Archer of Canto

Gatling was born in Hertford County, North Carolina in 1818 & raised Methodist. At the age of 21, Gatling created a screw propeller for steamboats, without realizing that one had been patented just months beforehand by John Ericsson. While living in North Carolina, he worked in the county clerk's office, taught school briefly, & became a merchant. At the age of 36, Gatling moved to St. Louis, Missouri, where he worked in a dry goods store & invented a rice-sowing machine & a wheat drill. The introduction of these machines did much to revolutionize the agricultural system in the country. After an attack of smallpox, Gatling became interested in medicine. He graduated from the Ohio Medical College in 1850 with an MD. Although he had his MD, he never practiced; he was more interested in a career as an inventor. The outbreak of the Civil War stimulated Gatling to produce his most well-known invention & one that revolutionized warfare. This was the machine battery gun often known as the "Gatling gun." At the beginning of the Civil War, Gatling visited the trains bringing in dead & wounded troops from the battlefields & army camps. From his examinations, he learned that only 3/18 died from their bullet wounds; the remainder died from fever, pneumonia, & other illnesses contracted in camp. The loss of life due to illness led Gatling to postulate that if a weapon could be devised to shoot more bullets, fewer men would be required to fight wars, therefore, fewer & smaller concentrations of men would be necessary. This would cut down the rate of death by both illness & combat. Thus, Gatling invented his gun in an effort to reduce the number of men required to fight wars & thereby reduce the incidence of death. He also hoped that the terror created by such a weapon would tend to discourage war altogether. The first gun was tested & patented in 1862. Although crude, it had a firing capacity of more than 200 rounds a minute. Gatling worked diligently to refine his invention, & in 1865 an improved model was patented. 12 guns of this model were subsequently manufactured & submitted to the U.S. Army for tests. On August 21, 1866, more than a year after the surrender at Appomattox & the day after President Johnson officially proclaimed the end of the Civil War, the Gatling gun was officially adopted by the War Department. By the early 1850s, Gatling was successful enough in business to offer marriage to Jemima Sanders, 19 years younger than Gatling & the daughter of a prominent Indianapolis physician. They married on October 25, 1854. Her older sister Zerelda was married to David Wallace, the governor of Indiana. An active member of his Masonic lodge, he was member of Center Lodge No. 23. Later in his life, Gatling patented inventions to improve toilets, bicycles, steam-cleaning of raw wool, pneumatic power, & many other fields. He was elected as the first president of the American Association of Inventors & Manufacturers in 1891, serving for 6 years. Although still quite wealthy at the time of his death, he made & lost several fortunes by his investments. In his final years, Gatling moved back to St. Louis, Missouri, to form a new company for manufacturing his steam plows, or tractors. While in New York City to visit his daughter & to talk with his patent agency, Gatling died at his daughter's home on February 26, 1903. He is interred at the Crown Hill Cemetery in Indianapolis.

Graduated from the Ohio Medical College in 1850 with an MD.

Worked in the county clerk's office, taught school briefly, & became a merchant. At the age of 36, moved to St. Louis, Missouri & worked in a dry goods store. In 1861 he invented the Gatling gun & a year later, founded the Gatling Gun Company. In his final years, moved back to St. Louis, Missouri, to form a new company for manufacturing his steam plows, or tractors.

While being most known for inventing the Gatling gun, Gatling invented & patented a number of other inventions. His inventions include a screw propeller & a wheat drill (a planting device) in 1839, a hemp break machine in 1850, a steam plow (steam tractor) in 1857, the Gatling gun in 1861, a marine steam ram in 1862, & a motor-driven plow (tractor). Later in his life, Gatling patented inventions to improve toilets, bicycles, steam-cleaning of raw wool, pneumatic power, & many other fields. He was elected as the first president of the American Association of Inventors & Manufacturers in 1891, serving for 6 years.

Gatling's gun was developed during the Civil War, but saw very little action. Partly because Gatling was accused of being a copperhead because of his North Carolina roots, but this was never proven. Gatling was never affiliated with the Confederate States government or military, nor did he live in the South during the Civil War.

Copperhead during the Civil War, a union member who wanted peace with the confederacy.

Likes: Inventing is my job as well as my hobby. I love creating things to help the whole of humanity. If I could make somebody's job easier via my inventions that that's all I need to be happy.
Dislikes: War. I originally created the gatling gun to reduce the size of armies & number of deaths by combat & disease. History however had a different plan.

Son of Jordan & Mary Barnes Gatling. Brother to Thomas Barnes, James Henry, William Jesse, Mary Ann, & Martha Sarah. Husband of Jemima Sanders. Father to Mary S., Ida, Richard Henry, & Robert B Gatling.

Raised Methodist.