M1817 Hall Rifle, an early military breech-loader, USA, uh, 1817 AD

A breech loading flintlock, I wonder how that works out. It still has a ram rod, so I would imagine you just put the powder in through the rear of the barrel and ram the bullet in as normal? Does it break the barrel shortly in front of thr rear of the barrel so that you pour gunpowder down the barrel as normal and then you insert the bullet at the break in the barrel? Quite a strange design.