Also known as: Agar gun, coffee mill gun.
| Type | Early hand-cranked rapid-fire gun |
|---|---|
| Feed | A hopper, like a coffee mill |
| Use | Limited Federal service |
An early machine gun
The Agar gun was one of the earliest rapid-fire guns, worked by a hand crank that fed cartridges from a hopper into the breech and fired them in quick succession. Its hopper and crank gave it the nickname of the coffee-mill gun.
It attracted notice early in the war, and a few were bought for Federal service, but like other early rapid-fire guns it saw only limited use before more successful designs appeared.
On this site
Sources & further reading
- CivilWarArtillery.com research archive: cannon identification pages, manuals, and reports.