"Battery Gun"
By Richard Jordan Gatling, 1865
Ink and watercolor on paper
18 3/4" x 14 1/4"
National Archives and Records Administration, Records of the Patent
and Trademark Office
The Gatling Gun
The Gatling gun was the first successful rapid-fire
machine gun. Invented by Dr. Richard Jordan Gatling, a physician, the
first model had six barrels revolving around a central axis. Gen. Benjamin
F. Butler of the Union Army first used the gun at the siege of Petersburg,
Virginia, in 1864-65. Shown here are two drawings of the improved 10-barrel,
.30-caliber model which fired 400 rounds a minute. The gun was patented
on May 9, 1865, and was officially adopted by the U.S. Army on August
21, 1866. It proved superior to other rapid-fire guns of the time and,
for more than 40 years, the Gatling gun was used by almost every world
power.