James H Merrill (1814-1892) was born in Baltimore, MD in 1814. Litte is known about his early life, but by the age of 24 or so he was working as a gunsmith in that city. An announcement in the April 2, 1838, edition of the Baltimore Sun read:
JAMES H. MERRILL, GUNSMITH, No. 59 SOUTH STREET, Baltimore, respectfully informs his friends in the City and county, and the public generally, that he is prepared to execute all orders with which he may be favored, with neatness and dispatch, and in the most permanent manner. He solicits patronage, which he determined to merit by faithful discharge of duty.
Merrill’s business was not only in the making of arms, but in the repair and retail of them as well. An advertising announcement in the September 16, 1844, edition of the Baltimore Sun read in part:
GUNS, GUNS, GUNS. – JAS. H. MERRILL has just received 600 superior double and single barrel FOWLING PIECES; among them is a lot of CHANCE & FOSS celebrated GUNS…..
The announcement was repeated daily for about a week. Another advertisement in the September 27, 1844, edition of the Baltimore Sun read in part:
THE LARGEST AND BEST SELECTED LOT OF GUNS IN THE MARKET….A great variety of every thing appertaining to the business. Blunt & Sims’ (sic) celebrated SIX SHOTTERS at reduced prices; together with a large assortment of PISTOLS of various patterns; RIFLES made to order at the shortest notice, and sold low for cash. JAS. H. MERRILL, Practical Gun Maker, 65 South street 1 door North of Pratt.
This ad would run in the paper regularly through the rest of 1844. A story about Merrill and his business was published in the December 16, 1844, edition of the Baltimore Sun and is quoted below.
Warlike. - In our round on Saturday we noticed several thousand musket barrels lying on the pavement in Commerce street, in front of the store of Mr. Robert Porter, into which they were being removed. They were, we understood, the property of Mr. Merrill, gunsmith, who intends to put them in shooter order, probably anticipating a call for supplying privateers in case of war with – “some place or another.” We also observed three staid Baltimoreans take their departure southward, having with them five double-barreled guns and “lots of ammunition.” These incidents betoken something. – Texas lays somewhere “down south” – put that together.
Clearly Merrill was trying to capitalize on the rising tensions between Mexico and young Republic of Texas, which would be annexed by the Untied States the following year, laying the groundwork for what would eventually erupt as the Mexican American War in 1846. Like many arms makers in 19th century America, Merrill understood the pathway to major economic success was to sell military arms in large quantities, particularly to the US Government.
By 1853 Merrill had entered into a partnership with Messrs. Latrobe and Thomas and was operating the partnership as Merrill, Latrobe & Thomas at 204 Baltimore Street. A November 8, 1853, advertisement in the Baltimore Sun read:
MERRILL, LATROBE & THOMAS offer for sale at their new Sporting Warehouse, 204 BALTIMORE STREET, Curtis & Harvey’s diamond Grain and Hazzard’s celebrated GUNPOWDER of every quality. Being agents for Melchior’s superior American GUN LOCKS, RIFLES &c. they offer them to the trade for prices far below the cost of the imported article, and solicit an examination of their stock.
Interestingly the ads taken by the firm during 1855 seemed to concentrate on their offering a wide variety of fishing tackle for sale, in particularly touting the “ELASTIC STEEL HOOK, said by those experimenting in Trout Fishing to be the vest ever invented.” The sale of material like that may have helped to finance Merrill’s experimentation with firearms designs, which resulted in his development of a breechloading percussion carbine known to collectors as the Merrill, Latrobe & Thomas Carbine. Merrill managed to get the Ordnance Department to order about 170 of these guns for field trials in 1855 but apparently was in no position to actually manufacture the guns and so contracted with Samuel Remington of E. Remington & Sons to produce them. The arms were marked “Patent Applied For” and the patent for his rotating chamber breechloading percussion ignition system would be granted on January 8, 1856, as US Patent #14077. This would be Merrill’s first venture into the world of military arms contracting and with no further orders forthcoming from the Ordnance Department, he apparently chose to “take the show on the road” in an attempt to sell his design in Russia. An April 24, 1857, story about Merrill in the Baltimore Sun read:
Baltimore Firearms in Russia. – It is stated that our townsman, Mr. Merrill, of the firm of Merrill, Latrobe & Thomas, who has been for the past two years in Russia, has forwarded to the firm here an order form the emperor of Russia for a number of his celebrated rifles, to arm a regiment in order to give them a fair trial. Merrill’s improved rifle is said to be one of the very best inventions of the age, and we have no doubt the Russians will really appreciate its great advantages to the military of that country.
