The Williams' gun was invented by Captain R. S. Williams sometime before 1861.  He convinced the Confederate Ordnance Bureau to build one during the winter of 1861.  Williams is mentioned in the Tredegar Arsenal records as over seeing the construction of a gun during that winter. 

There are accounts in the Richmond Daily Exchange of trials of the gun attended by General Floyd in the Spring  of 1862. 

In the Confederate Times of 1905 there is a letter describing the Williams' gun as it was seen by H.T. Owen, a Confederate soldier, who saw it on his way to the Battle of Seven Pines / Fair Oaks in May of 1862. 

The gun was tried out by Williams and some others.  At the time they appear to have been civilians as there is no mention of uniforms or rank.  There are mentions by Union Officers of the gun at that battle.  Captain Theodore Allen said that the projectiles made a screeching noise as they passed over that caused them to get off their horses and lay on the ground.  He estimated the range at 2000 yards. 

Thanks to Captain Allen, 7th Ohio Cavalry, who having been in battles where Williams's guns were used against him, took an interest in the Williams' Gun after the War.  Much of what is known today about the gun is due to letters and magazine articles he wrote about the Williams Gun. 

After the Seven Pines/Fair Oaks battle, an order was placed at Tredegar for 20 guns by E. R. Williams.  This may be an error by the clerk who entered the order in the Tredegar account books as the name does not appear in other references. 

It appears that some of the Tredegar  guns were finished up by Samson and Pae as well as other shops.  Confederate Cannon factories has a brief description of the various companies and notes that some worked on Williams' guns.  At this point I'm not sure how many Williams Guns were built. 

R. S. Williams makes one appearance in the Official Orders of the War of Rebellion and then disappears.  14 Jan 1862 Special Order 11 was issued giving him authority to raise a light artillery battery staffed by Kentuckians.  I haven't found anymore references to him after that date in the Official Orders of the War of Rebellion.  He is mentioned in the roster of Confederate Soldiers as a Captain in the Artillery. 

I think that he may have been too old to serve on active duty as his son Captain George W. Williams served with John Morgan's Kentucky Cavalry.  The Civil War like any modern war was a young man's game. 

R.S. Williams appears in the Covington, Kentucky, city records for several years before the War and after the War.  He disappears from those records in 1887.   He's listed as an editor for various newspapers and later as "tax gauger" for the Revenue Service.  Captain Allen mentions in 1905 that Captain Williams had died a few years earlier. 

There are  mentions in the Official Orders of the War of Rebellion of the guns and reports from the Commanding Officers of actions where the guns were used.  There is a reference to a Mississippi Battery and to Bruckner's Battery that used Williams' Guns. 

Chapter 18 in "Kentucky Cavaliers In Dixie" which mentions their use while attached to the 4th Kentucky Cavalry.  By that time, the battery was referred to as Schoolfield's Battery. 

The Williams' Guns were in service from 1862 until 1864.  They seem to have been attached to cavalry units for the most part. 

Today there are Williams' guns at West Point, Watervliet Army Arsenal, VMI and one in a Kentucky museum.  None of the guns are complete.  The museums have very little in the way of information about the inventor and not a lot more on the guns.  There is a rumor of a Williams' Gun in a private collection but so far the gun has not appeared.

The Williams Gun while referred to as a machine gun is not a true machine gun, it only shoots when the operating handle is rotated and it has to be loaded for each shot.

Operation of the gun was by a three man crew.  Looking from behind the gun the man on the right loads projectile and powder.  The man on the left placed a musket cap on the cap nipple and the man to the rear aims the gun, cranks the handle that closes the breech and fires the gun. 

The breech block is moved forward and backwards by a cam. On this same axle is another cam that cocks the hammer as the breech opens and then as the breech is locked closed by the breech block cam releases the hammer and fires the gun. 

The gun was unique in the method of sealing the breech.  On the face of the breech block there was a protrusion into the breech.  On this protrusion was a thick leather "washer" and in front of the washer a disc on a stem free to move back against the washer when the gun was fired.  It resembled the valve of a modern automobile engine. 

Pressure from the powder charge burning forced the disc to the rear, this forced the leather washer to expand sideways as it was against a solid breech block to the rear.  This sealed the breech. 

There were two critisms of the gun by the users.  The first that it was "too light" in metal.  The projectile it shot was about one pound and the caliber was 1.57".  There are mentions of guns built  with a two-inch bore but those were not really big enough to do damage to fortifications.  There are accounts of it used with a canister charge.  It was deadly at close range. 

The second criticism is that the gun heated from firing the breech block mechanism jammed from expansion.

Written by Lyle Hegsted

Editor's Note........The next issue will feature an article detailing how Lyle built his own working Williams gun.  The story of how it came together is very interesting.  Don't miss it.