Civil War Guns

Generically, the Deringer pistol, or “Derringer” as it came to be known, is a small defensive pistol of large bore. Gun maker Henry Deringer, listed in the Philadelphia City Directories as early as 1811 at 29 Green Street, did not at first achieve fame as a maker of pocket pistols. His Ml808 U. S. military holster pistols are eargerly sought after by collectors; they command prices that now range into the “fabulous” category. He moved to 374 North Front Street in 1813 , remained there until 1823 . Presumably from the Front Street shop he shipped at least a few of the 2,000 Model 1817 flintlock Common Rifles he contracted to supply the United States on April 3, 1821 . This lot was evidently a continuation of business which began with his making Common Rifles of the 1817 pattern on a contract dated July 23, 1819 . Even before this time he had a contract of 1814 to furnish 980 rifles to the Government, while, in December of 1828 , after moving to a new factory “entry from 93 Race Str...

In July, 1863 , General Robert E. Lee ordered that a new muzzle-loading carbine be made for cavalry use. Several ingenious breechloaders had been developed, other than the Richmond Sharps. The Tarpley at Greensboro, Georgia, was being manufactured. A swinging breech design, it is of the mechanical form that the Burton-modified Alender design might have taken, though the actual shape of the missing Alexander model carbine is not known. Alexander obtained a Confederate States patent a month or two after Tarpley patented his gun in February, 1863 . Another oddity, bearing no marker’s name and at present not verified as to location of manufacture, is the “rising breech” model; while another with a tipping breechblock and a board stock like the Maynard is variously called “Confederate Maynard” or “Confederate Perry.” These and other small-production weapons proved unreliable and Lee recommended that all efforts be placed on procuring a good supply of standard muzzleloaders of a fundamental...

Burton was a talented general engineer, it is true, but there was a reason why McNeill joined with him in contracting to make the Sharps carbine. Burton had special experience in engineering a set up for the Sharps, as experimental Sharps guns had been fabricated under his superintendency at the Enfield Royal Small Arms Factory in 1858 . Enfield’s chief contribution to Sharps design had been to omit the Maynard primer, and fit the percussion cone directly into the top of the chamber, avoiding the complicated flash channels through the breechblock. Redesign of the breech linkage was too complicated for Burton to do on short notice, but to omit the Maynard primer was easy, and it was this arm which the Confederate armory ultimately built. McNeill obtained both machinery and cash advances under this contract but seems not to have performed. Burton had been working with Samuel Robinson to set up equipment to make the brass framed Confederate arms in Smithsonian collection reflect indus...

While Burton preferred the Enfield, the Springfield influence of the tools at Richmond and Fayetteville persisted in Confederate small arms design. At Fayetteville Armory, the Ml 855 type machinery had been in production. The first issue of arms was put up on the stocks from the Maryland troops, which appear to have been fully finished for the long range rifle; the two-band model with the patchbox mortised out to hold a special front sight ring with crossed wires. This ring slipped over the muzzle, fastened with a set screw, and placed crosshairs on the foresight for super-accurate aiming. As some stocks had been mortised for the Maynard primer lockplates, sufficient profiled but un-mortised lockplates were sent along of the “humpback” variety to finish up these rifles. If a modified 1861 lockplate was fitted to the cut-out Ml855 stock, there would be great danger of water getting into the lock mechanism, to its considerable detriment.

Colonel Burton had a great interest in the Enfields of Cook, and in supplying them with gauges. But the central government had a plan to set up an Enfield works abroad, then ultimately transfer it to the South. Secretary of War Walker, on May 7, 1861 called the attention of Governor Howell Cobb, who was President of the Confederate Congress, to this idea. Referring to the manufacture of arms, he said: At London a complete set of machinery exists, which was made in this country, after the pattern of the machines at Springfield, in the United States. It would, I think, be no difficult matter to get these machines copied and executed on the spot with great rapidity. Triplicate machines should be ordered to ensure the chances of delivery of at least one set. For this purpose an additional appropriation of $300,000 may be needed . . . for the three sets of machinery. Should they all arrive, they will, even if not required by the government, be easily disposed of. The amount already ask...

One of the largest ordnance establishments in the South was the factory of Ferdinand W. C. and Francis L. Cook, known as Cook & Brother. First located in New Orleans, the works was shifted the day before the fall of the city, April 24 and 25, 1862 , and ultimately re-established at Athens, Georgia. While in New Orleans, the firm contracted with the State of Alabama which took the total production of the works, about 25 rifles a day with 400 men at work. Louisiana interests endeavored to increase the production to 100 rifles a day, with the balance to Louisiana, but the capture of the city prevented this expansion.

