July 1, 2025 • 7 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, Richard Gatling hoped that the tremendous power of his new Civil War weapon would discourage large-scale battles and reveal the true folly of war. Here to share the story is Ashley Hlebinsky, one of the nation's foremost firearms experts and former curator of the Cody Firearms Museum.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American people.
Richard Gatling hoped that the tremendous power of his new
Civil War weapon would discourage large scale battles and show
the folly of war. What would happen here? To tell
the story of Gatling is Ashley Lebinski. Take it away, Ashley.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
There aren't sufficient words to describe the horrible tragedies that
befell Americans during the Civil War from eighteen.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
Sixty one to eighteen sixty five.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
With an estimated of over six hundred thousand dead in
just four short years. At the beginning of the war,
or a colonel and a dentist wondered if there could
be a weapon so terrible that it would deter warfare
from continuing.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
That dentist was Richard Jordan.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Gatling, and he decided to take on that task with
his invention that.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
Bore his name, the Gatling Gun.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Born in eighteen eighteen in North Carolina, Galling showed a
lot of promise for inventing.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
Pretty early on.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
He created improvements on steamboats and also different agricultural equipment.
Although after about a smallpox Galing decided to shift to
a career in medicine, and he earned his MD in
eighteen fifty from the Ohio Medical College, but he actually
never practiced as a doctor. In eighteen sixty one, Galing
(01:44):
took out a patent for repeating rifle battery. Now people
often incorrectly cite the Gatling gun as a machine gun,
although that definition is misleading. A machine gun itself fires
continuously with one trigger press, but Gatling's gun operated with
a hand crank at the back of the gun, so
the gun was seated onto a carriage. It was a
(02:05):
very very large piece of artillery and it had multiple
barrels that were affixed around a central access similar to
that of a cylinder on a revolver. And the rate
of fire was about two hundred rounds per minute on
the initial Gatling guns, although you could kind of say
that the rate of fire was however fast you could
turn the crank, but later models would fire up to
four hundred rounds per minute, which is pretty impressive when
(02:28):
you think that the standard military firearm at the time
of the American Civil War is a single shot rifle
musket that if you were good, you could fire maybe
three shots a minute, so the differences is pretty impressive. Gatling, though,
is a really interesting character because he's a bit of
a hypocrite. He was living in Indiana at the time
(02:49):
the war broke out. He was a Freemason, and he
had no problem selling his Gatling gun to the Union.
But simultaneously he was an active member in the Order
of the American Knights, which was a secret group of
Confederate sympathizers who often operated as silent saboteurs.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
In the North.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
Ultimately, the Gatling gun was a bit ahead of its time,
as the style of warfare at the beginning of the
war didn't really call for a gun with that kind
of size and that kind of firepower, because most of
the fighting was happening shoulder to shoulder, meaning that as
soldiers would stand in lines together row after row after row,
and they were equipped with rifle muskets. Interestingly, though, during
(03:33):
the Civil War, two Gatling guns were stationed at the
New York Times in Manhattan in order to quell riots
that consisted of draft dodgers in what a lot of
people call one of the bloodiest outbreaks of civil disorder
in American history. But on the battlefield, the gatling gun
really doesn't appear until around eighteen sixty four at the
sieges of Petersburg in Virginia, and that military purpose started
(03:58):
to appear for the gatling gun. And because warfare changed
by the end of the Civil War, so initially soldiers
are essentially a human wall, but by the end of
the war you start seeing the earliest styles of trench
warfare begin, and so at Petersburg, trenches were dug and
the gallan guns were set up around the perimeter in
(04:19):
order to be utilized in kind of your earliest form
of trench warfare, which will be modernized and used mostly
during World War One, and the gallan gun also appeared
in some forms by use in the Navy. The US Army, though,
did adopt the gatling gun in eighteen sixty six, but
the gathering gun is probably more prolific in the movies
(04:41):
than it actually was in any practical application in American
military history. It saw a lot more widespread adoption overseas
in places like Africa and Asia. Even George Armstrong Custer
wasn't a fan during the Plains Indian Wars because the
galllan gun was so cumbersome with its carriage that it
really wasn't used on mountainous terrain out west, and the
(05:03):
Gallan gun quickly kind of became a technology that was
too far advanced when it was first developed, but was
quickly outpaced by new inventions such as the automatic machine gun.
