In our continuing saga of the relationship between pinfire cartridges and the United States, this post will take a look at C. D. Leet & Company.

Last post we talked about Christian Sharps and their problems with being able to fulfill their pinfire cartridge contract. Because of the delays, the Frankford Arsenal received permission on February 20, 1862 to buy 200,000 pinfire cartridges with the higher powder quantity “equal to those of Colts army revolvers” from a different manufacturer. So on February 28th, Captain Crispin contacted C. D. Leet to order 250,000 pinfire cartridges. This was actually the very first order, for any kind of cartridge, that C. D. Leet received from the Army.

C. D. Leet delivered the first 50,000 cartridges on April 14th and received a payment of $856.25 for them on April 30th. They deliver another 88,000 in the beginning of May and the rest of the first order on May 16th. On May 3rd, 200,000 more were ordered which were all delivered on June 17th. The final order of pinfire cartridges from any manufacturer was Dec 10, 1863 for 76,000 from C. D. Leet which were delivered on December 30th.

C. D. Leet was the only manufacturer who seemed to have had no quality issues with the cartridges they delivered. You will notice that the design of the cartridge is a little different than Christian Sharp’s version. Leet’s cartridge contains a lead plate at the base of the case rather than having the case itself be reinforced. The next manufacturer we will look at uses the same technique as well. This had to have been easier and more efficient than Sharp’s method and is probably why there were much less issues manufacturing them to an acceptable standard.

For the next few posts we will take a detailed look at the relationship between pinfire cartridges and The United States. We will start with Christian Sharps.

In the late 1850s the United States Ordnance Department began testing many different weapons systems with the goal of modernizing its aging technology. They had received many favorable reports of European armies adopting the pinfire system so in 1857 and 1858 a few tests were performed on various calibers of pinfire revolvers, all of which received very favorable reviews. 

September 28, 1861 marked the entrance of pinfire arms in the American Civil War. On this date 52 Lefaucheux revolvers with ammunition were purchased from a New York gun dealer, Hermann Boker & Co. A month later the Army’s purchasing agent, Colonel George Lee Schuyler, purchased 10,000 Lefaucheux Model 1854 revolvers directly from Eugene Lefaucheux’s company in France. Another 2281 revolvers were acquired through small purchases from various military suppliers. Colonel Schuyler also brought back at least 200,000 pinfire cartridges.

Full box of 16g that I plan on loading and shooting

A nice 16g boxwood hand roll turnover tool for pinfire cartridges

A leather holder for 10 16g pinfire shotshells

This is a 10g pinfire shotgun that was manufactured in Liège, Belgium by the luxury gun maker, E. Bernard. It was retailed by Brun-Latrige of Saint-Étienne, France.

I had the opportunity to photograph some of my friend’s collection of early needlefire cartridges.

Here are some examples that were made for the Chassepot rifle. The collection contains specimens with explosive tips, armor piercing bullets, blanks, and ball rounds with both paper and linen cases.