Civil War Guns

The Savage revolver was unappreciated when it was in service; without the glowing testimonials of a dozen officers flattered to find themselves in print, it was not a commercial success. Called “Navy,” the majority were employed by the Army. Of these, hundreds which had been issued and turned in dirty and rusty, were bought out of New York Arsenal by Bannerman and peddled off at 25^ each. But of the lot, some were brand new, in the original packing cases. For these Bannerman wanted a little more. With Colt .44 New Model Army’s at $2.85, and Whitney’s complete with bullet moulds and 100 caps for $3, Bannerman had the unmitigated gall to ask—and eventually to get— $16 apiece for these revolvers which had cost the United States only $19 a half century before. The odd slab-sided pistol with the gas-seal cylinder seemed better liked in the dingy store of Bannerman on lower Broadway than it ever was in the Ordnance Office in Washington.

Meanwhile Dyer was at work and on October 16, 1861 , received an order for 5,000 to include 1,000 which Ripley had verbally ordered from Dyer earlier. The terms were as Dyer had been instructed, 500 in October, 700 in November, 1,000 in December and 1,500 monthly until filled. The ice broken, Wheelock lost no time in writing Secretary Cameron October 25 offering him 10,000 pistols at $20. When Ripley got to endorsing it with his recommendation, on October 31, it was negative because the “Savage pistol is not, in my opinion, a desirable arm for the service, and not such a one as I would supply, unless in case of emergency.” Meanwhile, under the wire for the October deadline, Wheelock turned over to Army Captain Balch’s inspectors 500 of the Savage Navy Revolvers, on October 28. Then Wheelock repeated his request, on November 19, to furnish 10,000 pistols. Assistant Secretary Scott on November 21 referred it to Ripley “for such action as may be necessary in the premises.” The War had ...

Within the company, Savage’s position was an odd one. A director, inventor, factory owner, and stockholder, he appears not to have had executive status. Savage wanted to go to Washington to get the contract for the company; James Wheelock wanted to retain Thomas Dyer, of Washington, who had been a middleman in the first large beef contract handed out when the War started, to get the orders for them. Direct application to Washington seemed not to have proved fruitful for Wheelock, who testified that “all our (Wheelock’s) personal efforts to procure such a contract from the War Department had failed.” Dyer was authorized by Wheelock by his letter of September 9, 1861 , to obtain an order for 5,000 Savage pistols at $20 each, guaranteed deliveries 500 in October, 700 November, 1,000 in December 1861 , and 1,500 per month thereafter.

The perfected Savage Navy Revolver was with the flat iron frame and a shrouded loading lever, but of more conventional hinged lever form, not creeping type. The cylinder reciprocated to seal off gas escape. Improvements in manufacturing the frame had been made; no longer was the breech turned with a rounded boss, but was just a flat lip or flange to protect in case of multiple discharge. This last was quite improbable, and the nipples were set into recesses like the Wesson and Leavitts, well protected, with the hammer nose striking downward through the top of the frame. A full trigger guard now surrounded the ring trigger, and extended back in a strip to the handle frame. This model by the fall of 1861 was confirmed for production. A .36 caliber six-shooter, it is spoken of as a “Navy” revolver only because of the caliber. It was Savage’s hope to sell these to the Army.

Apparently during the winter of 1859 and the spring of 1860 , one of the chief workmen at the Savage establishment in Middletown, once the scene of Colonel North’s carbine factory, was Charles R. Alsop. The May, 1860 North and Savage patent shows pin and groove loading lever suggesting that fitted to Alsop revolvers also marked “Middletown,” and on May 22, 1860 , Charles R. Alsop patented a shoulder stock attachment for the Figure 8 Savage revolver. In addition, his own patents of July 17 and August 7, 1860 , May 14, 1861 and November 26, 1861 , and January 21, 1862 , all relate to the small five-shot Alsop series of spur trigger revolvers; revolvers which have an unmistakable relation to the North and Savage series of arms. Alsop remained associated with the Edward Savage enterprise for at least the first several years of the War , and it is probable that the arms of Savage, Alsop, and Savage Revolving Firearms Company, including their rifle muskets, were all made in the same sho...

The start of the North and Savage revolvers appears to have coincided with the decline of the North interests as contractor for the United States in 1851 . At that time Henry S. North and Chauncy D. Skinner patented a bar-hammer revolving breech arm illustrated in the patent as a handgun (incomplete) but apparently only made as a rifle. Cocking the hammer and rotating the cylinder was accomplished by pulling down on the trigger guard. Importandy, this wedged the cylinder against the barrel to seal off gas. The guard at the front was mounted on a frame strap which went below the cylinder, and was hinged at its front end to the barrel. The guts-falling-out mechanism rather suggests the later Winchester (Browning designed) Model 1894 series of rifles. Patent No. 8, 982 of June, 1852 , covered this first step. “The World’s Revolver” appears hopefully stamped on one example of this unsuccessful rifle. Defective commercially and mechanically, this first design was abandoned by North who c...

A firm that fared better with an intermediary was that of  Edward Savage, founder and co-partner with Henry S. North in the firm of North & Savage. At Middletown, Connecticut for three-quarters of a century, the name of North had been the byword for gunmaking. Formerly S. North, Middletown, the company had been changed to North & Savage during the midfifties. It took on a new shot of capital with the commencement of hostilities. The Savage Revolving Firearms Company of Middletown was organized in 1860 and August 12, 1861 , Charles R. Sebor was elected president. Secretary and Treasurer for several years was James A. Wheelock. Edward Savage, patentee of the “figure eight” .36 caliber revolver, together with Henry Savage North, seems to have had less and less to do with the managing of the firm. Their work appears ended when they finally brought the revolver to a state of “perfection.”

