Poultney Trys Again

Undaunted by the possibility of disapproval of his Remington purchase, Poultney kept at the Ordnance Department, seeking more arms. He was a heavy purchaser of all types of surplus equipment, and some not so surplus. He preferred National Armory products, new make or rebuilt. Learning that the Armory had been conducting experiments in rebuilding Spencer carbines into rifles, fitted with Springfield “Eagle-V-P” barrels and new forestocks, he tried to buy them. His expectations were not unfounded. Silas Crispin, now a brevet colonel, was on duty as usual in New York, office at Houston and Greene streets. To General Dyer, Chief of Ordnance, on January 6, 1871, he telegraphed: “Benton has 500, more or less, Spencer rifles on hand. Please authorize sale at 30 dollars.”
Replied Dyer, “Sell Spencers at 30 dollars each.” The demand continued, and Crispin wired Washington again, the afternoon of the 7th, seeking to learn if the Navy had any Spencers. Dyer fired back at once: “Commander Navy Yard instructed to issue to you Spencer rifles.”
Certainly with Spencer rifles being sold so briskly at $30, Poultney was justified in thinking he, too, could have some if he could sniff them out. The transformed Springfield-Spencers were by way of being an experiment and any junior Ordnance officer could have told him they served more as an engineering study than as any important step forward in reequipping the Grand Army.

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CHAPTER 17 The Starr Rises

From the catalog of Wallis and Wallis, British gun auctioneers ( 1962 ) at Lewes in Sussex, we read of the sale of a Starr revolver: Lot 1060 ... A 6 shot .44 Starr SA Army Perc Rev 14", brl 8", No. 51594, the top strap bearing old engraving Col. Colt Address New York, Good Condition but action As Found & frame screw not orig . Eben T. Starr of Yonkers, New York, might not have smiled at this latter day whimsey. Marking his re volver with the name of the man he dared challenge by launching a new revolving pistol business in 1858 was to him not funny. Though the modern gun bug who fraudulently marked this in the hope someone would bite on it as a hitherto unknown Colt double action revolver we trust was unsuccessful in his piracy, per haps the buyer at the Wallis and Wallis auction cherishes his purchase for what it is: one of the best and most modem revolvers of the Civil War era. Though complex inside at first glance, its parts are well thought out and reveal Star...

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...

French and Belgian Arms

French and Belgian materiel was considered next best to the Enfields, though the types and calibers were more varied than either Enfield or Austrian Lorenz arms. Basic pattern for the best rifles of both France and Belgium was the “carabine” of Captain Minie. Minie’s designs had exerted profound changes in the world’s small arms armament. That change was ably summed up by lexicographer Thomas Wilhelm after the War when he prepared his military dictionary. Said Wilhelm, “Minie Rifle. A species of fire-arm, invented by Capt. Minie, from whom it receives its name. It is certain in aim, and fatal in its results at 800 yards.” The claim was, if anything, inferior to the real capability of the Minie rifle. France in 1861 possessed a surplus of many arms. During the 1840 ’s the temporary procurement of guns designed by Thouvenin, Pontchara, Minie, and others kept the arsenals busy and the soldiers active testing them. Then came the Crimean War and France’s involvement on the side of Gr...

Civil War Guns

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