The “Mississippi Rifle” was a very popular Southern state contract arm. Numerous would-be makers obtained contracts and appear briefly in records. Some of their output has been identified, sometimes only tentatively. One of the best-made copies of the 1841 rifles was that produced by the Shakanoosa Arms Company in Alabama, known more commonly by the name of Dickson, Nelson & Company. Two distinct variations of the Dickson, Nelson & Company short rifle were made, according to Jim Blackburn (Gun Report, October, 1961 ). Superficially both are two-band short rifles, .58 caliber, along the lines of the U. S. Ml841 with Enfield overtones, brass bands. The first type, usually dated 1863 , has springretained bands on a cherry-wood stock. Though esteemed by cabinet makers, cherry is not always as strong as walnut, and the makers preferred walnut in their second “issue.” The nosecap is of Enfield type, not the two-loop band of the Ml841 model. There is of course no patchbox. Rear sig...

George W. Morse was in many ways the co-equal of James Henry Burton. Inventor of a toggle-joint breech-loading rifle or transformation for a muzzleloader, somewhat like the Jenks and Merrill arms, the Morse gun tools apparently were made by Ames. General Ben McCulloch came east for the purpose of buying 1,000 Colt’s revolvers and 1,000 Morse rifles for Texas. In getting the Colts, he was successful. But no operating plant for the Morse arms was in being, though tooling existed and plans were many. Morse’s was the earliest successful military cartridge rifle, and used a reloadable centerfire musket-capped cartridge. As a Southern rifle, less than 1,000 were made, but they command the respect of the present for the ingenuity of the past. A South Carolinian, Morse had lived in Baton Rouge and it is from that place that his patents, October 28, 1856 , and June 5, 1858 , were issued. The Contract militia rifle by J. J. Henry when located at Boulton, Pa., was issued in SOUTH CAROLINA to...

A curious version of this arm with “humpback” lockplate marked e. whitney/new haven is pictured by Fuller & Stuart; the rear sight is the 1855 type and buttplate is of brass. Whitney did have a contract for the original 1855 Rifle Musket, which was never fulfilled. Whitney’s penchant for putting up odd mixtures of non-standard parts to peddle here and there, and “old arms finished up,” is well known. Whether Whitney actually fitted up this arm for the South, or stamped a Burton-Richmond musket bought at a surplus sale after 1865 , is not known.

The basic rifle musket was the major production in Virginia. With flat iron bands and the regular 1855 cone seat, it resembles at a short distance the standard U. S. service arm. The absence of Maynard primer is noticeable because the plate is solid in this area. There are actually the production of three factories concerned in this picture. First, there are the Ml855 Rifle Muskets fabricated under Virginia supervision (Colonel Jackson) at Harpers Ferry during the two months after its capture. At least 1,500 arms may be considered to have been made there; possibly more. They are assumed to be standard Ml855 guns, type of 1859 with patchbox. As noted, Pollard records 5,- 000 guns being seized which were “unproved.” Possibly these bear the usual Harpers Ferry marks but lack the VP-eagle barrel stamps. The second “transition” Confederate Richmond Rifle is that made prior to August 23, 1861 , in a temporary set-up by Burton in a tobacco warehouse. The Harpers Ferry equipment could ...

With Adams was another long-time employee of the United States Arsenal at Harpers Ferry, James Henry Burton. Bom at Shenondale Springs, Virginia, August 17, 1823 , Burton attended school in Pennsylvania, but entered the machine trade in Baltimore at the age of 16. In 1844 he took a job at the rifle works under John Hall and in 1845 was appointed foreman. He rose to Master Armorer within 10 years, and attracted the attention of the British who came to the United States, inspecting arsenals in 1855 , in connection with the parts. Shown here is unique version with Special Model 1861 bands and lock. Plate is dated 1864 ; has 1864 -type U.S. bevel Sharps rifle contract. Offered a good position he resigned from Harpers Ferry and from then until 1860 was Chief Engineer of the Enfield Royal Small Arms Factory. While there, he became acquainted with the tool-making firm of Greenwood & Badey in Leeds, from whom Enfield purchased gunmaking equipment; this contact was to be renewed wh...

