The Smith Carbine

When we think of Civil War firearms, our thoughts immediately go to the 1861 Springfield and 1853 Enfield muzzle loading rifled muskets. These were, indeed, by far the most common arms in the hands of the forces on both sides. But there were also other, more modern options that allowed for much faster loading. The military thinking at the beginning of the Civil War was that artillery could suppress defense and ground was taken at the point of the bayonet by frontal assault.

This thinking persisted, to a lesser degree, until World War One when the machine gun brought an end to such foolishness. Our image of the cavalry charge, with saber held high and a cap and ball revolver in hand, has been ingrained in our minds through countless movies and it has its roots in reality.

A muzzle loading firearm is difficult to load A rugged, compact, breechloading calvary arm in the age of muzzle loading arms. from the back of a horse and should that horse be running it becomes nearly impossible for the average trooper. So, the saber and a brace of revolvers was the best option until the advent of the breech loading carbine. Starting in the late 1840s breechloaders were being patented and produced. As usual, the military was slow to incorporate this innovative technology.

The cavalry was the first branch to not only see the advantages of the system but to actually issue it to the troops. As far back as 1811, the Hall carbine was patented and was followed by the Sharps in 1848. That opened the floodgates and variations began to appear, each searching for the holy grail of speed and ease of loading. Each inventor had his own ideas of how to improve the system, starting with the Sharps and its self-contained breech-loaded paper cartridge.

In 1857, the Smith Carbine came along with an India rubber case preloaded with powder and ball. The Burnside rotated the entire chamber up with the hinge at the rear and a self-contained tapered cartridge loaded into it from the front. Step by step, each design represented an improvement, or at least a different idea, on how to improve upon the previous design. The Maynard used a brass case but it still had a hole in the base for the flash from a musket cap to ignite the powder.

Then in 1860, Spencer put it all together with a seven shot repeater using internally primed rimfire metallic cartridges. The Southern soldiers dubbed it "That damn Yankee gun you could load on Sunday and shoot all week." Assembled with powder and lead bullet, this made breech loading fast and easy.

This system allows for breech loading and a good seal as the expansion of the gas expands the rubber case to create a seal. No ramrod and no powder fouling in the barrel to fight. Smith Carbine Particulars The gun we’ll look at here is the Smith Carbine, .50 caliber breech-loading rifle patented by Gilbert Smith on June 23, 1857 which successfully completed military trials of the late 1850s. It was used by various cavalry units during the American Civil War.

Designed by Gilbert Smith, the Smith Carbine had a unit cost $35 in 1859 and 30,062 were made. The Smith Carbine was unique in that it broke apart in the middle for loading and it used rubber cartridges to seal gas pressure in the breech. The downside was that these cartridges were difficult to remove. The carbines were built by Massachusetts Arms Company of Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts; the American Machine Works in Springfield, Massachusetts; or the American Arms Company in Chicopee Falls.

The name of the distributor for the manufacturer, Poultney & Trimble of Baltimore, Maryland, is often stamped on the carbine’s receivers. The Smith Carbine was unique in using a hard rubber cartridge case. Depressing the latch in the trigger guard allowed the barrel to tilt forward for loading. Almost every one of the nearly 31,000 Smith Carbines produced during the Civil War were purchased by the U. S. government.

A large num- The Spencer would make all the single shot systems obsolete with its seven round repeater.

Under the saddle bar is the patent date, above it is marked Poultney & Trimble, who were the contractor Smith used. The name of the manufacturer is also just above the front of the saddle bar. The guns were manufactured by either Massachusetts Arms or American Machine Works. The weak link in the system is the link connecting the mainspring to the tumbler seen in the upper right of the photo.

It was broken when I purchased this example and replacements have to be hand made and fitted. ber of Smiths were captured and used by Confederate cavalry early in the war. I was fortunate enough to run into a Smith Carbine found for a price I could afford at the Tulsa Gunshow and bought it. The Smith was the fourth most produced breechloader of the War at over 30,000 made.

The Spencer was the most produced with approximately 200,000 made, the Sharps was second with about 120,000, the Burnside was third with around 100,000, then the Smith in fourth, followed by the Starr at 25,000, and the Maynard with 21,000. There were others of course, but their numbers were even smaller. Anyone that has ever fired a single shot break open shotgun will have a pretty good idea of what the action of the Smith is like. The release is located in the trigger guard just above and ahead of the trigger.

Pushing up on it will release the latch from the lug located on the top of the receiver. The gun will then break open, revealing a split breech. The split breech simply means that part of the chamber is in the barrel and the other part is in the receiver. When the cartridge is placed in the barrel part of the chamber it can only be inserted about half way. When the action is closed the back half of the cartridge enters the other half of the chamber in the receiver.

This arrangement eliminates any possibility of gas leaking around the base of the rubber cartridge case and after firing, allows the user to easily extract the fired case from the forward part of the chamber. It is a simple and clever design that eliminates the need for an extractor and an ejector. The gun was designed by Gilbert Smith, who was a machinist for Hoe and Company in New York making printing presses.

He got his design patented in 1857 and, because he did not have manufacturing facilities, the guns were made by the Massachusetts Arms Company and American Machine Works and are marked with the manufacturer’s names. The guns are well made and rugged and the troops armed with it seemed well satisfied. Then the Spencer arrived and sounded the death knell for all the single shot designs that still required a percussion cap.

The Spencer’s self-contained rimfire carbine that held seven shots was the wave of the future and the industry would never look back. The Smith is .50 caliber and is charged with 40 grains of black powder. Depending on the actual bore diameter, the cases can be loaded with 0.515" diameter cast lead bullets that are available for the 50-70 with fair results.

Mine shoots better groups with the 0.518 diameter, 354 grain bullet from a mold I got from Eras Gone Bullet Molds (Eras- GoneBullets.com, A musket cap on the nipple provides the ignition source. In years past the Smith Carbines were pretty much collector’s items due to the scarcity of the India rubber cases but today those cases are available in polyurethane and can be reloaded several times.

They are available from a few sources, including S&S Firearms (SSfirearms. com, Lodgewood Manufacturing Ltd. (Lodgewood. com, and Dixie Gun Works (DixieGunWorks.com, All in all, the Smith Carbine is an interesting firearm that is pleasant to shoot, reasonably accurate, historically significant, and should continue to increase in value as an authentic Civil War firearm. That is a combination that is hard to beat. AG

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