Galings were present at the Battle of San Juan Hill
during the Spanish American War in eighteen ninety eight, but
so were Colt Model eighteen ninety five machine guns, which
(05:24):
proved far more effective, especially when you consider the fact
that they were literally fighting up a hill and the
Galling gun.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
Is a very, very large gun.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
Galling would try to maintain some level of relevance and
would approve upon the gun during his lifetime, but it
wouldn't truly show its potential until a century later, believe
it or not, when designers affixed belts to the surviving
Gatling guns and turned them into the earliest prototypes for
today's mini gun, capable of firing over six thousand rounds
(05:55):
a minute.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
But back to Gatling himself.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
After his limited success with the gun, he went back
to inventions outside the gun world, including improvements on toilets, bicycles, cleaning, wool, pneumatics,
and many other fields.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
His work was recognized.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
He was elected the first president of the American Association
of Inventors and Manufacturers in eighteen ninety one, but unfortunately
Gataling died after losing his fortunes through bad investments in
nineteen o three. A sad ending for a man who,
according to legend, had the naive and feudal dream to
make a gun to end all wars, rather than serve
(06:33):
as a catalyst for designs that inspired more deadly ones
still used in war today.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
And a terrific job by the production, editing and storytelling
by our own Greg Hengler. And a special thanks to
Ashley Lebinski. She's the co host of Discovery Channel's Master
of Arms, former curator in charge of the Cody Firearms Museum,
and she's the co founder of a University of Wyoming
College of Laws Firearms Research Center. And what a story
(06:59):
she did about a gun that was much more useful
for movie lore and mythology than in actual war, good
for trench warfare, for a spot too big to move
along with troops, and in the end, some of the
technology adopted by other firearms to be used down the
road in warfare. The story of Richard Gatling and his
(07:22):
gun here on Our American Stories, Liehabib here, and I'd
like to encourage you to subscribe to Our American Stories
on Apple Podcasts, the iHeartRadio app, Spotify, or wherever you
get our podcasts. Any story you missed or want to
(07:42):
hear again can be found there daily again. Please subscribe
to the Our American Stories podcast on Apple podcasts, the
iHeartRadio app, or anywhere you get your podcasts. It helps
us keep these great American stories coming
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American people.
Richard Gatling hoped that the tremendous power of his new
Civil War weapon would discourage large scale battles and show
the folly of war. What would happen here? To tell
the story of Gatling is Ashley Lebinski. Take it away, Ashley.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
There aren't sufficient words to describe the horrible tragedies that
befell Americans during the Civil War from eighteen.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
Sixty one to eighteen sixty five.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
With an estimated of over six hundred thousand dead in
just four short years. At the beginning of the war,
or a colonel and a dentist wondered if there could
be a weapon so terrible that it would deter warfare
from continuing.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
That dentist was Richard Jordan.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Gatling, and he decided to take on that task with
his invention that.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
Bore his name, the Gatling Gun.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Born in eighteen eighteen in North Carolina, Galling showed a
lot of promise for inventing.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
Pretty early on.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
He created improvements on steamboats and also different agricultural equipment.
Although after about a smallpox Galing decided to shift to
a career in medicine, and he earned his MD in
eighteen fifty from the Ohio Medical College, but he actually
never practiced as a doctor. In eighteen sixty one, Galing
(01:44):
took out a patent for repeating rifle battery. Now people
often incorrectly cite the Gatling gun as a machine gun,
although that definition is misleading. A machine gun itself fires
continuously with one trigger press, but Gatling's gun operated with
a hand crank at the back of the gun, so
the gun was seated onto a carriage. It was a
(02:05):
very very large piece of artillery and it had multiple
barrels that were affixed around a central access similar to
that of a cylinder on a revolver. And the rate
of fire was about two hundred rounds per minute on
the initial Gatling guns, although you could kind of say
that the rate of fire was however fast you could
turn the crank, but later models would fire up to
four hundred rounds per minute, which is pretty impressive when
(02:28):
you think that the standard military firearm at the time
of the American Civil War is a single shot rifle
musket that if you were good, you could fire maybe
three shots a minute, so the differences is pretty impressive. Gatling, though,
is a really interesting character because he's a bit of
a hypocrite. He was living in Indiana at the time
(02:49):
the war broke out. He was a Freemason, and he
had no problem selling his Gatling gun to the Union.
