Christian Sharps built a simple, hard-hitting carbine the army could actually rely on. The Model 1863 was a falling-block, single-shot breechloader (paper/linen cartridge, about .52 cal) made by the Sharps Rifle Manufacturing Company in Connecticut — a wartime refinement of earlier Sharps designs that traded extra bits for faster, cheaper wartime production.

What made it special was accuracy and dependability at range. It was a true single-shot breechloader you could stand up in the saddle and feed quickly; a trained man could put eight to ten aimed shots a minute downrange and still reach out past typical musket range. The simple falling block was tough in the field, the sights were good for long shots, and the cartridge worked much better in foul weather than loose powder and ball.

On campaign the Sharps carbine became the go-to tool for cavalrymen and marksmen who needed reach and precision more than volume. Cavalry units and specialized marksmen used them for skirmishing, scouting, and counter-sniping; Confederate arsenals even copied the Sharps in Richmond, which tells you how useful it was to front-line troops. They didn’t deliver the repeating fire of a Spencer, but where a long, accurate first shot mattered the Sharps often decided the fight.

Famous names tied to the Sharps family include Christian Sharps himself and the Union marksmen popularly called “Berdan’s Sharpshooters” (Hiram Berdan’s units are forever linked with the Sharps rifle). Beyond the sharpshooters, countless Union cavalry regiments carried the New Model carbines through major campaigns, and the gun’s reputation stuck — it stayed popular after the war with hunters and buffalo hunters and helped cement Sharps’ place in American firearms history.