The Terry’s Patent Carbine, produced by the Birmingham firm of Calisher & Terry, as well as some other Birmingham contractors, was one of the more unique and innovative breechloading percussion arms to be developed in the mid-19th Century. The guns have always had a strong association with the Confederacy, primarily because two very famous Terry carbines are in the collection of the American Civil War Museum (formerly the Museum of the Confederacy). One gun belonged to Confederate President Jefferson Davis; the other belonged to famed Confederate cavalry general J.E.B. Stuart. Stuart’s gun was a 30-Bore Type II carbine that is serial numbered 4928, with the retailer name THOMAS BLISSETT – LIVERPOOL engraved on top of the barrel. While documentable official deliveries of additional Terry carbines have not yet been located, a period Confederate document does establish an order for 5,000 Terry carbines. However, it is unclear how many may have actually been delivered to the Confederacy. It is possible that as many as 200 may have been purchased by the US Government.
In 1861, Henry Calisher traveled to New York with “200 Long Enfields,” which he offered for sale. It is not clear whether the guns were in fact Enfields, or if, in all probability, they were really Terry’s Patent carbines. Sources are split as to whether the guns were sold directly to the U.S. government or the firm of Schuyler, Hartley & Graham of New York.
It is well known that a number of high profile arms were delivered to the Confederacy through purchases at the Schuyler, Hartley & Graham storefront in New York, so it is quite possible that at least some Terry carbines went south, via “straw man” purchases by Southern sympathizers. Terry carbines may also have travelled to the Confederacy as speculative cargo in the holds of Confederate blockade runners as well. Speculative cargo were those items purchased by blockade runner owners and/or investors, who were allowed to import items for their own monetary gain. Recent discoveries in U.S. Maritime Court Records have revealed that many items never thought to be purchased by the Confederacy were in fact purchased as speculative cargo for resale upon their arrival in the South. Among these speculative weapons imports were Austrian Model 1851 cavalry carbines, as well as Austrian Model 1838 and Model 1842 muskets.
Terry’s Patent carbines have long been considered a rarely encountered arm, imported in very limited quantities by the Confederacy, and have been identified as such since the days of Claude Fuller & Richard Steuart’s Firearms of the Confederacy (pages 231-232 & Plate XXVI, Figure 3) and William Albaugh & Edward Simmons’ Confederate Arms (Plate 99, Figure 3). Recently, however, one document discovered within the McRae Papers provides confirmation that the Confederacy tried to acquire Terry’s Patent carbines; in my mind absolutely proving the Confederacy probably received at least a handful of these guns beyond the samples delivered to J.E.B. Stuart and Jefferson Davis.
The document is a four-page letter from Colin McRae to an unknown recipient. The letter was sent from Paris and is dated December 3, 1863. McRae’s letter makes some interesting requests and reads in part:
(see letter in text box) “…I ask you to make the following inquiries which I think you can do through Messrs. Quilter…To wit: 250 Tons best saltpeter 100 Tons Lead 20,000 Enfield Rifles such as are used in the British Army, with bayonet + implements complete + packed in Lead lined cases. [What is meant by implements, is moulds, nipple keys + extra nipples./ 5,000 Carbines, Terry’s Patent, + the best description of that arm that is made.
5,000 Slings for same 500,000 Cartridges for do, best quality. 10,000 Pistols. Adams’ Patent, the best description of that arm that is made.
1,000,000 Cartridges for same. Belts, Holsters and pouches for the pistols complete. The pistols + carbines to be packed in lead lined cases… Mr. Quilter probably knows Mr. Adams, the pistol manufacturer, if so, he can put an offer with him direct.”
The letter goes on, but from the contents quoted above, the following is clear. Mr. William Quilter, a London accountant intimately involved with S. Isaac, Campbell & Company, was to make inquiries about obtaining the usual Pattern 1853 Enfields the Confederacy had already been purchasing, but also to obtain some 5,000 Calisher & Terry breech loading carbines and 10,000 Adams revolvers. A handful of Terry’s patent carbines are known with Confederate provenance suggesting that, at the very least, a small shipment of those guns did arrive; possibly as samples for a larger, future order.
