From the Dunn Armory: Small Arms of the Civil War

The American Civil War was a dark time for our nation. Since history tends to repeat itself, it is good to know about our history so that we can avoid making the same mistakes. There is a lot to be learned from that time period. Many advances in technology and manufacturing occurred through necessity. Though many of the small arms used during the Civil War are now considered archaic, it would be a mistake to take their firepower lightly. Keep in mind that these weapons and the folks that used them took thousands of lives on the battlefield and crippled thousands more. Over 620,000 lives were lost between the years of 1861-1865 (about 2% of the population). Many deaths occurred from disease, but the Union suffered from over 110,000 battlefield deaths and the Confederates lost 94,000 lives on the battlefield. Recent studies during “modern times” indicate the total number of deaths is closer to 750,000. There were a lot of different weapons that were used in the American Civil War, like; cannons, mortars, swords/sabers and bayonets/knives, but the focus of this article will be about handguns and long guns.

Since moving to Georgia, I have visited two places that have wonderful exhibits of some of the weapons that were used during the Civil War. The first place I began my research was at Stone Mountain Park’s Memorial Hall Museum. This park contains a memorial monument in tribute to three important Confederate gentlemen; President Jefferson Davis and Generals Robert E. Lee and Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson. This stone carving measures 90 by 190 feet and is 42 feet deep. It is the largest relief sculpture in the world. The second museum that I visited was at the Atlanta History Center, which is where you can find the largest and most comprehensive Civil War collections in the world.

Some of the small arms that were used during the Civil War were rifled-muskets, smooth bored muskets, shotguns, repeating rifles, breech-loading rifles, revolvers and single shot pistols. At the start of the Civil War, both sides used every type of firearm that they could get their hands on. Everything from muskets that were used during the War of 1812 to squirrel rifles and fowling pieces (shotguns) that were brought from the soldiers homes were used, as no one was prepared for a major war. The Union had a much larger stockpile of weapons when the war began, as they had the use of the Springfield Armory in Massachusetts.

American firearms manufacturers like Remington, Colt and Sharps ramped up production but both the North and the South also purchased firearms from European manufacturers as well. Many of the guns used in the beginning of the war were those that the individual state militias trained with. For example, the New Jersey militia used many Model 1841 rifles that were manufactured at the Harpers Ferry Armory in Virginia (now West Virginia) and the South Carolina militia used U.S. Model 1842 muskets that were allocated to them from the Palmetto Armory in Columbus, South Carolina. The Infantry and the Cavalry of both the Union and the Confederacy used the Springfield 1861 and the Enfield Pattern 1853 rifled-muskets during almost every battle during the war.

A fine display of firearms used by both the North and South during the Civil War.

The widespread use of the combination of rifle-muskets and the Minié ball had a devastating effect on the battlefield. The rifled barrels gave the shooter much better accuracy as well as the ability to hit targets at a much greater distance than a smooth bore musket and a ball projectile. The effective range of the long guns went from 100 yards using a smooth bore and ball ammo to around 300 yards using a rifled musket with Minié ball ammo. The conical Minié ball, invented by Claude-Étienne Minié, was small enough to be quickly loaded into a rifled barrel and its spinning trajectory stabilized the bullet during its travel downrange. This conical lead bullet had three grease-filled grooves and a conical hollow base. When the gun was fired, the hot gases would push into the hollow base of the bullet and expand the soft lead base into the rifled grooves in the barrel, thus creating the bullet’s spiraled trajectory The Minié ball produced higher muzzle velocity and was larger than previously used ball ammunition. The wounds that were inflicted by the Minié ball were devastating and would bore straight through flesh, tendons, muscle and would shatter bones, thus creating compound fractures that would require amputation of said limb. The entrance would be about the size of the caliber of the bullet and exit would be about the size of man’s fist!

This photo shows various sizes of ball and Minié ball ammo.

