Via We Are The Mighty by Blake Stilwell
In July 1813, British and Canadian forces approached the American Fort Mackinac in Michigan, surrounding it and demanding its surrender. The installation commander was Lt. Porter Hanks, who knew he was not only outnumbered but that no reinforcements could possibly arrive in time for him to hold the fort. To minimize the casualties to both his troops and the civilians in the fort, he surrendered it without a fight.
The surrender had huge implications for the War of 1812 in the Great Lakes region. American troops in the area were suddenly on the defensive, Fort Dearborn had to be evacuated and the British controlled the critical Straits of Mackinac between Michigan’s Upper and Lower Peninsulas. Some might wonder what would have happened if Porter had a couple of machine guns. Others might say that’s ridiculous, because the machine gun wouldn’t be invented until the late 1800s.
But was there?
According to the Forgotten Weapons YouTube Channel, there was a machine gun available. In May 1792, Joseph Gaston Chambers began to market a new weapon to President George Washington and the U.S. War Department. It was a weapon that had the potential to change the face of American warfare. It was a repeating flintlock musket that could fire up to 20 rounds per minute, and it was a musket that Ian McCollum believes could be considered a machine gun.
A little history for you
In the early 1790s, the U.S. Army was suffering defeats at the hands of Native tribes in the Northwest Territory, which was then the areas surrounding the Great Lakes. Congress blamed the disasters of 1792 on the quality of the Army’s weapons. So when Joseph Chambers approached the War Department with the idea of a repeating rifle, Secretary of War Henry Knox was more than eager to listen.
His original design was one that would have a lock hooked up to the front of the weapon’s barrel. With bullets at regular intervals down the length of the barrel, the user would pull a cord attached to the lock which fired off the first round. The specially-designed rounds had tips designed to ignite the powder of the next round. At the end of the musket, the regular trigger would be used to fire the last shot.
Apparently, Chambers’ demonstration for Knox didn’t go well, and one may have even exploded. Knox took a hard pass and for the next twenty years, Chambers made no traction with his new designs. Then came the War of 1812.
By the time the U.S. was again at war with Great Britain, Chambers had a new, more powerful design. It was a fully automatic pattern-fired, seven barrel gun that was capable of firing 224 rounds at 120 per minute. A single pull on the trigger cord would cause the weapon to fire for the next two minutes. It was a mounted machine gun that caught the U.S. Navy’s interest, even if the War Department once again passed on adopting it.
The navy not only adopted Chambers’ automatic machine gun, but also purchased his single-barrel rifles and even a pistol that used a similar design. They weren’t in service until 1814, so it wouldn’t have helped Lt. Hanks at Fort Mackinac, but they were in one of the most important theaters for the young U.S. Navy: the Great Lakes.
To prepare for combat, American sailors would have the Chambers rifle preloaded and ready to go. When it was time for action, all they had to do was prime and fire it. There was no need to think about reloading 224 bullets – if they couldn’t clear an enemy’s deck with hundreds of rounds at a time when each man would get one or two shots off, then it was never going to happen anyway. To see how the weapon was loaded, check out the Forgotten Weapons video above.
One of the reasons the Chambers weapons aren’t really well-known is that they didn’t really catch on. If properly loaded and fired, the sailors had a roman candle-type of gun. If anything went wrong and a round failed to fire, they were holding a giant pipe bomb. It was eventually deemed unreliable and left service.
Read in its entirety at wearethemighty.com.
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Wonders ? never stop. When it involves the Government ! Sounds like the possibilities where many for this type weapon then ? ONE ? maybe put a BIG reduction on Conflict or war or senseless fighting ? ONE old FACT ? LOOKING down the BARREL of a Twelve gauge shotgun is still more FRIGHTING ! than a 9 mm Glock !!! So POINT an TIME multiple BARRELS would surely put the FEAR of GOD and stamp out the Stampeder more profissionally ? Back to issue ?? seems any thing that makes sense, gov. does opposite ? so stop fighting ? no, no, wrong ! that would stop SPENDING and Needed interference from gov. on all issues. Foreign affairs, Land Grabbing from INDIANS, Most of ALL ,people living and working together for the EQUAL rights of all including the INDIANS. SOME history ? PILGRIMS & INDIANS – THANKS GIVING now free turkey day !! Let Us never FORGET ? Male-Stand-dish doing POKE-A-HON-TISS !! often wondered the Pre-fix POKE ? a bag over head or poke her ???????
Love to see Gun at Range or in Musuem to hold
Radical