1861. These arms were .36 caliber double-action types of the form patented in 1860.

First Contracts

  By August of 1861, the Starr Armory in Binghamton employed 225 men and represented an investment in machinery of $140,000. At this time a somewhat enlarged version of the in-production Navy revolver was prepared as a prototype for the Government’s approval and forwarded to Washington:
NEW YORK, August 31, 1861 The Starr Arms Company, located at Binghamton, New York, propose and agree to deliver to the United States Government twelve thousand (12,000) of their army pistols, like sample herewith submitted, with the appendages, consisting of bulletmould, screw-driver, and cone-wrench to each pistol, for twenty five dollars each . . .
Clapp set forth the schedule of delivery, 500 each month October through December, and 1,000 thereafter until June when all deliveries were to be complete. Though from that October the Binghamton plant went on night shift, they did not make their deadlines.
In September Starr proposed to increase the order to 20,000 and offered to reduce the price to $23. Ripley was directed by Cameron to use his judgment. Conservatively, though the Union needed arms, he made the contract for only 12,000. On February 5,
1862 the first 1,000 were delivered of the new double action Army .44. An additional 600 were delivered to inspecting officer R. H. K. Whiteley on 24 February.

Starr’s first produced revolver was .36 caliber of hybrid double-andsingle action. Barrel frame detail of curved section near hinge is immediate distinction between largeframed .36 and ,44’s which were introduced soon after. Fouling was reduced by cylinder pin integral at front with cylinder itself.

Among deliveries on first contract for 20,000 DA .44’s was this specimen in new condition, No. 6596, preserved at West Point Museum. Case-hardened colored frame is unusual on Starr revolvers, suggests either special order or old Government refinishing.

While Starr was working under the extended contract which Ripley oddly issued on January 11, 1862 at the full price of $25 though he increased the number to 20,000 pieces, Whiteley did not pay for the guns. The order of Secretary Stanton suddenly clamped down and even though these guns had been inspected and bore the stamps of the inspecting officers on the sides of the wood stock, Starr’s money men were whistling for their $40,000.
President Woolcott stepped into the fray and presented a polite and reasoned appeal to the Commissioners that had much weight. He described their enterprise as one of the largest armories in the country, being specific in saying that the armory in Binghamton is employed exclusively in the manufacture of pistols. To fulfill expectations concerning a contract for carbines, and a hoped-for order of rifle muskets, a second armory had been erected rapidly in Yonkers at great cost, in spite of frost and bad weather. At Yonkers, the carbine and musket factory of Starr, the extent (of this works) is exceeded only by the Colt establishment, in Hartford. In detailing both failures to deliver revolvers and noting actual arms they did deliver, Mr. Clapp testified:

We were not ready to deliver in October (1861), but we sold to Major Hagner, in New York, 500, navy size, at $20, in that month. We also sold in like manner, 250, navy size, in November, and in the same month we sold 250, navy size, to the agent of Ohio. We have delivered and received certificates for 1,000, army size, in January; 600, army size in February; 1,400, army size, in March, and we notified the department that we had 1,000 ready for inspection March 28 or 29. The department immediately sent inspectors, who are now (April 10, 1862) at work.