Small arms laboratories/munitions factories were prominent in the North and South and men, women and boys loaded over a billion handmade paper cartridges for the rifle-muskets. Workers churned out around 800 cartridges per day in assembly line fashion. They usually worked 10 hour days six days a week and made around $15 a month. A piece of precut paper was rolled into a tube that was tied at the bottom. A Minié ball was placed on the tip of the tube and another piece of paper was rolled around the bullet assembly and tied. A man would then pour a measured charge of black powder into the tube and fold the paper over onto itself to close the cartridge. On the battlefield, a soldier would tear or bite off the folded paper tab and pour the black powder down the barrel. The Minié ball was then squeezed out of the paper tube, placed into the barrel and the ram rod was used to ram the bullet down onto the charge. The ram rod was stowed away back into the long gun, the hammer was then placed into the halfcocked positon and a percussion cap was placed on the nipple. The shooter could then place the hammer in the full cock positon and pull the trigger to fire the gun. Many times in the heat of battle and fog of war, the soldiers would load the firearm and forget to put a percussion cap on and think that they had fired the gun and load another cartridge. In later times, many rifle-muskets were found that had double or multiple charges loaded in the weapon that had not been discharged. There could be many scenarios that could cause this to occur; soldier reluctant to fire, fouled powder or percussion cap, battlefield pickup of a previously loaded firearm, etc.

Here is a depiction of a woman in a cartridge assembly room of a munitions factory hand making paper cartridges.

The Union army had the might of Northern manufacturing on its side and kept their army well supplied. Richmond, Virginia (my birthplace) was the most crucial city for manufacturing firearms, ammunition, artillery and other important accoutrements for the Confederacy. The state of Georgia also played a key role in keeping the Confederate army stocked with supplies. For most of the war, Georgia was a geographically secure location for wartime manufacturing and also provided good locations for some of the South’s largest and most productive arsenals and munition factories. Georgia had an iron industry, a cotton industry, a railroad industry and linkage to many other parts of the South. Georgia also had the raw materials of sulfur, niter (salt peter) and charcoal to produce 6,000 pounds of gunpowder per day, which was all vital to keeping the rebel soldier in the fight. It’s no wonder that Union General Sherman and his 60,000 troops burned and flattened the city of Atlanta during his “March to the Sea”.

From left to right, we can see an assortment of percussion caps, shell casings, paper cartridges and metal cartridges.

The above firearms were used by the Northern and Southern Navies during the American Civil War.

Many of the guns that were used by the Northern and Southern Navies were also used by their armies. Some of the handguns that were used by the U.S. Navy were the .54 caliber single-shot U.S. Model 1842 Navy pistol and the .36 caliber Remington 1863 Navy revolver. The well-designed Whitney Navy revolver was a .36 caliber handgun that was used by the Union and Confederate Navies. The solid frame revolver was originally manufactured by the Whitney Arms Company but many manufacturers in the North and the South copied it. The South did not use any specific firearms for their navy, though the Colt 1851 Navy revolver was a popular revolver and many of the Southern guns used brass frames because was easier to work with/machine and it was easier to acquire than iron and steel. Some of the long guns that were used by the navies were the British Pattern 1853 artillery carbine, the Sharps and Hankins Model 1862 breechloading carbine and Whitney’s .69 caliber Model 1861 “Plymouth” Navy rifle

The handgun above is a .36 caliber Whitney Navy revolver.

When it came to the Union cavalry, the soldiers needed a short barreled lightweight long gun that could be fired from horseback. The U.S. Sharps Model 1863 and the U.S. Spencer breechloading carbines were selected for these mounted soldiers. Both of those carbines were .52 caliber and the breechloading capability was ideal for horseback shooting. The Confederate cavalry didn’t have any good means of acquiring any breechloading carbines, so they mostly used sawed-off shotguns, muzzle loading carbines like the C.S. Armory .58 caliber carbine (made in Richmond, VA.) and revolvers. Some of the six-shot revolvers that were used by the cavalries were the Colt 1860, the Remington 1863 and the Starr 1863, which were all chambered to shoot .44 caliber paper cartridges ignited by percussion caps. Many of the revolvers that the South used were copies of the revolvers mentioned above or were battlefield pick-ups.

The above photo shows some of the equipment and firearms used by the Cavalry.

