Sharps New Model 1863

About the Sharps New Model 1863

The Sharps New Model 1863 is a single-shot, breech-loading falling-block percussion carbine and rifle designed by Christian Sharps and produced by the Sharps Rifle Manufacturing Company of Hartford, Connecticut. Lowering the trigger-guard operating lever drops the vertical-sliding breechblock to expose the chamber, into which a .52-caliber paper or linen combustible cartridge is loaded; closing the breech shears the rear of the cartridge to expose the powder, which is ignited by the Lawrence pellet primer or a conventional percussion cap. A trained soldier could fire eight to ten aimed shots per minute and reload from the prone position, roughly three times the rate of a muzzle-loader. The most-produced of the Sharps New Model series, it was the standard breech-loading carbine of the United States Cavalry during the American Civil War.

The Sharps was the carbine of the Union cavalryman and of Colonel Hiram Berdan's elite U.S. Sharpshooters, who used its accuracy and rapid breech-loading to harass Confederate officers and artillery crews from long range. The Sharps name endured into the 1870s as a byword for long-range accuracy through the .50-caliber buffalo rifles.

Sharps New Model 1863 specifications

The New Model 1863 is mechanically nearly identical to the 1859 and 1865 models, distinguished mainly by markings and minor fittings; the carbine had a 22-inch barrel while the infantry rifle used a 30-inch barrel with three barrel bands and a bayonet lug. After the war many were converted to fire the .52-70 rimfire and .50-70 Government centerfire metallic cartridges.