The fact that .36 caliber arms predominantly were bought in 1858 (such purchases as the Adams revolvers of Massachusetts Arms Company and the Colt Navy pistol carbines for Dragoons), together with the explicit separate mention of army size in Treasurer Clapp’s testimony, leads us to believe that the .44 double-action Starr was preceded in manufacture by the .36. The .44 apparently did not come along until the offer to Ripley was tendered together with a sample;
it seems that had the sample been identical to those formerly made for the Government, Ripley would have mentioned it in his order to further be explicit as to the arms desired. It was the quantity above referred to by Clapp which, inspected but not yet received and paid for, by Hagner, was causing Starr Arms Company such embarrassment.
Starr also obtained a contract for 10,000 breechloading carbines (his patent No. 21,523 of 14 September 1858) on November 27, 1861, to meet the exigencies of our cavalry service, price $29. With expansion into the shoulder arm manufacture now assured, Wolcott again sought for further orders and was granted a contract along with others on December 24, to furnish 50,000 Springfield rifle muskets at $20. The Binghamton works being taxed to the utmost in revolver manufacture, Starr Arms Company erected a sizable works in Yonkers where they proposed to make the whole Springfield gun, including the barrel. Large orders were given to machinery firms.
We will make barrels from steel rods said Wolcott, declaring that one set of barrel machinery was already in operation on carbine work and another ordered from Hewes & Phillips of Newark, New Jersey. Lysander Wright of Newark was preparing a full set of stock turning machinery, which Starr was committed to accept; one set of four eccentric lathes and shapers was already in the carbine factory, but it turns out the work so that it requires more hand work than the Springfield musket machines ought to do. For the Springfield rifle work as well as carbine parts, Starr contracted for 130 milling machines; 40 from Springfield contractors Parker, Snow Brooks & Company of Meriden, Connecticut, 20 from the Fishkill Landing Company and 50 from Putnam Machine Company. Twenty millers were already at work in the carbine factory, obtained from Parker, Snow Brooks & Company. The revolvers cost, laid down at the factory, between $14 and $15, nearly twice as much as Colt’s revolvers; the Springfields, including interest on investment, wear and tear, in Wolcott’s experience would come to about $17.

Should the order for carbines be filled, we could turn all our stock, machinery &c. to work upon the muskets without important loss. We are arms makers, have all our capital so engaged, and expect to continue in the business, having been at it now (April 15, 1861) for three years. We therefore must seek this kind of work, even if the Government do not employ us, Wolcott explained to the Commissioners.

Adverse Action by Commissioners

When Stanton called a screeching halt to the War contracts, for Holt and Owen to examine them, Ripley recognized that a severe dislocation in the arms business and in his sources of supply would occur. He at once requested permission from Stanton to continue to receive all the arms outstanding under certain orders and contracts for a period of three months. During this time Holt and Owen could examine the facts and by the end of this time through either affirming or denying the contracts, bring order into the chaos. But the names which Ripley gave to Stanton in his letter of 15 March, 1861, did not include Starr. Colt’s, Sharps, J. T. Ames for cannon and swords, Knapp, Rudd & Company at Pittsburgh for shells, R. P. Parrott at West Point for heavy guns, and Cyrus Alger in Boston for field artillery, were the firms listed as regular manufacturers for this department and from whom Ripley wished special orders permitting receipt under existing contracts for arms during the next three months unless specially revoked.
The failure to mention Starr in the list worked against them before in their dealings with the Commissioners. Perhaps most telling against them was Major Hagner, who willingly bought their pistols in the open market but denied them the right to continue uninterruptedly, on the grounds that his chief had noted they were not regular manufacturers.
The price of $20 for Navy .36 double action revolvers which Starr sold to Hagner and the agent for Ohio also worked against them. The Major suggested to Wolcott that he make some proposal for reducing their commitments for arms. Since the Springfield rifle musket preparations were less advanced, they could the easiest be disposed of, and the existing or to be delivered machinery put into the Yonkers works. Wolcott made the proposal that the increase to 20,000 on the pistol order be confirmed and he would reduce the price to $20; the carbine contract for 10,000 pieces at $29 be confirmed, and he would therefore surrender his rights under the Springfield musket order, diverting the materials to the carbine fulfillment. Judge Holt came back with a further reduction, and the Commission’s decision stood at not more than 15,000 revolvers, at $20, and the 10,000 carbines, at $29.
In explaining his decision to Secretary Stanton, Holt pointed out that the claim for payment at the rate of $25 each for the 1,600 inspected but not accepted revolvers had to be considered as within the scope of the Commission’s decision, and therefore the bill at $25 was disallowed and payment made at the $20 rate thenceforth.
The record reveals actual deliveries and payments as follows:
October 15, 1861, 500 Navy revolvers purchased at $20.
November 19, 1861, 500 Navy revolvers purchased at $20.
December 18, 1861, 250 Navy revolvers purchased at $20 (for State of Ohio).
Army revolvers at $25 were accepted and paid for as follows:
February 22, 1862, 1,000 Army revolvers contract at $25.
March 25, 1862, 600 Army revolvers contract at $25.
March 25, 1862, 1,400 Army revolvers contract at $25.

