Now that we’ve talked about a bunch of itty bitty pocket guns, let swing to the opposite end and take a look at one of the longest rifles ever produced: The American Longrifle.

“From a flat bar of soft iron, hand forged into a gun barrel; laboriously bored and rifled with crude tools; fitted with a stock hewn from a maple tree in the neighboring forest, and supplied with a lock hammered to shape on the anvil, an unknown smith, in a shop long since silent, fashioned a rifle which changed the whole course of world history, made possible the settlement of a continent, and ultimately Freed our country of foreign domination.”  –John G. W. Dillin, Media, Pennsylvania, September 1st 1924

The American, or Kentucky Rifle, as it is popularly known, was produced along the expanding western frontier of our nation. It is still produced today, but its “golden age” was from the American Revolution to the turn of the 19th century. “The advent of percussion ignition, interchangeable parts, and an emerging American industrial complex during the first half of the 19th century pretty much made custom made flintlock rifles, and therefore the classic American longrifle, a thing of the past.”  http://www.americanlongrifles.com/american-longrifle-kentucky-rifle-story.htm

The American longrifle was modeled on a German rifle manufactured beginning in 1725. It came into fame during the Battle of New Orleans, where it was vital to the American victory on January 8, 1815. Samuel Woodworth immortalized the rifle–and the Kentuckians who carried it– in the song The Hunters of Kentucky.

Its golden age is generally accepted to be the period from the end of the American Revolution to the turn of the 19th century.

A rifle is not a specific weapon, but the method of carving or “rifling” inside the barrel, which spins the lead ball or bullet and tremendously improves distance and accuracy. Though the Kentucky Long Rifle of the 1800s was a muzzleloader, it held the distinction of being the most accurate long-range gun for several decades. And the longer the barrel, the more gunpowder can be used, and that meant longer shots. During the American Revolution, a British office became interested in the American rifle after his bugler’s horse was shot out from under him in battle from a distance that he personally measured at 400 yards. That’s four football fields!

The rifles were carried into the frontier (at that time Kentucky) by the longhunters, trappers and explorers. Typically a slender full stock flintlock rifle of about .50 caliber, which is a very large ball of lead, the rifle was often made of curly maple, with a 42 to 46 inch barrel. Add a stock, patchbox, and all the trigger mechanisms, and you have a rifle that was 5 ½ to 6 feet in length.

The most famous user of the Kentucky longrifle was Daniel Boone. “He was a skilled hunter, trapper, and trailblazer. During the early days of westward expansion, Boone’s explorations helped open the frontier to new settlements. In 1799, he led his family and other settlers across the Mississippi River into land populated by Native Americans but claimed by Spain. Boone spent the last twenty years of his life in what is now Missouri.” –The State Historical Society of Missouri

I thought I’d give you one more “little gun” post before the end of the year. This time we’re going to take a look at the Break Top Revolver.

The first revolvers–and the ones we are more used to seeing had fixed cylinders. That means you had to push out each spent cartridge individually, reload, then move on to the next one. Or the entire cylinder was removed and replaced with one that was pre-loaded.

The more modern revolvers use a swing-out cylinder, meaning the entire cylinder pivots out of the gun for easy reloading.

Between those two types came the Break Top or Top Break revolvers. Smith and Wesson came out with their Model 3 American in 1870, but most gun manufacturers manufactured a version of the weapon in the later half of the 1800s.

In the first break top revolvers, the barrel and cylinder was hinged on top. That meant turning the gun over, “breaking” it open, removing the spent cartridges, reloading, then returning it to a firing position. Definitely not a quick loading weapon.

In the next generation of top-break revolvers, the frame was hinged at the bottom front of the cylinder. All you had to do was release the lock and push the barrel down to expose the cylinder. At the same time, on most models, dropping the barrel operated an extractor which pushed the spent cartridges out far enough that they fell free, or could be easily dumped from the cylinder. This type of break tops could be reloaded one-handed, without releasing your firing grip. Though they were still small weapons with limited range, being able to reload faster meant it was a better gun for defense.

The Break Tops were also made to use .44 and .45 caliber cartridges, so they packed a punch. Probably enough to set your heroine back on her boot heels.