Calisher & Terry apparently tried to make the Adams revolvers for this order as well. A very small number (really only a handful) of Calisher & Terry made Adams revolvers in their own special C-prefixed serial number range of C10X,XXX are known. It is believed by most English arms researchers that no more than 200 Adams Patent revolvers were produced by Calisher & Terry. Due to the extreme scarcity of potential Confederate purchased Calisher & Terry carbines and the very few Calisher & Terry Adams revolvers known, it is my belief that the order was aborted long before it was completed.
I do not know why but would surmise that it was due to a number of factors. First, the Confederacy suffered a series of major military reverses during the summer of 1863, bringing the potential for the Confederacy’s ability to fight the north to a stalemate or a negotiated end to the war into question. Secondly, Confederate economic fortunes were also waning during this period. Due to the blockade and inability to export cotton, the south’s only cash crop, it was getting difficult to raise cash or acquire credit. Many of the South’s English creditors were starting to become nervous and were even refusing to extend
October 2020
additional credit. I think all these factors resulted in the inability of the Confederacy to obtain the necessary financing to complete the order with Calisher & Terry, which resulted in the contract being cancelled before a large number of revolvers or carbines were produced and delivered.
William Terry’s patent for a bolt-action, breechloading “Terry’s Patent Carbine” was issued on April 7, 1856. The design, as slightly modified by Henry Calisher, was submitted to the British Board of Ordnance breechloading carbine trials in 1857; in December 1858 the Terry Carbine was approved for limited issue, with all the firearms ordered being issued to the 18th Hussars. These first contract Terry carbines were “Type I” carbines, which were 26-Bore (.568 caliber) rifled with 3 grooves. The carbines were also equipped with a sling bar and ring on the side of the stock, opposite the lock. The guns were marked with the usual British War Department ordnance ownership marks, including a Crown/VR to the rear of the lock and British military proofs on the breech. The total number ordered for the 18th Hussars is not known, but the regiment numbered some 700 men at the time of issue, so it is estimated this initial order was for between 700-1,000 carbines. These carbines remained in use with the 18th Hussars through 1864, when the guns were refurbished at the British repairing and refitting arsenal at Pimlico and subsequently issued to the South African Cape Mounted Rifles, who used the guns through about 1870.
A new pattern of Terry carbine was approved in November 1860; these Type II carbines were typified by a new 30-Bore (.539) caliber with 5-groove rifling and a rate of twist of 1 turn in 36-inches. The rear most barrel band was eliminated and replaced with a flat key to secure
the barrel to the stock, along with an action screw in the bottom of the gun and a single upper barrel band. A new rear sight was also adopted, replacing the previously used multi-leaf rear sight with a new long base “Enfield” style sight similar to that adopted for the Pattern 1861 Artillery carbine. The new pattern guns were also somewhat lighter in overall construction with lighter, thinner stocks and an overall length that was 1-inch shorter. These guns were produced between 1860 and 1861 for the British government, with the majority going to New Zealand for their militia, as well as to Australian provincial police departments, including New South Wales and Queensland.
In 1861, a final pattern of the Terry carbine was adopted for military use, the Type III. The only difference between the Type II and Type III carbines was a change to a non-snagging Baddeley patent barrel band on the new Type III carbines, and the removal of the upper sling swivel. While Calisher & Terry were producing the carbines under their British military and provincial government contracts, they were also producing commercial rifles and carbines, in both “military” and sporting configurations.
Total production of Calisher & Terry carbines is not known but based upon known inventories and their relatively limited survival somewhere between 5,000 and an absolute maximum of about 10,000 total carbines and rifles were manufactured. The guns may not have been serial numbered in consecutive order, and some gaps may exist. Calisher & Terry took advantage of the Birmingham gun trade to produce enough guns to fill their military contracts; these guns are marked with the typical TOWER mark with the date of manufacture on the lock.
