Existing comment:
Leech & Rigdon revolver, 1863
Repeating firearms increased a soldier's fire rate exponentially.
Used primarily by officers and cavalrymen on both sides, revolvers allowed high fire rates at close range. Most Civil War revolvers fired six shots before each cylinder needed to be individually reloaded with gunpowder, projectile, and detonator (percussion cap). Thomas Leech & Charles Rigdon produced about 1,000 pistols for the Confederacy at its factories in Mississippi and Georgia. |