Jean Alexandre François LeMat, a French physician living in New Orleans, patented the LeMat revolver in the United States on October 21, 1856. The fearsome weapon fired nine shots from a top barrel, plus a shotgun like blast from a lower barrel. To protect his invention, LeMat took out patents in a number of European countries, including France. At the outbreak of the Civil War, LeMat secured a contract from the Confederate Ordnance Department to provide 5,000 of the pistols, and he traveled to the safety of Paris to begin manufacturing them. The first shipments of these pistols passed through the Union blockade into the Confederacy during the summer of 1862. Although these LeMats were originally intended for Confederate naval officers, many ended up in the hands of cavalry officers and other high-ranking Confederates. Generals J. E. B. Stuart and P. G. T. Beauregard both carried LeMat pistols. When Andersonville Prison commander Henry Wirz surrendered to Union officers, he turned over a LeMat to his captors.