Enfield Rifle Factory Set Up in Macon

Colonel Burton had a great interest in the Enfields of Cook, and in supplying them with gauges. But the central government had a plan to set up an Enfield works abroad, then ultimately transfer it to the South. Secretary of War Walker, on May 7, 1861 called the attention of Governor Howell Cobb, who was President of the Confederate Congress, to this idea. Referring to the manufacture of arms, he said:

At London a complete set of machinery exists, which was made in this country, after the pattern of the machines at Springfield, in the United States. It would, I think, be no difficult matter to get these machines copied and executed on the spot with great rapidity. Triplicate machines should be ordered to ensure the chances of delivery of at least one set. For this purpose an additional appropriation of $300,000 may be needed . . . for the three sets of machinery. Should they all arrive, they will, even if not required by the government, be easily disposed of. The amount already asked for under the head of armories and arsenals, would also require to be increased by an item of $75,000 for a suitable building.

It was not until 1863 that Colonel Burton was able to accomplish this, the machinery to be set up at
Macon, Georgia. He returned to Leeds, England, to Greenwood & Batley, machinery builders. Burton was welcomed by his friend Arthur Greenwood, a director. G & B had considerable experience in furnishing the specialized machinery needed for gunmaking, and had set up Enfield rifle factories, since their founding in 1856, for: East India Council, 1859; Royal Small Arms Factory, 1860, Elswick Ordnance (Armstrong) 1860, Royal Laboratory (ammunition machinery) 1860, Birmingham Small Arms Co., 1861 and London Armoury, 1862.
As can be seen, rifles obtained by the Confederacy had been made on all the above set-ups except those of the East India Company, probably established in India, the Royal Laboratory, and Elswich.
In 1863 a contract was negotiated between Greenwood & Batley, and Fraser, Trenholm & Company for a complete Enfield rifle factory, to be installed in one of the largest small arms factories in the world which the Confederacy was building at Macon, Georgia.
At present no description of this machinery exists,

Master armorer, James H. Burton, worked to set up factory at Macon, Ga., for making of Enfield rifle. Specimen shown, from Enfield Royal Small Arms Factory pattern room, is type adopted by South early in War as standard.

but its production rate was to have been 10,000 rifles a month, or approximately 300 rifles a day. An almost identical contract was negotiated by G & B with the Russian Imperial Government in 1871, with Colonel Burton called in to supervise planning the machinery. It was to make the Russian “Bredan II” bolt action single shot rifle, .42 caliber, and is probably very similar to the Enfield plant:
The actual contract was for a complete factory, capable of producing 300 complete (Berdan II) rifles and bayonets in a 10 hour working day. About 950 machines of varying types were made and delivered, coupled with the necessary jigs— fixtures—tools and cutter gauges—compound gauges—drop stamping and hot forging dies, including a complete department to cover maintenance and the replacement of worn out equipment. All inspection—interoperational—tool and cutter gauges were made and tested at (Greenwood & Batley) on the actual production of the rifle and bayonet.
Land had been obtained for the Macon Armory when in May, 1862, the mayor and city council gave a vast tract of land to the Confederate States Government. The conveyance was made “in consideration of the patriotic devotion of the people of Macon to the government of their choice,” for a token sum of $5, “and the further consideration of the advantage to accrue to the city from the erection of an armory within its limits.” The Confederate authorities took possession and began the erection of a large armory; the walls were completed and a number of lesser buildings finished when the city was surrendered to Major General James H. Wilson, U.S.A. The unfinished two-story armory was 45 by 620 feet, of brick from a nearby 27-acre brickyard that had been once Union property, and was to be again. A second building of brick was completed, two stories, 45 by 165 feet. A new brick laboratory of one and two stories, 25 to 80 feet wide and 700 feet long, had also been completed, and a number of other buildings including a brick one-story proof house.
The tools for the C.S. Enfield were completed, boxed, and shipped for the account of Fraser, Trenholm & Company. They were in Bermuda at the time the War ended. Their whereabouts today is a mystery. Equally fascinating is the thought that Greenwood & Batley, before shipping the factory, must have set it up experimentally and run off a batch of parts; these parts were finished and assembled into completed guns, for the approval of Colonel Burton, Major Anderson or Huse, one of whom certainly was “riding herd” on the project. The foregoing is speculative, but common practice, and there is no reason to think Greenwood & Batley deviated from this plan. What these rifles were, how they were marked, is a question to stump the experts. Bonafide Confederate rifles, they never reached the Confederacy.
Today Greenwood & Batley flourish, surviving defaults of cotton crop failures, collapse of national creditors, and a thorough pasting in World War II when a stick of Jerry bombs laid the factory low. But they still cherish memories of the gentlemanly Colonel Burton, one of the most knowing men when it came to gun tools. They employed him after the War in preparing tooling for the Russian Government on a rifle designed by the famous Yankee, Hiram Berdan. Ironic that former enemies should come together in building rifles for yet another strange land.