All C.S. LeMats Were Alike

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 his enterprise than do the marks on their bigger brothers. The Baby model, of which specimen No. 35 is pictured, conforms to the round guard Second Model First Type design. This is borne out by the only Baby with barrel engraving, shown; use of the word “System” also occurs in .40 cal. Second Model arms above 950 rather than in those first made.
The purpose of the Baby LeMat can only be conjectured. Probably the colonel intended to fabricate this smaller sized model for belt and pocket use, to supplement his heavy holster or military pistols which were the ones initially in demand. Extant is another “Baby,” but pinfire, No. 20, listed in the Golden State World's Guns catalog. But the ups and downs of LeMat manufacture never permitted him to establish a stable trade during the War.

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CHAPTER 17 The Starr Rises

From the catalog of Wallis and Wallis, British gun auctioneers ( 1962 ) at Lewes in Sussex, we read of the sale of a Starr revolver: Lot 1060 ... A 6 shot .44 Starr SA Army Perc Rev 14", brl 8", No. 51594, the top strap bearing old engraving Col. Colt Address New York, Good Condition but action As Found & frame screw not orig . Eben T. Starr of Yonkers, New York, might not have smiled at this latter day whimsey. Marking his re volver with the name of the man he dared challenge by launching a new revolving pistol business in 1858 was to him not funny. Though the modern gun bug who fraudulently marked this in the hope someone would bite on it as a hitherto unknown Colt double action revolver we trust was unsuccessful in his piracy, per haps the buyer at the Wallis and Wallis auction cherishes his purchase for what it is: one of the best and most modem revolvers of the Civil War era. Though complex inside at first glance, its parts are well thought out and reveal Star...

CHAPTER 6 Rifle Muskets: Civil War Scandals

You place me in a most embarrassing position, Mr. Secretary. How is that, Mr. Wilkeson? the gaunt-faced Penn sylvanian queried, the lines of his expression amplified by the fatigue and, somewhat, disappointment with which he laid down his role as Secretary of War for Mr. Lincoln. Because, Mr. Cameron, the newspaperman re sponded, your contract for rifle muskets with the Eagle Manufacturing Company of Mansfield, Connecticut is for only 25,000 arms, and my friends there, whom I induced to engage in this business in expectation of your issuing a further order, as your assistant Mr. Scott assured me you would, will be sorely embarrassed in their operations on this small amount. Indeed this is bad news to me, Mr. Wilkeson, War Secretary Simon Cameron sympathetically observed, as he stuffed papers from his desk drawer into a large portfolio, scanning them briefly, consigning some to the waste basket. But as you can see, I am leaving office today; I believe Mister Stanton, who repla...

French and Belgian Arms

French and Belgian materiel was considered next best to the Enfields, though the types and calibers were more varied than either Enfield or Austrian Lorenz arms. Basic pattern for the best rifles of both France and Belgium was the “carabine” of Captain Minie. Minie’s designs had exerted profound changes in the world’s small arms armament. That change was ably summed up by lexicographer Thomas Wilhelm after the War when he prepared his military dictionary. Said Wilhelm, “Minie Rifle. A species of fire-arm, invented by Capt. Minie, from whom it receives its name. It is certain in aim, and fatal in its results at 800 yards.” The claim was, if anything, inferior to the real capability of the Minie rifle. France in 1861 possessed a surplus of many arms. During the 1840 ’s the temporary procurement of guns designed by Thouvenin, Pontchara, Minie, and others kept the arsenals busy and the soldiers active testing them. Then came the Crimean War and France’s involvement on the side of Gr...

Civil War Guns

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