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barrett
04-29-2008, 10:19 AM
Does anyone know what a "revolving gun" is? Thanks-Barrett-7th Va Inf

OFFICIAL RECORDS: Series 1, vol 11, Part 2 (Peninsular Campaign)


GENERAL D. H. HILL, Commanding, Dept. South of James River.


HEADQUARTERS, August 2, 1862.


GENERAL: I am pleased to learn by your letter of the 1 st* that two of
the enemy's transports were burned in your attack of Thursday night and
the rest driven off.


I had written to you this morning, giving my views and explaining the
object desired.


I regret that you had no incendiary shells, and have directed Colonel
Alexander to have some prepared for your 12-pounders, as they probably
will be the largest caliber you can rely on for general service.


I will direct the revolving gun you desire to be sent you. I do not know
whether we have any of the rockets you mention, but if there are they
shall be sent, too.


I desire you to continue your attacks as long and as continuously as you
can make them effective, and to use all the force in your department.
the supporting force will be necessary, but if kept back or under cover
from shells I think the risk would be small. But if you can accomplish
the object any risk would be justifiable, for it would break up
McClellan. I wish you, however, to exercise you good judgement as to the
manner and mode of attack, and to take every precaution to spare your
men.


The force could encamp near the scene of action. I do not at this
distance see the necessity of its retiring to Petersburg. It would save
men and horses. The prisoners, save the invalids, will be marched to
Aiken's; but they will use their eyes on this side, too.


I informed you to-day that ours were reported to be coming; so you must
be careful.


Make your blows heavy, and as quick as you can. Use all your infantry. I
necessary, keep Anderson's division at work.


Very truly,


R. E. LEE.

Jason Connerley 12390
04-29-2008, 10:51 AM
Barrett,
No picture I found this on page 301, second paragraph of The Life Of Johnny Reb :

Perhaps the most interesting of all the pieces used by Confederate artillerymen was a crude type of machine gun. In fact it is claimed that the first machine gun ever used in battle was the Williams repeating cannon taken into action at Seven Pines. This gun had a four-foot barrel and shot one-pound projectiles. Its firing mechanism was very much like that of a Colt's revolver, except that the cylinder was turned by a crank. Ammunition was fed from a hopper placed above the chamber. Newspaper reports of tesings of this gun claimed that it shot eighteen to twenty balls a minute and it was accurate for a range of a thousand yards.

Jason Connerley

editted to correct spelling and to mention that in the notes it lists that a battery of six Williams guns was in use in the Confederate Army of the West in 1862 but were discarded due to trouble ith the breech lock.

Also see the bottom half of this webpage:
http://library.thinkquest.org/27411/rapidfire.html

cannonmn
04-29-2008, 11:09 AM
The Williams Gun is a possibility but it only had one barrel. There were a number of "revolving guns" invented prior to and probably during the Civil War, and all either had multiple barrels that revolved around an axis, or multiple chambers that revolved around either a vertical or horizontal axis. There was even, I think, an official category in the US Patent system at the time called "revolving guns" which mostly had a revolving set of chambers.

My thought is that we should keep looking to see if Hill wasn't talking about something besides a Williams gun, which I don't really think would have been called a revolving gun. But I could be dead wrong too!

cannonmn
04-29-2008, 11:12 AM
Ooops, I just remembered the Gorgas gun, a gun with a large disc on top which held maybe 12 chambers. Each chamber had a percussion nipple as I recall. I have the patent drawing somewhere. I'm pretty sure that's going to be the gun. I have no idea if the original exists. I wasn't even sure it ever got manufactured in full scale.

Jason Connerley 12390
04-29-2008, 11:19 AM
My thought is that we should keep looking to see if Hill wasn't talking about something besides a Williams gun, which I don't really think would have been called a revolving gun. But I could be dead wrong too!

Excellent point! As a newbie I am trying to read up and had just read that section the other day so it was fresh in my mind. That and the date / location in Barrett's post caught my attention. If nothing else the war brought inventors out of the woodwork, surely there were other revolving pieces out there!

Jason Connerley

Opps, sorry about the late post I was typing while cannonmn was posting! :oops:

cannonmn
04-30-2008, 11:52 AM
There's a picture of the Gorgas gun prototype (?) in this discussion, and also a link within it to a good 5-page artricle on CW rapid-fire weapons.

http://www.go2gbo.com/forums/index.php/ ... 680.0.html (http://www.go2gbo.com/forums/index.php/topic,141680.0.html)