Ager’s Volley Gun

One of the best guns to see service was little spoken of after the War. Of simple design, the principle may have added nothing radically new to repeating arm construction, but it was a good gun, the Union volley gun of Wilson Ager. Sometimes called, after the fact it had a cartridge hopper like the hopper on a grinder, the “coffee mill gun,” this .58 steel-charger repeater was regularly supplied with two barrels. They were supposed to be alternated during use to prevent them from getting too hot; actually in test one of the guns was fired till the barrel glowed and bits of metal issued from the muzzle with each shot.

It used an open chamber, a cylinder the chambers of which were but grooves into which the steel cart- ridge would fall from the drum. At the back the steel cartridge had a musket nipple and could be recapped and reloaded and used many times. The drum was turned by means of the hand crank, and as each loaded groove came opposite the barrel, it was blocked up and fired.
President Lincoln was originally persuaded to order ten of these guns from contractors Woodward  Cox of New York, at the price of $1,300 each. They were ordered November 2, 1861, and paid for November 4,1861, presumably the date of delivery. Two more Union guns were purchased and paid for on November 25, 1861, and another brace on June 20, 1862, at $1,500 each, all from Woodward  Cox. Significantly, the Chief of Ordnance later noted that the documents relating to the original order were not on file at his office.
In December of 1861, J. D. Mills, representing Carr & Avery, of New York, somehow also agents for the Ager gun, visited Washington. He contacted the President, but Lincoln in response to Mills’ entreaties stated that he did not intend to order more Union guns un- less General McClellan distinctly indicated in writing that he wanted them ordered. Mills, stopping at Willard’s Hotel, immediately sent off a note to McClellan (12 December 1861) asking that he order more guns.
The general considered the price of $2,300 too high, but was willing to allow the manufacturer a fair cost for fabrication, plus 20 per cent margin for profit; this was considerably more generous than War Two’s “cost plus 10%” contract profit figure.
McClellan considered that 50 of the Mills guns would be useful if they could be obtained on these terms. On December 19, the word went out: “Let the fifty guns be ordered on the terms above recommended by General McClellan, and not otherwise. A. Lincoln.” By July 8, 1862, a bill for 28 of these guns had been filed with the Ordnance Department, including delivery of at least this number. The costs of the components is an interesting schedule of manufactured values at the time:
Estimated cost of iron and woodwork of one Union Repeating Gun and carriage:
IRON

Two cast steel barrels    ................... $30.00

Sights ..................................................................6.00

Cylinder ..............................................................18.00

Slide, and    fixtures pertaining thereto ..............33.00

Fitting-up    castings ............................................25.00

Elevating screw and box ..................................4.00

Shield ..................................................................4.00

Hopper ................................................................6.00

Charging tool (loader) ......................................5.00

Irons for    woodwork ........................................60.00

Tools and    implements ......................................4.00

384 chambers, at 87Vi    cents ............. 336.00

16 brass boxes ..................................................16.00    $547.00

Model of Prof. Requa’s gun was made by Rochester gun-maker William Billinghurst using short sections of octagon rifle barrel. Lever moved breech closed. Single percussion cap fired all barrels. Gun was demonstrated on steps of New York Stock Exchange, legend says.

Piano hinge clip held 25 caliber .52 base-fired metal cartridges. When breech was closed, common musket cap detonated central car- tridge while fire flashed in rear channel to succeeding outer charges. Confederates may have used such a gun but seven “Requas” were bought from New Yorker David Smith by Union officers.

Lincoln okayed McClellan’s order of “Union” repeaters. Design had one major defect: it could be fired so fast through single barrel the steel would melt. Hopper held preloaded, reusable steel cartridges. Serial No. 2 of few cal. .58 guns bought by Union is now in Springfield Armory museum

.

WOOD

Four wheels..................................24.00

One limber, with    chest    ...........20.00

One carriage..................................20.00

Two linen covers    for    chests 1.50    65.50

Total....................................................................$612.50

Add twenty percent  ............ ......122.50

$735.00

That these guns saw active service is beyond question, but their influence, as with the Gatlings and the Confederate repeaters, on the outcome of even minor engagements was very slight. The two barrels mentioned in the bill of materials could have made a major tactical improvement in the use of volley firing guns. The spare barrel was to be held in reserve and switched when the first barrel became hot.
The first Union repeating gun from Carr & Avery was received on April 21, 1862. Makers Carr & Avery, (whom J. D. Mills represented), apparently expected to be paid the $1,200 asking price. After McClellan’s remarks about cost plus 20 per cent, two more shipments of guns were received; 28 guns were received after the order of July 8, 1862, and paid for at the $735 price July 9, 1862. The second batch of 22 guns came in a day or two later and was paid for July 14,
1862. Mr. Mills’ first sample gun remained in an accounting limbo until finally paid for on August 3, 1865—at the $735 valuation. At Ream’s Station, Confederates had one of these guns—took a shot at a Yankee observation balloon; then limbered up and disappeared. Whether it had been captured, or bought in the North and smuggled South, is not known.