First Deliveries

First deliveries of the double-action revolver costing twice as much as Colt’s at the renegotiated price of $20 began on June 25, 1862, with a minimum shipment of 1,200 pieces as per Holt and Owen’s order. Unexplained is a drop in delivery rate to 500 on January 13, 1863, the preceding lot of 1,300 having been accepted two months prior on November 26, 1862.

A New Factory 

Possibly an expansion of revolver making facilities was begun, transferring the pistol business to the new and enlarged Yonkers, New York factory which had been especially built for them. A delay in production might be expected as work and machines were being set up anew. The new factory was a block-long standard factory building others of which, as shrines to the beginnings of industrial revolution, still stand, often abandoned, in the mill valleys of New England.
Two stories with a heavy machinery ground floor and a skylighted loft for parts storage, the Starr building conformed to the flow of materials patterns of manufactures at that time. Raw stock went in on the ground floor. Centrally located, to equalize friction losses on both sides of the system, was the steam engine which powered overhead shafting. Mounted in ceiling braces, the steel shafts ran outward from the fixture, above the giant flywheel, and from these shafts, slapping in a constant din of flapping leather, the buffalo-hide power belts ran to reducing pulleys at each machine. To start his lathe, the operator shifted a lever which moved the belt sideways from an idler pulley to another of the same dimension, a driving pulley, geared to the lathe. Except for new gray paint, red-lined electrical switches for safety recognition and shields and safety devices not thought necessary in those earlier days of more skilled labor, the scene in the Starr factory might be any job shop of good size of today.
Automation is a fancy new word, but to the handicraft technology of the last century, the fine new Blanchard lathes on their fancy cast iron Victorian bird feet and griffon’s legs painted a glossy black were miracles of mass production. Even in Wolcott’s observations about the suite of four stocking machines for the carbine stocks, which left much handwork for finishing, he implied the sentiment of automation when he spoke of a superior and more elaborate set of tools to make the Springfield stocks, without hand labor except for final sanding and oiling.
From the first floor where the heavy drops or forges stood, the parts in their rough state would move up to the machining floors. The top floor had space for final assembly, to use the last of the day’s light streaming in the windows. At Starr the gas lights flickered late, to give the second shift equal advantages. A thorough comparison of production problems in 1862 with those of 1962 is hardly possible now, for much ephemeral information is lost; how did the men react to the necessities of a second shift; what were the problems of two ten-hour shifts versus the three-shift eight-hour schedule and did quality suffer from lack of daylight? The four hours when Starr turned down the fires were not moments of idleness; the trouble shooters went in and readjusted the machines, made repairs to worn bearings and cutters, serviced the indispensable steam engine and the belting. Thus was the War won in Yonkers.

Large modern armory was built by Starr firm in Yonkers to build Springfield Rifle Muskets, but order was not confirmed and plant was phased into production of Starr carbines and revolvers. Shop is typical institutional architecture of period, for hospital, school, or city hall. Materials flow began in forging shops on first floor, ended at assembly room under skylights.

