Description
Very solid example of this scarce breechloading metallic cartridge Union carbine as issued late 1863 until 1865. It was designed to chamber the .56-56 Spencer round or its own unique cartridge, the .54 Joslyn.
The Joslyn carbine Model 1864, generally called the Second Model, used an innovative breechloading, single-shot, .52 caliber rimfire system invented and was patented by Massachusetts gun designer Benjamin Franklin Joslyn in 1861. His company, the Joslyn Fire Arms Company of Stonington, Connecticut, produced two models for the U. S. government, the Model 1862 and Model 1864.
The early Model 1862 used the percussion ignition while the later Model 1864 used the rimfire system. Designed for field use with Federal horse soldiers, the Joslyn was simple to use and employed a rimfire cartridge very much like the Spencer’s .56-.56 cartridge or its own special .54 Joslyn cartridge. Joslyn’s unique loading arrangement consisted of pulling out the breechblock knob, pivoting the breechblock up and to the left and then inserting the round. However, Joslyn’s single-shot design was as not as popular as the Spencer’s repeating multi-shot rimfire capability, so Joslyn carbines were all but retired from service at the end of the war.