Today, we’re going to take a look at another pocket revolver, the “Swamp Angel” rim-fire revolver. The original “Swamp Angel” was an 8-inch 200-pounder muzzle-loading rifled artillery weapon used extensively in the Civil War. The Swamp Angel earned its name when, in preparation for the bombardment of Charleston, South Carolina, in August, 1863, Major General Quincy Gillmore ordered the construction of a battery in the swampy marsh near Morris Island.  The “Swamp Angel” continued firing for two days until, on the thirty-sixth round, the gun exploded.

The Swamp Angel rim-fire revolver was manufactured by Forehand and Wardsworth in the 1870s. Manufactured in .38 and .41 caliber, this large caliber rim-fire revolver was well-made and accurate. Remember, most of the pocket revolvers we’ve looked at were “suicide” guns—they were as likely to kill the shooter as the target.

By the way, rim-fire or edge-fire revolver means the hammer strikes the rim of the cartridge to fire the gun, rather than in the center dimple of a modern cartridge.

The Swamp Angel rim-fire revolver was not only a pretty little gun, she was effective, accurate and well liked.

(Thanks to antiquearmsinc.com for the pic on the right)

No, not that kind of bulldog. Brevet Major General George Armstrong Custer is believed to have carried a pair of British Bulldog revolvers, short-barrelled and double-action revolver that was made in pocket and small belt-sized. According to a report given by Brigadier-General (then Major) E.S. Godfrey on January 16, 1896, Custer carried “two Bulldog self-cocking, English, white-handled pistols, with a ring in the butt for a lanyard. We know they weren’t the production revolvers, because those were officially produced in 1878, two years after the infamous battle. But scholars believe he might have had an earlier version.

Designed to be carried in a coat pocket or kept on a night-stand, this little revolver was a solid-frame pocket revolver, meaning the round chamber was rotated away from the weapon in order to be loaded, instead of the barrel flipping up or down out of the way. It had a 2.5 inch barrel and packed a wallop with .44 and .45 caliber bullets.

These pockets “protectors” were made with a metal loop on the end of the butt, where a lanyard or chain could be attached to keep the revolver from falling out of the pocket.

The Webley British Bulldog revolver is famous for another moment in history, as well. Charles Julius Guiteau, angry that he had not been appointed to a Federal post, used an American-made Bulldog to assassinate President James Garfield on July 2, 1881. Guiteau paid $10 for the revolver, a box of cartridges, and a penknife.

After Guiteau’s trial, the revolver was placed in the Smithsonian Institution. Some time after (believed to be around 1900) the revolver disappeared, and has not been seen since.

This little weapon is considered one of the guns that “won the west.” Check out The British Bulldog Revolver; The Forgotten Gun that Really Won the West by George Layman.

Colonel Jean Alexandre François Le Mat was a Paris-born aristocrat–and Creole physician–who designed firearms in his spare time. On October 21, 1856, he was granted United States Patent No. 15,925 for a unique design of the first multi-shot percussion revolver with an 18-gauge grapeshot barrel fixed beneath it. The lower barrel was 5 inches long, and an extension could be attached to it to form a true shotgun. The shooter could fire nine cartridges then, with just a flick of the thumb, hit his target with a single blast of buckshot.

It still wasn’t a fast-loading or easily transported weapon. The LeMat was designed as a single-action weapon. Shell casings were removed with a slide rod ejector. That means no flipping open the cylinder and flinging out the empty cartridge casings like you see on TV.

The pistol was mostly a novelty until the start of the Civil War, when Col. Le Mat, a longtime Southern sympathizer, offered his invention to the newly formed Confederate government, who placed an order for 5,000 of his pistols. When he couldn’t find an acceptable manufacturing facility in the South, he traveled to France in hopes of having the weapon manufactured there.

The journey almost ended before it began. He booked passage on the British mail packet Trent, which was stopped and boarded by the Federal warship San Jacinto. The two Confederate officials traveling with LeMat were arrested. Despite his Confederate ties, Le Mat was not detained.

After a couple of false starts, the Birmingham Small Arms Company in England ended up producing the guns, which were given to Confederate officials in Britain and France, who then had them slipped through the Union naval blockade that barricaded the Confederate coasts.

