Agar gun

• 1. Inventor And Origins

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  Wilson Agar stood in a Washington workshop during the early months of 1861, surrounded by sketches and half-finished prototypes. The American Civil War had just begun, and inventors were encouraged to create new and better weapons for the Union cause. Agar was one of about seventy or so hand-cranked machine guns developed for the war during this period. He named his creation after himself, though some records spell it Ager. The gun earned the nickname Coffee Mill Gun because the crank and the ammunition hopper on top gave it a look similar to that of a common kitchen coffee grinder. Agar advertised the weapon as an army in six feet square due to its high rate of fire potential.

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• 2. Lincoln Demonstration And Sales

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  President Abraham Lincoln inspected the weapon at Washington Arsenal in 1861. He wrote I saw this gun myself, and witnessed some experiments with it, and I really think it is worth the attention of the Government. Ten of the weapons were purchased immediately at a cost of $1,300 each. This price was very high at the time. Later in the same year, General George McClellan ordered an additional fifty weapons at a reduced cost of $735 each. In 1861, General Butler purchased two guns at $1,300 each. In the following year, General John Fremont also purchased two guns, paying $1,500 for each. The Union eventually ordered fifty-four additional guns beyond the initial ten.

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• 3. Mechanical Design Features

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  The weapon fired .58 caliber cartridges loaded into re-usable metal tubes. A separate percussion cap fitted to a nipple at the rear created a centerfire cartridge. Loaded tubes went into a funnel shaped hopper that gave the weapon its coffee mill appearance. Operators turned a hand crank located at the rear to feed rounds from the hopper and fire them one by one. A wedge shaped block rose up to lock the round while a cam operated hammer struck the percussion cap. Empty metal tubes collected in a pan under the weapon before being reloaded. The gun had a single barrel prone to overheating during sustained fire. Agar added a cooling mechanism consisting of a metal jacket through which air was forced. Air came from a turbine powered by the same hand crank used to fire the weapon. This cooling air blew away pieces of unburned paper near the barrel. The rate of fire reached 120 rounds per minute to help prevent overheating.

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• 4. Battlefield Deployment History

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  In January 1862 the 28th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry used the Agar Guns in a skirmish by Harpers Ferry. Another engagement occurred at Middleburg, Virginia on the 29th of March 1862 when Captain Bartlett recalled Union soldiers firing an Agar Gun at attacking Confederate cavalry. They fired from a distance of 800 yards, inflicting many casualties and causing the Rebels to flee. The Coffee Mill gun saw use during McClellan's Peninsula campaign in 1862. Confederates obtained seventeen machine guns when they captured Harpers Ferry in September 1862. These captured weapons were used sparingly by Rebel forces in 1864. An image shows Ager Coffee Mill gun in the hands of the 96th Pennsylvania Volunteer Regiment at Camp Northumberland in northern Virginia during February 1862.

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• 5. Operational Limitations And Failure

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  Ordnance Department officials condemned the design for using too much ammunition to be practical. The single barrel proved prone to overheating while the weapon was also prone to jamming. Special steel tubes holding cartridges were heavy and expensive, tending to get lost. Later cartridges used brass but this material was not widely available during the time the Agar machine gun was used. The gun had a range of about 800 yards matching rifle-muskets used by infantry. A longer range weapon would have been preferred. Guns often performed poorly in the field despite their high rate of fire potential. Because of how it was used in battle, the Agar machine gun never showed its full potential. In 1865, the few remaining Agar machine guns sold for $500 each.

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