Spiller & Burr

While the G & G was purchased at about $50 each by the Confederacy, it was considered, in the eyes of Colonel Burton, to be inferior to the Spiller and Burr. Another brass-framed CS pistol, these were made by Edward N. Spiller of Baltimore and David J. Burr. The latter was owner of a machine works in Richmond, and at first there was some consideration given to setting up the pistol works in the Virginia capital. Chief promoter behind this move was James Henry Burton. That the man in public life most noted for the mechanical excellence of Southern arms should set up a private factory is not too strange. In June, 1861, he was commissioned a lieutenant colonel of Ordnance in the Virginia military establishment by Governor Letcher; not until December was he commissioned in the Regular Army of the Confederate States, with the same rank, as Superintendent of Armories. His offer to General Gorgas made in November, 1861, would seem to have had something to do with it. Gorgas had recommended Burton should set up a pistol factory; in response to this suggestion, Burton wrote:
I propose to establish the manufactury in or near to the City of Richmond and have made arrangements to secure the most experienced talent to engineer the mechanical requirements of the enterprise. I beg to enclose herewith a draft of the conditions and terms on which I propose to embark in the business and contract with the War Department for the supply of revolving pistols ...

... I would not be justified in embarking in the business on a Government contract for a less number than 15,000 pistols . . .
Burton asked for an advance of funds scheduled at perhaps a total of $100,000, to be returned to the Government by deductions of 20% from the prices charged in pistol deliveries. The frames were to be of “good, tough brass properly electroplated with silver,” but the model of gun was not specified. On November 20, 1861, Burton made an agreement with Spiller and Burr to obtain for them a contract for 15,000 Navy revolvers; agreeing also to superintend the machinery, preparation of buildings, and the general manufacturing.
On November 30, 1861, the C.S. War Department contracted with Spiller and Burr for 15,000 Navy revolvers in terms which included the idea of cash advances and repayment out of deliveries, as Burton had originally proposed to Gorgas. The model to be made is specifically described as “of a pattern substantially the same as that known as Colts, the model of which will be supplied by the said War Department.” Spiller and Burr were to be given the preference in orders for more pistols by the War Department provided of course they could deliver; in this preferential treatment there is a hint of Colonel Burton’s lack of disinterestedness, though the clause was a great incentive to Spiller and Burr to do well. Burton’s interest was attacked in the Confederate Congress; Gorgas came to his support, but Burton promptly sent in his resignation. Secretary of War George W. Randolph refused to accept it, but evidently Richmond was too warm for the pistol makers and they decided to set up in Atlanta, Georgia. There is no evidence any pistols were made in Richmond.
The plant was shifted to Atlanta in the summer and fall of 1862, and by December, Spiller was ready with a sample of the revolver. What gun this sample actually was is rather well confirmed by a complaint which Burton raised with Spiller about the latter’s handling of drawings of the pistol. Spiller had been asked by the Columbus Firearms Manufacturing Company of Columbus, Georgia, to help them in their tooling-up. Spiller spoke to Burton about this, as he wanted to make duplicate tools for them and give them copies of Burton’s carefully executed drawings. Burton objected to this; Spiller ignored the objections. So it was that Burton, while on duty at the Macon Armory in November, discovered that Haiman & Brothers, of Columbus, were in possession of copies of some of Burton’s drawings. As a Confederate States Ordnance Officer, Burton should have been mailing out complete sets of Colt’s Navy drawings to anybody who could use them; as a silent partner in Spiller & Burr he took Spiller through the wringer about giving technical know-how to the competition.
These drawings may not have been of much use to Haiman, for from them Spiller made one pistol and took it up to Richmond. It was well approved, but the bore apparently was a little tight by comparison with a Colt Navy. Spiller informed Burton that his pistols were found to be a trifle smaller than the Colt Navy and that he would have to change this, although it would give him trouble to do so. Meanwhile, no pistols were being delivered and General Gorgas was getting worried.
A new contract, taking into account the rise in costs of labor and essential materials, was set up between Spiller & Burr and the C.S. War Department, approved by the new Secretary of War James A. Seddon on March 5, 1863. Apparently 600 pistols were delivered

