Competitive Bidding on Surplus Ordnance

Invitations for proposals to bid on Ordnance supplies were sent out October 12 by General A. B. Dyer, Chief of Ordnance, to A. B. Steinberger, John Absterdam, and Remington & Sons, as follows:
Sealed proposals, to be opened at the Ordnance Office at 12 m. tomorrow, October 13, are hereby invited for the purchase of Two hundred thousand Springfield muskets, new; 110,000 Springfield muskets, serviceable and in good order, .58 caliber, muzzle-loaders, with 150 rounds of ammunition for each gun; 40,000 Enfield muskets, new more or less; 40,000 Enfield muskets, cleaned and repaired; 30,000 Enfield muskets, unserviceable.
Bids will be entertained for any one of the above lots of arms, with ammunition for the same, and the privilege is reserved of rejecting any bid that may not be deemed sufficient.
A margin of 20 per cent must be paid at the time of the award by any and all bids, and the residue upon the delivery of the stores.

“Bid $7.50 for Enfield” wired Franklin of Colt’s to Ordnance office. Gun shown was brought back from France by arms importer Museum of Historical Arms, Miami.
Realizing, perhaps, that his clerk had not notified his friends in Hartford, General Dyer telegraphed to General William B. Franklin, president of Colt’s Patent F. A. Manufacturing Company, early the following morning, advising him of the sale: “Sealed bids wiU be opened at noon today at this office. Bid by telegraph for all new Enfields on hand. Seven insufficient and declined.”
Franklin acted and by 2:20 p.m. Dyer’s office had received his reply: “Will give seven dollars fifty cents for all new Enfields. Answer.”
While the Chief of Ordnance might be considered as unduly favoring his friend General Franklin, the fact was that Ordnance, with the approval over the years of the Secretary of War, wished to get rid of the surplus. New arms were being made at Springfield on the improved patterns of master armorer E. S. Allin, and while the U. S. Army had been reduced in force to only 30,000, there were more than ample arms on hand and being made. Dyer, in notifying Franklin, was just showing good sense.
Colt’s had been a prime supplier of Enfield rifles during the War, and Dyer, knowing of the Colt Company’s depot and former factory in England, doubtless supposed that Colt’s through their world-wide commercial connections could dispose of the Enfields. His telegram, while it stated a base price below which the Government would not consider a bid, was not unfair. Rather, it put Franklin, if he wanted the guns, in a position of knowing what sort of figure the Government had in mind to accept, and thus he could sell the guns at a profit, at the same time being able to bid with some confidence that he would be aWarded the rifles. In fact, he wanted so much to ensure himself of getting the guns, that he replaced his $7.50 bid with one of $7.75 for each gun.
Activity on the Springfields was brisk, but many possible purchasers wished a couple of days’ delay in the closing date. Accordingly, Dyer set the date up to October 15; then to the 18th. Franklin, having apparentiy a firm order from London at the beginning, had to cable his party that there was delay. Since the firm order doubtiess was from someone hoping to supply the French Government, a particular move of that body, a decree, radically altered the plans of international munitions merchants hoping to sell to France. By decree of October 12, communicated to Remington Arms secretary, son-in-law W. C. Squire, who was staying at the Arlington House in Washington till the bids should be opened, the Government of France was likely to seize arms imports of arms and pay for them at their own terms. Samuel Remington, president of E. Remington & Sons, was on the spot in Paris and cabled to Squire:
If you have not yet bought for the government you will be able to do so on better terms. By decree of the government issued (Oct. 12) all arms entering France are liable to be taken as national property, and paid for according to appraisement. Speculators in arms intended for France will find their profit small. Competition with you has been forced and fictitious.
This man, Samuel Remington, was a curious person to have abroad as representative of so august a manufacturing firm. He was the middle brother of three, the others being Philo and Eliphalet Remington III. These two, according to the official Remington story by Alden Hatch, “puritanically disapproved of Samuel Remington, (but) they realized that he was the perfect emissary to the ‘dessolute’ capitals of Europe.” Sam, characterized as a night owl and not adverse to a drink now and then, was “their best salesman.” He was “a gregarious, polished gendeman, quick of wit, with a Warmth and charm that were to make him fast friends among all nations.”
Linked overseas with young Sam was Samuel Norris, caliber .58 rifle-musket builder and sub-contractor of Springfield, Massachusetts. Norris, “of London” as he was characterized in the late 1860’s, was one of several former Civil War contractors who labored abroad where War continued. Among others, bidding on the same lot of arms which attracted the Remingtons’ attention, was another old friend, Caleb Huse, former Confederate purchasing agent in Europe. Located at 17 Broad Street, New York, Huse replied to Dyer’s Springfield rifle offering with: “I offer ten dollars seventy-five cents each for fourteen thousand new Springfield rifles; twelve dollars fifty cents per thousand for two million eight hundred thousand cartridges. Request reply by telegraph.”
But Sam, whose profligate nature is said to have affronted his “puritanical” brothers, was to get a shrewd lesson in duplicity from his puritan family and their long-time business associate, Marcellus Hartley. For Remington & Son, prevented officially from being awarded any guns at Ordnance sales, proceeded to scurry around in the market and obtain the assistance of their competitors in making successful bids. Strangely, they were successful in the face of one major bid by a mystery man who on examination proved to have adequate capital.
The successful bidder, Charles Wright, offered a top price of $15.25 for 200,000 new Springfields, but when Dyer tried to learn something about him, the facts were difficult to elicit. The Ordnance general on October 18 sent a very courteous note to Wright, who was staying at Willard’s Hotel, asking Wright to call at the Ordnance Office the following morning “at 9Vz o’clock,” or offering to welcome Wright at Dyer’s home, “No. 1530, immediately back of the Arlington, on I Street” at 7 p.m. that evening. Meanwhile, Dyer wired the Ordnance chief clerk in New York: “Ascertain who is Charles Wright, of No. 10 Pine St., room fourteen, and report by telegraph, or, if possible, by to-night’s mail.”
Chief Clerk Charles J. McGowan checked out Wright, found at first that he was unknown. Subsequently, McGowan located “A party named Thurston, said to be Wright’s partner, knows all about him, but refuses information. Refers to George S. Gideon, at Washington, and says the arms are for a large banking house here, but refuses names.”
Who Mr. Wright was and for whom he was working remains to this day a mystery. It is possible some speculator in France was his patron, and the decree of the French Government cut off his source of profit. Pressure for awarding the sale to the other bidders was strong. Dyer informed Crispin on October 20, 1870, that the bids had been accepted and the awards made as follows:
To Austin Baldwin & Co.:
40.000    new Springfield muskets, cal. .58, at $12.30 each; 110,000 cleaned and repaired Springfield muskets, cal. .58, at $9.30 each.
25,000,000 cartridges, cal. .577, at per thousand $16.30.
To Herman Boker & Co.:
50.000    new Springfield muskets, cal. .58, at $12.05 each.
To Schuyler, Hartley & Graham:
100.000    new Springfield muskets, cal. .58, at $12.05 each.
To A. B. Steinberger:
About 6,300 cleaned and repaired Enfields, at $5.30 each.
To General W. B. Franklin:
All new Enfields, (between 30,000 and 40,000) at $7.75 each.
The not-so-fine hand of the Remingtons was also evident later in the deal between D. B. Trimble and Thomas Poultney, of Poultney and Trimble, of Baltimore, and the Navy Department. Under oath General William B. Franklin in April, 1872, testified to his knowledge of the matter. Franklin was at the time vice president of Colt’s, who also acted for Remington in helping the acknowledged agent of France avoid if not actually evade the United States neutrality declaration.