The Nice and Sweetly Six Shot Horse Pistol

Spurious Antiques Review, Editor Ichabod Spurious.

Civil War Weapons: The .58 N&S Horse Dragoon Pistol

  The Nice and Sweetly Six Shot revolving horse dragoon pistol was truly a remarkable handgun in its day. In 1855 single shot handguns were still common, but with Colt developing their line of revolver based handguns, other manufacturers began to see the need for a multi shot weapon.  Early revolvers were not fully accepted by the public or even the U.S. military at the time.  Jebadiah Sweetly of the Fredericksburg firm Nice and Sweetly had come to believe that a large calibre revolver would fill a gap in the market.  To be clear, the weapon was intended to kill the horse of an opponent rather than the man himself, and as such a rifle calibre was used.

Fluster, with his horse pistol

The Model 1855 Dragoon Horse Pistol was created using rifle parts, a 12 inch cut down .58 rifled barrel was married to a very large rotating cylinder, and a percusion cap system used to ensure that all six chambers did not ignite at once.  Testing on the factory range found it to be a hard-hitting, hand bruising powerful weapon.  The addition of an attachable shoulder stock gave the weapon the ability to be steadied, and an effective range of 200 feet.  Modern tests reveal that it was muzzle velocity equivalent of the much vaunted .44 magnum, a century before that gun was created, but the Sweetly delivered delivered a bullet weight a 525-625 grain Minie rifle bullet, or 278-grain ball. 40 or even 50 grains of powder would be loaded in the pistol, double that of Sam Colt’s revolver

Sadly for Sweetly the weapon lost out against the more traditional Harpers Ferry single shot dragoon pistol produced in the same year.  It was reported that when General Winfield Scott fired the Sweetly he declared that a man would have to have the shoulders of a bull wrangler to carry it, much less to actually loose off all six shots.  More worryingly he also expressed personal doubts about the weapons safety.

Despite the use of the weapon among the Texas Rangers, Captain Quincy Palance Whitmore was said to have killed the horse of the renegade Indian Chato Bronson with a Sweetly Horse dragoon pistol, doubts about the weapon continued, and few were sold.  As Quincy himself would reminisce about the campfire and after a bottle of Indian Joe Bourbon, “That thar far’arm, got itself a piece of Hellfire and Tarnation up its barrel, yes sir!”

The first shades of Yankee blue going on

At the beginning of the Civil War as the firm of Nice and Sweetly began their serious gun running enterprise, Jebadiah sold on all of his remaining stock to gullible young officers.  Few of these weapons, or their new owners survived the war.  As the quality of Nice and Sweetly percussion caps declined reports of the sudden ignition of all of the charges in the revolver’s cylinder became more widespread.  The effect was an explosion that invariably killed the owner of the gun, and anyone stood within five feet of him.

Fluster with his weapons

 The weapon features prominently in the letters of   Lieutenant Winfield Armstrong Fluster to his Mother, Mrs Chlamydia Fluster, now held in the Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania Museum Archive.  The young Lieutenant purchased a Horse dragoon revolver from Nice and Sweetly on the eve of of the war, and carried it through the 1st Manassas Campaign.  He speaks eloquently of the weapon in a passage describing the action at Blackburn’s Ford:

“... and so we came through the trees to see the Bull Run, a stream more glorious for its name than its appearance.   A Regiment of men stood guarding the stream.  ‘Who are you?’ called a voice from in front.  I declared, ‘We are Massachusetts men,” at which they opened fire, with a great smokin’ Volley,  killin’ many of my brave boys.  I hauled out the Nice and Sweetly and fired into the trees.  It knocked me down to the ground with a terrific recoil, bruisin’ my dignity.
One of their men shouted, ‘they got artillery over there,’ but we were already moving back up slope. ..”

Left to right: Bobby Beauregard, Jubal Krebbs, Lt. Fluster, and Capt Sherman Parker

This article was published in the Spurious Antiques Review, Editor Ichabod Spurious.
Dodgy Dave Publications, Massachusetts.

The Fredericksburg Monitor, issue 2, May 1861.

Editor Miss Urgence Precombe

Now supporting our Southern boys.

