Last month we looked at the background and evolution of Thomas Wilson’s Breechloading Rifle. This month we will look more deeply into Confederate acquisition of these guns.
While no official Confederate order for Wilson rifles has yet been discovered, correspondence and other period documents indicate that at least a few rifles were purchased and delivered to the Confederacy. According a sworn statement, made by Archibald McLaurin, agent for the firm of J. Scholefield, Sons & Goodman in New Orleans, on July 10, 1862, the blockade runner Bamberg was carrying a sample Wilson’s breechloading rifle, destined for that firm’s showroom. McLaurin specifically refers to the gun as a “pattern rifle” and noted at the time of his interrogation by General Benjamin Butler, the rifle was still in Havana and had not (to his knowledge) reached the Confederacy. The Federal blockading squadron may well have captured the rifle after it finally left Havana. It is my belief that the rifle referred to by Mr. McLaurin is the 1861 dated brass mounted rifle #221, made by Wilson himself as a sample piece for the Confederacy.
Additional documentation comes from an April 23, 1863, letter from CSN Commander James North to G.B. Tennent of Courtney, Tennent & Company of Charleston. In the letter, North complains about the tight fit of the bayonet on a sample Wilson rifle that he had examined. I surmise that this may reference an initial delivery of bushed cutlass bayonets, and that there after standard saber bayonets were provided.
North goes on to say “If I have not ordered 200 rounds of ball cartridges to each rifle, you will please do so for me. Get me the form for making them, also the receipt for lubricating the wads.” This suggests that at least some Wilson rifles were in use by the Confederate Navy (or had been ordered by them) as the Southerners not only needed ammunition for the rifles, but also the forms for making cartridges, and the formula (“receipt”) for the wad lubricant. It would not make sense for the Confederate Ordnance Department to go to the trouble of obtaining the material to produce patent cartridges that could only be used in Wilson rifles, if there were not a number of the guns in service.
A post-Civil War piece of evidence for the purchase of the guns exists as well. A catalog from the Feb. 11, 1880, New York U.S. Ordnance Department sale held in New York lists “1 Enfield, altered Wilson’s, caliber .577, unserviceable, broken.” It is not clear if this listing was indeed a .577 Enfield altered by Wilson (possibly submitted when the US was trying out breech loading designs), or if the caliber was given incorrectly, and this was really a captured Southern purchased Wilson rifle. We will probably never know.
In their seminal work Firearms of the Confederacy, Claude Fuller & Richard Steuart note that some Wilson rifles saw service in the Charleston defenses. This seems possible, as Courtney & Tennent of Charleston appear to have accepted delivery of at least some rifles.
Pictured with this article are two Wilson’s Patent Breech Loading Rifles that I have had the pleasure to offer for sale. One is a “late” Wilson rifle. It is brass mounted, dated 1863 and has the serial number 2A5025 on top of the breech. The other two examples are late Wilson rifles numbered 2A5048 and 2A5059. Both guns now reside in museum collections, with the first having been part of the C.A. Huey collection now at the South Carolina Relic Room & Military Museum in Columbia, S.C., and the second having been part of the Richard D. Steuart collection now part of the Virginia Historical Society collection in Richmond.
When the second rifle was found, the fish tail operating lever at the rear of the bolt was missing and had been replaced with a perfectly made copy of the lever that is on rifle 2A5059 from the Steuart Collection at the Virginia Historical Society. Unfortunately, the lever on the Steuart rifle was incorrect! When this rifle, 2A5025, was discovered in 2003, the gun was damaged, with the bolt frozen in the breech, some wood around the breechblock and lock damaged, and the fish tail lever missing. At the time, the only other known brass mounted Wilson Rifle was 2A5059 at the Virginia Historical Society. As the two guns were only 34 numbers away each other, the owner assumed the configurations were identical. He had the bolt handle of the Steuart gun copied exactly, with the restoration performed by renowned historical arms restoration gunsmith Louis Parker. At the time, it was assumed that this type of simplified breech lever was typical of the “late” Wilson Rifles, and that the checkered fishtail lever of 1860 dated iron mounted rifles and the transitional 1861 dated rifle had been abandoned in favor of this new, simpler lever. About a decade later rifle 2A5048 was discovered that it had the same checkered fishtail lever as the earlier guns, disproving the theory about a simplified bolt lever. As such, both the Steuart gun and the one pictured in this article have an incorrect bolt handle.
Why the handle on the Steuart gun was replaced is unknown, but the part is somewhat fragile and may well have been prone to breakage in use. The replaced lever may be an example of some Confederate arsenal engineering to keep the gun in service. In the case of the other rifle, I believe that this may well have been the gun described in the February 1880 New York Ordnance Department sale. Since that gun was described as “1 Enfield, altered Wilson’s, caliber .577, unserviceable, broken” as the gun was missing the fishtail, had a seized bolt, and had some wood damage around the breech, it seems quite likely that this may be the same gun. This rifle is one of the .551 rifles (28 bore) and actually gauges about .565 inch at the muzzle due to wear. It would have been very easy for the Ordnance Department cataloger to glance at this gun and assume it was .577 caliber.
The other Wilson Rifle depicted is another gun that I believe we have a period account about. This is the finest extant example known; the only example of a “transitional rifle” known, and I firmly believe it is the “pattern rifle” referred to by Archibald McLaurin in his testimony. The gun remains in absolutely stunning condition throughout. The gun first came to light in 1952, when John George purchased it from a collector in Portland, Ore., for the princely sum of $70. At that time, the gun had a paper label on the stock that read in large script US ORD DEPT WASH DC. When Mr. George purchased the gun, he soaked the label off the stock, folded it, and placed it under the upper barrel band for safekeeping. Unfortunately, over the ensuing 60 years, the label completely disintegrated, leaving only some remnants of paper under the barrel band, pressed against the stock. The majority of the label’s remnants were lost when the gun changed hands in 2007, passing from Mr. George to another collector privately. At that time, it was partially disassembled to document any markings, and a piece of oily paper marked “US” was found under the band.
I believe that this gun was almost certainly McLaurin’s “pattern rifle” because of the condition of the gun, the documented story about the Ordnance Department tag, and the fact that this is an actual Wilson produced Wilson rifle. It appears that most Wilson pattern arms were actually produced by other contractors, but McLaurin’s testimony infers that the pattern rifle came from Wilson himself. It seems more than reasonable that this Wilson rifle was in transit to New Orleans and was captured by the blockading squadron and then spent most of the 19th century in a U.S. Ordnance warehouse. When you take into account the quality of the gun, the condition, the paper label it bore in the 1950s, and McLaurin’s testimony, it all makes sense.
Tim Prince is a full-time dealer in fine & collectible military arms from the Colonial Period through WWII. He operates College Hill Arsenal, a web-based antique arms retail site.
A long time collector & researcher, Tim has been a contributing author to two major book projects about Civil War era arms including The English Connection and a new book on southern retailer marked and Confederate used shotguns. Tim is also a featured Arms & Militaria appraiser on the PBS Series Antiques Roadshow.
Overall view of Wilson Rifle #221, likely the “pattern gun” never delivered to McLaurin in New Orleans, that was found with the U.S. Ordnance Department label on it.
Overall view of Wilson Rifle #2A5025, which was found with the bolt seized and the fish tail missing from the lever; likely the gun sold at the Ordnance Department auction.
Late Wilson #2A5025 showing the incorrectly replaced “fish tail” and the Wilson’s Patent breech markings.
Late Wilson with bolt open.
(All photos by Tim Prince)
Late Wilson #2A5025 lock view with 1863 date.
Breech area of Wilson #221, showing correct fish tail lever.