POTD: Ambitious but Flawed – Lindsay Two-Shot Musket
Sam.S 05.23.24
Welcome to today’s Photo of the Day! By 1860, John Parker Lindsay realized that he could design a muzzle-loading rifle that required only one trigger pull yet still fired two shots in rapid succession. Somehow, the United States Army found the ambitious prototype appealing during the Civil War. In December of 1863, a deal was struck between the Army and Lindsay to buy 1,000 of his special “Two-Shot” muskets at $25 each. They arrived in August next year and were given to the 16th Michigan Volunteer Infantry for battlefield testing. Initial examinations at West Point had shown this two-barrel system would work acceptably because it was observed how the first shot helps clean a bore for the second one. However, the brutal realities of warfare exposed fatal inadequacies. Soldiers established that these guns often double-fired their triggers causing both barrels to be discharged just once hence defeating their purpose as twin shot chambers. More critically however is that the ignition tube on front barrel fouled up fast after one fire thus making it useless for firing the second bullet. The revolutionary design was simply not as dependable as expected. Yet about a thousand total Lindsay Two-Shot muskets were produced and issued to some other Michigan and New Hampshire regiments too with an example being regimental number 46 written above; most went unused though owing to various reasons. However, military authorities did not think twice before dropping them from their list of future procurements.
“Approximately 1,000 of these two shot rifle-muskets were manufactured by J.P. Lindsay of New York in 1863-1864. They are known to have been tested by or been issued to the 5th, 16th, and 23rd Michigan and 9th New Hampshire. The 9th tested “the new double-shooting rifles” on 8 November 1864 and found that they “…showed off their demerits to good advantage, flashed, fizzled, and failed famously; enough to secure their condemnation and a speedy exchange to the Springfield rifle.” However, it appears the 16th Michigan carried the rifles for at least a short time during the Petersburg campaign. This rifle is featured on pages 404 and 406 of “American Military Shoulder Arms, Volume III” by George Moller. Two circled script “ADK” (Andrew D. King) inspection cartouches are on the left stock flat. A “GDM” collection mark is at the toe. Includes a US socket bayonet and leather sling. Provenance: The George Moller Collection”
Lot 3178: Documented U.S. Lindsay “Two Shot” 1863 Double Rifle-Musket – Documented Civil War U.S. Lindsay “Two Shot” Model 1863 Double Percussion Rifle-Musket with Bayonet. (n.d.-v). Rock Island Auction Company. photograph. Retrieved May 23, 2024, from https://www.rockislandauction.com/detail/83/3178/documented-us-lindsay-two-shot-1863-double-riflemusket.
