This was the first musket produced in the United States.
Produced by the Harper's Ferry Arsenal production factories.
The caliber of bullet for this musket was .69.
An early gun, the flintlock mechanism was not as advanced as guns produced later in the years, specifically for the war.
A bayonet (fitted knife) could be put onto the muzzle of the gun, to inflict more damage.
This gun was able to fire from farther distances than hand-held guns, but took longer to reload and had to be reloaded after every shot.
LeMat Nine-Shot Cap-and-Ball Revolver
This gun was invented and produced in the Southern states for the Civil War.
This revolver had a 9-shot revolving cylinder and a 6-gauge buckshot barrel , making it one of the most dangerous hand-held weapons of the Civil War.
The revolving cylinder and buckshot barrel allowed the shooter to hit one specific target (with a bullet) and many behind them at the same time (with buckshot). Buckshot are small pellets of metal that spread in a large area when fired, killing multiple targets at one time.
This was a large and heavy revolver, some weighing at 5 pounds when fully loaded.
This firearm required its own bullets that were incompatible with any other weapon.
Gatling Model Ten-Barrel Battlefield Weapon
Bullet calibers ranged from .45, .50 and even 1 inch.
This gun had an amazing 400 rounds per minute rate-of-fire, but the stress this put on the weapon made it more prone to jamming than smaller firearms.
The gun was too heavy to carry by men, so it was pulled by warhorses. The mount of the gun had two large wheels that could withstand quick travel over uneven battlefields.
The rear of the gun mount had a tow system that could be attached to an ammunition or supplies box, so that that this weapon could carry its own bullets. (The supplies box attached to the gun is shown in the photo to the left.)
Despite the obvious potential for these massive guns, they were costly to build and few were used in battles conducted after the Civil War.