This is among the rarest of Civil War era American percussion pistols. Only 100 are estimated to have been manufactured by the Union Knife Company in Naugatuck, Connecticut, in the early 1860s for John P. Lindsay per "Flayderman's Guide". Lindsay was a former employee of the Springfield Armory and reportedly lost his brother to an Indian attack and sought to prevent other families from suffering the same loss. His brother had been armed with a conventional musket and was able to neutralize one of his two attackers, but, with his only shot spent, his second, likely furious, assailant was able to overpower him, kill him, and take his scalp. Lindsay believed a second shot would have saved his brother's life and thus set about finding a way to provide one. His answer was three sizes of two-shot pistols and the Model 1863 rifle-musket. Firearms with multiple loads in a single barrel had been experimented with since at least the 16th century, but they were never widely adopted because they were potentially dangerous to their users. The bullet from the second load was supposed to provide a gas seal and thereby prevent both charges from going off at once; however, if the wrong hammer released or there was a gas leak, both charges could ignite at once creating at minimum excessive recoil and very likely exploding or otherwise disabling the weapon. Multiple discharges were apparently not uncommon with the Lindsay Model 1863 rifle-muskets issued to the 16th Michigan Volunteer Infantry at Peebles Farm, Virginia, in 1864 either due to errors in safely loading the weapons in the heat of battle or because of weapon malfunctions. This attractive example has the standard brass "knife blade" front sight on a barrel with round front section and reinforced rear section marked with the matching serial number on the bottom and "LINDSAY'S/YOUNG-AMERICA/PATENT'D. OCT. 9 1860." on top at the breech. The "gunmetal" (bronze alloy) frame has a notch between the two hammers for a rear sight and the matching serial number on the bottom at the breech and left side under the grip at the toe. The matching serial number is also marked on the grips.

Fine with 50% original blue finish, some pitting visible on the breech section, attractively aged patina on the fine brass action and trigger guard, and mild overall wear. The grips are also fine and retain 80% of their original varnish finish and have small dents and scratches and lower edge wear. Mechanically fine. This is a solid example of the "martial size" Lindsay superposed pistol. These are hard to acquire, especially in fine condition such as this example.