It wasn’t necessarily an ideal weapon for an army. The LeMat Revolver didn’t take the Confederate standard .44 caliber percussion (and later centerfire) cartridge that was the standard for Confederate handguns. That meant anyone who carried a LeMat that hadn’t been converted to use the standard ammunition also carried specialized cartridges. Since the unloaded gun weighed 3.1 pounds, all that brass was a lot of extra weight to haul around.

The original .40 caliber above 18 gauge model was used by the Confederate Army until the end of the war. When the Confederate Navy saw the Army’s new weapon, they ordered a lighter .35-caliber pistol equipped with a 28-gauge (.50 caliber) shotgun barrel. But the contract was soon canceled.

Famous Confederate officers like Major Generals Braxton Bragg, J.E.B. Stuart and Richard H. Anderson carried a LeMat.

Le Mat’s guns continued to be popular until the late 1870s, when they suddenly and unexpectedly went out of fashion. Le Mat died shortly afterward, in 1883. But that doesn’t mean you’ve never seen one. Since reproductions are still being made, the LeMat has appeared often in Hollywood.

• TV Gunslinger turned Sheriff Johnny Ringo, carried a LeMat revolver. Played by Don Durant, Johnny Ringo aired for one season (38 episodes) in 1959-60.
• Jayne Cobb, a character from the television series Firefly and the movie Serenity, uses a handgun based on the LeMat Revolver.
• Dr. Theophilus “Doc” Algernon Tanner in the Deathlands series of novels has carried two different LeMat revolvers.
• Bruce Willis’ character in the movie 12 Monkeys was equipped with a LeMat for a time-traveling mission into the past to assassinate a bioterrorist.
• Swede Gutzon is armed with a LeMat in the film The Quick and the Dead.
• Inman, the main character in the novel Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier, carries and uses a LeMat.
• Bufe Coker, a character in both the novel and miniseries Centennial carries a LeMat revolver.
• Ezra Justice in the novel “The Justice Riders” written by Chuck Norris uses a LeMat revolver.
• Red Dead Redemption, a video game set in the dying days of the old west, includes the LeMat revolver as an available weapon in the later part of the game.
• Jonah Hex, a film based on the comic, with Josh Brolin playing the title character, uses a pair of LeMats in the film.

If you want more information, here are some of my sources:

     > The LeMat Revolver by Floyd Largen – originally published in the October 1996 Military History magazine

     >Civil War Revolvers Of The North And South by Robert Niepert

Giving credit where it is due, the Johnny Ringo pictures are from Don Durant or FOUR STAR Entertainment Corp. The Jonah Hex picture was from FirstShowing.net.

With the popularity of the “Baby Dragoon”, Colt made a name in the pocket revolver market. Their next step was the slightly larger pocket Navy. The “New Model Pocket Pistol of Navy Caliber,” or “Pocket Navy” is, in essence, a Baby Dragoon modified with a .36 caliber barrel and rebated cylinder on the .31-size frame. NOTE: a rebated cylinder is one that has been “cut in” so the cylinder matches to the size of the barrel.

Colt took the frame of the Baby Dragoon, added a .36 caliber, 5-shot cylinder, with the 3”-5½” fluted barrel of the Navy Revolver. About 25% smaller than the standard Navy Revolver, the Pocket Navy was designed to be carried in a pocket if needed as well as a holster. The weapon was very popular. Between 1862 and 1873, Colt produced more than 19,000 Pocket Navy Revolvers. [That's an 1862 model on the left.]

Remember, though, these were still percussion revolvers–they used the old method of pouring in the powder, adding a lead ball or a conical bullet, ramming in a wad, and attaching a percussion cap. Then the shooter would put on a percussion cap, a small copper or brass open-ended cylinder enclosing fuliminate of mercury onto the “nipple” (on the rear of the cylinder), which held it in place.

When struck by the hammer, the cap would detonate, flashing sparks through a small hole on the back of the nipple into the revolver chamber, igniting the main powder charge and firing the bullet. Not a fast process, by any means. It wasn’t until 1860, when Benjamin Tyler Henry unveiled his lever-action repeating rifle that used a newly-perfected .44 caliber rimfire metal cartridge, that the rapid reload or the Hollywood gunfighter became reality. But that’s another blog.

 After discussing these little guns the last couple of blogs, I thought you ‘d enjoy seeing them side by side–so to speak. So, here’s the Baby Derringer, the 1849 Baby Dragoon, the Wells Fargo Model of the Dragoon, and the 1861 Pocket Navy.   