The Virginia State Armory at the south end of Fifth Street, bordered by the James River and fronting on the Kanawha Canal, had an ancient and honorable history. As the Virginia Manufactory it had fabricated flintlock muskets and rifles, and some pistols, for the forces of the commonwealth. Authorized to be erected by act of the legislature in 1797, the armory was in production by 1802 , turning out 2,151 muskets by October 13, 1803 , of the Charleville-Springfield modified pattern. Flintlock rifles, full-stocked with brass patchboxes, of military Kentucky form, were also made, and two types of pistols, the latest type resembling the U. S. Harpers Ferry 1806 model, but with a swivel ramrod. Thousands of these arms were on hand to be transformed to percussion; many being cut down for cavalry issue, in 1861 . With the increase in production and distribution of Government armory guns, and the decrease in Indian Warfare within the commonwealth, the demands on the Richmond factory diminish...

Under direction of Burkhart, Harpers Ferry continued to make rifle muskets for a period of two months; by June 18 all the former United States Arsenal materiel had been removed to Richmond and Fayetteville. Splitting the machinery between two factories gave rise to what are essentially two different series of arms: the Richmond Rifle Musket and Carbines, which are cut-down variations, and the Fayetteville Rifle. The major difference, generally, is in the lockplate form. That of the Richmond guns is a forging shaped to take the recess for Maynard tape primer, a “humpbacked” lockplate. The Fayetteville is the basic U. S. 1861 shape of plate; the stocks for both types conform to the respective patterns in their inletting.

In the event of attack on this arsenal, the commander had orders to destroy it. John Brown’s capture revealed how indefensible the position was. It meant losing half the North’s arms-making capacity, but the sacrifice was deemed essential. “Finding my position untenable, shortly after 10 o’clock last night I destroyed the arsenal, containing 15.000    stand of arms, and burned the armory building proper,” reported First Lieutenant Roger Jones, U. S. Mounted Rifles, commanding at Harpers Ferry on April 19, 1861 , “and under cover of the night withdrew my command almost in the presence of 2,500 or 3,000 troops.” He concluded his report to General Winfield Scott by stating “I believe the destruction must have been complete.” But within the hour Virginia and Maryland secession troops swarmed through the gate and past old John Brown’s firehouse, out into the Armory alleys and roadways to the square two-story arsenal storehouse and to the flaming Armory factory buildings.

The word “beleaguered” had not been heard. Riding high on a wave of patriotic ardor, Southern forces were triumphing wherever they clashed with the Federals. Brash Southrons proclaimed they would “whip the Yankee’s with cornstalks,” but after Virginia’s legislature passed the Ordinance of Secession on April 18, the state authorities acted on somewhat more responsible measures to ensure production of weapons. Capture of the United States’ Arsenal and Hall’s Rifle Works at Harpers Ferry was ordered.

Another revolver resembling the .36 Dance in points of manufacture but with a complete rounded frame boss, a la Colt, is known with the Tucker marking: l. e. tucker & sons etched on top of the barrel. It has no. 72 on the cylinder. The thoughtful reader will now be way ahead. We surmise that Crockett, upon paying off the debts of the factory in inflated currency, was left with unfinished parts on hand. These parts were of all pieces except the frames. Initially, he expected to cast the frames and admittedly did not forge them. Casting proved unsuccessful. Clark may have gone to Galveston to buy out the town of files to use in the finishing; or Crockett may have taken the desperate step of buying up files to melt down into frames.

While there is nothing in the foregoing inconsistent with the sad chronicle of Mr. Crockett, the fact of Clark’s going to Galveston raises a logical surmise, based unfortunately on nothing but the existence of another class of Texas Civil War era revolvers ; those of the three Dance brothers, James, David, and George. Produced at the Dance blacksmith shop a little west by south of Galveston near the old capital of Texas, Columbia, these guns exist in two basic sizes, .36 and .44. The .36 is a round-barreled Navy of Colt size. The .44 is not, as often surmised by those who have never handled one, a dragoon pistol; it is a scaled-up Navy, basically an Army-sized pistol, not dragoon. The distinctive feature of all Dance revolvers is the absence of the round part of the frame or standing breech; the frame is thought of as “milled flat” at this point. The Dance smithy is known to have made plows, farm implements, and feed mills. But the degree of capital mechanization of this factory is ...

Crockett organized the pistol makers and on March 20, 1862 , reported they would be ready to contract Remarkably fine specimen of .44 Dance Brothers is No.  121 in Vic Friedrich’s collection. Flat frame is distinctive  characteristic of this series of Texas pistols made near Galveston. Sometimes called “Dance Dragoon,” title is misnomer  since full-octagon-barreled pistol is more nearly what might  be termed “army size.” after an outlay of several thousand dollars. Spurring on their efforts was the bad news of Pea Ridge, Arkansas, where the Confederate general, Van Dorn, was beaten and the Texas forces lost two of their bravest leaders, General Ben McCulloch and General McIntosh.

