Abe Williams Percussion Sharpshooter Rifle

Snipers on both sides frequently used long range telescopic-sighted rifles that were manufactured in military calibers.

Circa 1860 Williams (U.S.) Bench-Rest Sharpshooting Percussion Rifle (single-shot/ muzzle-loading/ black powder)

Legendary among Civil War sharpshooting rifles were the bench-rest heavies," which often weighed 30 pounds or more. Carefully loaded through the muzzle, these firearms can kill at distances well over 1,000 yards. They were treated for the most part as separate entities; being carried in a regimental wagon and having several men assigned to use them. Their most general use was to provide counterbattery fire against enemy artillery which could not otherwise be reached by the standard infantry weapons of the period. Credited to Abe Williams of Oswego, New York, this rifle represents the height of northern technology which far exceeded anything that the South was able to produce."

- Dr. William L. Roberts, THE AMERICAN LIBERTY COLLECTION; #70