The
Billinghurst Requa Battery gun was invented by a dentist, a Doctor Joseph Requa
who had been apprenticed at 16 to William Billinghurst. In 1861 Requa began to think about how to
design a rapid-fire gun and he talked to his mentor Billinghurst about the
idea. Together they come up with and
built a scale model of the gun on July 11th 1861. When the gun was well received they built a
full scale prototype.
The Billinghurst
Requa had twenty-five .58 caliber rifle barrels each mounted together on a light
metal frame that could be elevated for firing range. This frame was then placed on a two wheeled
carriage. It was loaded with a clip that
held 25 rounds, and could be reloaded and fired 7 times a minute.
Requa took
his gun to Union General James Wolfe Ripley April 22nd 1862, but
Ripley wouldn’t consider the use of the Billinghurst Requa. He felt that the gun would use up to much
ammunition. Requa then went to President
Abraham Lincoln with several demonstrations of the gun, which were favorably
received.
In need of
money to produce their weapon Billinghurst and Requa arranged a public
demonstration of the gun August 12th 1862 in Rochester, NY. The gun hit its target, a barrel floating in
the Genessee River about 1,800 away in distance. Billinghurst and Requa found enough backers
to have 50 guns produced.
The gun was
used during the Battle of Cold Harbor, the Siege of Petersburg and as
protection of the bridges leading into Washington, DC. The gun was made obsolete shortly after the
war as new firearm technology came along.
2 comments:
Good post! I have heard of this one before and it is nice to see it brought forward. Posts like this have earned you a well earned place on my blog roll!
Thanks Steve. It is fun to find things that aren't always in the forefront. It's nice to know someone is enjoying my work.
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