The Sharps Breechloading Carbine, in both the New Model 1859 and New Model 1863 configurations, was the most used carbine to see service with the United States Cavalry during the American Civil War. From their initial deliveries to the Ordnance Department in early 1860, through the end of the Civil War, the Sharps Rifle Manufacturing Company delivered a total of 77,330 Sharps percussion breechloading carbines. Throughout the war, the Sharps outnumbered the other carbines in the field by as many as about 6 to 1. According to the December 1862 Ordnance Department returns, there were already 13,645 Sharps in the field, with the Smith Carbine being the next most issued carbine in the field at 1,922. The September 1863 Ordnance Department returns showed similar numbers with 20,378 Sharps in the field, with the next most issued carbine in the field at that time being the Burnside, of which 8,179 were in service. While the Spencer Carbine was eventually issued in very large numbers during the last eighteen months of the war, no carbine ever superseded the Sharps for overall numbers, quality, and durability. Field reports regarding the service of the Sharps carbine during the war were almost entirely positive, with very few negative reports noted. 

Not only did the Union cavalry have an affinity for the Sharps design, but so did the Confederacy. In the months leading up to the outbreak of hostilities, southern states like Georgia and Virginia purchased Sharps carbines, both directly from Sharps and on the open market from retailers and distributors. The carbine was so well designed, simple to use and durable in the field that the Confederacy even strove to produce their own version of the carbine. Initially these guns were produced by the firm of S.C. Robinson of Richmond, VA, but eventually the Confederate central government took over the Robinson production facilities in an attempt to streamline production and increase the output of these southern made Sharps copies.

During the course of the war, the two primary variations of the carbine to see service were the New Model 1859 and New Model 1863. Both were single shot, .52 caliber carbines with 22” barrels that were secured to the forend with a single spring-retained barrel band and a screw. They featured a “falling block” breech loading action and the automated Lawrence Pellet Priming System. A folding leaf rear sight that was graduated to 800-yards was installed on the barrel and a German silver front sight blade was installed in a fixed iron base near the muzzle. Most of the guns featured a sling bar and ring on the reverse of the frame to allow the gun to be slung while mounted. The standard finish was a blued barrel with a color casehardened receiver, hammer and operating lever. Small parts like screws and springs were fire blued. Early production guns were brass mounted, but rather quickly the patchbox, buttplate and barrel band were changed to iron, with the first two components color casehardened. With the introduction of the New Model 1863, the patchbox was eliminated. Stocks were of American black walnut with a smooth straight grip and crescent butt and a smooth formed.

Prior to the introduction of the newly designed Model 1859, the Sharps breechloaders had used a “slant breech” breech block design that was set at about a 22-degree again from the perpendicular, or at a 112-degree angle to the barrel. From the initial Sharps designs back to the late 1840s, some degree of gas leakage between the breechblock and barrel had been an ongoing issue. Numerous small design changes and fixes were tried to solve this issue, but none were as successful as the Sharps Rifle Manufacturing Company wanted them to be, nor were they as successful as the Ordnance Department wanted them to be. It would be Richard S. Lawrence, formerly of Robbins & Lawrence of Windsor, VT that would finally improve the breechblock design to resolve most of the gas leakage issues. 

In 1858 Lawrence started to experiment with a “straight breech” design, with the breech block perpendicular to the barrel, set at a 90-degree angle with no “slant”. This also allowed the block to move straight up and down when operated. This improved the gas leakage issue. At about the same time Lawrence also patented an improvement for the pellet primer system, allowing it to be disabled to prevent pellet feed when the action was operated. This prevented the waste of pellets if the action was worked without firing the gun and also allowed the use of conventional percussion caps. Finally, Lawrence designed a new folding ladder rear sight that as an improvement on all of the previous rear sight designs. A number of patents were issued to Lawrence for his design improvements and taken as a whole the new gun was designated the Model 1859 by the Sharps company.

Like the earlier Sharps long arms, the Model 1859 was brass mounted, with a brass patchbox, buttplate and single flat barrel band that was retained by spring. The carbines appeared at about serial number 30,000 but did not remain in production very long before some more improvements were made to the breechblock design, resulting in the New Model 1859 designation. The team of authors and researchers who wrote Sharps Firearms – The Percussion Era 1848-1866 have noted that that the earliest serial number noted for a “New Model” 1859 is #30,875. It is worth noting that the longarms produced by the Sharps Rifle Manufacturing Company were all serialized somewhat consecutively in a single serial number range. As such there is overlap between the various models, with both military and civilian arms as well as carbines and rifles are all interspersed within the same group of numbers. Most sources list the New Model 1859 serial numbers as running from about 30,000 to about 59,000 with some 27,000 of the guns made between late 1858 and early 1863. However, at least one New Model 1859 carbine is known with the serial number 80,894 which is well within the range of the New Model 1863 guns, which run nominally from about #71,000 to #C,49528 (149,528). Production of the early, brass mounted Sharps New Model Carbines is estimated to be about 3,000 and these guns are found in the 30,000 to 36,000 serial number range. Of those guns, several hundred were delivered to the Ordnance Department under contract to the US Government, with the first 200 brass mounted Sharps New Model 1859 Carbines being delivered to the St. Louis Arsenal in mid-January of 1860, where they were issued to the 1^st US Cavalry, including Company G. Interestingly Company G had a young lieutenant named J.E.B. Stuart as one of its officers. Stuart would go on to be one of the most famous cavalry commanders in history, certainly of the Civil War, leading the Army of Northern Virginia’s cavalry for Robert E. Lee, until his death at Yellow Tavern.

