Featured Carbines | menmachineandcarbine

"The Cosmopolitan and Gwyn & Campbell, both carbines were essentially obsolete from the start"
--Thomas B. Rentschler, Cosmopolitan and Gwyn & Campbell Carbines in the Civil War: A Definitive Illustrated History of Two Rare and Unusual Civil War Cavalry Carbines and their Use in the Field, p. 78

Burnside

"Burnside's gun earned a distinguished military reputation, even if its inventor did not."
-- Roger Pauly Firearms: The Life Story of A Technology, p. 93

ARTIFACT AND PHOTO: NATIONAL FIREARMS MUSEUM

Model 1862

ARTIFACT AND PHOTO: CINCINNATI MUSEUM CENTER

Gwyn & Campbell Model 1863

Model 1863

New Model 1863

“The Spencer Carbine was issued to the Regiment. The best Cavalry Arm up to this Time it was a Stock Loading Gun a 7 Shooter easy to Fire on Horseback and could be Loaded or Charged while in Motion, even on a Gallop after a little Practice. We now for the first time felt properly armed and were More willing to Face the Foe”

--Josiah Conzett, Company E, 5th Iowa Cavalry

“I consider it the most superior small arm I have ever seen”

--2nd Liet. A. B. Chapman of the 1st Dragoons, Commanding Company K, February 10, 1858, Sharps Carbines: Official Certificate of Value by Officers of the Army (document recopied on p. 35 of Martin Rywell’s The Gun that Shaped American Destiny)

Please click on the name of each gun to find out more.

Four Carbines used
in the Civil War

ARTIFACT AND PHOTO: NATIONAL FIREARMS MUSEUM