This gallery traces the arms race sparked by the War Between the States. Displays include a vast collection of domestic firearms manufactured both north and south of the Mason-Dixon Line, and firearms imported by both sides. A recreated federal arms factory can be viewed.

Significant Firearms in Gallery VI:

• Several significant Confederate pieces made in Virginia (copy of Sharps breechloading carbine, Richmond rifle-musket Type II, and 1795/1808 conversion of Virginia Manufactory of Arms musket)
• LeMat revolver similar to that used by Confederate General J.E.B. Stuart
• Relic Enfield musket found in a Virginia bog
• Sharps carbine captured from a Massachusetts soldier by a Virginia cavalryman and retaken at the Battle of Rappahannock Station, Virginia, on November 7, 1863
• Colt Model 1860 revolver lost by Colonel John Singleton Mosby's men during a raid on Fairfax, Virginia
• Smith & Wesson No. 1 revolver used by a member of the First New York Dragoons during the tidewater Virginia campaign
• Spencer carbine lost by a member of the 19th New York Cavalry near Dahlgren, Virginia
• Confederate copy of Sharps carbine
• "John Brown" Sharps carbine

The National Firearms Museum would like to thank the following for their contributions, making this gallery possible:
» Greg Martin
» Butterfield & Butterfield
» St. Louis Antique Arms Association