A very common armament used by Union Forces during the Civil War, this James Type 2 Rifle is on display at the Brice's Crossroads National Battlefield Park, near Baldwyn MS
The gun is mounted to a wheeled carriage. Marks on the muzzle are easily identifiable, as follows:
"No. 52
1862
A.M.C (Ames Manufactiru=ing Co.)
G.T.B.
920 (weight)"
These marks prove it is a James Type 2 rifle.
From the Markerhunter website: (
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"James Rifles, Part III – The Type 2
4 September 2009
Craig Swain
American Civil War, Artillery, James Rifles
Of the types identified as James Rifles, the most familiar is what some historians have come to call the Type 2. The James Rifle, Type 2 has the same 3.80-inch bore of the other “true James Rifles.”
. . .
In short, the James Type 2 was about eight inches longer than the Type 1 (which used the Model 1841 form), but only slightly larger than the 3-inch Ordinance Rifle. And the next notch up on the caliber scale, the 4.5-inch Rifle, was much more massive.
As indicated on the caption from the photo above, the James Type 2 is sub-classed by historians in four different series. These series, like the type designations for the James Rifles, are purely the discriminators placed upon the surviving weapons found today, and do not match any known design or production designations.
. . .
By far the most numerous of the James Type 2 was the Series 4, with over eighty produced. The Series enjoyed remarkable survival rates, with over fifty existing today. With all the markings on the muzzle, these are easy to identify.
This piece is one of a pair representing Richardson’s Battery (Battery D, 1st Missouri Lt. Arty.) along Grant’s Last Line, again at Shiloh. Clear are the stamps for “1862,” “A.M.C” for Ames Manufacturing Company, “G.T.B.,” “911” for the weight, and “No. 46.”
All of these James Type 2 used a standard sighting system. The front sight was a blade type, fixed to the muzzle. On the breech, a slot for a tangent sight passed under the knob. This sight was fixed with a screw passing vertically into the slot.
I have not seen a definitive range table for the James Type 2 Rifles, and can only assume the ranges were slightly better than that of the Type 1 (due to the longer bore). Indeed the Ordnance Manual of 1861 did not even mention the caliber. In theory, the caliber of gun gave a weight of shell on par with 20-pdr Parrott Rifles. So it is nice to speculate about the potential of these weapons. However, clearly there was enough working against the type to force it out of service. During the Antietam Campaign of 1862, only ten James Rifles were numbered with the Army of the Potomac. At Gettysburg the following year only four examples of the type, equipping the 2nd Connecticut Light Artillery which had just been pulled from Washington’s defenses, were on the field. The phase out was slower in the Western Theater, with James Rifles remaining in service as late as the Atlanta Campaign. Production ceased in 1862, with the exception of one test batch in February 1863 (which works in to the discussion of the Type 3 which I shall approach next).
Perhaps there was a side benefit of this rapid decline in popularity. Considering the survival rate of the Type 2s, particularly the Series 3, and that few show excessive bore wear, the James were quickly sent to the arsenal storage facilities. Instead of their numbers reduced by post-war service, plenty of the type remained in stocks when the War Department called the old guns out for park displays in the 1890s."