Introduction
Among the lesser-known but technically refined firearms of the American Civil War, the Ball & Williams Ballard Carbine stands out for its mechanical simplicity, its accuracy, and its place at the start of the metallic-cartridge era. While overshadowed in numbers by the Sharps, Spencer, and Burnside carbines, the Ballard was one of the first designs put into production and service during the war that fired a large-caliber rimfire copper cartridge. It was designed by Charles H. Ballard and made almost entirely by the firm of Ball & Williams of Worcester, Massachusetts. For a broader look at how it fit among its contemporaries, see our overview of Civil War breech-loading carbines.
This article covers the Ballard’s invention, the firms that made and sold it, its military models and contracts, the units that carried it, its postwar makers, and what collectors look for today.
Charles H. Ballard and the 1861 Patent
The Ballard mechanism was the work of Charles Henry Ballard of Worcester, Massachusetts. He received U.S. Patent No. 33,631 on November 5, 1861, for a single-shot breech-loading rifle with a dropping breechblock. Working the lever beneath the receiver lowered the block and exposed the chamber for a self-contained rimfire metallic cartridge. Closing the lever raised the block behind the cartridge and sealed the breech.
Ballard was not a gunmaker by trade. He had earlier been a partner of Richard Ball in Ball and Ballard, a Worcester maker of woodworking machinery. Warren Williams bought out Ballard’s interest in 1858, and Ballard stayed on as shop foreman. It was while he was foreman that he designed his rifle and built the first pre-production guns. Richard Ball and Hartley Williams signed his patent application as witnesses.
The patent design included an internal extractor built into the face of the breechblock. In service it often slipped past the cartridge rim and failed to pull the case. Only about 100 guns of this first type were made, all as sporting rifles in .38 caliber, and none were bought for military use. Ball & Williams replaced the internal extractor with a manual one worked by a small knob under the forearm. Every later Civil War Ballard has that knob.
Ball & Williams of Worcester: Origin of Military Production
The military Ballard was made by the partnership of Richard Ball and Warren Williams. Until 1862 their Worcester firm, Ball & Williams, still made planing machines for woodworking. In 1862 it turned quickly into a major arms maker, with Charles Ballard supervising the manufacture of his patent guns. The New York merchants Joseph H. Merwin and Edward P. Bray, trading as Merwin & Bray, became the exclusive agents for Ballard arms by early 1862. They arranged the manufacture, financed the expansion of the Ball & Williams factory, marketed the guns, and secured the contracts.
Between 1862 and July 1865, Ball & Williams made almost 17,500 Ballard firearms. Almost 12,200 of the arms made during the war were sold as military arms. The rest were sporting rifles, which stayed in production and popular throughout the war. Military and sporting serial numbers are mixed together in the same range.
Markings changed over the war. Early guns carry “BALLARD’S PATENT / NOV. 5, 1861,” “BALL & WILLIAMS / Worcester, Mass” and “MERWIN & BRAY, AGT’S / NEW YORK” on the flats atop the barrel. Later guns carry the same markings stamped on the sides of the receiver.
The largest buyer was not the U.S. Army but the State of Kentucky. In 1861 Kentucky was split between Union and Confederate loyalties. The pro-Union legislature created a Military Board to control the state’s arms purchases and keep them out of the hands of pro-Southern militia companies. The Military Board made the first Ballard purchase on August 15, 1862: 1,250 carbines at $26 each. Kentucky kept buying Ballards through 1864, and it took most of the military production.
Technical Specifications and Operation
The Ballard was admired for its simplicity and strength. Captain Stephen V. Benet tested a Ballard carbine at West Point in June 1862 and reported firing one hundred rounds “without the slightest fouling, the cartridge doing its work perfectly.” He concluded: “Altogether, it is the very best breech loading carbine that has been presented to me.”
Standard Military Configuration (Model 1862 and Model 1864 carbines):
- Caliber: .42-inch bore, designated .44 caliber, chambered for the No. 44 rimfire cartridge
- Barrel Length: About 22 inches
- Barrel: Blued iron, first 9 inches octagon and the rest round
- Breechblock: One piece on the Model 1862; two pieces bolted together on the Model 1864
- Extractor: Manual, worked by a brass knob under the forearm
- Sights: Blued blade front; L-shaped single-leaf rear with notches for 100, 250 and 500 yards
- Sling: Swivels under the barrel band and the butt, rather than the sling bar and ring of most cavalry carbines
Mechanical Function:
Operating the Ballard was intuitive. Lowering the lever dropped the breechblock and exposed the chamber. The shooter pulled the extractor knob under the forearm to draw out the fired case, pushed a fresh rimfire cartridge into the chamber, and closed the lever to raise the block. The hammer was then cocked and the weapon fired. Because the copper cartridge carried its own priming, there was no percussion cap to place.
That set it apart from several other Union carbines. The Maynard, for example, fired a brass cartridge with no priming of its own, set off through a small hole in its base by a percussion cap or primer tape.
Ammunition and Ballistics
Civil War Ballards were built for three different rimfire cartridges, depending on the model:
- No. 44 rimfire: Used in the Model 1862 and Model 1864 carbines and the Model 1862 half-stocked rifles. Its conical bullet measured .44 inch and weighed 210 grains. Smith & Wesson developed it for Frank Wesson’s carbine.
- No. 56-56 Spencer rimfire: Used in the .52-caliber “Old Model” carbines and rifles. Its conical bullet measured about .54 inch and weighed about 350 grains. It was the same cartridge as the Spencer repeaters.
- No. 46 rimfire: Used in the 3,000 full-stocked rifles Kentucky bought in 1864. Its conical bullet measured about .455 inch and weighed about 300 grains.
