When the Civil War erupted, the South lacked sufficient modern weaponry, so the Confederacy sought arms both through overseas purchases and through home manufacture by arsenals and private firms. Bilhartz, Hall and Co., established in 1862 by Candidus Bilhartz, George Hall, and Coleman D. Bennett, was one of these manufacturers. Bilhartz, a native of Baden, Germany, who had lived in Pittsylvania County since 1858, had been a prewar harness maker, mechanist, and distiller and served as the factory's mechanical genius, while Hall managed the firm and Bennett financed it as a silent partner. At its height in late 1863, the company employed 38 workers. It produced two types of carbines for the Confederacy. Its innovative rising breech carbine was a breech-loading design, and only 100 were made from 1862 to 1863. The firm also manufactured 400 .58 caliber muzzle-loading carbines that resembled the U.S. Model 1855 Springfield carbine. In addition to firearms, it supplied carbine stocks to the Richmond Armory, receiving $1.00 each for 650 short stocks and 1095 long stocks delivered in May 1863. By September 16, 1862, the company had sold 100 rising breech carbines to the Confederate Ordnance Department for $45.00 each. Production was not a success, and the company ceased operations in 1864, but it left a legacy of ingenuity in its rising breech carbine as one of the small factories that tried in vain to help the Confederacy match the North's industrial output.