American Rifle - Alexander Rose [243]
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88. H. L. Peterson, Notes on Ordnance of the American Civil War, 1861–1865 (Washington, D.C.: American Ordnance Association, 1959), no page numbers. Mahon, “Civil War Infantry Assault Tactics,” p. 58, says there were eighty-one different types of shoulder arm.
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89. Ripley estimated the cost of a government-produced rifle-musket as $13.93 per arm, including bullet molds, wipers, screwdrivers, and other appendages; a privately produced cavalry carbine, on the other hand, cost $30, while a Colt revolver alone cost $25. See Ripley to Simon Cameron, June 8, 1861, Official Records, 3d ser., p. 1:260. By the fall of 1862, Ripley’s estimate for a Springfield rifle-musket had risen, probably owing to inflation and the strictures of wartime demand, to $20. At that time early (if unreliable) Austrian, Prussian, and Belgian rifle-muskets cost as little as $10 to import (a good Enfield went for $19), while the price for a Sharps or Colt rifle was $42.50 and $45, respectively. War Department Report, “Supplement to Prices of Small-Arms,” September 30, 1862, Official Records, 3d ser., p. 2:621.
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90. Lieutenant Francis Shunk to Ripley, August 30, 1862, Official Records, 1st ser., pt. 3, pp. 12:767–68.
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91. Ripley, “Notes,” Official Records, 3d ser., p. 1:264.
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92. One reason why the Henry failed to excite Ripley was Winchester’s congenital inability to build more than 260 per month, even as late as 1865. Davis, Arming the Union, p. 90.
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93. Ibid., pp. 73–74.
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94. For a list and description, see Edwards, Civil War Guns, pp. 27–57.
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95. Report by H. K. Craig for John Floyd, November 12, 1859, Official Records, 3d ser., p. 1:1.
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96. Report by Ripley, “Principal Operations of the Ordnance Department,” November 21, 1862, Official Records, 3d ser., pp. 2:849–59. For slightly different figures, see Letter, Simon Cameron to Edwin Morgan, September 27, 1861, Official Records, 3d ser., p. 1:544.
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97. Howard, “Interchangeable Parts Reexamined,” p. 635.
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98. Davis, Arming the Union, p. 106.
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99. In the 1830s Colonel Hawkins wrote that “the length, bend and casting of a [gun]stock must, of course, be fitted to the shooter, who should have his measure for them as carefully entered in a gunmaker’s books, as that for a suit of clothes on those of his tailor.” Quoted in Rosenberg, “Economic Development and the Transfer of Technology,” p. 259.
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100. On the North and South’s differing conceptions of managerialism, see J.E. Clark, Railroads in the Civil War: The Impact of Management on Victory and Defeat (Baton Rouge: Lousiana State University Press, 2001).
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101. On Gorgas, see F. E. Vandiver, Ploughshares into Swords: Josiah Gorgas and Confederate Ordnance (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1952); S. W. Wiggins, ed., The Journals of Josiah Gorgas, 1857–1878 (Tuscaloosa/London: University of Alabama Press, 1995).
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102. S. L. Falk, “Jefferson Davis and Josiah Gorgas, an Appointment of Necessity,” Journal of Southern History 28 (1962), pp. 1:84–86.
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103. He was officially appointed Ordnance chief on April 8. See Special Order no. 17, Official Records, 4th ser., p. 1:211.
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104. Wiggins ed., Journals of Josiah Gorgas, p. 75.
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105. F. E. Vandiver, “Makeshifts of Confederate Ordnance,” Journal of Southern History 17, no. 2 (1951), p. 180. On the musicians’ swords, see Bellesiles, Arming America, p. 418.
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106. On the stripping of Harpers Ferry, see Smith, Harpers Ferry, pp. 319–20.
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107. See Bellesiles, Arming America, p. 419.
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108. Vandiver, “Makeshifts of Confederate Ordnance,” p. 190.
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109. Ibid., p. 185; W. Diamond, “Imports of the Confederate Government from Europe and Mexico,” Journal of Southern History 6, no. 4 (1940),