At least one other reference notes that Merrill spent time at the Sestroretsk Arsenal in Russia during this visit, but it is not clear if he was simply trying to sell his concepts or potentially learn more about firearms production on a large scale. It may have also led to Merrill’s design improvement for a breechloading cannon, for which he received his second US Patent (#20,608) on June 15, 1858. He would patent another breechloading cannon system on March 22, 1859, receiving US Patent #23,306 at that time.
The third patent that Merrill appears to have been granted was #20,954 for an “Improvement in Breech-Loading Firearms”, which was issued on July 20, 1858. To the casual observer it appears to cover the breechloading system that is associated with most Merrill firearms. However, even Merrill’s own patent description claims only that,
“My invention may be said mainly to consist in converting the Jenks gun (after it has been made without reorganizing its parts) from a loose powder and ball loader to a cartridge loader, and thus make useful and valuable several thousand stands of arms that are now laid aside as not available for the service; but I should deem a new gun constructed as I have described and shown, whether made anew in whole or in part, as involving my invention, so long as the parts were arranged as I have represented them.”
Conventional wisdom has long held that the alteration of Jenks Carbines and Rifles by the US Navy from round loading apertures to oval ones was to facilitate the use of paper cartridges rather than loose powder and a round ball. Merrill’s patent claim appears to contradict that, suggesting that the oval hole improvement may have only made the loading of loose powder and ball easier. Merrill’s improvements to the Jenks design essentially revolved around the modifications necessary to change the loading aperture to truly accommodate paper cartridges and the modifications to the frame and lever to allow it to move further and more easily act as a rammer to seat the cartridge. The great similarity between the Merrill action and that of the Jenks has always been obvious, suggesting that the Jenks action was Merrill’s inspiration. It may well have been, as the patent declaration is all about Merrill’s improvements to that system.
With this patent under his belt, Merrill approached the Navy Department in an attempt to sell them on his modification for the Jenks Carbines currently in service. By now, his firm was known as Merrill, Thomas & Company, with Latrobe having departed. Despite having ordered some carbines for testing at sea from Burnside, Colt and Joslyn only a few days earlier, on September 20, 1859, the Navy agreed to allow Merrill to alter 300 Jenks Carbines to his system. The alterations not only included the modification to the loading area of the breech and the lever, but they also replaced the Jenks mule ear percussion lock with a conventional percussion lock and a conventional percussion bolster with clean out screw. Merrill made his delivery of 294 modified carbines a year later, in September of 1860. The guns failed to pass inspection for two major reasons, first the Merrill cartridge would not reliably combust and second, when the guns were struck on the butt when coming to order arms, the breech levers tended to pop open! The old Jenks design has relied upon a hooked extension on the top of the mule ear hammer to serve as stop to keep the breech from opening. With the new side hammer lock, this stop was no longer present. Merrill relied upon a spring-loaded catch that engaged an extension at the rear of the US Model 1858 style leaf rear sight base that Merrill had installed during the upgrades to the carbines. The guns were returned to Merrill for repairs and Merrill managed to solve the breech locking problem, which allowed 240 of the guns to finally pass inspection and be accepted for Naval service in January of 1861. It likely that the improvements to the breech locking system, as well as some improvements in the geometry and function of the breech lever and improved obduration to reduce gas leakage were all incorporated into the “repaired” Jenks Carbines. These concepts would be protected by US Patents #32,032 and #32,033 which were both issued on April 9, 1861, and US Patents #32,450 and #32,451, which were both issued on May 28, 1861. Those patent dates would be found on future production Merrill locks.
