J. P. Lindsay

While the 10-shooters and double pistols were in production by 1861, as evidenced by a broadside featuring comments of officers dated that year, the .36 caliber was probably introduced soon after, and during 1862 Lindsay got to work on a rifle musket. While the rifle musket may be assumed to belong in that chapter, the design is wedded to its origins in the Walch revolver, as made by Lindsay.
The site of the Walch-Lindsay factory is open to conjecture, according to some authorities. Gluckman declares the Lindsay double muskets “were probably made for Lindsay on contract by Cyrus Manville, whose plant was at 208 Orange Street, the site of the old Volcanic factory.” This address is usually given for the J. P. Lindsay Manufacturing Company, in New Haven. But the broadside alluded to above, which includes statements from such notables as Colonel George L. Schuyler, now back from Europe and acting as aide de camp to General Wool of the New York State troops, declares quite clearly: “The J. P. LINDSAY MANUF’G CO., of Naugatuck, Connecticut, are sole Manufacturers of Lindsay’s Patent Fire-Arms; also, Manufacturers of Camp Knives, Forks and Spoons, Knives and Forks, and Bowie Knives for Army Use.” However, Colonel B. R. Lewis (somewhat in error) states: “About 1860 the Springfield Armory made 1,000 Lindsay double shot rifle muskets, firing superimposed charges.” He is wrong in the date; and in citing Springfield Armory draws most probably upon references in Bannerman’s old catalogs. On one page familiar to most readers, Bannerman illustrates a series of photos of model and experimental breech arms, including a Lindsay double of single barreled two-shot pistols ranging from tiny “derringer” to large .44 caliber smoothbore holster pistol size. These single barrel two-shooters with the improved single trigger, and a Springfield-type rifle musket made to the same design, are known by the name of inventor Lindsay who apparently manufactured them. The revolvers marketed by the Walch Firearms Company had a limited vogue in the Army. To manufacturer Lindsay, Lieutenant B. W. Hornbeck, Company I, 9th Michigan Infantry, wrote from Camp Muldrow’s Hill, West Point, Kentucky, on December 2, 1861: “My company of the 9th Regiment Michigan Infantry have supplied themselves with your 10shooters and are highly pleased with them. I am frank Lindsay Double Musket was obtained on contract from inventor. Arm was identical to regular Springfield except for patent breech screwed onto back of barrel and stock specially inletted for new mechanism.

Double musket used two regulation .58 charges. Right hammer fired front ball but by accident or deliberately left hammer could safely discharge both shots.

LINDSAY’S PATENT

No. 2.

No. 3.

Cut No. 1 represents interior of Lock, b b Hammers, e e Main Spring, i i Scears, v v Scear Springs, r Screw, which holds scear spring and cap in place, n Trigger, o Detent, which prevents both hammers falling by a single pull of the trigger, s Detent Spring, t Main Spring Wrench hole.
Cut No. 2 represents the inner scction of breech, with two charges in position.
General Formation. The double lock is inserted into the stock directly in rear of barrel. The barrel breach is provided with two cones and two vents, which commnnicate with the separatecharges of powder— the right one with front charge, the left one with rear charge. Both charges are loaded into, and fired from one barrel separately. By these simple means a doxible gun is obtained without necessary additional weight above a single barrel arm.
Construction. The bottom of the bore is decreased in size, forming a chamber. (See cut No. 2.) This charnbcr receives powder only from one cartridge. The rear or first ball rests upon the edges of this chamber, completely sealing up the powder in the chamber. Upon this rear ball the second charge of powder and ball rests. The vent to thefront charge passes from W^/tMiand cone through the metal to a point between the balls. The vent to the rear charge passes from left hand cone directly into small chamber.
Ammunition used should always be the regular Springfield paper pressed ball cartridge. Full size for caliber Grooves in ball should be fiUed with lubrication. Fire cannot pass back to rear charge, if the grooves in the ball are properly filled with lubrication, and balls thoroughly “ rammed home.''
musket. Of this gun he says: “United States Muzzle Loading Repeating Rifle (two shots from one barrel), made at United States armory during the Civil War. Intended for use of troops firing two balls without reloading. Rifle is .58 caliber; has two hammers, two nipples, only one trigger. Gun did not prove a success, so only a few were made, which makes them valuable to collectors. The lead bullet of the first cartridge is intended to act as the breech for the second cartridge. Those guns can only be had from us. We bid higher than all competitors and secured the lot. Gun is complete, with bayonets and in fair order; barrel and mountings are polished bright; walnut stock. Very rare. This rifle is a U. S. Government gun, made at Springfield.”
How far back into history the Springfield Armory story goes we cannot say; we can only trace it to Sawyer’s Our Rifles first published 1920. He says, “The inventor was J. P. Lindsay, an employee at the Springfield Armory. Five hundred of these rifles were made at the Springfield Armory and issued to troops for trial . . . According to tradition, Mr. Lindsay’s brother, a soldier, was killed by Indians, who pursued their usual tactics of drawing the fire of a small outpost and then charging in overwhelming numbers, before the soldiers could reload their single shot arms, and massacring the entire company. The Lindsay twoshooter with the appearance of a single shooter was intended to offer the sort of surprise that would discourage repetition of such tactics.”
It is such tales as this that make one of the regrets of my young life the fact that I never knew Mr. Sawyer. He was before my time. It must have been the joy of a winter’s eve to sit before a friendly fireplace with Mr. Sawyer rambling on and on with these fascinating anecdotes about arms lore and history.
On December 17, 1863, John P. Lindsay of New Haven entered into a contract “with the United States to furnish 1,000 Lindsay double-muskets,” at a price of $25 each, interchangeable, inspected, and delivered within four months from date. Eight months later almost to the day, Lindsay handed over to the inspector 1,000 double muskets, received August 16, 1864, and paid for in full August 25. These muskets

No. 1.

