Civil War Machine Guns
by Robert Niepert

The Civil War brought many innovations to warfare, not the least of which were rapid fire weapons that developed into what today are known as machine guns.  Several different types of rapid firing "ultimate weapons" were designed and produced during the war, although few saw much actual service.

The Billinghurst-Requa Volley Gun (photo of scale model at left) was invented and submitted to the U. S. Patent Office by a northerner.  The Billinghurst-Requa gun used a wheel type operation with eight banks of cartridge chambers that were rotated into alignment behind the row of 25 barrels.  It was secured in place with an arm with pins that fitted into sockets on the chamber being fired.

Another type of volley gun (actual photo above at beginning of article) was developed and used basically the same idea but without a rotating wheel for the cartridges.  This volley gun, with a sliding breech, worked by means of a lever.  Cartridges were held in clips for quick loading.  Each round casing was made of light steel and had an ignition hole in the oval/conical base.  When the gun was loaded, the channel (drawing at right) behind the cartridges was filled with powder.  This train of cartridges were ignited by a percussion cap struck by a hammer, firing all barrels.  The gun was set off by a lanyard, and the barrels fired in sequence with a rippling sound due to the powder being ignited in a flowing fashion.  The barrels could be moved laterally for "spread."  With a crew of three, the gun could fire seven volleys per minute.  A fault was that the powder train was exposed to rain, and could misfire.  It was used mainly in defense of bridges, hence the nickname "covered bridge gun."  Both types of guns were very mobile and could be mounted (drawing at left) on the same size and type of carriage that the mountain howitzer used.  One horse could easily pull or carry the entire gun and assembly on the battlefield was quick and easy.  As many as 50 of the .52 caliber breech-loading Billinghurst-Requa batteries, as they were called, were produced for the Union and some were used in battles, though with limited effect.
Above:  Requa Volley Gun
   Mounted on Carriage

A less successful multi-barrel type gun was the Vandenberg gun, (drawing at right) with from 85 to 451 barrels, depending on caliber.  A screw-type breech slid in a key-way and forced copper sleeves into a counterbored chamber for a gas-tight seal.  A center charge fired by a cap set off a whole volley; or sections of barrels could be blocked off and fired later.  In tests, the 91 barrel model put 90 percent of its bullets into a six-foot square at 100 yards.  The gun was presented to and tested by the Northern States but when the Union showed no interest in this weapon, Vandenberg sold it to the Confederacy.  Although it may have seen service, I could find no account of this or any of Vandenberg's weapons actually being used in any battle of the Civil War.

The best machine gun produced (drawing at left) during the 1860's was the Gatlin gun.  The gun's inventor Richard Jordan Gatlin earned a medical degree but never worked as a doctor.  Patented in November of 1862, the Gatlin gun had six barrels that revolved around a center rod.  Turning the crank at the rear of the weapon revolved the cluster of barrels.  Simultaneously, a steel chamber containing a .58 caliber paper cartridge (early model) in each breech was loaded from a hopper at the top, and each one was fired when it was at the bottommost position.  The weapon was carriage mounted allowing for greater mobility and required two men to operate it.  The first man would aim and fire while the second would load.  The gun could achieve a rate of fire at 150 times a minute.  At this time, the U.S. government bought no Gatlin guns, but Union Gen. Benjamin Butler bought several, and they were used successfully on the Petersburg front.  In 1865, a new model was developed by Gatlin that used rimfire copper cased cartridges and could fire 350 rounds per minute.  The new type gun impressed the government during a demonstration at Fort Monroe which prompted the Army to order 100 guns, but they were not delivered in time to see service in the Civil War.  Later improvements in 1879 led to a rate of fire of 600 rounds per minute.

The first machine gun type of weapon ever used in combat (photo at left) was built for the Confederate War Department in September 1861 at the Tredegar Iron Works in Richmond, Va.  Ordnance chief Gen. Josiah Gorgas had requested plans for war-winning weapons from Southern inventors, and Kentuckian R.S. Williams's promising design for a rapid-fire gun was selected to be built and tested.  The Williams breech-loading rapid-fire gun was first used the next spring at the Battle of Seven Pines.   The Williams performed so well that the War Department ordered 20 of them; however, there is no definite proof that the order was ever completed.  There are other mentions of Williams gun orders but they may have been separate orders and not part of the original 20 guns and it is possible that as many as 39 guns were finally made.  It is also possible that the Samson and Pae guns were part of the original order.  Additionally, a Special Order (number 11 on January 14, 1863) was issued giving R.S. Williams the authority to raise a light artillery company that was to be equipped with his guns.  The battery was organized and had six of the guns.  
 
