Welcome to today’s program photo of the Day! Here we have a strange gun from the Civil War, with a sad story behind it. This is the Lindsay Model 1863, commonly known as the Lindsay Two-Shot. Former Springfield Armory man John P. Lindsey built it on an old and troublesome idea, the superposed load. You put two full charges of powder and ball into the same barrel, one behind the other, and fire them in sequence with two side-by-side hammers feeding separate ignition channels. One barrel, one trigger, two shots.
The story is that Lindsay’s brother was killed by the attackers, who opened fire on him, then killed him before reloading his single-shot musket. He took down one man but had nothing left for the other. Lindsay recognized that a hidden second shot might have saved him, and he set out to make one.
Here’s the catch, and it’s huge. The right hammer was to fire the front charge first. If the left charge falls first and the rear charge burns, both loads may go off at once, doubling recoil and sometimes damaging the gun. The Army bought 1,000 of them, the 16th Michigan took them to Peebles Farm, and most of the survivors showed wear on only one hammer, a sign that soldiers had abandoned the move and fired only a single shot.
Most of our POTDs use images of our friends Rock Island Auction CompanyMajor firearms auction in the United States. Take some time to browse them current auction – Who knows, maybe you’ll find a piece of history to take home!
“Desirable Civil War US Lindsay ‘Two Shot’ Model 1863 Double Percussion Rifle-Musket.” Rock Island Auction, www.rockislandauction.com/detail/5032/500/civil-war-us-lindsay-two-shot-model-1863-double-riflemusket. Accessed 3 July 2026.