Principle of two-shooter was applied by Lindsay to big “horse pistol” but arm is exceedingly rare today, so few were made.

had been ordered as a consequence of a trial held by Captain S. V. Benet at West Point about August 26, presumably 1863.
Benet’s letter to Ripley reporting the results describes the musket and its purpose in detail; and was reproduced on a brochure or flier advertising “Lindsay’s Patent Double Shooting Fire Arms” and giving instructions and illustrating the parts of the Double Musket:
The object of the invention is to be enabled to load the musket with two charges of powder and ball, and fire them separately thus having all the advantages of a double barrel weapon. The bottom of the bore is supplied with a chamber to hold a charge of powder, the sides of the chamber supporting the first bullet that is inserted. A tap with the rammer fixes this bullet in place, and prevents the flame from the forward charge, when ignited, from igniting the powder in the chamber. Upon this first bullet the second charge loose powder and the naked bullet is placed. The gun is provided with two vents, the left one communicating directly with the chamber, as in ordinary cases, the right one passing through the metal by the side of the bore, and entering it in front of the rear bullet, the edge of the chamber fixing this rear bullet always in the same place. The gun has two hammers, both worked by one trigger; both hammers being cocked, the trigger acts upon the right hand one, firing off the forward charge; a second pull at the trigger fires the second or rear charge. By cocking the left hammer only, the trigger will fire the rear charge, discharging both charges and emptying the barrel. The mechanism of the lock is simple and strong, made of few pieces, and not liable to get out of order. The gun was fired sixty rounds without cleaning; the first thirty with bullets 58 diameter, the last thirty with bullets 57 diameter. The gun fouled considerably, but not so much, in my opinion, as with a single cartridge from a service rifle musket. I attribute this to the fact that the explosion of the front charge forces the rear bullet hard against the bottom of the grooves, filling the bore completely, and that this bullet, when fired, carries with it much of the accumulated foulness. Of the sixty rounds, or thirty loads, both charges were fired separately in each case, and the gun was in perfect working order to the end. The inventor having expressed the opinion that the grease around the rear bullet was necessary to prevent the passage of the flame from the front charge to the powder in the chamber, several bullets were cleaned of all grease, and wiped perfectly dry, but they worked as perfectly as when greased. Twelve rounds, six loads, were fired at a target for accuracy, the record of which is herewith enclosed. In my opinion, the invention is a success.
Regrettably, Lindsay did not reproduce the target fired from his sample musket at West Point. It would have been interesting to know what Benet considered good accuracy and, also, since it appears to have been the first and last time the Double Musket was fired in the Army, the record deserves perpetuation. As nearly as can be determined, the Lindsays served out the War snoozing peacefully in their armory packing chests.
Who made them, remains something of a mystery, but a clue may be furnished by the contract. Surety for Lindsay was one Cornelius S. Bushnell of New Haven, who also appears as surety in connection with Joslyn carbine contracts. In matters as touchy as firearms contracts, especially with the hazardous record of cancellations and annulments meted out by Holt and Owen, sureties were not usually mere money lenders.
The name of a man guaranteeing the contract’s fulfillment was usually the name of a man who had an administrative or manufacturing interest in the production of the items covered. In some dim recess of fallible memory, we recall being told the Lindsay muskets were assembled by parts-maker and subcontractor Samuel Norris, whose shop in Springfield, Massachusetts, was the scene of many activities behind the scenes of Civil War production. Lindsay may have made up the breech parts and hammers in either his Naugatuck factory or at the Joslyn works in Stonington, and then had Norris take semi-finished Springfield stocks, not inletted for locks, and let in the Lindsaybreeched barrel (otherwise standard, cut off behind the rear sight for the patent breech) and the Lindsay twohammer lock assembly. Confirmation of this is lacking; but Lindsay taking eight months to produce suggests he ran into difficulties. One thing is virtually certain, that he did not tool up to manufacture the Springfield Double Musket complete, but that he bought all parts, except his own, from one of the major fabricators, and had them put together to fill the contract. That he was a workman at Springfield Armory may be true; that his brother fought Indians seems possible. But double shot guns existed through arms history long before Indians were ever a factor in warfare; Lindsay offered only a mechanical variation, patentable, not unique. The story is probably mere legend, invented probably by Bannerman to sell his otherwise unsalable brand new Lindsay Double Muskets, last gasp of an idea that began as the Walch revolver.