during the month of February, for this curious March
5, 1863, contract specifies delivery of 600 guns in February, 1863, “and thereafter 1,000 pistols per month until the deliveries are completed.”
The principal purpose of this contract seem to have been getting more money for Spiller, as the contract price was increased; the fact the firm did deliver and was now ready to deliver pistols may have had a strong influence in getting Gorgas to prepare the contract according to new terms. Under the March 5 contract, the old one was suspended, and with this suspension, contract terms calling for Colt-type revolvers were also suspended. For it seems that the remodeling of Spiller’s tools to make a Colt-type arm of correct dimensions was too costly, and in a period prior to February, 1863, they resorted to casting the frames. A cast brass frame can be made in a mould of Whitney shape as easily as Colt, and the solid frame gun is cheaper to manufacture than the Colt type, by a factor of about 20% less cost at least. Moulder’s patterns are more quickly made by hand from basswood, than are fixtures for attaching to machine tools.
Burton’s insistence now that the contractor himself get up a model, and make gauges and drawings from it, suggests the preparation of the Whitney-framed Spiller and Burr as commonly known was an attempt to overcome some obstacle in manufacturing. But production did not continue regularly. By February, 1864, they were so far behind that Colonel Burton obtained an appropriation of $125,000 on the 29th to complete the purchase of the machinery, tools, fixtures, and materials of Spiller & Burr, the Government having advanced $60,000 already to help finance their beginning.
Up to this time about 700 revolvers had been fabricated in Atlanta; the equipment was moved to the Confederate States Armory at Macon, Georgia, and there Colonel Burton managed the business directly. Existing records for the Government portion of this enterprise have survived and indicate that exactly 689 revolvers were made at Macon. About 1,400 Spiller & Burr guns were made of Whitney form, plus at least one “too small” of Colt Navy pattern. An unmarked pistol of obvious Spiller & Burr form exists, with burl walnut grips; it is supposed to be the model Burton required Spiller to make. The Whitney-type loading lever is attached to the cylinder pin, and that in turn is retained by a common screw entering from the right of the frame below barrel. Since it was desirable to have the cylinder out to clean the pistol, the design was modified to a turning lug, which when twisted, released the cylinder pin. Cylinders, originally intended with barrels to be of steel, were exempted from this in the contract if steel could not be obtained. They were made of iron, apparently twisted while hot, as the pistols have a spiral grain to the cylinders. The 6 Vs-

Colt Navy #37698 originally engraved was probably presented to General R. E. Lee by Sam Colt about 1854. Though tag affixed by Confederate White House Museum, Richmond, states arm was carried by General Lee in one of his saddle holsters during the War, probability is pistol was wrapped in oiled silk and never used during four years as condition seemed too good to reflect combat use.

Revolver presented to Stonewall Jackson by his men and now preserved in “White House” museum in Richmond is elaborately etched Lefaucheux double action pinfire 7mm probably purchased at Hartley, Schuyler & Graham and smuggled down from New York. Confederacy was not enthusiastic about metallic cartridge arms, imported few if any pinfires officially.

Famed guerrilla chief Quantrell is said to have carried two Dragoons at the saddle bow and two more in the belt, but this Ml862 Colt New Police Pistol .36 caliber is at Ohio State University museum and recorded as carried by Quantrell.