There are few extant specimens of Lancaster revolvers; most of them are unmarked. All so far identified seem to be of Colt dragoon size. While it is popular to illustrate this “type” with a photo of a pistol having a squareback guard, two marked pistols of definite Clark and Sherrard association bear round guards. Discernible cylinder etching in a decorative pattern on these two revolvers reveals an attempt at playing on state loyalties in their sale; while their crude construction and the absence of a bullet loading cut on the right side of the barrel frame suggests their primitive nature. In evaluating Confederate handguns it is always wise to keep in mind that the Confederacy had a supervisory staff of engineers that ranked among the best in the world. That Colonel Burton, for example, should be “imported” into England from Virginia and then “reimported” for the cause of the South in 1861 was not an accident. It reflected the fact that he was among the best men in the world for t...

In the Trans-Mississippi area after the fall of Vicksburg, supplies to Confederate forces in the West were cut off. But the western Confederacy was very much self-sustaining. More capacity for manufacturing existed there than has generally been recognized. Small manufactures in part owed their genesis to the large German population of thrifty and skilled farmers and craftsmen who had settled there in the 1840 ’s. By the end of the War one of the largest armories in the South had been begun at Tyler, Texas; construction plans for 1866 were surprisingly large. In a town which is now a suburb of Dallas, Lancaster, a pistol factory was started which had a capacity of 200 Colt-type revolvers monthly. Southwest of Galveston at Marion (now East Columbia) good-quality revolvers were made by machinery in quantity. Actual production levels reached were far short of the needs of the times. But domestic manufacture in any War has only been supplementary to the arms in being at the commencement ...

The Several Models LeMats break down into models with the following general details: First Model, First type Serial Numbers: 1-456. Barrel: Half octagon, usually 7 inches long. Guard: Spur. Loading Lever: Right side of barrel. Swivel: Separate in butt cap. Hammer: Nose has two protective pegs, one each side; back curve smooth. Barrel latch: Thumb type, pivoted in barrel lug. Barrel marks: LeMat’s Patent Col. LeMat’s Patent Col. LeMat Bte. s.g.d.g. Paris First Model, Second Type Serial Numbers: Up to 450-460. Barrel Latch: Finger type, pivoted front of lower frame and notching into barrel leg. Hammer: Pegs but back curve has upturn or “hook” profile. Transition Model Serial Numbers: 450-950. Barrels: Half octagon; full octagon; 7"; 6% Guard: Spur. Loading Lever: Right side compound; left side simple type. Swivel: Separate in butt; cast integral with butt frame. Hammer: Smooth side, no pegs; back curve has upturn. Barrel latch: Finger, pivoted in frame. Barrel...

Dr. LeMat’s revolvers have been grouped into two categories by collectors heretofore, mainly on whether the gun does, or does not have a spur to the trigger guard. (The alternate shape is a round or oval guard.) But the guard is a minor difference, since it is nonfunctional; that is, either guard could be fitted to any of the several models or sub-types of LeMat handguns. The purpose of the spur to the guard was to permit the cavalryman to place his trigger finger there, as he rode at the charge with his pistol raised and cocked. Spur guards appear on all LeMat firearms, alternately with the round guard. The inference is unmistakable: those with spur guards are the LeMats consigned to the Army authorities at Richmond. We have found no cavalry anecdotes of the use of the LeMat. This may be because the guns spent time in some Nassau War ehouse waiting to run the blockade. The round guards were for the Navy. Since the Marine was not astride a jouncing horse, with pistol cocked, there was ...

Some collectors have assumed that the “Navy LeMat” is the smallest type having a rifled barrel of .35 caliber and shot barrel about .50 caliber. But one of the guns of the type “formerly furnished to the Army,” used by Navy Inspector Lieutenant Evans as a pattern for his viewing the Navy arms, shows conclusively that both military Southern LeMat revolvers were of the same general type, size, and caliber. LeMat’s .40 caliber 16- or 18-gauge revolvers were for both C.S. Navy and cavalry. J. E. B. Stuart carried a handsome engraved spur guard First Model First Type pistol of the form, evidently supplied for cavalry use. Those with round guard it would appear were for the Navy, though no marks other than the “star over LM” for LeMat, plus a variety of company names engraved on the barrel, are on these revolvers; and of course the proof marks of Birmingham testing are sometimes found. The .35 Baby LeMats, of which some exist, do not reveal any more information about the good doctor and hi...

Murdaugh, who was stationed in Paris, varied the terms to the extent of inspecting the first run of Navy guns at the Girard Factory. His report of June 23 was highly unflattering, confirming the trouble found with these guns two years earlier by Bulloch.