With Merrill’s overtures to the Ordnance Department not going quite as well as he had hoped, Merrill looked for other work to keep the company afloat. Early in 1861 he accepted a contract from the State of Virginia to alter Virginia Manufactory produced flintlock rifles to percussion rifles. For $2 each he added a brazed percussion bolster over the flint touchhole, a bolster that had the well-known Merrill oblong profile with a clean out screw. He also removed the external flintlock battery and parts, filled any unused holes in the lock and added a Merrill profile percussion hammer. The final part of the contract was to shorten the barrels of the guns to nominally 36” from their original 39” length. Between 250 and 360 Virginia Manufactory Rifles were altered by Merrill during the first part of 1861, with the last shipment of 172 rifle being returned to Virginia on April 17, 1861, five days AFTER the firing on Fort Sumter and the eruption of the American Civil War! Two days later riots broke out in Baltimore, and the 6th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment would be attacked while marching through the town. The volatile situation in Maryland, and Baltimore in particular, which was as much a southern state as it was a northern one brought swift action from the Federal Government. As the town was full of southern sympathizers the Federal Government made aggressive moves to secure the city, and by default the state, for the Union. It is likely that Merrill’s shipment of arms to the State of Virginia only a couple of days earlier resulted in him and his company being swept up in the search for southern sympathizers and traitors.
On June 5, 1861, U.S. Marshal Washington Bonifant visited Merrill, Thomas & Company at the order of Secretary of War Simon Cameron and confiscated a number of firearms. These included a patent model for one of Merrill’s breechloading cannon designs (the one covered by US Patent #23,306 from 1859), as well as “20 Merrills Carbines Caliber .56/100 New Patent” which were listed by serial number and valued at $40 each. Some other arms listed in the invoice are “4 Merrill Sporting Rifles Old Patent” valued at $35 each, 6 carbines and 1 musket of the “Old Patent” design, 1 carbine of the “New Patent”, “1 Merrills Minnie Musket” valued at $35 and “1 Merrill Musket US Altered”valued at $45. This was likely the sample piece for the Merrill breechloading alteration project that Merrill had pitched the Ordnance Department in 1861, and which would result in a Merrill receiving a small contract to alter 100 each of US Model 1842 Muskets, US Model 1841 “Mississippi” Rifles and US Model 1847 Cavalry Carbines for the Federal Government. In all some 39 guns were confiscated from Merrill on that day, all documented by Merrill with an invoice submitted to the Federal Government for reimbursement for the loss. The invoice totaled $2,045.00. Interestingly, this act of Federal overreach would actually benefit Merrill in the long run and would lead to Merrill receiving the US military contracts he had been pursuing mostly unsuccessfully for the last few years.
The bill Merrill submitted for reimbursement was to General Ripley of the Ordnance Department, who was not directly involved in the confiscation of the arms and probably had no knowledge of the event until he received the invoice, and he made inquiries with the War Department. Ripley sent a letter to Secretary of War Cameron on September 10th that noted that Marshal Bonifant was “not authorized to purchase arms” and that the cost of the arms was too high. He further noted that “This office has no other knowledge of the transaction than what is derived from the face of the bill.”The War Department responded in writing, telling Ripley that he should dispatch an Ordnance Officer to inspect the arms, which were in storage at the Baltimore Customs House. Captain James G. Benton was selected for this project, and he filed his report to Ripley on September 23, 1861. The report read in part that “the 20 cavalry carbines appear new and of the breech loading principle be a good one. I have no doubt would be serviceable arms for cavalry….the price charged in the accompanying account, is too high. I think $35 – sufficient…..the remaining arms charged for…are unsuitable to the Military Service & prices charged are too high. I would recommend that they be returned to the owners.”
