Civil War rifles: Atlanta History Center collection includes carbine sent to Japan, terrifying Whitworth sniper gun and a Texas firearm not up to snuff

Carbine has Japanese cartouche, mums on stock, barrel (AHC, Picket photos)

A surplus Civil War carbine, sold to the Japanese government in 1868 and marked with  imperial chrysanthemums and another design, has been acquired by the Atlanta History Center for its growing collection of firearms.

The history center, home to the Cyclorama painting depicting the Battle of Atlanta and a major exhibit on the Civil War, has acquired dozens of weapons in the past couple of years, bringing the total inventory to nearly 400. It purchased the Starr carbine in November 2022 from a private dealer.

Gordon L. Jones, senior military historian and curator at the AHC, recently showed me some of the firearms kept in the museum's secured basement. We examined the carbine and two notable weapons – one highly regarded and the other considered subpar -- from the existing George W. Wray Jr. collection of rare Confederate guns at the history center.

While some of the long guns at the AHC are in the long-standing exhibit “Turning Point: The American Civil War,” the vast majority are awaiting their time in the daylight, minus the occasional special exhibit.

Gordon L. Jones with guns from the Wray collection (Picket photo)

The AHC would like in coming years to revamp “Turning Point” with a new and expanded area that would showcase many of the stored firearms, says Jones. He said it would compare to the impressive Fuller Gun Collection at Chickamauga & Chattanooga National Military Park.

The Starr carbine and many other surplus American weapons were shipped to Japan shortly after the Civil War.

There was significant upheaval there amid “the beginning of Westernization,” said Jones. The .54-caliber gun may have been used in the Boshin War (Japanese Civil War) in the late 1860s. Some experts say many were procured by the Tokugawa shogunate, which was desperate for such weapons.

New York arms dealer Schuyler, Hartley & Graham provided the gun to the Meiji government of Japan.

“It is marked with (the) chrysanthemum (photo, left) and what is believed to be a Japanese military school cartouche (not yet positively identified). The 1853-1854 visit of U.S. Commodore Matthew Perry opened the once-closed society of Japan and started a race between rival clans to acquire modern firearms from the West.

"What followed was the rapid Westernization and militarization of Japan under the Meiji emperors, ultimately culminating in war against Britain and the United States in 1941,” the AHC says.

“This carbine helps tell the story of the long term and sometimes unintended international consequences of the American Civil War, which will be a key theme in the new exhibition.”

The newly acquired gun will be displayed with another Starr carbine already in the DuBose Collection that was sold to Great Britain and used in the defense of Canada against the Irish Fenian incursions of 1866 and 1870.

The Starr carbine was a single-shot, breech-loading weapon. Not many were used by the U.S. military, relative to those put out by other manufacturers.

Other guns acquired in the past two years include:

-- A British Pattern 1853 rifle-musket of Pvt. Robert Marold, Company K, 143^rd New York, used at Battle of Peachtree Creek and the Atlanta Campaign, 1864. (Interestingly, actor Chris Evans, who has portrayed Captain America, is a descendant of Marold)

-- U.S. Model 1861 rifle-musket, modernized with the patented Needham breech-loading system, as used by the Governor’s Guard, a Black volunteer militia in Atlanta in 1879.

-- U.S. Starr Arms Company breech-loading carbine with markings indicating use by the 1st Arkansas Cavalry, a U.S. regiment comprised of white unionists from Arkansas and West Tennessee.

-- Eleven European firearms shipped to Union and Confederate troops from 1861-1864.

Jones points to damage on the AHC's Texas contract rifle (Picket photo)

During my visit, Jones brought out two guns from the Wray collection as examples of the best and worst utilized by Confederates.

Visitors to the AHC’s “Confederate Odyssey” exhibit in 2014 learned how the Confederacy successfully adapted to modern warfare. They also saw failures or limitations: poorly crafted bayonets or makeshift clothing. Examples came from firearms, swords, uniforms, flags and other items collected by the late Wray over the years.

Southern manufacturers struggled to make firearms that could stand up to extensive wear and campaigns. Jones showed me a so-called Texas contract rifle, used for a time by William Malloy, a trooper with the 29^th Texas Cavalry.

"William Malloy" is carved into the gun's buttstock (Atlanta History Center)

Jones believes the 1863 contract rifle, made by a small private company, is the crudest weapon in the Wray collection.

“This has a thick heavy barrel with tiny iron bands,” the curator told me in 2014. “It is poorly balanced and the back action lock is weak.” The wood behind the bolster was chipped away, despite a nail inserted as a repair.

One officer said of the carbines, “These things are more dangerous to my men than the enemy.”

“Malloy” and “Tex” are carved into the buttstock. It is unknown whether Malloy was still with the unit at its most famous battle at Honey Springs, Indian Territories, facing the First Kansas (colored) Infantry in 1863.

The star of the Wray collection is a Whitworth rifle made in England and shipped to the South during the war. The Whitworth was the first sniper weapon and was incredibly effective, supplied to only the best marksmen. About 50 came over and only 18 are known to survive, Jones said.

Several Federal generals were killed by Whitworths, perhaps mostly notably Maj. Gen. John Sedgwick at Spotsylvania in 1864..

The weapon had a range up to 1,500 years and had an open site on the barrel and a side-mounted Davidson telescopic sight (right), giving the shooter two options. The Whitworth had much tighter rifling than an Enfield, making it that much more deadly.

The AHC believes the one Wray purchased was likely used in the Western Theater, though the telescopic sight on the AHC weapon is a restoration with 20^th century optics.

A book on the Wray weapons has this to say: “Although it is impossible to say when or where this particular rifle was used, as one of the Confederacy’s most valued weapons, it certainly did see use. Just as certainly, it killed and wounded many Union soldiers.”

Gordon L. Jones with a rare Whitworth sniper rifle used by the South (Picket photo)

AHC acquisitions from the past couple years (Picket photo)