Old Reliable

At Creedmoor, Long Island, on September 13 and 14, 1877, the American long-range rifle team decisively defeated the British at the International Match. Moreover, the Yankee victors established a new world's record. The rifle used by the winners was the SharpsBorchardt single-shot breech-loader. The English marksmen still relied on muzzle-loading arms whose ancestors were the ancient Tower muskets.This proved to be the dramatic culminating chapter in the sometimes confusing but always decisive history of the rifle invented by gunsmith Christian Sharps in 1848. A firearm popular from the beginning in its first use by U.S. mounted troops in the frontier West-and one whose action is still a favorite today with many gun specialists because of its rugged, clean design and adaptability to individual requirements.

On the results at Creedmoor the London Sporting Gazette of September 29, 1877, commented: . . . "It has been suggested that the American victory is a victory of superior rifles, not of superior marksmen, and indeed in the Sharps Rifle the Americans seem to have at last secured a match rifle which, for accuracy at long range, is unsurpassed, perhaps unequaled.... Nevertheless, the fact still remains that the Americans, with only four years' experience of long-range shooting, are able to beat us both in rifles and marksmen, though we have had fifteen years' experience. The sudden growth and rapid spread of the taste for long-range shooting in America are very remarkable, and prove that the Americans must all along have had a latent, undeveloped aptitude for marksmanship, which only required to be called into existence to become universal". . .

How this editorial conclusion could go so wide of the mark is difficult to comprehend, unless its writer knew next to nothing about American history. Had he never heard of the Pennsylvania long rifle developed between 1720 and 1730? Or the Kentucky long rifle-that came directly out of the Pennsylvanias, carried into the new frontier by Daniel Boone and his followers? The men who used these guns, and those who succeeded them, became pretty fair shots. Especially at long range. The British learned this during the Revolutionary War. Average shooting with a flintlock long rifle about then was a 3-inch group at 100 yards, and a 7-inch group at 200 yards. Today that is good going with a .30-30 deer rifle.

There was a lot of shooting after that in America. The War of 1812 . . . the War with Mexico beginning in 1847 . . . Indian fighting . . . and game hunting as the migration westward swept across the Great Plains and the Rockies to the Pacific. And then came the Civil War. Fancy shooting in that one, too-in which the Sharps rifle and carbine were stellar performers, as we shall see. Verily, American proficiency with the rifle at Creed-moor in 1877 was something more than the sudden release of "a latent, undeveloped aptitude for marksmanship." It was proof of fact long standing.

The new Sharps-Borchardt model that won at Creed-moor was the last of a long line of rifles and carbines bearing the name Sharps. And though perhaps few realized it even as late as '77, the Sharps-first successful breech-loading rifle-long since had assured its place among classic American firearms.

As in most crafts of the early 1800's, an apprentice-ship was prerequisite in the art of hand and machine gun-making. With such a background Christian Sharps in 1830 came to the Harpers Ferry Arsenal in Virginia under direction of Captain John Harris Hall. From experience there young Christian undoubtedly conceived his own ideas for a breech-loading mechanism. When the Harpers Ferry shops closed about 1844 Sharps moved to Cincinnati, Ohio. Four years later he was granted U.S. Patent No. 5763 on an original claim ending as follows: "What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-1. The combination of the sliding breech with the barrel, the breech-supporter, and the stock, in such a manner that when the sliding breech is forced down, the breech-bore will be so exposed as to enable it to receive a cartridge on a line with the bore, and when the sliding breech is forced up, it will shear off the end of the cartridge, so as to expose the powder to the fire communication, and will firmly and securely close the breech-bore, substantially as herein set forth.

"2. The combination of the cap-nipple with the sliding breech, substantially in the manner and for the purpose herein set forth."

The "cartridge" referred to here was a cylinder of paper or linen containing the powder charge and ball. A cloth patch folded over the lead bullet wiped the barrel bore with each shot. Powder was ignited by a percussion cap struck by the falling hammer. In the Sharps system the caps were fed to the nipple under spring pressure through a tube. With each operation of the hand lever raising the vertically sliding block, a fresh cap was thus placed in position over the nipple for the next shot.

A significant feature of Sharps' patent specification, revealing of the man, is the fact that he openly invited others to participate immediately in his invention. In the printed form issued by the United States Patent Office the third paragraph stated: "To enable others skilled in the art to make and use my invention, I will proceed to describe its construction and operation." This he did in detail. It affords a key, we believe, to the entire pattern of Sharps' business experience.

First step by the inventor was to commission the Robbins and Lawrence Company of Windsor, Vermont, to make the new gun. This concern (particularly with the talents of Richard S. Lawrence) developed for the Sharps the machine tools and fabricating processes permitting interchangeability of parts-the mass production commonplace of today that was only in its primitive stages in the late '40's and early '50's with such other exponents as Eli Whitney Jr. and Samuel Colt.

In 1850 Sharps submitted his rifle to Army Ordnance. As others had before him, the inventor encountered stiff resistance to anything new by old-line Army die-hards. This despite the fact that the report made by the Army Ordnance Board on November 27 that year was favorable to the new arm and recommended further tests and placing some of the guns with troops in the field for service tryout.

Not until nearly four years later, however, were additional rests made under Army direction. The report on these was unfavorable. Still, 200 of the improved carbine model with tape primer invented by a dentist named Edward Maynard were ordered on July 28, 1854, and issued to mounted troops. Among the units was the ist U.S. Dragoons under Colonel Wright, which gave the Sharps its combat baptism against Indians in New Mexico and elsewhere in the Southwest.

