Less Common Guns

in the Civil War

LeMat

The unique LeMat revolver has always captured the hearts of some Civil War enthusiasts.  It is the only Civil War era revolver invented by a Southerner.  This very unusual pistol carries ten shots; most revolvers only carry five or six.

Packing ten full power shots into one revolver makes it heavy at 3 1/2 pounds, and wide.  It would be bulky carried under a coat.  The cylinder with nine 42 caliber bullets revolves around a short 20 (.63") gauge shotgun barrel. The rifled pistol barrel is 6-3/4" long; the shotgun barrel located underneath is 5" long.

The LeMat was invented in 1856 by Dr. Jean Alexandre Francois LeMat of New Orleans and manufactured at various times from 1856 to 1865 in Liege, Belgium; Paris, France; and Birmingham, England.

Most (but not all) of the 2,800 or so made were shipped to the Confederacy, but only part of those shipped would have made it through the blockade.  Battlefield and other losses make original LeMats rare and extremely expensive on the collectors market.  So expensive, that three versions of the LeMat are available as a modern made replica, including from Dixie Gun Works.  The newly made ones come in 44 caliber instead of the 42 caliber of the original.  In the few years newly made LeMats have been available, more new ones must have been made then the total original production.

It was loaded with loose blackpowder and a bare bullet referred to as "cap and ball," or with paper cartridges. Loading a cap and ball revolver is from the front of the cylinder.  The short 20 gauge shotgun barrel is loaded from the front.  Keeping the buckshot in place with the barrel pointed down while being jarred on a galloping horse must have been an art form.  Both pistol and shotgun loadings are fired with percussion caps. Misfires in cap and ball revolvers were more common than in the subsequent metallic cartridge guns.

The rarest of the rare LeMats is the scaled down version now called a Baby LeMat.  It is a 32 caliber nine shot revolver using a 4-1/2" barrel with a 41 caliber smooth bore very short (2-1/2") center barrel.

For more information, consult "Flayderman's Guide To Antique American Firearms" by Norm Flayderman.

Technical Information

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