Issue 2, May 1861

Reports of limited skirmishing to the north have reached Fredericksburg.  A Company of Virginia Militia, hastily raised from the area around the Virginia Academy, and containing within its ranks many young students, has already crossed the Rappahannock.  Leading this fine force Captain Judas Zebadiah Quilp, a former Professor at the Academy, wearing his customary thick spectacles, and carrying his schoolmaster's cane “jes’ to give those Yankees a fine Whuppin’.”

Second Lieutenant Winfield Armstrong Fluster, a Seminary teacher, panicker and stutterer, commanding part of a company of the 2nd Massachusetts Militia, was the only available Yankee to greet the Virginians north of the river.  Apparently all those other blue belly boys are diggin’ defensive ditches around Washington.  The Lootenant was sporting a Nice and Sweetly six shot horse dragoon pistol, .58 calibre, with a 12 inch rifled barrel and attaching walnut shoulder stock. He calls it “Daisy,” after his Momma.  If that boy fires off that piece he'll wind up back home in the Potomac River.  

Winfield and his boys have come south on orders from his Colonel to forage for creamed onions... a natural resource of North Virginia! He better hope Ole Quilp don’ cut them onions for himself.

With the Virginians moving in from the South, against the damned Yankees comin’ in from the North, it seems an encounter is to be played out.

God Save our Southern boys.

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Nice and Sweetly, Gunmaking and Firearms Partners.

New stock. Dance and Park, 5 shot revolving action pistol, $12 including taxes. Colt 5 shot 1836 pattern, $2 No guarantees given with this weapon. Harpers Ferry single shot 1855 .58 rifled Horse Dragoon pistol, with attaching shoulder stock. 12 inch barrel protects those 2nd Amendment freedoms!  $8.  Winchester Single barrel shotgun $5, reliable.  Allen and Turner 1848 single shot pistol $6, Bridesburg model 1861 Rifled musket $12 Colt model 1860 New Army 6 shot revolving chamber pistol, $25.  Sweetly percussion caps, box of 50 at $5.

Nice and Sweetly, a measured response for all occasions.  Nothing says “get yer hands up” quite as well as a Nice and Sweetly firearm!

Doctor Sigmund Friend of Charlestown visits Fredericksburg

The Doctor is studying nervous disorders in the general population and specifically within the Military Man.   He believes that he has discovered a simple table that can tell us the nature of a man's character, merely by rolling a dice upon it.  Turns out Dr Friend must be a drinker then!

The character of a man table

Use 2d6. WHITE and BLACK.  Divide the list into six segments and dice accordingly.  Thus... A roll of 2 on white means you take the result between 7 and 12 on the second dice, etc...

1. Gambling debt
2. Got a lady into trouble
3. An argument with a fellow officer
4. Repeatedly found drunk with the company mule
5. Enamoured of Miss Kitten from the cat house
6. Intolerant Religious indignation at fellow officers
7. A fervent and fanatical abolitionist
8. Owes monies to serious people at home
9. Angry and ill tempered
10. A bone idle fellow, always asleep
11. Regularly smokes a pipe of exotic herb
12. Suffers from gastric windage.
13. A game leg, origins unclear
14. Harbours a secret love for his Sergeant
15. A terrified poltroon
16. A rash, impetuous heroic idiot
17. A quiet thinker, liable to snap at any minute.
18. Talks to himself as another persona
19. Has a thick country (or over cultured) accent
20. A Mummy's boy, won't do any work
21. An innocent. Believes everything he hears.
22. A psychotic, who fixes murderously on one thing.
23. A hobbyist, obsessed with catching butterflies etc…
24. A thief who steals indiscriminately
25. A bully, who shouts and busters
26. A dangerous bastard who is skilled in violence,
27. A weasel of a man,
28. A Braggart and bully.
29. A dandy with a dress sense
30. A fine dancin’ man for the ladies.
31. Poor cross - eyed fellow with a fine moustache.
32. A portly, eatin’ man, with a heroic appetite.
33. A bible reader, always ready with a quote
34. A Jewish tailor’s boy, with fine manners
35. An exiled Russian Nobleman, “skilled in the Wars.“
36. A real joker, it's the way he tells ‘em.

An army for a pound!

My unexpected visit to the UK has had some unexpected turns of events.  The discovery of a model shop within walking distance was something of a shock, as was the amount of cash I seem to have spent there.  Yesterday I was in Poundland, looking for a gift bag for a birthday present, big spender that I am, and glancing at a toy shelf I discovered that were selling 28mm sized WW2 style plastic army men, from a Birmingham company called Funtastic.  

