American Rifle - Alexander Rose [238]
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16. O’Connell, “Corps of Engineers,” pp. 114–15.
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17. Ibid., pp. 93–96.
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18. R. A. Howard, “Interchangeable Parts Reexamined: The Private Sector of the American Arms Industry on the Eve of the Civil War,” Technology and Culture 29, no. 4 (1978), pp. 637, 640. By midway through the Civil War, the output of these private makers was dwarfing that of the government armories. Whereas between 1851 and 1860, Harpers Ferry produced 93,271 guns and Springfield 125,222 for a total of 218,493, Colt alone made about 300,000 Ibid., pp. 634–5, n3.
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19. B. Nosworthy, The Bloody Crucible of Courage: Fighting Methods and Combat Experience of the Civil War (New York: Carroll & Graf, 2003), pp. 27–28; C. Fuller, The Rifled Musket (Harrisburg, Pa.: Stackpole, 1958), pp. 3–4; and W. B. Edwards, Civil War Guns: The Complete Story of Federal and Confederate Small Arms (Harrisburg, Pa.: Stackpole, 1962), pp. 8–9.
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20. The most important summary of these experiments is B.D. Steele, “Muskets and Pendulums: Benjamin Robins, Leonhard Euler, and the Ballistics Revolution,” Technology and Culture 35, no. 2 (1994), pp. 348–82; and see also W. Johnson, “Benjamin Robins, F.R.S. (1707–1751): New Details of His Life,” Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London 46, no. 2 (1992), pp. 235–52.
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21. Chronologically speaking, it was W. Greener, an English gunsmith, who beat Minié to the punch. There were crucial differences between their bullets. In Greener’s version, inside the bullet’s front end there was a small wooden plug that, being thrust backward upon firing, pushed the rear of the bullet wider and filled the bore. During trials held by the 60th Rifles under Major Walcot, fifty Greener rounds were fired into sandbanks and recovered. They were found to have groove marks, demonstrating their expansive qualities. “The success of the trials,” Walcot reported, “far surpassed the expectations of the military experts present. It was proved that the Greener bullet enabled rifles to be loaded as easily as smooth-bore muskets, whilst the range and accuracy of the rifle were retained.” The authorities, however, disliked and rejected the bullet, believing it too complex for everyday use. Nevertheless, in yet another controversy over patents, Greener went on to sue Minié after the British government awarded the Frenchman £20,000; Greener claimed that Minié had copied his idea from reports in “the Times, or from my works, published in 1842 and 1846.” Eventually, Greener was given £1,000 “for the first public suggestion of the principle of expansion, commonly called the Minié principle, in 1836.” The story is told in the famous book by his son, W. W. Greener, The Gun and Its Development, 9th ed. (reprinted Guilford, Conn.: Lyons Press, 2002), pp. 629–31.
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22. J. K. Mahon, “Civil War Infantry Assault Tactics,” Military Affairs 25, no. 2 (1961), p. 57.
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23. Greener, Gun and Its Development, p. 633.
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24. Rosenberg, “Economic Development and the Transfer of Technology,” p. 255.
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25. J. E. Hicks, Notes on United States Ordnance: Small Arms, 1776 to 1940 (Mount Vernon, N.Y.: James E. Hicks, 1940), pp. 79–80. See also P. B. Sharpe, The Rifle in America, 3d. ed. (New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1953), p. 21, for details on the conversion process. On the Model 1842, see Fuller, Rifled Musket, p. 3.
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26. See Colonel H. K. Craig to Jefferson Davis, June 26, 1855, and Davis to Craig, July 5, 1855, in Fuller, Rifled Musket, p. 5.
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27. Sharpe, Rifle in America, pp. 20–21.
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28. See Craig to Davis, June 26, 1855, in Fuller, Rifled Musket, pp. 5–8. Craig, as an Ordnance man, was unwilling to support the immediate cessation of rifle production, believing