The Williams gun was actually a crank operated, very light artillery piece that fired a one-pound (1.57-caliber) projectile with a range of 2,000 yards.  A crew of three men was required to operate the weapon, which was said to be able to fire 65 rounds a minute.  One gunner aimed the weapon and fired it by turning the crank which closed the breech and automatically released the sliding hammer.  A second gunner inserted a paper cartridge into the breech and the third placed the percussion cap.  
 
The Williams, the Ager and the Gatling guns all depended on a soldier standing directly behind the breech turning the crank to shoot them.  The Williams has a large cam moved by rotating the crank handle on the right hand side clockwise.  This cam moves the breechblock back and forth (the breechblock is a rectangular piece with an open center) as the cam swings in a circle, it either pushes the breech block forward or back.  On the same axle as the breech cam is another cam that cocks the hammer and drops it just as the breech block is closed.  There is a flat spring on the left side of the gun.  Its purpose is to provide force to the hammer.  When the handle is back the breech block is closed and locked.  The breech cam locks up the breech block from approximately 10 degrees before ignition to about 10 degrees after ignition.  The original guns had a "safety" that apparently prevented the breech from being opened accidentally.  The safety could also be used in case of a hangfire.
 
The major problem with this otherwise successful gun was overheating.  When rapid fired, the excessive heat made the breech jam due to metal expansion.
 
Well suited for cavalry operations, the Williams gun had a four foot long barrel and was mounted on a two wheel carriage.  The gun was pulled by one horse.  R.S. Williams himself was made a Captain and given a battery of his invention that was attached to and saw service with Gen. E. George Pickett's division.  The weapon gave good service with the 4th Kentucky cavalry in the action at Blue Springs, Tenn., in October 1863.  Ten Williams guns with all their accessories were captured at Danville. Va., in 1865.  Of those guns only one was kept and is now on display in the West Point Museum.  There are also three others that have survived the war.  One may be seen at Watervliet and another at the Virginia Military Institute.  The last gun, captured by Patrick, is at the Kentucky museum.
 

The War Between the States provided an opportunity for inventors to test all types of new killing machines.  Wilson Agar was among these inventors.  He is best known for his Agar machine gun which looked a lot like a WW I type gun complete with a steel guard on its front.  The guard protected the operator and the gun from small arms fire while in battle.  This gun was nicknamed the "coffee mill"  gun because of the loading hopper on top.  Thehopper mounted above the gun fed .58 Minie' ball type ammunition into a single barrel.  At the right is a photo of the bullet used with this gun.  Notice the unusual "T" shape at the base of the bullet and the gap between the second and third ring.  The steel containers, which could be  reloaded, held either loose powder and ball or cartridges (75 grains) with a nipple for the percussion cap on their ends.  The cartridges were placed in the hopper and fell into place to be fired as the crank handle on the side was rotated.  The handle turned in a clockwise manner feeding the cartridges into a recess at the back of the barrel.  Containers which also acted as firing chambers were pushed forward and locked in by a rising wedge.  The cam on the crank dropped the hammer on the percussion cap and fired the bullet.  A lever then pushed the empty container out of the recess and a new round dropped in.  The Agar had an effective range of 1,000 yards.  This gun could fire much faster than the normal rate of 120 rounds per minute.  The faster rate was avoided due to excessive overheating of the barrel.  Two spare barrels were always carried with the gun.  Wilson Agar did invent an ingenious device to cool the gun but it still had its drawbacks.  The drawing on the left shows the gun mounted on a carriage.  The front guard plate has been omitted for clarity.  Notice the ammunition boxes mounted on either side of the machine gun.  President Lincoln was so impressed with a demonstration of the early machine gun in 1861 that he ordered 10 on the spot, at a price of $1300 each.  Eventually the Union army purchased a total of 54 of the "coffee mill" guns even though the Ordinance Dept. condemned them saying that they would use too much ammunition to be practical.  The Agar gun was used in several battles.

References:
Echoes Of Glory
Kentucky Cavaliers
The Time Life Books Series
Civil War News Collectors Cards
The Fighting Men Of The Civil War
Arms And Equipment Of The Civil War
Lord's Civil War Collectors Encyclopedia
Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division