By 1859 the Ordnance Department had accumulated a volume of requests for Sharps carbines from men in the field-demands it was not prepared to fill, since nothing had been done in the interim toward acquiring enoughguns. A senate inquiry into the matter resulted in a War Department report in March of that year that Ordnance had only 150 of the arms on hand unissued.

Meanwhile, those to whom Christian Sharps had assigned rights to manufacture the gun of his invention had not been idle. By 1855 more than 14,000 of the rifles and carbines had been sold to individuals and foreign governments, including one order for 6,000 carbines for British cavalry. The status of Christian Sharps throughout all this activity will be dealt with shortly.

It was during this early period of private commercial sales that Sharps popularity with the hunter in frontier America gained its strong start. The Sharps has always been associated with the lore of buffalo hunting, and rightly so. Just how a successful "buffalo runner" of the '70's operated was described in The American Rifleman of September-October, 1934, by 84-year-old Frank H. Mayer, professional bison hunter of the period. Mayer's favorite gun was the Sharps .45-120-550-a rifle he said was "unsurpassed in accuracy by any other weapon known to man."

Old hunter Mayer's account of his buffalo slaying experiences do not jibe with at least two popular notions on this subject: One that the animals were best killed at full gallop from horseback; the other that buffalo running was a profession by which top exponents could and did make small fortunes.

According to Mayer, shooting the beasts from a running horse was a bad method on several counts, spectacular though it was. This immediately scattered A herd, was hard on horses and left carcasses strewn over a wide area, making skinning operations and hide hauling difficult. Mayer's procedure (and that of the best hunters, he averred) was carefully to stalk a grazing herd on foot without detection, which usually brought the shooter to about 300 yards from the animals. Kills could be made at ranges up to 1,000 yards, he said. With the hunter kneeling on one knee, the fore part of the rifle was rested in the crotch formed by two rigid wood sticks about 40 inches long and crossed four inches from the tops to form an X support. The hand or finger in contact with the barrel or forestock also rested in the support crotch. A cow was downed first, which set the herd milling slowly about her. Then the bulls were methodically felled with one-shot kills placed either in the neck just ahead of the hump or, with greater skill, through the heart very low in the buffalo's chest cavity. The year's work in 1874-his best, Mayer said-netted him just $3,124.

One of the most colorful chapters in the Sharps saga was written during the period of 1855-1860 in connection with the struggle in Kansas Territory between the settlers and pro-slavery interests. A bloody internal factional war that, insofar as Sharps weapons figured, culminated in John Brown's celebrated raid on Harpers Ferry in 1859.

Early in the Kansas trouble the New England Emigrant Aid Company bought 100 Sharps carbines, primers and accessories for the settlers, shipping the lot on the steamer Arabia up the Missouri River. When the ship docked at Lexington, Missouri, a gang of opposition henchmen boarded her and stole the entire shipment. Some such move had been anticipated by the New Englanders, and all the breech-blocks for the guns had been removed and shipped by a different route. The guns were later recovered and put to use by the Kansas antislavery people.

About this same time the Massachusetts State Committee involved in the Kansas dispute purchased 200 Sharps carbines for delivery to free-staters in the embattled territory. A sudden truce there stopped the shipment in Iowa to prevent confiscation by U.S. troops patrolling the Kansas border. John Brown, who had established himself as the outstanding free-state figure in the Kansas strife, wanted those 200 Sharps carbines for a very good reason-one that was to prove a key incident in events leading up to the outbreak of war between the states. This was Brown's daring raid on Harpers Ferry in 1859 as the opening move in his unsuccessful attempt to organize slaves in a rebellion against their masters. After Brown's capture by forces under Colonel Robert E. Lee, about a hundred of the original 200 carbines also were seized nearby in Maryland. The guns were stored at the Army's Harpers Ferry Arsenal, where they fell into Confederate hands after outbreak of hostilities.

And now Sharps rifles and carbines, already introduced by the cavalry against Indians in the Southwest, were to be fired from both sides in the battles of state against state, American against American. War Department records show that between January 1, 1861, and June 30, 1866, the federal government purchased 9,141 Sharps rifles and 80,512 carbines. The latter were of course used in far greater numbers because they were adapted for mounted troops which, because of their mobility and speed, were also employed as ground forces after their objective had been reached. As the fighting wore on, more and more Sharps transferred to Southern soldiers. Soon copies of the guns were being made for issue to Confederate troops.

Most famous unit in the Northern army to be identified directly with Sharps was the command of Colonel Hiram Berdan, which achieved early and lasting fame as "Berdan's Sharpshooters." It should be remembered here that the name "Sharpshooters" did not derive from the fact that they were armed with Sharps rifles. Though this was certainly a remarkable coincidence. The term meaning military riflemen adept at hitting targets at extreme range is found in English books printed in 1808 and 1811, wherein reference is made to the "Duke of Cumberland's Sharp Shooters."

Colonel Berdan, an arms expert himself, realized the strategic value of the comparatively fast-firing, accurate and dependable Sharps. Following a bitter conflict with the Ordnance Department the officer finally in the summer of 1862 was granted a complete issue of .54 caliber Sharps rifles with 30-inch barrels, many of them fitted with telescopic sights for sharpshooting. (The word "sniper" was unknown then.) Assisted by his right-hand lieutenant, a Western scout known as "California Joe" (whose much less romantic real name was Truman Head), Colonel Berdan and his phantom executioners became the justly feared scourge of the men in gray. After the Civil War the metallic center-fire cartridge with its integral primer soon replaced the percussion system in all popular arms. The Sharps, along with the rest, was converted to use of the new cartridges,