During the American Civil War, the U.S. government entered into contracts with more than two dozen firms to produce the U.S. Model 1861 and Model 1861 “Special Model” rifle muskets. While the majority of those contracts were filled with a minimum of trials and tribulation, some were cancelled in mid-stream due to delays and low production. Some contractors barely delivered any arms at all, and subsequently had their contracts nullified. Some contracts were cancelled before the contractor ever started production. Most contracts are well documented and are often contained within the Congressional records that cover investigations into slow and unfulfilled Civil War military contracts.
Eli Whitney Jr. received multiple U.S. military contracts during the war to provide both the M1861 rifle musket and the M1861 naval rifle. However, his experience in producing the M1841 “Mississippi” rifle for the U.S. Ordnance Department taught him that U.S. government contracts were not always what they were cracked up to be. The requirement for strict gauging and inspection of the arms resulted in many guns being rejected, or being accepted at a much lower price. These contracts were a less profitable endeavor than producing lower quality, non-interchangeable parts weapons for states, who would not inspect the guns nearly so scrupulously. As a result, much of Whitney’s Civil War era long-arm production was focused upon making and selling his “Good & Serviceable Arms” to the states, as it was much more profitable than dealing with the Federal government. Whitney regularly used surplus, condemned, and rejected parts to assemble these arms, resulting in guns of 2nd class quality at best, and sometimes even worse.
His most notorious “scam” was in the production of the “Manton” marked U.S. M1861 rifle muskets. For many years, collectors assumed that the “Manton” marked contract arms were produced in England. This theory was supported by the use of the name of a well-known London arms maker, the Old English font used to stamp the name on the lock, and the fact that many early “Manton” muskets were delivered with British proved barrels. In fact, the barrels were British made, most by Birmingham barrel maker Ezra Millward, with some also manufactured by Henry Clive. These barrels, however, had been purchased by Colt, with the expectation of using them for U.S. musket contracts. Colt subsequently dumped the barrels on the open market and Whitney purchased 4,060 of them, which were then used in assembling a variety of long arms. These 40inch long barrels were produced in Birmingham and typically bore a single Birmingham commercial proof at the breech, along with a gauge mark like 24 or 25, which indicated the bore diameter, .58 caliber or .577 caliber, respectively. At least some barrels were also stamped with the mysterious “Diamond C” mark at the breech. For years the exact meaning of this mark was debated among Civil War arms researchers, as to whether the <C> mark at the breech really meant “Colt,” possibly “condemned,” or had another meaning. The confusion has been exacerbated by extant examples of Confederate marked Enfields with a non-standard 40inch barrel that also have the <C> mark on their breech. All the 2nd Contract Sinclair, Hamilton & Company Confederate Enfields marked with a JS/{ANCHOR} in the 9,000 A suffix to 9,999 A suffix range have the 40-inch “Diamond-C” marked barrels, as do the first 1,000 JS/{ANCHOR} marked South Carolina contract Pattern 1853 Enfields. Other examples outside these two large batches are also known with Diamond-C barrels. I can now confidently say that I am positive that the Diamond-C mark indicates that the barrel was a Colt contract barrel, and the “Manton” marked musket pictured in this article is a testament to that fact.
Whitney devised the whole “Manton” ploy to distance his company from what he clearly felt was an inferior quality arm. Whitney admitted this himself in a February 2, 1863 letter to the R.S. Stenton Company of New York, when he said in part:
I cannot promise more than 1,000 of the ‘Manton’ muskets and these only to be subject to State Inspection as good and serviceable work being as a general thing as the sample, and if any are rejected it will lessen the number so much (from 1,000). My object in putting the ‘Manton’ on the lock was to avoid selling the muskets as mine.
I have underscored that last line to emphasize that Whitney clearly did not want to associate his name or company with the “Manton” marked muskets. Whitney’s letter to the Stenton Company was in reply to their request to purchase “Manton” muskets.
