Deceptive Marking

The mark “Tower” on an Enfield-type arm was apparently used more or less to deceive Northern purchasers as well as those of the South. It apears handstamped, without fixed location, on the locks forward of the hammer. The date may be either above or below the mark or, indeed, on some other part of the lock entirely. So far as can be determined, several of the Birmingham Gun Trade used “Tower” locks promiscuously on rifles and rifle muskets which they assembled for export. The export “Enfield” generally can be told from those made for the British Government, by the absence of the Broad Arrow mark on lockplate and barrel breech. Those barrels which bear the provisional (Fig. 10), the number 25 for gauge mark, then the definitive view mark (Fig. 11), another 25, and the definitive proof mark (Fig. 12), all Birming-

Bullet held wood plug supposed to be driven forward by force of explosion to expand lead into rifling, but later simple cavity was found to work as well. ‘Tail” was folded over in rolling cartridge, later torn off with teeth to pour powder into bore

Bullet end of loaded round was dipped in hot wax mixture of mutton tallow and beeswax as lubricant; the paper acted as patching.

Enfield cartridge’s powder was held in smaller bag inside larger one. Bullet held wood plug supposed to be driven forward by force of explosion to expand lead into rifling, but later simple cavity was found to work as well. ‘Tail” was folded over in rolling cartridge, later torn off with teeth to pour powder into bore. Bullet end of loaded round was dipped in hot wax mixture of mutton tallow and beeswax as lubricant; the paper acted as patching.

ham Gun Barrel Proof House marks, may be assumed to be commercially exported rifles made for sale abroad. The presence of such barrels on Enfield arms found in the United States which have “country origins,” such as many of the rustier ones that turn up in the Middle West, may be assumed to be United States or Confederate Enfields, regardless of makers marks, with some exceptions.
A Birmingham short rifle seems to fall into this class of arm. Marked “TOWER” beneath “1861” it has proofs as above. The barrel maker was Beasley & Son. Inside, the lock maker’s mark arcs about the boss for retaining the mainspring fixed leaf: spittle & bros. The lock, inside, above the fixed leaf and upside down, is stamped with the same small w & sometimes found on other small parts, such as sight bases. The actual fitter-up, dg, marked stock between side nails, lock above fixed leaf, and barrel underside. Barrel and breech screw both are marked 2 but the barrel bayonet lug is boldly stamped 11. The ramrod groove bears the small stamps of workmen and stock maker, but they are unclear.

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The Gatling Gun

Ager, Williams, Vandenberg, these have faded into history. The repeating gun most remembered from the war, and yet one which had a very confusing record of use therein, is that of Dr. Richard Jordan Gatling. I had the pleasure of witnessing how effectively Dr. Gatling had builded when I attended a meeting of the American Ordnance Association at Aberdeen the fall of 1957 . Mounted on a testing stand was a small bundle of barrels, dwarfed in seeming firepower by the huge cannon flanking it. But when the gunner pushed the button and that mighty mite whirred into action with a high-pitched snarling roar so rapidly that no individual explosions could even be sensed, I knew I had witnessed not only the world’s fastest-firing machine gun, and the world’s heaviest gun in weight of metal fired (a ton and a half in one minute), but a gun that was directly inspired by the Civil War special artillery General Butler bought from Dr. Gatling. First of Gatling’s guns was bulky wheeled carriage “c...

CHAPTER 6 Rifle Muskets: Civil War Scandals

You place me in a most embarrassing position, Mr. Secretary. How is that, Mr. Wilkeson? the gaunt-faced Penn sylvanian queried, the lines of his expression amplified by the fatigue and, somewhat, disappointment with which he laid down his role as Secretary of War for Mr. Lincoln. Because, Mr. Cameron, the newspaperman re sponded, your contract for rifle muskets with the Eagle Manufacturing Company of Mansfield, Connecticut is for only 25,000 arms, and my friends there, whom I induced to engage in this business in expectation of your issuing a further order, as your assistant Mr. Scott assured me you would, will be sorely embarrassed in their operations on this small amount. Indeed this is bad news to me, Mr. Wilkeson, War Secretary Simon Cameron sympathetically observed, as he stuffed papers from his desk drawer into a large portfolio, scanning them briefly, consigning some to the waste basket. But as you can see, I am leaving office today; I believe Mister Stanton, who repla...

CHAPTER 7 Injustice to Justice

In justice to Justice, it must be said that a recent examination of one of the muskets, for the supplying of which to the Union he was so villified, proves to be a reasonably well-assembled hodgepodge of surplus parts and at least as strong and reliable as the American parts from which it was built. But when Philip S. Justice, gunmaker-importer of Philadelphia, tried to get aboard the Federal musket contract gravy train, he both got more than he bar gained for—and Holt and Owen conversely gave him less.

Civil War Guns

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