We’ve had such fun looking at pocket pistols and revolvers, I thought I’d share another I ran across: The Colt 1848 “Baby Dragoon.” Many consider this to be the first true hideout gun.

The Colt Model 1848 Baby Dragoon Revolver was manufactured in Hartford from circa l847 through to 1850 with a total of about 15,000 produced. A .31 caliber weapon, this baby held five shots in its cylinder.

In order to cut back on the weight of the gun, the loading lever was removed from under the barrel and the front sight was scaled down to a tiny bead. This also helped make the gun more “snag-free”, meaning it was less likely to catch in the lining of the pocket or purse when drawn. Rather important if you wanted to get the drop on a bad guy.

The one on the left has no loading lever; the one on the right does. See it, under the barrel?

The five-shot Baby Dragoon was a scaled down version of the large dragoon revolvers, and were manufactured with barrel lengths of 3″, 4″, 5″, and 6″ and a distinctive square-back trigger-guard.  The 3” and 4” are reasonable for a pocket revolver, but a 5 or 6” barrel, plus the cylinder and polished wood grip–not exactly a miniature weapon.

The “Baby Dragoon” pistol was more accurate and more powerful than earlier pocket guns, and their lighter weight made them the weapon of choice for Pony Express riders, and the Wells Fargo Company.

Want more info? Check out Colt’s Pocket ’49: Its Evolution, Including the Baby Dragoon & Wells Fargo by Robert M. Jordan & Darrow M. Watt. The book is out of print, but you might be able to find a copy through your local library.

 The Philadelphia Deringer is a small percussion handgun designed by Henry Deringer and produced from 1852 through 1868. The term derringer is actually a misspelling of the maker’s last name. Kind of like kleenex (with a small k), the term derringer is now used to describe any pocket-sized pistol.

The original Deringer pistol was a single-shot muzzle-loading pistol. That means you had one ball of lead backed by the power of a measure of black powder. No multi-shot shootouts with this little beauty. Subsequent models were made to use the new cartridge type ammunition–aka a bullet–but a derringer never held more than two shots.

Derringer often refers to the smallest usable handgun of a given caliber. They were frequently used by women, because the size made the pistol easy to conceal in a reticule on slipped into a stocking garter. Derringers are not repeating firearms. The original cartridge derringers held only a single round, usually a .40 caliber cartridge. [.40 refers to the diameter of the bullet, in this case .40” or 10.16mm.] The barrel pivoted sideways on the frame for reloading.

The famous Remington derringer, sold from 1866 to 1935, was designed with a second barrel on top of the first. This meant two shots instead of one, without much more weight to carry around. On this two-shot pistol, the barrels pivoted upward for reloading.

If you plan to use this pretty little thing, keep in mind that the bullet moved very slowly–about half the speed of a modern bullet. It could actually be seen in flight. Still, at close range, such as at card table or in a stage coach, it would be deadly.

Another thing to consider, should you want a character to carry a derringer: it took a lot to load and prepare the pistol. I’ll let you read for yourself.

“For loading a Philadelphia Deringer, one would typically fire a couple of percussion caps on the handgun, to dry out any residual moisture contained in the tube or at the base of the barrel, to prevent a subsequent misfire. One would then remove the remains of the last fired percussion cap and place the handgun on its half-cock notch, pour 15 to 25 grains of blackpowder down the barrel, followed by ramming a patched lead ball down onto the powder, being very careful to leave no air gap between the patched ball and the powder, to prevent the handgun from exploding when used. (The purpose of the patch on the ball was to keep the ball firmly lodged against the powder, to avoid creating what was called a “short start” when the ball was dislodged from being firmly against the powder.) A new percussion cap would then be placed on the tube (what today would be called a nipple), and the gun was then loaded and ready to fire. (The half-cock notch prevented the hammer from falling if the trigger were bumped accidentally while carrying the handgun in one’s coat pocket.) Then, to fire the handgun, a user would fully cock the hammer, aim, and squeeze the trigger. Upon a misfire, the user could fully re-cock the hammer, and attempt to fire the handgun once more, or, equally common, switch to a second Deringer. Accuracy was highly variable; although front sights were common, rear sights were less common, and some Philadelphia Deringers had no sights at all, being intended for point and shoot use instead of aim and shoot, across Poker-table distances. Professional gamblers, and others who carried regularly, often would fire and reload daily, to decrease the chance of a misfire upon needing to use a Philadelphia Deringer.” http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Derringer&action=edit&section=3

And how did this little pistol change history? It was the weapon used by John Wilkes Booth to assassinate President Abraham Lincoln in the Ford Theater on April 14, 1865.

