A lot of information is available on the following web site:
http://www.american-firearms.com/american-firearms/z-html/company-H/Hoffman,%20Louis/Hoffman,%20Louis.htmlThis is an abbreviated review of the above information:
Louis Hoffman was on China Street in Vicksburg, Mississippi in 1854. In 1879 he was on listed on Washington Street in Vicksburg as well as Clay Street which was known as the Hoffman Block in Vicksburg.
Louis Ferdinand Alexander Hoffman was born in Berlin, Prussia, in 1823. He first worked for Borsing, a machine shop. In 1852 he migrated to American, first to Patterson, New Jersey in 1852. then to St. Louis, Missouri, and finally to Vicksburg in 1854.
From 1854 to 1857 he worked at the Zimmerman and Reading Foundry. In 1857 he went into business for himself.
He ran an advertisement in the "Vicksburg Daily Whig" on October 1857:
"New gun shop - Louis Hoffman takes pleasure in informing his community and the public generally that he will carry on the gunsmith business and all its branches. He will make rifles to order, stock guns and pistols, etc."
In 1886 the former Louis Hoffmann or Hoffman Hardware Company was incorporated and the name changed to Louis Hoffman Hardware Company, Inc., Hoffman Block, Vicksburg, Mississippi. This company became O'Neil McNamarra Hardware Company in the 20th century. Francis Xavier Leray McNamara was employed as an office boy at Louis Hoffman Hardware Company in 1898.
During the Civil War Hoffman was a major supplier to the Confederacy and was later put on trial for arming the insurgents when Vicksburg fell.
Hoffman was known to make Deringer-style pistols of .58 caliber and percussion half-stocked plains rifles. One rifle fired a
.58 caliber "minnie" ball and had a 33-1/2" octagonal barrel.
