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A Revolution in Arms: A History of the First Repeating Rifles
(review)1929- Robert B. (Robert Boyd) GordonFrom:Technology and
CultureVolume 48, Number 2, April 2007pp. 457-458 |
10.1353/tech.2007.0070
In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the
content:
The outbreak of the Civil War forced ordnance officers to find
weapons for the Union army just as they were coping with
the technological change arising from the displacement of the
smoothbore musket by the rifle, whose accuracy at longrange allowed
entrenched troops to inflict heavy casualties before a close
encounter with an advancing enemy. Hordes ofYankee inventors with
their zealous agents descended on the overburdened ordnance
department with novel schemesand weapons just as the war commenced.
The chief of ordnance, General James Ripley, and his staff were
overwhelmedby promoters with political connections in high places
touting hundreds of new products. They could hardly havewelcomed
Oliver Winchester and Charles Cheney bearing newly designed
repeating (magazine) rifles for sale.Winchester had the Henry rifle
made by his New Haven Arms Company, and Cheney, friend of navy
secretary GideonWells, wanted contracts for the Spencer rifle that
was not yet even in production. These were not only
breechloadersalready an innovation disliked by Ripleybut rifles
that fired metallic cartridges of doubtful reliability available
only from afew makers. Would soldiers use the lever mechanism of
the new rifles to simply fire them off without bothering to
aimproperly? Could the specialized ammunition be supplied to troops
in the field? Would the complex mechanisms of the newweapons prove
reliable in hard use? Joseph Bilby's new book answers these
questions and tells us how Cheneymanaged to obtain a government
contract for Spencer repeaters, how these gradually entered
service, and howWinchester got Henry rifles into the hands of Union
troops through private sales.
Bilby has searched surviving records of engagements in which
troops used Spencer or Henry weapons. He shows us howthe repeaters
forced Union officers to devise tactics to take advantage of their
capabilities: a rapid-fire, short-rangeweapon, unlike the
muzzle-loading, long-range Springfield rifle. They learned the need
for fire discipline after their troopsin early engagements quickly
shot off all their ammunition, leaving them helpless to resist a
second enemy advance.Experience showed that the repeaters were best
deployed with cavalry and skirmishers. Union commanders
alsodiscovered that an enemy armed with muzzle-loaders could pin
down their troops armed with the new repeaters beforethey could get
close enough to use their rapid-fire capability. Spencer and Henry
rifles had no impact on the outcomes ofGettysburg and Vicksburg.
But out west, Sheridan, Custer, and others achieved victories with
the aid of Spencers orHenrys, and then brought this expertise to
the Union cavalry in the east by 1864, with decisive results in
Virginia.
Bilby also explores the entrepreneurship of Winchester and
Cheney. Cheney bested Winchester in getting rifles intoproduction
during the war. After 1865 Winchester improved his product, adapted
it to the civilian market, and, following thelead of Samuel Colt,
courted overseas military buyers. Cheney's Spencer company failed
to innovate or develop newmarkets. Its final indignity was the
eventual sale of the Spencer production machinery to
Winchester.
Bilby begins his book with a review of the development of the
breech-loading rifle based largely on established secondarysources,
and on the history of the mechanical design work of B. T. Henry and
Christopher Spencer. This will be familiarmaterial to readers of
the now-abundant small-arms literature. Bilby's important
contribution, however, is his analysis ofthe evidence for the use
made of the Spencer and Henry rifles in battle. He confronted the
problem of sparse records andhearsay evidence and solved it in part
by using the reports of ammunition expended by particular
regiments. Readers willfind the book well indexed, nicely produced,
and tastefully illustrated. It has a useful bibliography, though
it's a bit weak inhelping the reader locate the manuscript and
primary sources consulted.
The repeating rifle was useless without the metallic cartridge.
We have good accounts of the design and manufacture of
the...
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