The Sharps carbine was not only used by the US Cavalry, but by the US Navy as well. For decades, an odd variant of the New Model 1859 Carbines has been known to collectors, who refer to it as the “Navy” model. These guns were produced without a sling bar and ring on the reverse of the frame but had a sling swivel in the toe of the stock and were intended to be used with the sling that had a loop that went around the barrel with the sling then passing through the swivel in the toe of the stock. For many years these guns were certainly a conundrum for collectors and even now with much more in depth research available about the Civil War used Sharps guns, it is not clear exactly how these guns were procured by the Navy or exactly how many of the gun were produced.

These guns appear mixed throughout the 40,XXX through the 44,XXX range, and that serial number range does provide some hints as to how or why they might have been assembled without the sling bar on the frame. In the summer of 1861, the US Navy ordered 1,500 .52 caliber New Model 1859 Rifles from Sharps through their agent John T Mitchell. These guns are known to collectors as the “Mitchell Contract” Sharps Navy Rifles. The order was placed in early June of 1861, and the guns were delivered by August of that year. These guns appear intermixed in the low 40,XXX serial number range and many of the rifles appear to have seen service with the “Brown Water Navy” which were the naval gunboats operating on the Mississippi River. That information is important for the context of how the “Naval” Sharps Carbines were identified as being Navy guns.

No surviving records regarding the Navy’s acquisition of these New Model 1859 Carbines have been unearthed, but in the post-Civil War period those carbines were officially identified as having once been US Navy property. Apparently when the Civil War concluded, and the Navy was winding down its river operations on the Mississippi, the Navy was looking for a location to send and store the small arms that had been on the river gunboats. In June of 1865, Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles wrote a letter to Secretary of War Edwin Stanton asking if the US Navy small arms that were being removed from the river fleet could be sent to Jefferson Barracks near St. Louis for storage. This was agreed to and the guns were forwarded to St. Louis. Apparently,  the fact that these were “navy” guns and not “army” guns was either forgotten or ignored, but the next time the guns are referenced is in 1871, when Capt. Shoemaker at the Fort Union Arsenal noted that he had 190 .50-70 cartridge altered Sharps Carbines in inventory but that they did not have sling bars and rings. Shoemaker wrote to Springfield Arsenal about the guns, noting that they were “unsuited for cavalry use” (McAulay) and requested that 200 replacement carbines be sent to him so he could issue guns with saddle bars and rings. It became apparent that when the guns were in storage at Jefferson Barracks, they were included in a shipment of Sharps Carbines sent to Sharps to be altered to cartridge circa 1867-1868. At some point after their alteration, they were sent out to Fort Union in their new .50-70 chambering without anyone noticing, or caring, that they did not have saddle bars. The response from Springfield was that these were old Navy guns, but nobody was sure exactly how the Navy had obtained them. However, their serial number range does give us a hint. Since these guns were made without the hole in the reverse receiver to mount the sling bar, it indicates that they were made with rifle, rather than carbine receivers. As they appear in the same basic serial number range as the Mitchell Contract naval rifles, and then slightly above it, the most logical explanation is that they were made up with leftover rifle receivers from the Mitchell order. We also know that in 1863 Sharps tried to sell more rifles to the Navy and the Navy declined the offer. It appears that at some time between the Mitchell deliveries in August of 1861 and the adoption of the New Model 1863 updates, that Sharps made up a few hundred carbines with these left-over rifle receivers and no sling bars. Likely due to the wartime pressure to increase production. Exactly how many were produced and delivered is unclear, but with the documentation that 190 were altered to .50-70 and given the lack of percussion examples on the collector market, it is unlikely that more than about 500 were made. 500 also makes sense, as that indicates that Sharps may have thought that with an order for 1,500 rifles, which were being delivered in batches of 500, it might be prudent to have parts on hand to make another 500 rifles if the Navy decided to increase the order.