Snipers or Sharpshooters were employed on the battlefield to great effect during the civil war. These specialists were selected because they displayed excellent marksmanship and their job was to take out specific targets like, officers, artillerymen and their horses or other snipers. These shooters were trained to take down targets out to a mile away and this had profound psychological ramifications. Maybe the most well-known regiment of sharpshooters was Hiram C. Berdan’s 1^st Regiment, who wore green uniforms that served as camouflage. These Federal troops served as scouts, skirmishers and snipers, sort of like todays Special Forces units. Though the Union sharpshooters seem to get all of the recognition, the Confederacy had their sharpshooting regiments too. The sharpshooter battalions of the Army of Northern Virginia had a devastating effect in trench warfare and out in the thick forests of the South. These elite Southern troops were the best of the best. Before the war many of these folks wouldn’t eat if they weren’t good hunters and they brought their hunting, stalking and marksmanship skills to the war.

Some of the guns used by these Southern sharpshooters were the Whitworth rifle that utilized a six-sided hexagonal bore that accurately spun the bullet to its target and the Kerr rifle was made by the London Armory Company and also used a hexagonal bore. These rifles were imported to the Confederacy through the blockade. The federal sharpshooters used the Sharps breechloading rifles because it was easier to load while laying down and remaining concealed. Both the North and the South used heavy civilian target rifles with long telescopic sights to great effect, as their long heavy barrels could hold stout powder charges to carry the projectile successfully over long distances. These handcrafted rifles weighed between 17 to 35 pounds and came with their own custom bullet molds, an extra sighting tube and spare parts that were custom made by the rifle maker/gunsmith.

From top to bottom we have a .45 caliber British Whitworth rifle, .44 caliber British Kerr rifle, .52 caliber breechloading Sharps rifle and a .44 caliber civilian target rifle with a telescopic sight.

There were also a lot of “experimental rifles” that were used by both the North and the South during the Civil War. Guns like the Colt Model 1855 revolving rifle and the Lindsay .58 caliber double rifle-musket may have looked interesting but had many problems on the battlefield and when that happens folks get killed, so they were not very popular. The Greene breechloading bolt action rifle worked well for Federal troops and was bit ahead of its time, but out of the 4,000 rifles produced, very few of them saw use on the battlefield. The .44 caliber Henry lever action rifle held 15 cartridges in its tubular magazine and saw a lot of use during that last part of the war during the Atlanta campaign of 1864. Another repeating rifle that was experimental for its time and was used quite a bit throughout the civil war was the breechloading Spencer rifle.

Some of the experimental firearms that were used by the Confederacy were the U.S. Model 1819 .52 caliber breechloading rifle invented by John H. hall. Many of the 60,000 rifles were produced were manufactured in Southern State arsenals, so the South had many of these guns on hand when the war broke out. Though Southern manufacturers had limited resources, raw materials, machinery and workers, they still managed to produce a few interesting breechloading rifles and carbines like; the Bilharz, Hall and Company .54 caliber carbine that utilized a rising breechblock mechanism, but these guns were too complicated to be manufactured on a large scale. Another experimental Southern gun that came out of Greenville South Carolina was the .50 caliber Morse breechloading carbine that was one of the first guns to use the self-priming brass cartridges, but it suffered from the same fate of being too hard to produce.

The above selection of firearms showcases the many experimental firearms that were utilized by both the North and the South.

As we can see, there were many different small arms that were used during the American Civil War that were manufactured in both foreign and domestic locations. It is my hope that “We the People” can learn from our past and prevent another American Civil War. The firearms, ammunition and other war fighting technologies that would be employed in a modern day civil war would yield frightening death tolls. That would certainly be something that I would care to avoid!

When the war broke out, nobody thought it would last for too long, so volunteers went off to fight with gifts from their neighbors and family heirlooms.

This old multi-barreled six-shot pepperbox revolver was made by Ethan Allen in 1845 and could have been used in close quarter battle as a last ditch effort to stay alive.

This is an 1849 Colt pocket revolver.

This is a .44 caliber U.S. Starr Model 1863 army revolver.

This is a copy of a Colt Model 1851 made by Samuel Griswold & Arvin Gunnison in New Orleans.

This is a .52 caliber U.S. Sharps Model 1863 carbine.

From top to bottom; a Confederate copy of a U.S. Model 1855 rifle-musket made at Harper’s Ferry, VA in 1858 that utilized the Maynard tape-priming system and another copy of the Model 1855 that was made at the C.S. Armory in Richmond, VA that eliminated the priming system for easier manufacturing.

Another fine display of rifle-muskets and imported revolvers.

Union Navy .36 caliber Savage revolver.

From top to bottom; Maynard carbine, Sharps rifle, Model 1842 percussion musket.