Volley gun
Two notable artillery-sized volley guns were developed in the mid-19th century, although neither was particularly successful in practice. Developed in the 1860s and based on an 1850s design by a captain Fafschamps, the French mitrailleuse is an example of a multi-barreled volley gun that could fire all of its barrels simultaneously or sequentially over a short period of time. Also developed in the 1860s, General Origen Vandenburgh of the New York State Militia designed a weapon that had eighty five parallel .50 caliber rifle barrels. After failing to sell the weapon to the United Kingdom, he reportedly sold a small number to the Confederate States of America, although there is no record that they were actually used. One Vandenburgh gun was located at Fort Fisher, North Carolina, and another reportedly at Salisbury, NC.
Single-shot
The handgun began as a single-shot weapon in China in the 14th century. In its many versions it remained a muzzle-loaded weapon until the advent of the metallic cartridge in the first third of the 18th century. Such single-shot cartridge-firing pistols were short-lived, as revolver technology evolved rapidly, and cartridge conversions existed for the common models of cap and ball revolvers. Two forms of single-shot pistol, however, remained: single-shot derringers, and target pistols, which were essentially single-shot rifle actions cut down to pistol size. The Remington Rolling Block is perhaps the most well known of these. As the era of single-shot rifles faded, so did these early single-shot pistols.