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Cursory Inspections

Instructions to Wright as to inspection reveal how cursory was to be the examination he gave many of the guns with which Captain Crispin later found much fault, as has been recounted. Ripley said,
All the firearms are to be of one or other of the calibres .58 or .69 inch, or with such slight shades of difference that they will take one ammunition for these calibres. Without exacting all the accuracy and nicety observed in the inspection of our own arms, it will be necessary to see that the arms you are to inspect are of good and suitable material in all respects, and are altogether serviceable . . . It is not necessary to go into minute details of instruction on these points, as your own experience and familiarity with the manufacture of arms, and their quality, will enable you to see that none but good, serviceable arms are accepted for government use . . .

Ripley, the watchdog of Government quality, the aficionado of the Springfield Rifle Musket as the finest military rifle in the world—as much from the supreme excellence of its manufacture as from its design—Ripley gave instructions to George Wright that would have almost permitted acceptance of cases of 20 yellow tom cats instead of muskets for Government issue.
The warning of trouble came when Boker’s New York man asked Cameron to vary the conditions of the letter order, agreeing to accept smoothbore muskets, caliber .70 and .72. He explained that these were the best arms shown to them; that rifled muskets caliber .58 and .69 had to be contracted for in advance, and that Wright concurred in the opinion that the smoothbore musket loaded with buck and ball “is far more serviceable than any ordinary rifled piece.”
Still, Ripley plunged in deeper; he agreed (October 22, ), hoping that .70 would be the maximum but that .72 could be accepted; and that “The cones of the arms should fit our regular percussion caps, if it be possible to obtain arms with such sized cones . .
By November 23, Boker in New York had been advised by all the other Bokers in Liege, Solingen, Remsched, Birmingham, Bonn, that 125,000 stand of arms had been purchased on the order plus 28,000 sabers, being shipped as fast as space on the steamers could be found for them. The contract called for Boker to present the arms for inspection to Wright within 60 days—which 60 days had expired on 11 November.
Instead of presenting the guns to Wright for inspection, they had been presenting Wright to the guns. With scarcely a good night’s sleep he had been to different arsenals in France, Belgium, Prussia, and Austria. Because of distance and the time consumed in travel he had been able to inspect only a portion of the arms.
Minister Sanford had asked him to return to Vienna to inspect arms Sanford had contracted for there, and Wright, writing from Cologne (Koln) November 24, expressed the hope his actions would be met with favor for he certainly had been hard at work. Boker, meanwhile, had made contracts to deliver in equal amounts January, February, March, and April, a total of 50,000 rifled muskets, “new, caliber .58, with angular bayonets, at $18.” One shipment into New York November 7 was accompanied by George Wright’s inspection certificate for:
400 rifle muskets, calibre .69, Liege (Arrived Nov. 7).
1,680 rifle muskets, calibre .69, Liege (960 Nov. 7, Balance to come).
5,000 rifle muskets, calibre .69, Cologne (4,080 arrived Nov. 7, balance to come).
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