Whitney submitted a least a handful of sample guns to both the R.S. Stenton Company and arms sellers William Bailey Lang & Company. A follow up letter from Whitney to William Bailey Lang & Co. further stresses that Whitney did not want to be recognized as the “source” for these guns. The letter also shows Whitney “backtracking” about the features of the guns that he would provide, when compared to the “samples.” His letter to William Bailey Lang & Co. reads in part:
The underlined emphasis is mine, but his reference to the guns both as “US muskets” and “tho as good as sample” suggests that some features of the sample guns were not quite the same as those he intended to deliver. This suggests that the arms delivered under the “Manton” contract were not even as good as the handful of sample rifle muskets he had provided.
In a letter dated June 18, 1863, to New York arms dealers Fitch & Waldo, Whitney said that he had on that day sent them a sample Springfield gun, 1,000 of which I can furnish in a day’s time…… These guns are good & serviceable, though varying slightly from the Springfield gauges in points not essential.
Whitney also attempted to sell his “Manton” guns to the state of New Jersey, and to arms merchants Palmers & Bachelder, each of which was no doubt provided with a “sample” gun. It is not clear exactly how many “Manton” marked arms Whitney actually managed to sell, but surviving records indicate that 1,070 of them were sold to the New York retailer Fitch & Waldo between June 29 and August 4, 1863. Fitch & Waldo subsequently sold the guns to the state of New York, who issued them to volunteers who were called out to suppress the draft riots during the summer of 1863. Of those 1,070 guns, 109 were rejected by the state of New York. It is not clear how many more of these muskets were manufactured, but Flayderman’s Guide to Antique American Arms notes that they are “quite scarce” and estimates that less than 2,000 were produced.
The “Manton” contract guns were made up from a variety of parts, many of which are thought to have been at least part of the 581 rifle muskets rejected by the state of Connecticut from the initial Whitney delivery of 1,440 arms between January 27 and April 11, 1862. It is for this reason that the “Manton” marked guns exhibit a variety of mixed features. The guns generally conform to U.S. M1861 style that was produced for Connecticut under the first contract, but inconsistency is the only consistent feature of these arms. They are found with both 39 and 40-inch barrels, some with British proofs, some with U.S. style proofs, and some with the inspection mark G.W.Q. as found on Connecticut contract barrels. Some barrels have Whitney 7-groove rifling and some have traditional U.S. pattern 3-groove rifling. In either case, they generally all have a Whitney alphanumeric style batch or serial number. These marks typically consist of a letter over a 1, 2 or 3 digit number stamped on the top of the barrel to the rear of the front sight, although sometimes the letter and number are next to each other. The guns typically have Whitney “mid-range” L-shaped rear sights, are iron mounted and have pewter forend caps. Some barrel bands are marked with the letter “U” for “up” but many are not. The majority of the guns have no “US” on the buttplate tang, although Whitney’s use of pieces and parts from a variety of contractors and suppliers sometimes results in a marked buttplate. Most locks are simply marked “Manton,” with no date, although some 1862 (or more rarely) 1863 dates are found stamped vertically at the tail.
The Whitney “Manton” M1861 rifle musket pictured in this article is one that has a surplus Colt contract, Birmingham made barrel. The barrel is a 40-inch barrel that Colt had intended to use for U.S. contract M1861 rifle muskets. The breech has a single Birmingham proof mark, a “25” gauge mark that indicates .577 caliber, and the “Diamond C” mark indicating it was a Colt contract barrel. The lock is one of the less common dated examples marked 1862 at the tail and has the usual Old English “Manton” mark. The barrel has the Whitney alphanumeric G8 on it behind the front sight; the bore is rifled
Close up of the proof marks on the 1862 dated Whitney “Manton” rifle musket, showing the “Diamond-C” Colt contract barrel mark, the “25” English gauge mark for .577 caliber, and the Birmingham commercial proof mark.
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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.
Counterpane of the 1862 dated Whitney “Manton” M1861.
Close up of the alphanumeric mark on the barrel of the Whitney “Manton” rifle musket.
Close up of the bore of the Whitney “Manton” rifle musket, showing the standard English pattern 3-groove bore, rather than Whitney’s own 7-groove rifling.
Overall view of a Whitney “Manton” rifle musket, essentially indistinguishable from a regular US M1861 rifle musket at a distance. Photos by Tim Prince.
Lock of an 1862 dated Whitney “Manton” M1861 rifle musket.