Starr Carbines 

Starr had delivered 16,100 Army double-action .44 revolvers when their time ran out, by May 4, 1863. Production was well begun on carbines and the first lot of 600 was received on July 30, 1863, as an open purchase at $25.
These carbines, though at a lower price, had been delivered under the original contract for 10,000 pieces at $29. While parts piled up in the Yonkers armory, Wolcott and Starr Treasurer Stout negotiated anew with Ordnance, signing a contract with General Ramsay September 22, 1863, to deliver 20,000 carbines at $23.50, deliveries to begin in October. Regularly, in lots of 1,000, Starr turned out the guns, delivering the last lot of 1,000 on August 20, 1864. One additional carbine, evidently to use as a model, was delivered
September 12, 1863, as a purchase at $25. Total percussion Starr carbines delivered to the United States at all prices, only 20,601.

Price of Revolvers Reduced 

With efforts no longer diverted by the musket business, that contract having been surrendered by Wolcott, the Starr Armory turned to the little matter of profit on their revolvers. Starr himself continued to manage the mechanical side of the business and with the double action system costing them twice as much as a single action, Starr turned to a solution. Beginning with a delivery of December 19, 1863, Starr’s Army pistols took a sudden drop in price, to $12. Since the cost of the earlier model at the factory, as Everett Clapp testified to Holt and Owen, was between $14 and $15 in

First model percussion carbine had brass band, hammer resembling late type Union Rifle part. Breech dropped and tilted back when lever was lowered, then cammed tightly forward on closing to effect gas seal superior to Sharps. Metallic cartridge model was almost identical; the later percussion and cartridge arms had iron bands. Breech and lock were casehardened, barrel blued.

Second Model .44 was single action with 8" barrel to be uniform with Colt’s and Remington’s arms. The Ordnance obtained 25,000, plus two cutaway inspection models. Specimen shown, from Ed Louer collection (111.) is marked Va. Cavalry, but 77th Regiment is not mentioned in Official Records Index.

1862, with no prospect but that of labor, materials, and machinery increasing in price, it is not reasonable to assume Starr was in the business of giving away twodollar bills with each pistol sold. The price therefore seems conclusively to prove what was first suspected in print by C. Meade Patterson (Starr’s Self-Cocking Revolver, The Gun Report, January 1959) that the single action Starr is the succeeding and final model of this revolver. While Gluckman dismisses this second model with This Army revolver was also made in a single-action model with eight-inch barrel, the pistol referred to was obtained in larger quantity than the double actions. A total of 25,000 were obtained in regular deliveries of 1,000, plus 2 for inspectors’ models attached to the delivery of January 24, 1864. Final delivery was December 22, 1864, all under another contract of 22 September 1863. In this document the pattern of pistol is noted as improved Army pistol indicating changes from the former. To the Army, the simplification of the rather indeterminate double-or-isit-single action of the First Model Starr to a more straightforward single action style would be considered an improvement. For some years in the collection of E. Page Guilette of Baltimore, Maryland, there reposed a handsome old Starr Second Model Army .44 with the frame cut to reveal the mechanism. It bore full inspector’s marks and presumably could have been one of the two arms delivered in January, 1864.