Play set?  That's me alight! 

The box holds 50 plastic figures, some pristine, some with more flash than a Queen concert.  The set I bought were, quite obviously, the Green and the Tan, but in the best traditions of impartiality other colours are available.  Having divested myself of WW2 skirmish for the move to Cyprus I have no intention of collecting a vast number of such figures, but just let me repeat… Poundland.  50 of these figures cost me a pound.

Beside a Perry ACW Union Rifleman.  Same size!

The outlay was well within my budget… even basing them on pennies adds 50% to the value.  I would really like to use these for an ImagiNations game with a WW2 theme, and I took ideas from the Army Men computer games, and an old wargaming magazine long lost but long remembered.  As well as these the influences are childhood games using Airfix 1:32.  The British versus Germans, on the living room carpet, and incongruously across my brothers 1:72 Hornby railway board, for which he had sculpted the terrain,  before losing interest and painting it all white, as “snow.”

So I'm thinking painting - block and dip, penny bases for weight and a coat of semi gloss varnish. Using the same figures with different commanders, who get a printed name tag, will allow me to game the “war” as if different platoons are involved.  The beige coloured figures seem to have British Tommy style helmets, the Green seem to be Yank Paratroopers.  That gives me all the basis I need for my background.

For rules I am in an odd place.  As soon as I saw these figures I thought of Lionel Tarr, and his WW2 Solo rules.  Those have always interested me.  Any man who can make a model replica of Stalingrad to fight a solo game gets my respect, and that gives me my starting point for a very small, very quick and very very cheap project.

Background

The conflict between the Republic of the Green and the Tan Empire has gone on for generations.  It’s beginnings are shrouded in mystery.  The Green historian, Professor Viridescent himself, postulated that a Tan attack had begun the war following a period of build up of the forces of both sides.  He recognised that the societies of both sides were anomalous, almost as if created to be natural enemies, being geared only for war, and that conflict between the two had always been inevitable.  Sad that the loss of such a unique mind should occur in such a senseless way, when a Tan ambush struck at the Green Military Academy, and the Professor was killed whilst leading the counterattack.

The beginnings of the Sand Box Brigade

The Plastic World has to some extent been devastated by the ferocity of the Green - Tan conflict.  Initial Tan attacks into three areas, the Desert, Alpine and Bayou regions were all successful,  yet damaging to both sides. Later attacks focused on Box City, and the Hills.  Having suffered defeat in the three initial campaigns the Green drew back to focus on producing replacement soldiers from the Factory’s machines.  Tan has in the meantime over extended itself, and fought a separate war against the Blue, which has seriously weakened the Empire.  A renewal of the war seems certain, with the Green attack only days away.  Green President Plastro has been seen, inspecting units well behind the front lines and the Green Hero “Sarge” has also been seen in the no man's land of Box City, as well as inspecting his units in the hills.

The Tan have responded by sending their own hero, the somewhat elderly Captain Beige to the Green Front, as well as the Sand Box (SB) Brigade, famous for their exploits in the Eastern desert campaign.  The Emperor has his Factory working at full capacity moulding new soldiers.

It seems then that the sounds of war will once again echo around the Plastic World, and that the Green will seek it's long awaited revenge.

The Fredericksburg Monitor, issue 1 April 1861

Editor Miss Urgence Precombe

Currently Supporting the Glorious forces of the Union

Issue 1 April 1861

War for the Soul of the Union. 

And so it has begun.  Fort Sumpter down in the Carolinas has been surrendered to the Secessionists.  Virginia seems to have gone mad with the stain of rebellion.  We may be a Virginia Newspaper, but we here at the Monitor believe in our One Nation.

Federal troops have been seen at the crossings of the Rappohannock River right here in Fredericksburg.  A Company of Virginian Infantry, raised by Captain Judas Zebadiah (JZ) Quilp of the Virginia Academy, has already crossed over to the north bank, and headed off towards Manassas.

No Cavalry or guns have yet been seen, or are expected.  The presence in our town of Colonel Jefferson Mustard, a Texican and former Congressman has also caused some concern.  The Colonel gave a Rabble rousing speech and has vowed to raise a Regiment of Texicans to fight alongside the Secessionists in this state, if Virginia indeed joins the rebellion.

Colonel Mustard has long been a figure of controversy, and is still suspected of the brutal killing of a Miss Peacock, in his billiard room, with a lead pipe.

