Skip to main content

Two Categories

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 Warehouse 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 no requirement for the spur guard.

Basic differences separate the LeMat handguns into two general classifications: those of the early production with fragile swivel loops fitted separately into the bottom of the butt frame, and half-round half-octagon barrels, and those with full octagon barrels and a heavy lanyard loop cast as a lump integral with the butt frame. In the early model, the loading lever is a compound type having two hinges, and works on the same lever principle as the Colt lever, though it is attached at the right side of the barrel. The later type of lever is attached to the left of the barrel, and works somewhat like the British loading levers, with the plunger sliding more or less in a straight line and with a cut in either the lever or the plunger to allow for the motion of the hand lever as it is swung through its arc. Both LeMat levers are held in place by the rammer head of the shotgun barrel loading rod. This rod, having its smaller end split to spring out and hold it inserted, is slid inside the main rammer from the front for carrying. In loading, it is easily pulled loose when the rammer is swung away from the barrel, and the shot bore is then charged like a common muzzle-loading shotgun.

LeMat seems to have been uncertain of the best method of fastening the barrel, which had to be removed for take-down in cleaning. Of course, all the LeMats had barrels which screwed around the central shotgun bore into place. But their vertical positioning was done by a catch of some sort at the front of the frame.

A LeMat No. 21 pictured by Albaugh has a large and easy lever, pivoted in the base of the barrel lug, and snapping into a frame front end cut to index. The lever is big enough to be easily snapped back by the thumb. The No. 21 revolver has the early characteristics: half-round barrel, first type complicated lever on right side, fragile lanyard loop boss inserted in butt frame. On the whole, LeMat seems to have made improvements in the strength of details of his guns and in the convenience of their manufacture. As a general rule, spur guard guns predominate through the early production; round guards in the Second Models. Between First and Second models there is a definite Transition series.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

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...
Post a Comment
Read more

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...
Post a Comment
Read more

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...
Post a Comment
Read more