Starr’s Accomplishments

Starr’s final endeavor for the cause of the Union was the transformation of his percussion carbine design to metallic cartridge. Ordnance gave him a contract 21 February 1865 to furnish 3,000 carbines adapted to the use of the metallic cartridges as now used in the Spencer carbines, at $20 each carbine. One extra model carbine was delivered March 28, 1865, and another on April 11, 1865. Chief of Ordnance General A. B. Dyer ordered by letter 2,000 carbines at $20, calibre .52, adapted to the Spencer cartridge, increasing the total of cartridge Starrs to 5,001.
With the final delivery of .52 carbines May 25, 1865, the wheels of the big Yonkers steam engine slowly spun to a halt. Five basic arms had been produced. These were the Navy .36 and Army .44 First Model Double Action; the First Model Percussion Carbine, the Second Model .44 Army Single Action, and the final Cartridge Second Model Carbine. All three revolvers, though they differed in lock work, featured two details of importance. Starr in his 1856 and 1860 patents did not claim the hinged frame and it is incorrect to say that he invented the break-open revolver; if anybody did, it was Colt who in a manner of speaking claimed such a construction in his 1850 Dragoon patents. But the mortising of the top strap to fit over the standing breech, distributing the stresses of firing, was Starr’s innovation and claimed by him. It made an exceedingly strong twopiece frame.
Secondly, the construction of the cylinder, with ratchet separate, was not entirely novel, but the form of the ratchet teeth was unique and the fixture of the cylinder pin rigidly in the cylinder, turning in a seat in the frame below the barrel, was also patented. Starr had viewed the Navy as the best market for his pistols at first, and his commercial catalog With Reports and Recommendations issued in 1864 reflects their favorable responses. Testing Starr D. A. revolver No. 9002, Lieutenant Commander J. S. Skerrett in March, 1863, praised the unitized center-pin, which prevented fouling inside the central bore of the cylinder, so long a hazard with the Colt design. Colt’s had a spiral fouling groove to reduce friction. Others, such as Remington and Beals, had tried to overcome the binding by reducing the diameter of the cylinder pin. Starr instead shut off fouling from the cylinder and permitted it only at the front bearing end of the center pin. To clean this was easy and Commander Skerrett noted how simple it was to unscrew the cross bolt and break the pistol to remove the cylinder pin. As one who has shot the Starr a little, however, I feel it is worth noting that the cylinder must be carefully aligned again to permit closing the top strap smartly; otherwise it may hang

Regular Army .44 DA Starr was full blued on frame as well as barrel and cylinder. Inspector’s stamp on both sides of grip denotes acceptance and delivery to the U.S., but some exist having only one grip mark. These may be partially inspected, but not accepted by Hagner’s suspending work until Holt and Owen adjudicated the case. Widget slides on false trigger, is means for releasing hammer by pressing against real trigger stub at back of guard.

up in back on the ratchet or frame seat for the ratchet. The design was not to allow switching to fresh loaded cylinders to keep up a volume of fire, but with the hinged lever ramrod (a copy of Colt’s of 1847-49 but with button front latch) Skerrett evidently did all right, consuming 5,500 .44 combustible cartridges supplied by the Starr company. He then drew 814 rounds of Navy cartridges for Colt’s .44 and shot them up, finally reporting to Admiral Dahlgren that although The hammer never failed to explode the cap, 22 caps failed to explode the charge. This pistol has stood the test remarkably well, and required no cleaning during the trial. As a fair commentary on the high standards of performance of firearms during the Civil War, it should be noted here that in 1962 the current standard of experimental test for the automatic rifles adopted by the United States Government is that they should fire 6,000 rounds without failure. Starr’s revolver, with good percussion caps, meets today’s automatic rifle standards.
What Starr Company made up in quality they definitely lacked in salesmanship. No outstanding showman like Sam Colt, no leading international magnate like Hartley, no suave handler of Eastern potentates like Samuel Remington arose to join Starr in the firmament of post-war arms makers. By 1867 the company dissolved, selling the Binghamton plant to scalemaker General Edward F. Jones. General Jones had commanded the Massachusetts regiment that was fired

Pocket pistols of Sharps form with improved striker system by Starr were not enough to keep wheels of industry turning at close of war. Gun was closely styled after and competitive to Sharps & Hankins type of 4-barreled derringer.

upon by rioters in Baltimore in the early days of the war.

Starr revolvers rarely exist in presentation guise, cased and engraved with ivory grips. Silver plated sets are known; one Starr D. A. with a stock fitted as a short rifle exists, possibly factory work though this is doubtful.

While most of the post-war arms sold found their way to France in 1870, some Starrs exist with .44 fiveshot cartridge cylinders, transformed in Belgium, it is said for sale to Germany. But the saga of Eben T. Starr winked out when Jones began to pay the freight.