The custom of assigning serial number ranges to different manufacturers was well established by other English gunmakers that licensed their patents. The bestknown example being Robert Adams, who issued specific serial number ranges to makers like William Tranter, Joseph Brazier, the London Armory Company and others, including Calisher & Terry. This results in odd gaps in the serial number sequence and makes dating Adams revolvers solely by serial number problematic, as number 10,000 and 20,000 might was have been produced concurrently, but by different makers. It appears that none of the longer barreled “sporting rifles” were ever ordered by any government entity, but some surely saw use in the hands of
Overall obverse view of Terry’s Patent Carbine #8802, the pattern that was contracted for by the Confederacy and in the serial number range of potential deliveries. All photos by Tim Prince.
private citizens and militiamen, primarily in New Zealand. All New Zealand militia used arms (whether provided by the British Government or via private purchases of commercial arms) are marked on their buttplates with an NZ and an inventory number. The Terry carbines used by Australian provincial police are also marked on their buttplates with similar ownership markings. This means that only those carbines bearing no British military marks or other territorial or provincial marks can be considered as potential Civil War imported carbines. These would have been commercially proved guns, manufactured for the export and commercial retail markets, and would not have had the sling bar and ring, as these were only included on British Government purchased carbines.
The Type II Terry’s Patent carbine produced by Calisher & Terry was manufactured at their Birmingham workshops, located at 22-24 Whittall Street and by some Birmingham contractors. The firm moved into that location in 1861 and remained there until they went out of business in 1869–70. The “Door Bolt Breech-Loading Carbine” as it was more popularly known, was manufactured with a 21-inch barrel of 30-Bore (.539 caliber) with a 1 turn in 36-inches twist. The carbines had an overall length of about 34 inches and weighed approximately 6 pounds, 4 ounces. The gun was loaded by pulling the action operating handle out, away from the breech, rotating it upwards about 90-degrees, and pulling it back. This opened the primitive bolt and allowed insertion of a self-consuming combustible paper cartridge into the breech. Pushing the handle forward allowed the bolt plunger to insert the cartridge in the throat of the barrel and sealed the breech. Rotating the handle back down and folding it in secured the bolt and locked the action closed.
A standard percussion cap was then placed on the cone (nipple) and the carbine was ready to fire.
The commercial guns were manufactured with a sling swivel on the upper barrel band and another one screwed into the toe of the stock. A cleaning rod was carried in the channel under the barrel and an extension with an integral cleaning jag was stored in the buttstock under an iron trapdoor. The iron mounted guns were blued with color casehardened locks. A snap cap (nipple protector) was attached to a small mounting stud, forward of the triggerguard, via a teardrop shaped brass chain. The stocks were varnished walnut and some commercial guns had checkered wrists and forends like many Volunteer Rifles of the era, while the military contract guns invariably had plain stocks.
The Terry’s Patent carbine (Type II) pictured here is a classic example of the “Door Bolt Carbine” variant that would have seen importation and use during the American Civil War. The carbine is the same pattern as the two owned by J.E.B. Stuart and Jefferson Davis. The gun is clearly marked on the lock plate, forward of the hammer: CALISHER & TERRY. LONDON.; the top of the breech is crisply marked: TERRY’S PATENT 30 BORE behind the bolster. The top of the
barrel is additionally marked, forward of the rear sight: CALISHER & TERRY. MAKERS TO H.M. WAR DEPARTMENT. The serial number engraved on the triggerguard tang is 8802 and the maker’s initials C&T are stamped in the wood behind the triggerguard. The serial number is well within the range of Civil War era manufacture and represents a potential Confederate purchase. A known Terry Carbine dated 1865 in the Springfield Armory collection is in the 10,XXX serial number range, suggesting that this particular gun, #8802, was likely produced sometime in 1864; exactly when these guns would have been in production for southern buyers, based upon the December 1863 McRae order.
Terry carbines that have real Civil War provenance or the potential to have been a legitimate Civil War import are extremely scarce and rarely appear on the collector market for sale. Unfortunately, there are no known C.S. or U.S. markings that can be used to confirm Civil War use, but the preceding information should allow the potential collector to rule out any Terry Carbines that could not have seen Civil War service.
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Te Artilleryman is a quarterly magazine founded in 1979 for enthusiasts who collect and shoot cannons and mortars primarily from the Revolutionary War, Civil War to World War II.
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.