Lindsay Double Musket

[Jim Wimbish, 10395]

Does anyone have any good stories about the ill fated Lindsay double musket? This is the gun with two hammers that had two loads in the barrel. Using a single trigger, the right hammer went off first, firing the first charge and the left hammer set off the bottom charge with a second pull of the trigger. The gun was not supposed to fire the bottom charge first, but it inevitably did. The gun was issued to one unit and used in one battle with disastrous results. Some of the guns blew up when the bottom charge went off first. The Lindsay order for 1,000 guns was completed in 1864. There was no second order, imagine that.

[marv762]

a member on our team has one, and has it shooting pretty good. it is a head turner when you see it. he has talked about maybe shooting it at a regional match one year. we wondered about what the IG"s look when he has to do the trigger check

[Jim Wimbish, 10395]

I wasn't expecting to hear that anyone was actually shooting one of them. I assume that he is only putting one load in the barrel. With my gun, if I have the right hammer cocked and pull the trigger, the pull is pretty light. But, if I drop the left hammer the pull is much heavier and this is the one that you would need to use to set off the charge in the very bottom of the barrel. I wouldn't want to shoot it for accuracy using the left hammer. given the heavier trigger pull.

[Curt]

Halllo!

John. P. Lindsay had received a contract on December 17, 1863 for 1,000 at the cost of $25.00 each. The batch was ultimately delivered on August 12, 1864 after some delivery extensions had been given in April as he was having some trouble converting production from his two barrel pistols.

A batch went to the 16th Michigan in time for the Battle of Peeble's Farm (Poplar Springs Church), VA, September 30 through October 2 outside of Petersburg... creating a flap when both barrels went off- the second acting as a barrel obstruction and blowing up.

I am not sure why or how the concept or design got that far. :) :) In my thinking the design is flawed as it depends upon the one Minie ball sealing things off from the powder flash of the first charge. Which makes sense if one does not consider that a Minie is smaller than bore diameter... (making some more dangerous than others as they were not precisely the same diameter).

Curt

[Jim Wimbish, 10395]

Problems with the gun included the flash channel to the forward charge fouling. I'm not sure how they addressed the problem of sealing the bore well enough where the top charge didn't ignite the bottom charge. However, the major problem was having the bottom charge go off with the top charge still in place, creating a major obstruction in the barrel. One scenario for this starts with capping and cocking both hammers. The top charge doesn't go off because the flash channel is fouled, the charge isn't at the proper depth, or the cap falls off. Without knowing that the top charge is still in place, you pull the trigger a second time and the bottom charge goes off with the first charge still obstructing the barrel. At that point, some of the guns blew up. I am truly surprised that such a system ever made it to the field.

The battle of Peebles Farm was fought as part of the Petersburg campaign and involved the assault on a fort which was conducted by the 16th Michigan. This same unit had been at the little Round Top at Gettysburg.