The first Army purchase of No. 44 cartridges for Ballards was made in May 1863 and manufactured by C.D. Leet & Company. By November 1863, Kentucky had received 284,200 No. 44 cartridges into its stores.
In late 1863 the Army ordered sample carbines from several makers, Ballard among them, for trials to settle the best cavalry carbine caliber. Major Alexander B. Dyer, commanding the Springfield Armory, supervised the experiments. Merwin & Bray delivered six .44-caliber Ballard carbines for the trials, and Henry Chapin supplied two .52-caliber carbines.
Military Models and Contracts
Collectors and historians sort the wartime military Ballards into three groups:
- Model 1862 (a modern name): About 4,500 carbines in .44 rimfire with the one-piece breechblock, delivered to Kentucky and New York between October 1862 and December 1863. New York’s share was 500. Kentucky also bought 1,000 half-stocked Model 1862 rifles with 30-inch barrels in November 1863.
- “Old Model”: The Army ordered 1,000 carbines and 1,000 rifles in .52 caliber on October 31, 1862. Merwin & Bray gave the work to Dwight, Chapin & Co. of Bridgeport, Connecticut, which made only about 115 carbines of poor quality before it failed in 1863. The Army accepted none. Ball & Williams finished the order, and Kentucky bought 1,000 carbines and 600 rifles in April 1864.
- Model 1864: On January 7, 1864, the Army contracted for 5,000 carbines in .44 rimfire at $23 each. Merwin & Bray delivered 1,000 on March 18 and 500 on August 1, 1864, and then let the contract lapse. Kentucky bought 600 more that the Army refused.
Kentucky also bought 3,000 full-stocked rifles chambered for the No. 46 cartridge, delivered between July 1864 and March 1865. The Army bought 35 Old Model rifles in December 1863 to arm sharpshooters of the 2nd South Carolina (Colored) Infantry.
Cavalry Use and Regiment Distribution
Though never a mass-issue weapon, the Ballard saw real service, mostly with Kentucky troops:
- Kentucky cavalry: The 6th, 8th, 11th and 13th Kentucky Volunteer Cavalry received Model 1862 carbines during 1863, and the 16th Kentucky Cavalry received Ballards in 1864.
- Kentucky mounted infantry: The 30th, 37th, 45th and 52nd Mounted Infantry were issued Ballard arms in 1863 to 1865.
- New York: The 13th New York Heavy Artillery is recorded with Ballard carbines, and a surviving carbine inscribed to Major D. Frazar of the 13th New York Cavalry points to that regiment as well.
- Federal cavalry: Army-purchased Model 1864 carbines went in small numbers to the 1st Alabama, 2nd Iowa and 7th Ohio Cavalry, and in larger numbers to the 12th Ohio Cavalry and McLaughlin’s Squadron of Ohio Cavalry, both of which rode with Stoneman’s cavalry.
Some publications say 1,200 Ballard carbines went to Vermont after the Confederate raid on St. Albans in October 1864. There is no record of this. The Army sent Vermont Smith and Remington carbines, not Ballards. Kentucky units were still carrying Ballards in 1870 and 1871, and the state turned its remaining Ballards over to the federal government in October 1871.
Decline of Military Production and the Marlin Renaissance
With the end of the Civil War in 1865, military demand ended. Warren Williams retired in July 1865, and the firm was reorganized as R. Ball & Co., which made about 2,400 more Ballard carbines and rifles before early 1867. Edward Bray then organized the Merrimack Arms & Manufacturing Company of Newburyport, Massachusetts, which took over Ballard production in 1867. The Brown Manufacturing Company, also of Newburyport, bought the rights in 1869 and failed in 1873.
From 1875, John M. Marlin made the Ballard, first as J.M. Marlin and later as the Marlin Fire Arms Co. Marlin-era Ballards became some of the most respected single-shot rifles in America. Between 1875 and 1891 Marlin offered more than twenty models, including the Hunter’s and Montana models known for buffalo hunting and fine mid-range and long-range target rifles.
While visually similar, Marlin Ballards concentrated on centerfire cartridges, though rimfire chamberings were still offered. Options included set triggers and target sights.
Collectibility and Surviving Carbines
Ball & Williams Ballards are sought after because each model can be tied to a documented purchase. Serial numbers and markings sort them. The one-piece breechblock and barrel-top markings mark the earlier guns. Old Model arms carry their own serial range from 1 to about 1,700 and are marked only “MERWIN & BRAY / AGT’S, N.Y.” on the left of the receiver, without the Ball & Williams name. Army-accepted Model 1864 carbines carry the script “MM” cartouche of inspector Miles Moulton on the left wrist of the stock. The failed Dwight, Chapin & Co. carbines carry the inspection stamps “EMD” or “D” of Elias M. Dustin.
- Condition Matters: Most carbines exhibit field wear, bore erosion, and weathered stocks. Excellent-condition examples with clear markings and unaltered configurations command a premium.
- Auction Values: Prices in premier auctions range from $2,500 to over $8,000 depending on condition, markings, and provenance.
The rimfire cartridges these guns were built for belong to the nineteenth century. Commercial .56-56 Spencer ammunition, for example, stayed on the market only into the 1920s and 1930s.
Conclusion
The Ball & Williams Ballard Carbine was not the most common firearm of the Civil War, but it was among the best made. Combining clean machining, ease of use, and a self-contained metallic cartridge, it pointed the way past the percussion carbines of the time.
Its impact extended well beyond the almost 12,200 military arms sold during the war. The Ballard mechanism became a touchstone of American single-shot design, refined, durable, and mechanically elegant. Though its role in the war was limited, its engineering shaped a generation of postwar rifles.
Today, the Ballard serves as both artifact and inspiration. In museums and on collector walls, it continues to tell a story of Yankee ingenuity, wartime adaptation, and lasting mechanical brilliance.
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