inch octagon barrels are stamped (reading from muzzle) spiller & burr; frame right front corner below bullet loading cut is stamped C.S. The barrel nipple, that is, the threaded rear portion, is entirely surrounded by the brass of the frame which comes flush to the front of the cylinder. It is possible that delays in getting these guns into production may have been caused by some trouble like splitting of the barrel at the breech if barrels were iron and soft. The original model would have been a Whitney pistol and on the Whitney, the barrel threads are partly exposed, unsupported, as the Whitney barrel is of strong cast steel. The iron Spiller & Burr barrels might crack at the breech until someone, presumably Burton, modified the design to shroud all with brass. If such a change occurred, it is not surprising no specimens exist with exposed barrel threads; as defective models, barrels split from firing, they would have been tossed back into the melting pot to make good guns.
The move of the Spiller & Burr equipment to Macon Armory was not followed by immediate resumption of production. Not until October, 1864, was the equipment set up anew. On the 5th, Burton telegraphed Gorgas saying Colonel Cuyler had no more arms for repairing and asked if he ought to unpack the pistol machinery and set it up to give the hands something to do. Gorgas at once replied that day by telegraph, “Put your pistol factory in operation & push the works;” by the 13th Burton could report resumption of production on the Spiller & Burr.
Cost of manufacture at Macon of the Spiller & Burr was high, reflecting depreciation of the value of the mone.yv $62.21. This included $8.00 interest on capital invested, $200*000 at 8 per cent, revealing a production plan to make 2,000 revolvers, but failing to include any figure for plant renewal of worn machinery. Perhaps it was calculated at the end of producing 2,000 revolvers that the factory would still be worth the $200,000. Material cost $19.59, and labor and supervision was $34.62. One lucky member of the Texas Gun Collectors’ association prizes a Spiller & Burr that he bid in at an auction, in a bucket of junk iron, for $1.50 the lot. Current value a century later is perhaps $600 or more; an appreciation on the Confederate currency in which Burton figured the revolver’s worth of just about 1,000 per cent. If War-weary South-
rons had saved their Confederate money invested in Confederate arms, verily the South could rise again! An odd S & B, formerly Richard Steuart’s, now in the Norton Asner collection, is unmarked, frame corners are rounded, with rubber grips. Said to be original, they are unique.
Haiman Brothers, Louis and Elijah, fared less well in their efforts to make arms. As L. Haiman & Bro. they were highly successful in supplying general military stores, swords, sabers, but when they tried to make revolvers they failed. On August 26, 1862, Richmond gave them a contract to make 10,000 revolvers. They applied to Spiller & Burr for drawings and tools, and Spiller gave them some drawings for the Colt Navy, as made by Colonel Burton. What they made seemed never to conform to the drawings. No. 7 of their pistols exists: it is a 5-shot pocket .36 with approximately a 4 Vi-inch octagon barrel. The pistol resembles one model of Manhattan without the customary 12-cylinder stop slots, and is reputed to be a “promotion model.” Distinctive feature is the capping cut, which is low on the curve of the frame, as on certain Manhattans. No. 23 of the Columbus Firearms pistols is more “normal,” with octagon breech round barrel. The capping cut out is rather small and the bottom edge is on a line drawn above the nearby percussion cone, when the cylinder is in the normal position, hammer down on a cone. No. 46 has a larger capping cut out, as does No. 50; the curve of the cut out spans approximately the distance between the outside edges of the two cone cutouts in the cylinder.
It is a little misleading to say, as Albaugh has stated, that these are “very similar in appearance to the Leech & Rigdon product.” It is true both patterns have iron frames and round barrels, but the trigger guard of the Haiman revolver is a little more like the small guard Navy Colt, if generalizing on the basis of a few existing specimens is fair. Collectors estimate less than 100 revolvers were made before Columbus Firearms sold out to the Confederacy in the move, in late 1863, to put the manufacture of revolvers on a “professional” basis.
Haiman, as an old workman, David Wolfson of Columbus, Georgia, recollected to E. Berkeley Bowie in 1924.    . . had two people from Virginia who were experts in the manufacture of Colt’s revolvers or pistols, they built machinery to make the several parts of these pistols and we made quite a large number of them in exact imitation of the Colt army pistol . . . The pistol was made with round barrel and every part was made by machinery. The inspecting officer was a man in Captain Humphrey’s office. I do not remember his name.”
The “two men” may be Burton and Spiller, of Richmond. That “every part was made by machinery” is probably a correct recollection, for Burton’s emphasis on precision manufacture and his knowledge of tooling was the bed-rock of know-how upon which the Confederacy built her arms. Though Columbus Firearms continued as a factory producing swords, the pistol tools appear to have been transferred to the Columbus Armory. There a “model” pistol was prepared and sent to Macon Armory for inspection in the spring of 1865; additional pistols were ready to ship, and Columbus asked Macon for shipping boxes. Macon, according to Albaugh, responded by saying Spiller & Burr boxes would not be suitable for shipping—the reason can only be guessed at. If these C.S.—Columbus Armory pistols differed from the Haiman product, their differences have not been noted.