Author: Fred Ray
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James Burton and Firearms Design and Development
Nice article on James Burton, who, as it says, was one of the most important and influential men in firearms design and development, especially regarding manufacture. An American, he also figures prominently in the Civil War. In April 1844, Burton took a job as a machinist at the Harpers Ferry Armory. Coincidentally, the B&O Railroad […]
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Happy 4th (and a couple of new books)
Hope everyone is having a bang-up (so to speak) 4th of July. It was not such a great day for the Confederacy in 1863, when the news came that Vicksburg had fallen and Lee had been defeated at Gettysburg. Picked up a couple of books recently, which I will try to review in due course. […]
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Dead Men Do Tell Tales
In fact, they can, with modern forensic archeology, be quite eloquent. Case in point comes from the Manassas battlefield, when recent excavations have revealed quite a lot about about wounds and surgical practices. In an article for Smithsonian magazine, recently discovered remains of Union soldiers show a lot about their fate. The bones were discovered […]
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Turner Rifle Update
My previous post on the Turner rifle has been updated to reflect the fact that it will in fact take a standard P53 Enfield bayonet, which would make it a fully functional military rifle. It has turned out to be a fine shooter.
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Short Takes
Rethinking U. S. Grant seems to be the in thing right now. History has no judgment, but historians do, and these tend to run in cycles (witness views of the Confederacy). So it is with Grant, who seems to be on the upswing. Claremont Review of Books reviews some of the latest scholarship, including books […]
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The Guns of 1866—The P53 Enfield vs. the Snider-Enfield
Rob at Britishmuzzloaders does a practical demonstration of the differences of the P53 Enfield and the Snider Enfield. The Snider was basically a P53 that had been converted into a cartridge firing breech loader by adding a “shoe” at the breech designed by American Jacob Snider. As such it was comparable to the American “trapdoor” […]
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Short Takes
Apologies for the blogging hiatus but it’s been tax time and one has to give unto Caesar what is his or he’ll do bad things to you. Anyway, just a short update on the historical cleansing of, well, just about everywhere. Here in tolerant Asheville Robert E. Lee’s face was scratched off a memorial plaque, […]