I had such fun in my last post with the Chicago Palm Pistol, I decided to introduce another small weapon today – the PEPPERBOX.

The four-shot, breech loading, version of this pistol is considered “a true gun of the Old West, used by gamblers, ladies of the evening, and as a hide-out gun for both outlaws and lawmen alike.”   

Named Pepperbox, or Pepperpot, because it resembles a household pepper grinder, this multi-shot revolver boasted three or more barrels grouped around a central axis. Though one enterprising gunmaker created a shotgun version, the pepperbox was most often a handheld firearm.     

The concept made an appearance as early as the fifteenth century, when several single-shot barrels were attached to a stock, then fired individually by lighting each one with a match. Talk about dangerous!   

Pepperboxes were manufactured in all ammunition systems: matchlock, wheellock, flintlock, percussion, pinfire, rimfire and centerfire. [I won’t go into how all those work--at least not in this post.] They were made with three, four, six, or seven barrels. The earliest ones were rotated by hand; the later versions worked much like a standard revolver, where each chamber rotated into position as the previous one was discharged.     

The invention of the percussion cap by Joshua Shaw, and the onset of the industrial revolution, allowed pepperbox revolvers to be mass-produced, making them more affordable than the early handmade guns previously only seen in the hands of the rich.   

Gilles Mariette, an arms manufacturer in Cheratte, Belgium, patented the ‘cluster revolver (pepperbox) with double action’ in 1837.  Pepperboxes were popular in North America from 1830 through the Civil War. The pepperbox experienced a kind of “revival” in the late 1800s as an easy-to-conceal pocket weapon. The French came up with the “Apache revolver,” which was popular among Paris street gangs and came fitted with a folding blade and knuckle-duster. [Those are knuckle-dusters on the left.]   

The Christian Sharps 4-barrel derringer was manufactured and used into the last half of the 19^th century. This pistol had a sheath trigger that appeared when the hammer was cocked. Cartridges were loaded into this 4-shot gun by sliding the barrels forward. Thousands of these little guns were made between 1859 and 1874. After the war it became popular in the Old West among lawmen, outlaws and gamblers as its small size allowed it to be concealed in a waistcoat pocket. One thing to remember when giving a Pepperbox to your character: they aren’t accurate. In fact, Mark Twain was quoted as saying “the safest place to be when facing a Pepperbox wielding antagonist was standing directly in front of him.”

Look what I discovered the other night. I’m always on the lookout for a proper weapon of choice for a character. While catching up on the to-be-watched shows on my DVR, I ran across one about old guns, including this little beauty.

The Chicago Palm Pistol.

Originally called the Minneapolis Protector Palm Pistol, The Chicago Palm Pistol began as a copy of the French Turbiaux pistol, Le Protecteur.

The design for this palm-sized weapon was patented in 1883 by the Minneapolis Firearms Company, then sold to Peter Finnegan of Austin, Illinois. Mr. Finnegan created the Chicago Firearms Company and immediately contracted with Ames Sword Company of Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts, to manufacture the pistol in time to introduce it at The Columbian Exhibition–The Chicago World’s Fair of 1892. Because of manufacturer delays, it didn’t make it in time for the Fair, and, in 1898, Mr. Finnegan ended up with 13, 000 pistols to sell.

The moment I saw it, I knew this would be an excellent concealed weapon for a character to carry, whether he’s the hero or the villain. Since it was billed as a small enough weapon to be easily handled by a woman, I suppose my heroine might have one tucked into a pocket or her reticule, as well.

Here, you can see the actual size.

And here’s what the insides look like.

It wasn’t a very powerful gun, so no shootouts from twenty paces, but for an ambush, or a last ditch attempt at protecting the one the hero (or heroine) loves, it would be perfect.

What do you think? Would your character have a need for a Palm Pistol like this one?