But simultaneously he was an active member in the Order
of the American Knights, which was a secret group of
Confederate sympathizers who often operated as silent saboteurs.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
In the North.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
Ultimately, the Gatling gun was a bit ahead of its time,
as the style of warfare at the beginning of the
war didn't really call for a gun with that kind
of size and that kind of firepower, because most of
the fighting was happening shoulder to shoulder, meaning that as
soldiers would stand in lines together row after row after row,
and they were equipped with rifle muskets. Interestingly, though, during
(03:33):
the Civil War, two Gatling guns were stationed at the
New York Times in Manhattan in order to quell riots
that consisted of draft dodgers in what a lot of
people call one of the bloodiest outbreaks of civil disorder
in American history. But on the battlefield, the gatling gun
really doesn't appear until around eighteen sixty four at the
sieges of Petersburg in Virginia, and that military purpose started
(03:58):
to appear for the gatling gun. And because warfare changed
by the end of the Civil War, so initially soldiers
are essentially a human wall, but by the end of
the war you start seeing the earliest styles of trench
warfare begin, and so at Petersburg, trenches were dug and
the gallan guns were set up around the perimeter in
(04:19):
order to be utilized in kind of your earliest form
of trench warfare, which will be modernized and used mostly
during World War One, and the gallan gun also appeared
in some forms by use in the Navy. The US Army, though,
did adopt the gatling gun in eighteen sixty six, but
the gathering gun is probably more prolific in the movies
(04:41):
than it actually was in any practical application in American
military history. It saw a lot more widespread adoption overseas
in places like Africa and Asia. Even George Armstrong Custer
wasn't a fan during the Plains Indian Wars because the
galllan gun was so cumbersome with its carriage that it
really wasn't used on mountainous terrain out west, and the
(05:03):
Gallan gun quickly kind of became a technology that was
too far advanced when it was first developed, but was
quickly outpaced by new inventions such as the automatic machine gun.
Galings were present at the Battle of San Juan Hill
during the Spanish American War in eighteen ninety eight, but
so were Colt Model eighteen ninety five machine guns, which
(05:24):
proved far more effective, especially when you consider the fact
that they were literally fighting up a hill and the
Galling gun.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
Is a very, very large gun.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
Galling would try to maintain some level of relevance and
would approve upon the gun during his lifetime, but it
wouldn't truly show its potential until a century later, believe
it or not, when designers affixed belts to the surviving
Gatling guns and turned them into the earliest prototypes for
today's mini gun, capable of firing over six thousand rounds
(05:55):
a minute.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
But back to Gatling himself.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
After his limited success with the gun, he went back
to inventions outside the gun world, including improvements on toilets, bicycles, cleaning, wool, pneumatics,
and many other fields.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
His work was recognized.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
He was elected the first president of the American Association
of Inventors and Manufacturers in eighteen ninety one, but unfortunately
Gataling died after losing his fortunes through bad investments in
nineteen o three. A sad ending for a man who,
according to legend, had the naive and feudal dream to
make a gun to end all wars, rather than serve
(06:33):
as a catalyst for designs that inspired more deadly ones
still used in war today.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
And a terrific job by the production, editing and storytelling
by our own Greg Hengler. And a special thanks to
Ashley Lebinski. She's the co host of Discovery Channel's Master
of Arms, former curator in charge of the Cody Firearms Museum,
and she's the co founder of a University of Wyoming
College of Laws Firearms Research Center. And what a story
(06:59):
she did about a gun that was much more useful
for movie lore and mythology than in actual war, good
for trench warfare, for a spot too big to move
along with troops, and in the end, some of the
technology adopted by other firearms to be used down the
road in warfare. The story of Richard Gatling and his
(07:22):
gun here on Our American Stories, Liehabib here, and I'd
like to encourage you to subscribe to Our American Stories
on Apple Podcasts, the iHeartRadio app, Spotify, or wherever you
get our podcasts. Any story you missed or want to
(07:42):
hear again can be found there daily again. Please subscribe
to the Our American Stories podcast on Apple podcasts, the
iHeartRadio app, or anywhere you get your podcasts. It helps
us keep these great American stories coming
Host
Lee Habeeb
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