As late as January of 1863 Merrill was still trying to not only be reimbursed for the carbines that the Ordnance Department decided were worthy to take into service, but also to have the remaining arms returned. According to Henry Hoffman, the customs collector for Baltimore the 20 carbines and 1 minnie rifle were being retained for the defense of the customs house. It would be nearly two years from the confiscation of the arms to Merrill finally receiving his compensation, as well as the return of his patent model cannon. However, the inspection of the carbines by Benton apparently resulted in some level of interest in the design by the Ordnance Department. In November of 1861 a small order for 600 of the carbines was given to Merrill, with the guns mostly being issued to the 11th Pennsylvania Volunteer Cavalry and the 1st New York Mounted Rifles. On December 24, 1861, the Ordnance Department placed a larger order for 5,000 of Merrill’s cavalry carbines at $30 each, $10 less than Merrill had valued the confiscated carbines at and $5 less than Captain Benton had valued them at.
Those guns are known to collectors as 1st Model Merrill Carbines. They were .54 caliber “capping breechloaders” as they were referred to during the period, with Merrill’s patent breechloading system described in his 1858 patent, which used a pivoting loading lever that allowed combustible cartridges to be loaded into the breech of the guns, which were then detonated by conventional percussion caps. The carbines had 22 1/8” barrels that were secured by a single solid barrel band. The barrels were delivered both blued and polished bright, with color casehardened loading levers and locks. Some very early guns were iron mounted, but the majority were brass mounted and included a patchbox in the obverse butt. A sling bar and ring were mounted on the flat of the walnut stock, opposite the lock to facilitate carry on horseback. The rear sight was based on the three-leaf US M1861 pattern sight, updated from the M1858 pattern they were using on the Jenks Carbine alterations. The flat-topped sight leaves were graduated at 100, 300 and 500 yards. The extended rear sight base served as the receptacle for the spring-loaded lever catch that secured the breech lever in the closed position. Standard markings were Merrill patent marks on the lever and lock, as well as a serial number on the rear of the lock and the lever. Small parts were often assembly marked with numbers that were unrelated to the serail number. Later production carbines, which started to be delivered during the summer and fall of 1864 included both some improvements in the design and some cost reducing features. These guns, known as 2nd Model Merrill Carbines by collectors, changed the lever catch release from a flat checkered plate to rounded button style knobs, and also eliminated the patchbox from the stock. Other minor changes were made in markings and small features as well. In all, the Merrill firm would produce some 14,495 carbines of both patterns by the end of the war, most of which were purchased by the Ordnance Department for use during the war.
In addition to carbines, Merrill produced a small number of Merrill Patent Breechloading Military Rifles. These guns can be considered a more elegant and streamlined version of the Mississippi Rifles that were altered to breechloaders by Merrill. Like the Mississippi Rifles, Merrill’s Rifle had a .54 caliber rifled bore with a 33” round barrel that was secured by two solid barrel bands. The bands were secured by simple, streamlined spring-loaded push-button studs mounted in brass escutcheons. These band retainers can best be thought as the most elegant evolution of the old Wickham’s Improvement Studs that were used to retain bands on US muskets and pistols for a brief period of time circa 1813-1816. The rifles were made with both blued and browned barrels and had color casehardened locks and breech levers. The majority of the rifles were brass mounted, including a patchbox in the obverse butt. However, a small number of rifles were iron mounted like the early 1st Model Carbines. The rifles had full-length walnut stocks with stock tips that matched their metal mountings. Like the carbines, the rear sight was based on the US M1861 rear sight with the extended sight base serving as the latch plate for the breech lever. The front sight was a simple round blade. A lug for a brass handled saber bayonet was mounted on the right side of the barrel, about 3 ½” from the muzzle. The rifles were equipped with sling swivels on the front bow of the triggerguard and the upper barrel band and included a button head “ramrod” for cleaning and clearing the breech. Markings were the same as those applied to the 1st Model Merrill Carbines. The rifles were produced in rather small quantities, with most production estimates suggest that only about 800 or slightly more of the rifles were produced, 770 of which were purchased by the US Government. The guns were serialized in sequence with the carbines, not in their own serial number range and are found distributed in the 5,000 to 14,000 serial number range.