PROFESSOR PLUM OPENS ARMY EMPORIUM

The Professor, once of Harvard, has opened an Emporium to serve the armies in the upcoming conflict.  His dry goods have always been admirable, but he also sells Professor Plum’s Brown Liniment and Horse Tonic. Cures nervousness in men of business, and cowardice in the Military Man.

The Camp Emporium

$1  Bottle Brown liniment.

$5  New boots, per man.

$5  Barrel of whiskey (morale bonus)

$20  An Officer's visit Miss Kitten at the Camp Cat house

$20  A company mule.

$20  A company cart.

$50  A Sepia Photograph of the Officer in best uniform

$100 A Sepia Photograph of Miss Kitten, without uniform

$100  New muskets,

$100 per man bribe to receive replacements from the Regiment

$300 New rifled muskets

$300 Company armourer,

$400 Appointment of a company doctor

The American Civil War, and back in Britain.

When TheCyprusWargamer was recalled to Britain for a (hopefully) short period, I had to leave the Wargaming collection at home.  Very annoying.  I have had to put my games on hold and been forced to examine other opportunities.  One of these is the resurgence of my American Civil War project.

When Sharp Practice 2 was published I was keen to try the system out with a couple of boxes of Perry ACW figures.  It's quite a low cost solution.  I even bought and painted two packs of Em4 miniatures plastics, £5 each.  Great figures but I lacked the Army Painter dip to finish them properly.  I never did get those Perrys, and moved on to a Peninsular War plan. Having returned to the cold North for a while I discovered an actual model shop, somehow surviving in this bleak economic, isolated and freezing landscape.  It must have been serendipity, it was within walking distance, and it had a 20% sale on, and it sold dip!

I was more surprised still when I discovered that there were metres of shelving dedicated to model soldiery.  Warlord, Perry, Conquest. .. loads of options.  Since I was feeling downhearted at being away from home and army-less, I reached for the wallet.  A couple of boxes of ACW Infantry, and the Perry “American Farmhouse” tucked under my arm, and I went back out into the bitter chill of a British summer.

I had the bones of a plan, devised back when ACW was the front runner for SP2.  This also came with some provisos.  Both sides have to fit in a single A4 box file, terrain included, and this is to be a limited game, no cavalry, no guns. 

Forces will be:

Confederate with 5 groups of 8 regulars, 1 group of 6 skirmishers.
1 x Major, 1 x Lieutenant, 1 x Sergeant.

Union with 4 groups of 10 Militia, 1 group of 6 skirmishers.
1 x Captain, 1 x Lieutenant, 1 x Sergeant.

The Perry figures come nicely together, with minimum use of the poly glue.   I found the kepis far more fiddly than the hats.  So far then I've completed Lieutenant Status I  Winfield Armstrong Fluster, a former school teacher, and stutterer, nominally second in command of the company, as well as Sergeant Major Status II “Grievous” McSinister, an old Soldier of the  Fighting First, commanded by Colonel Zachary Taylor in the Seminole  wars, and McSinister was at one time the Sergeant of 2nd Lt Jefferson Davis, now President of the Confederate States. 

I intend to use the Terrible Swift Sword SP Supplement as the basis for a campaign, with 1st Bull Run as my opening battle for 1861.  The campaign will be recorded by the Fredericksburg Monitor, a newspaper that swaps sides as the fortunes of war vary. 

The undipped Parson

These games will follow the company of Captain Floyd “Parson” Farthingdale of the 11th Massachusetts, abolitionist, part time taxidermist and Preacher.  The 11th have been raised from the Massachusetts Militia, and I intend to play their side against a much higher quality Confederate force.  This is a departure from gaming both sides impartially and thus represents something of an experiment.  Using a slightly smaller and poorer quality force will give me a real challenge. 

I expect Floyd to be defeated regularly, but then perhaps begin to win as his company becomes more experienced in battle. Some hope! 

Floyd carries what he claims to be abolitionist pamphlets, but his troopers believe these to be Antebellum lithographic pornography.  He carries a .44 Navy Colt, the same gun he once used to shoot a serving Congressman from Massachusetts, with whom he had a disagreement over Jesus and a plate of excellent creamed onions.  My character figure for Floyd is clearly unfinished, and worse, it's still in Cyprus!

I shall follow the Parson's progress as well as that of his Texan arch enemy, on the blog.