coffee mill guns

[MikeyB]

Reading Sears' book on the Peninsula Campaign. I admit I never heard of "coffee mill" guns before. After reading his description, my reaction was, does he mean Gatling guns? Was this a colloquial name for Gatling guns?

But looking at pictures, it looks completely different. So was this just a completely different weapon by a completely different inventor that just so happened to be very similar to Gatling?

Why did the Union abandon them? Were they defective? Was Cameron griping about wasted ammunition again? Or was it actually a useful weapon that just never got the benefactor it needed?

 

[The Pennsylvania Line]

The Coffee Mill Gun is not a Gatling Gun.

Union Repeating Gun

The Union Repeating Gun, aka Ager Coffee Mill Gun, was the first practical manual machine gun adopted by the US military.

www.forgottenweapons.com

 

[The Pennsylvania Line]

Agar gun - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

96th Pennsylvania Infantry February 1862
(Wikipedia)

 

[The Pennsylvania Line]

Thread 'The Ager Coffee Mill Gun'

Feb 14, 2015

The Agar gun (or Ager) was an early rapid fire machine gun developed during the US Civil War. The weapon was nicknamed the Coffee Mill Gun, and was also called the Union Repeating Gun. During the war, inventors were encouraged to create new and better weapons. The Agar machine gun was one of about fifty or so hand-cranked machine guns developed during this period. It was named after its inventor, Wilson Agar (sometimes spelled Wilson Ager). The gun was so named because the cr...ank and the ammunition hopper on the top of the weapon gave it a look similar to that of a common kitchen coffee...

• Robert Gray
• Replies: 10
• Forum: Period Photos & Examinations

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