Interest in acquiring the Merrill Rifle for Civil War service appears to have originated at the “end user” level, from the soldiers themselves. Two early war volunteer infantry regiments that were stationed in the Baltimore area during the fall and early winter of 1861 were apparently exposed to Merrill’s design and found it quite appealing.
The 21st Indiana Volunteer Infantry arrived in Baltimore in August of 1861 in the aftermath of the Union disaster at 1stManassas (1st Bull Run). The regiment was initially part of the Fort McHenry (of Star-Spangled Banner fame) garrison, and two companies were trained to function as artillerists at the fort. In December of 1861, the members of Company K of the 21st Indiana purchased Merrill Rifles personally for their use in the field and the members of Company H were so impressed with the performance of the rifles that they purchased their own Merrill Rifles as well. The soldiers paid $45 each for the rifles, which represented about three and half months of pay, as a Union private was only paid $13 per month at that time! The soldier’s willingness to give up about one third of their annual pay to obtain these rifles is an indication of the level of regard they held the guns in. The regiment’s men being willing to put their own money on the line apparently motivated the Ordnance Department to order 556 Merrill Rifles specifically for issue to the 21st Indiana Volunteer Infantry in March of 1862. However, it would be nearly a year before the guns would be fully delivered and issued, as in November of 1862 their regimental small arms returns only listed 192 Merrill Rifles, along with some 800 Enfield Rifle Muskets. The 21st Indiana is probably most famous for being the first Union regiment to enter New Orleans after that city surrendered on April 28, 1862. At least a portion of seven companies of the 21st Indiana would eventually be armed with Merrill Rifles. The regiment spent most of its service in the Department of the Gulf, where the performed garrison duties in both New Orleans and Baton Rouge. In February of 1863 they were redesignated as the 1st Indiana Heavy Artillery, an appropriate designation for a regiment that was doing garrison duty in a fort. During the summer of 1863 they participated in the Port Hudson Campaign and would eventually joined Admiral David Farragut’s campaign to capture Mobile.
The 10th Maine Volunteer Infantry had arrived in Baltimore in early October of 1861 and on October 21, the colonel of the regiment wrote to the Ordnance Department to request that his flank companies be armed with the Merrill Rifle. Author and arms researcher James D McAulay theorizes that at least some of the members of the 10th Maine eventually purchased their own Merrill Rifles for use in the field. The regiment was detached to guard the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad between the towns of Martinsburg and Charleston, now in the state of West Virginia, with one company stationed at Harpers Ferry. At least some of the regiment was apparently armed with Merrill Rifles, although no official issues are known.
A small number of Merrill Rifles were used during the Battle of Chancellorsville by Union sharpshooters, primarily in the hands of the 1st Company of Massachusetts (Andrews) Sharpshooters, who had both Merrill and Sharps rifles. The brigade commander for the 8th Ohio Volunteer Infantry was so impressed by the performance of the Merrill Rifles during the battle that he requested that the 8th Ohio’s flank companies be armed with the rifles, in much the same way the colonel of the 10th Maine had requested. It is unclear if the request was ever honored.
McAulay lists a grand total of 769 Merrill Rifles purchased officially by the Ordnance Department under contract. These were the guns that went through the standard procurement system and were subject to the standard Ordnance Department inspection process, including the application of the inspector’s final acceptance cartouche on the counterpane of the guns. Those guns acquired by individual soldiers who purchased them privately were not inspected. As most estimates of Merrill Rifle production only suggest that another 40 to as many as maybe 100 rifles were produced above the number purchased by the government, it is reasonable to assume those guns that are not martially marked were simply rifles purchased privately by soldiers, most likely by members of the 21st Indiana Volunteer Infantry.