Less successful with the Government was another Freeman, W. C. Freeman, of Worcester, Massachusetts. Though he consciously used a United States Senator, the Hon. W. S. Williams, to act in his behalf in Washington, he failed to get what he wanted. Freeman offered through Williams on June 7, 1861 , to make for the Army the revolver designed by Benjamin F. Joslyn at $25 each. A .44 caliber solid frame fiveshooter, its side hammer and rear-removing cylinder pin reveal the influence of Root and Colt’s designs. The barrel is octagonal, screwing into the frame, and shaped with a lump at the rear for the pivot screw of the hinged loading lever. The barrel is stamped with b, f. joslyn/patd may 4th 1858 , in two lines. Some have a Navy anchor stamped in the butt or in the underside of the barrel, but none have U. S. inspectors’ initials on the grips, because the order of 500 guns given to Freeman by Ripley was annulled. Big Savage reciprocating cylinder revolver was noted as  “Navy” beca...

The patent genealogy of the Pettengill (often misspelled Pettingill) was threefold. The basic pepperbox design with inside striker was the invention of C. S. Pettengill of New Haven No. 15,388 dated 22 July,  1856 . Edward A. Raymond and Charles Robitaille, Brooklyn, New York, further improved the gun, taking out patent No. 21,054, July 27, 1858 . Refinement for production was accomplished by Henry S. Rogers, of Rogers & Spencer, patent No. 36,861, November 4, 1862 . Because of the close similarity between the Pettengill barrel, frame front and loading lever, as manufactured, and the eventual Rogers & Spencer revolver, it seems likely the form in which the Pettengill was made was due to Rogers. By December, 1861 , Rogers & Spencer had established a shop in Millvale, Oneida County, New York, where they were making the Pettengill pistol in pocket .31, and belt .34 calibers. They asked Secretary Cameron for an order, stating: .  . . we are making the Pettingil...

Hoard had obtained ratification of his Springfield contract, but as his testimony before Holt and Owen indicated, he felt that revolvers offered greater profits. Much of the machinery listed on the large bill which he presented to the Commissioners, in arguing that his musket contract should be confirmed, was doubtless capable of manufacturing revolver parts as well. To obtain a revolver design he went to Binghamton where Austin T. Freeman worked. To judge from the handle configuration of the revolver eventually made under Freeman’s patents, Freeman worked at the Starr Armory and either openly or secretly was Smith & Wesson’s revolvers were made in quantity but firm  preferred to sell smallbore .32s and ,22s to private soldiers  than engage in government work. Top gun, known as No. 2  Army, was used by officers to some extent. Indiana cavalryman Col. Edward Anderson owned pearl-handled specimen  with 6" barrel with which he executed over 50 suspected...

For half a century the halls of official Washington resounded with the clamor of disappointed inventors of revolving breech firearms. Seeking the patronage of the War Department or Navy Department, they thronged the anterooms of the respective Bureaus of Ordnance, but to no avail. Elisha Collier, inventing his revolver in 1813 , had to take the idea to England to find capital and manufacturers. A mysterious Mr. Chambers, who appears to have developed a “Roman candle” type of load for fighting tops of warships, received so little recognition that the physical description of his invention is lost. Persistently, unfailing (but he failed), a Mr. Cochran tried to have his turret-chambered revolver adopted. Even Colt failed for 15 years, before at length, in 1847 , some measure of success in having his revolvers adopted by the Army brought him modest riches and the beginnings of fame and fortune. Then, suddenly, the War Department seemed convinced that the rotating chambered breech firear...

It was charged at the time and has been parrotted since, that the refuse of all the armories of Europe was poured into the United States, and vast “investigations” clamored for. But the tabulation above shows that Boker’s cost in Europe for 125,000 of the guns—Classes 14 through 20—equalled the cost at Springfield Armory for a rifle. Of the 188,000 arms delivered, at least half were comparable in the market to the Springfield Rifle Musket. Calibers for the most part were .69-.72, but Ripley caused that to be accepted by George Wright. With inadequate briefing on his duties and also on his authority, such as the possibility of hiring viewers in England, which Wright certainly could have done, he accomplished a minor miracle. Though it was Boker who offered, and Cameron and Ripley who accepted the deal, it was George Wright who armed the Union that dreary winter of 1861 . It may be categorically stated that the one man who signed certificates of inspection for more rifle muskets than any...

George Wright was principally to blame, except for the simple fact that he was only human, faced with a superhuman task. Inspecting over 100,000 muskets and about 38,000 sabers in a couple of months time was beyond the abilities of a Hercules. Had Wright Array of rear sights mostly on  imported guns reveals complications  in training caused by variety of  otherwise ordinary foreign arms.  Guns are, left to right, Smith car bine, Austrian converted .69 short  rifle, U.S. Springfield, Enfield  1856 ,  Thouvenin French rifle, Belgian  carabine a tige, French rifle musket  1825 -42-57, and stub sight on Dan zig Prussian musket. been more of an administrator, he might have hired help. Major Hagner, if assigned to the task of inspection, would almost certainly have surrounded himself with a flock of paid sub-inspectors, all drawing salaries from Boker & Company. Wright, trained as a tinsmith and self-taught as an armorer repairing muskets a...

Boker’s situation was rapidly becoming desperate. Though the enterprise founded by Herman Boker had been in business 30 years, guns and hardware, he was not possessed of unlimited capital. It seems likely he had obtained many of the guns on consignment, having to pay his numerous suppliers in a specified time. By March 13, 1862 , the need for money was urgent, and Boker of New York offered to adjust the prices of arms if desired, but that the United States should please send him half a million dollars needed to tide him over a tight situation.