Treasures from Our West: Model 1875 Gatling gun

Originally featured in Points West magazine in Winter 2011

Model 1875 Gatling gun

Most of us recognize this firearm—from dozens of western movies and television productions—as a Gatling gun. It appeared to be a machine gun, laying down a withering field of fire, but it was not. Each shot had to be triggered manually by turning the crank handle; it was therefore more correctly called a repeating rifle battery.

The Gatling gun pictured here is a Model 1875, manufactured by the Colt Patent Firearms Manufacturing Co. in an array of about twenty-five models from 1866 until 1911. It is chambered for the .45-70 cartridge, has ten barrels, and its magazine holds forty rounds.

Dr. Richard J. Gatling truly believed that the presence of his gun would prevent conflict and save lives just by the moral force of its potential destructiveness, and he carried that futile hope with him to his death, just a few years before its production was halted. Ironically, its name gave rise to the term “Gat,” to designate almost any type of firearms.

Model 1875 Gatling gun. Gift of Olin Corporation, Winchester Arms Collection. 1988.8.2626.1

Post 123