Offered here is a VERY GOOD+ to NEAR FINE condition example of one of those rarely encountered Sharps New Model 1859 Navy Carbines. The carbine is serial number 44048, and the matching serial number 44048 is present under the barrel as well, concealed by the forend. The barrel is sub-inspected with the small block letters C.W.H. on the left flat, the mark of civilian arsenal sub-inspector Charles W. Hartwell. In August of 1861, right at the time the delivery of the Mitchell contract rifles was being completed, Hartwell was sent to the Sharps factory along with inspector William Chapman by Captain of Ordnance Robert H.K. Whiteley to “take charge of the inspection of Sharps Carbines” (Daum & Pate) and in his orders told them to “have every one well proved but do not take them to pieces & go into the minute details of inspection.” (emphasis added) This statement may provide another clue as to why these guns were made up, inspected and accepted. The left wrist of the carbine is stamped with a partly legible script WC cartouche, the mark of arsenal sub-inspector William Chapman who was the other half of the inspection team. Whiteley’s letter suggests that the pressing need for the Sharps Carbines meant that the Ordnance Department was not overly concerned about little details in the inspection of the guns but was more interested in getting functional carbines into the field. In fact, his orders apparently implored the pair to “work nights if necessary to keep up with production.”(Daum & Pate) Most likely the broad latitude given the pair to accept functional carbines meant that they would accept a gun without a saddle bar and ring. Once guns like this were delivered, it is likely that the Ordnance Department then sent them to the Navy for use, or even to infantry or artillerymen who were being seconded to serve in the “Brown Water Navy” to fill out the crews of those gunboats. This is the best explanation for how these guns entered naval service without any real “paper trail,” an official order or contract.

The gun is well marked throughout with all of the standard markings present and fully legible. The lockplate is marked in two locations. On the upper portion of the lockplate, behind the hammer it is marked in two horizontal lines:

R.S. LAWRENCE PAT.

APRIL 12^th, 1858

This mark references Lawrence’s improvements to the pellet priming mechanism. The lock plate is also marked in two horizontal lines on the rear portion, behind the hammer: 

C. SHARPS’

OCT. 5^th 1852

The left side of the receiver is marked in two lines: 

C. SHARPS’ PAT

SEPT 12^th 1848

The top of the barrel is marked NEW MODEL 1859 in front of the breech and

SHARPS’ RIFLE

MANUFG. CO.

HARTFORD CONN.

in front of the rear sight. The rear sight base is marked in three horizontal lines: 

R.S. LAWRENCE

PATENTED

FEB. 15^th 1859

This mark also references one of Lawrence’s patented improvements incorporated into the Model 1859 and New Model 1859, in this case the new rear sight design.

As noted, the gun remains in VERY GOOD+ to NEAR FINE condition. The gun remains in wonderful, untouched and fairly crisp condition with some nice traces and freckles of thinning blue on the barrel, mixed with a rich plum brown patina that is very attractive. The barrel shows some scattered patches of minor surface oxidation here and there and some small areas of very minor surface roughness. The underside of the barrel retains more original thinning blue finish, possibly as much as 10%-20% of that blue is present where it has been protected by the forend. The receiver and lock have a mottled and lightly oxidized brownish patina that suggests the original mottled case coloring, and some traces of the faded case colors are still visible on the face of the lock plate. There are hints of faded blues and purples mixed with mottled grays and brown, that hint at the original brilliant, mottled colors. The pellet priming system appears to be complete, and you can see the feed arm and piston move when you cock the hammer. The balance of the action functions exactly as it should with the lock operating crisply and breech block and lever moving smoothly. The breech block also retains some nice, faded and dulled traces of case coloring on its interior. The casehardened iron furniture has a nice, uncleaned mottled  brownish patina with hints of blues and grays that again suggests the original case colored mottling and is very attractive. The carbine retains its original and correct short ladder New Model 1859 carbine rear sight that is graduated to “8” for 800-yards. The sight ladder and leaf operate smoothly and retain some strong traces of their original blued finish. The original German silver front sight blade is in place in the iron base on top of the barrel, near the muzzle. The original sling swivel is in place in the toe of the stock and of course there is no sling bar or mounting hole for the bar. The screws and small parts all have a dull, uncleaned brownish patina, with some of the screw heads showing some light to moderate slot wear. The bore of the carbine is in about GOOD+ to NEAR VERY GOOD condition. The bore is partly bright and moderately oxidized with some evenly scattered pitting and good, clear rifling. The wood of the carbine is also in VERY GOOD condition. The wood shows numerous scattered bumps, dings and mars from handling and use, as well as some minor scuffs and scratches. The wood shows no indications of having been sanded or refinished and remains solid without any breaks or repairs.

Overall, this is a really attractive and very nice condition example of a Navy Variant Sharps New Model 1859 Carbine. The gun is just a very nice, honest example. These “Navy Variant” carbines are quite rear and realistically it is unlikely that more than 500 were produced. Of those, we know that 190 were altered to .50-70, making the original percussion guns even less common. If you are an advanced collector of Civil War Navy small arms or an advanced collector of military Sharps firearms, this is a gun you probably don’t have in your collection. Don’t miss your chance to add this rare and interesting Sharps Carbine to your collection.