First machine guns used in battle

[Mike Serpa]

From "Two Days of War - A Gettysburg Narrative and Other Excursions" by Henry Edwin Tremain, 1905
https://archive.org/stream/twodaysofwargett00trem#page/n0/mode/2up

 

[Spunk Puppy]

Looks like a wicked tool, to be sure.

 

[MissREP]

Learn something new every day...I thought the Gatling was the first "machine" gun. Very neat! Thanks for sharing, sir!

 

[Booner]

The "Gatling Gun" is still in use today. The minigun, the gun on the "warthog," most guns on jets are a modern form of the Gatling gun.

 

[Copperhead-mi]

I've never heard of this gun until now. Thanks for posting it. Video of the gun being fired:

 

[Poor Private]

Great video. Thanks for finding it and sharing.

 

[Mr. King]

A 6 gun battery of those would have been demoralizing. How did they perform in combat?

 

[donna]

One of the great things about this forum, you learn something new everyday. Mike thanks for posting.

 

[Rio Bravo]

I thought that the first true Machine Gun to be successfully used in battle was the Williams Rapid-Fire Gun, which was invented by Capt.R.S.Williams, C.S.A. It's first test in action was at the Battle of Seven Pines on May 31st,1862.
However the Union Coffee Mill Gun was used at the Battle of Williamsburg, just days earlier on May 5th, 1862.

 

[Mike Serpa]

The "Gatling Gun" is still in use today. The minigun, the gun on the "warthog," most guns on jets are a modern form of the Gatling gun.

Seven barrels and 30mm of -stay-away-from-me! It is known as the Avenger.

I've never heard of this gun until now. Thanks for posting it. Video of the gun being fired:

Thanks for this video!

One of the great things about this forum, you learn something new everyday. Mike thanks for posting.

'Twas new for me, too.

 

[ErnieMac]

Ager "Coffee Mill" gun in the hands of the 96th Pennsylvania Volunteer Regiment, Camp Northumberland, northern Virginia, February 1862. From the NPS Springfield Armory website. http://www.nps.gov/spar/learn/historyculture/machine-guns.htm

 

[Mike Serpa]

George B. McClellan to Abraham Lincoln, Thursday, December 19, 1861 (Coffee Mill Guns; Copy by Abraham Lincoln) -

Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress. Transcribed and Annotated by the Lincoln Studies Center, Knox College. Galesburg, Illinois.

From George B. McClellan to Abraham Lincoln [Copy in Lincoln's Hand With Endorsement by Lincoln]1, December 19, 1861

I would recommend that fifty of the "Coffee Mill" guns be furnished at 20% advance on cost price, which cost may be ascertained by competent ordnance officers-- I think $1200. entirely too high--

Geo. B. McClellan

Maj. Genl. Comg.

[ Endorsed by Lincoln:]

Let the fifty guns be ordered on the terms above recommended by Genl. McClellan & not otherwise.

A Lincoln

Dec. 19. 1861.

[Note 1 The "coffee mill" gun was an early machine gun which, though successfully tested by the army's Ordnance Department, was never employed in battle.]
http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=mal&fileName=mal1/134/1347600/malpage.db&recNum=0

(Note 1 seems to be incorrect?)

 

[kevikens]

I th

The "Gatling Gun" is still in use today. The minigun, the gun on the "warthog," most guns on jets are a modern form of the Gatling gun.

I think the USN has several of these guns mounted on board its ships for use against incoming missiles like the exocet used by the Argentines in the Falkland's War. I think they might be called Vulcans. That exocet experience was scary for ships not having close range rapid fire weapons to hit these wave skimming weapons boring in at 450 knots.

 

[KLSDAD]

@DixieRifles

 

[Booner]

I think they might be called Vulcans.

The ship-board gun system your referring to is called the "Phalanx." A land-based system used to protect against rockets, mortars, and artillery is caller the "Centurion." Both gun systems are based around the Vulcan cannon.

I served as a senior gunner on a self-propelled M163 Vulcan Aid Defense System (VAD) in the early 70's. They also had a towed version.

It's why I wear hearing aids these days.
Again, Dr. Gatling would have no trouble recognizing his invention.

 

[Dave Wilma]

I would think the barrel would burn out. But in firing at masses of advancing troops it probably wouldn't be an issue.

 

[Legion Para]

As with other weapon systems like the Henry and Spencer rifles, the United States Army missed the boat with the Gatling gun. Imagine if a battery of them had been deployed at Pickett's Charge. Or a captured battery of them at Cold Harbor.

An A-10 Warthog or AC-130 Gunship is an impressive sight, particularly at night. I have seen their destructive firepower first hand.

 

[rebelatsea]

I've never heard of this gun until now. Thanks for posting it. Video of the gun being fired:

Allowing that the guy operating it may not be a fully trained gunner, it struck me that the care with which he was loading the hopper would be unlikely to be sustained fro long in close action, especially under return fire from appraoching troops ,and probably artilllery. Also I should think it would be likely to clog with all the c***p flying about on a battlefield.

 

[rebelatsea]

The ship-board gun system your referring to is called the "Phalanx." A land-based system used to protect against rockets, mortars, and artillery is caller the "Centurion." Both gun systems are based around the Vulcan cannon.

I served as a senior gunner on a self-propelled M163 Vulcan Aid Defense System (VAD) in the early 70's. They also had a towed version.

It's why I wear hearing aids these days.
Again, Dr. Gatling would have no trouble recognizing his invention.

Just seen one of these fired on board ship, I have only one word - awesome.

 

[Booner]

On the Vulcan Aid Defense System, the breach of the cannon is almost in your lap. When you fire it, it's louder than standing next to a jet taking off (although I never stood next to a jet taking off-maybe that 's just a guess on my part). Everything is run electronically, so there's a switch you turn to select how many rounds you'll shoot; 10, 30, 60, 90, no limit. On "no limit" it empties out the magazine, which your sitting on. The magazine is timed to the feed chute which is timed to the gun, At 3,000 rounds per minute, everything has to work together, or real bad things happen. I don't remember if our magazine held 1200 or 1500 rounds, but if it were fully loaded and you fired on "no limit" it would empty the magazine in a half minute or less.
When you shot it, it set up a high frequency vibration throughout the vehicle and you. Because of this, you could tell which teeth had fillings in them, and when you were done, you itched all over.