Offered here is a FINE condition example of one of the privately purchased Merrill Rifles that was likely obtained by a member of the 21st Indiana Infantry in late 1861 or early 1862. The rifle is a textbook example of the Merrill military pattern rifle and is the more commonly encountered brass mounted version. The rifle is serial number 6246, and the number is clearly stamped vertically at the rear of the lock and on the top of the lower portion of the operating lever. The lever is additionally marked in two lines over the breech:
J.H. MERRILL BALTO.
PAT. JULY. 1858.
This references Merrill’s third patent, which covers the improvements to the Jenks loading lever and breech system. The lock is marked in three horizontal lines forward of the hammer and below the bolster, reading:
J.H. MERRILL BALTO.
PAT, JULY. 1858.
APL.9. MAY 21-28-61
This references his patents #32032, #32033, #32450 and #32451, all of which are discussed above.
As noted, the rifle remains in about FINE condition. The barrel retains about 90%+ coverage of the original thinned, mottled and lightly oxidized brown finish. However, in terms of thick, rich, deep brown it probably only rates about 30%+, as most of the finish had thinned substantially. The thinning is less obvious in ambient lighting but becomes much more apparent under intense lighting. The lock and breech lever have a mottled and lightly oxidized gray patina that hints at the original mottled case colors and shows some minute bluish traces of color in protected areas. The blued small parts like the trigger, rear sight and various screws all retain at least some thinning hints of their blued finish, some with a dull bluish-gray patina and others with some hints of the original vibrant fire blue. All of the markings in the metal remain clear and deeply stuck. The metal remains almost entirely smooth with only some scattered flecks of oxidized surface roughness, and some lightly scattered pinpricking that is found mostly around the breech, bolster and muzzle areas. All of this is quite minimal and does not detract from the attractive appearance of the rifle. The brass furniture has an attractive rich golden patina and shows no indication of having been cleaned in recent times. The lock and breech mechanism are mechanically functional and operate exactly as they should. The original rear sight is intact, and the leaves still pivot as they should. The original front sight blade in in place also. Both original sling swivels are present, as is the saber bayonet lug. The original cleaning rod is present as well. The rod is full-length and retains good threads at the end but does show some lightly scattered minor pitting and some oxidized discoloration. The bore of the rifle is also in about VERY GOOD+ to NEAR FINE condition. It is partly bright with moderate amounts of scattered oxidation, some lightly scattered pitting and very good three groove rifling. The stock is full-length and solid with no breaks or structural repairs. The wood does not appear to have been sanded and retains decent edges and shows good wood to metal fit throughout. The stock shows a moderate number of scattered bumps, dings and mars, as well as some scuffs, scratches and dents. All of this is typical of a Civil War era infantry rifles that saw actual use in the field. Merrill Rifles and Carbines are notorious for having cracked wrists, because the action leaves very little wood at the wrist due to the inletting for the breech lever. This rifle does not have a cracked or broken wrist, which is uncommon and quite desirable. There are a couple of minor, short surface grain cracks at the rear of the lever mortise, running to the tip of the stock comb. These are not structural and are mentioned for exactness. The wood has had some light oil finish added, as well as couple of tiny areas of added stain. However, the stock still remains quite attractive despite the presence of significant honest wear.
Overall, this is a very nice example of a fairly early production Merrill Rifle at the lower part of the known serail number range. The rifle is 100% complete, correct and original. It retains some very nice thinning original brown and has the appearance of, and displays like, a rifle with much more finish intact. The markings remain clear and crisp throughout and the action remains fully functional. With only about 800 or so of these rifles made, they are far from common on the collector market and do not regularly appear for sale. This example is really attractive and displays like a $6,500+ rifle but is priced much more reasonably than that. Don’t mis your chance to add a fine condition Merrill Rifle to your Civil War long arms collection for a very reasonable price.