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 ARMY RIFLES 
 
 A PAPER RIfAD BEFORt; 
 
 HE OHIO COMMANDERY OF THE LOYAL LEGION, 
 
 FEBRUARY 5, 1^X)8, 
 
 BY 
 
 COMPANION FREDERICK W. HINKLE 
 
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 February 5, 1908, 
 
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ARMY RIFLES. 
 
 The events of the past ten years, particularly the Spanish and 
 Japanese Wars and the present cruise of our great fleet have aroused 
 in the American people an interest in modern implements and methods 
 of warfare, such as has not been in evidence since the dark days of 
 our great Civil War. 
 
 We are essentially a peace-loving Nation. There is probably no 
 "Great Power" in the world whose soldiers and sailors are so rarely 
 seen upon the streets, and yet there is a latent military spirit in the 
 people, which long years of peace and prosperity cannot eliminate. So 
 in these latter years, since our power has reached out into the four 
 corners of the earth, and met and clashed with that of other nations, 
 that spirit has manifested itself in a widespread interest in our army 
 and navy, and their equipment and fitness to protect our national honor. 
 
 Our attention having thus been attracted to military armaments, 
 possibly some little discussion of past and present army rifles principally 
 with reference to those used by the United States army may prove 
 interesting and of some profit, especially if a few of the different 
 weapons referred to, are placed before you for inspection. There is 
 here a number of guns, mostly rifles, which illustrate roughly the evol- 
 ution of the military rifle since the American Revolution. But a few 
 preliminary words, briefly showing the growth of the use of gun- 
 powder and the gun, and some of the inventions connected therewith, 
 may be interesting. 
 
 The introduction of gun-powder into Central Europe was the be- 
 ginning of the end of the Feudal system. It was an introduction into 
 use, not an invention, for the properties of gun-powder were well 
 known to Southern Europe, Spain and Greece for centuries before, and 
 to Asiatic nations especially China and India as far back as the days 
 of Moses, if the ancient writers are correctly translated and interpreted. 
 The invention, therefore, is a matter which it would be idle to discuss. 
 That Alexander the Great met with it, to his misfortune, in India, and 
 that the Chinese used it as we do now, hundreds of years before the 
 Christian Era, are facts which are rather generally admitted. 
 
 There is good evidence extant that Berthold Schwartz, a monk of 
 Friburg in Germany, deserves the credit of first introducing gun- 
 
 ivil57371 
 
powder into Central Europe. He obtained his knowledge from a book 
 published by Roger Bacon in 1267. Bacon got his information in 
 Spain, where he read the book by Marcus Graecus published A. D. 846, 
 and entitled "Liber Ignium," which gives the formula for gun-powder 
 precisely as our black powder is made. This book of Graecus is pre- 
 served in the Royal Library at Paris. Schwartz undoubtedly deserves 
 the credit for introducing gun-powder into Central Europe, for it came 
 into general use shortly after he published his alleged discovery. This 
 was in 1320. 
 
 With great vehemence did the good Knights resist the innovation 
 in war-fare thus rudely forced upon them by the use of fire-arms. 
 Encased in almost impenetrable armor the bold Sir Knight was accus- 
 tomed to gallop furiously about the field of battle seeking whom he 
 might slay. Rarely was he killed or even wounded by foot soldiers. 
 Even though unhorsed and unable to rise from the weight of their 
 armor, yet as one writer says, "They could only be killed after they and 
 their armor had been broken up like so many lobsters, with wood- 
 cutter's axes. Well might James 1st. remark that defensive armor was 
 a double protection, preventing the bearer from being injured or from 
 injuring others." 
 
 "■ — Gun-powder put an end to this immunity. The veriest varlet 
 armed with the arquebus could bring low the doughty Knight in his 
 armor of proof, and the Knights who were brave as lions as long as they 
 could not be killed, didn't relish it at all. Armor was thickened until 
 the champion arrayed for the fray resembled nothing so much as a 
 modern iron-clad, and sometimes smothered in his harness. But in 
 vain ; the bullet pierced his coat of mail and made him a back number. 
 
 But still the fire-arm had not reached the stage when it could be 
 depended upon to win battles even as late as the seventeenth century. 
 It was exasperatingly slow in loading, so slow that in one battle about 
 the middle of that century, the slowest soldiers managed to fire only 
 seven shots in a battle lasting from noon to eight o'clock in the even- 
 ing. This was a heavy gun fired by a match held in the hand, but 
 shortly afterwards the match lock and wheel lock came generally into 
 use and greatly increased the rapidity of fire. The wheel lock was the 
 first flint lock invented, and its principle appears to have originated 
 from the domestic use of flint and steel to strike fire. It first came into 
 use in 1515. 
 
 From the wheel lock, by a natural improvement, came the flint- 
 
hammer-lock in 1630, a Spanish invention, the use of which was contin- 
 ued for over two centuries. The British Army used a flint lock as late 
 as 1842, as also did the United States. They are still manufactured and 
 exported to half civilized countries, it being considered inadvisable to 
 give the natives too good a weapon. 
 
 About 1807 a Scotchman named Forsythe making use of an idea 
 previously put in practice by the French, patented a gun in which the 
 percussion system was first embodied, and thus another and perhaps 
 the greatest step of all up to that time, was taken in the development of 
 our modern rifle. "But it was 12 years later before the percussion cap 
 as we know it, appeared ; during this period guns were made with the 
 fulminate in the form of a pill or capsule, the flash pan of the flint lock 
 being retained for holding the pill." 
 
 The earliest fire-arms were all smooth bore weapons, some of them 
 tremendously bell-mouthed, as the blunder-buss, and designed to fire a 
 number of balls after the manner of our shot-guns. But about 1498, 
 some unknown genius, a German as all writers agree, hit upon the 
 scheme of grooving the interior of the gun barrel, not however with 
 spiral grooves but with straight parallel ones. His only purpose was 
 to facilitate the operation of loading and prevent leading and fouling 
 of the barrel, for it was thought that the dirt of the barrel would settle 
 in these grooves. 
 
 About the beginning of the sixteenth century some other blunder- 
 ing genius, probably Kutter of Nuremberg, thought that twisted or 
 spiral grooves would take up more dirt than straight ones, and tried 
 them, when to his astonishment he found that his bullet had an unheard 
 of range and accuracy. Thus the idea of rifling gun-barrels was first 
 touched upon. A few of them were made and given to a company of 
 cavalry, called ''Carabins," from which circumstance they took the 
 name "carbines." 
 
 It was over a hundred years before this idea was actively adopted 
 in military arms, but in 1631, William, Landgrave of Hesse-armed some 
 of his troops with straight grooved rifle carbines ; Frederick the Great 
 used them in the "Seven Years War," and Sweden and France adopted 
 them shortly thereafter, but conservative old England had only supplied 
 one small corps of her army with the rifle at the time of the Amer- 
 ican Revolution ; yet, in 1742, Robins had worked out the principle of 
 the rifle and demonstrated that a ball revolving on the axis of the gun 
 had greater accuracy and longer flight. 
 
6 
 
 As one studies the evolution of the modern fire-arm one is more 
 and more impressed with the truth^ unflattering as it may be to nine- 
 teenth century invention — that the mediaeval gun maker had hit upon 
 and elaborated to a remarkable degree all the ideas, with the exception 
 of two or three, which our modern gun makers have adopted and use 
 and profess to have invented. In the British, Paris and other European 
 museums, are ancient arms of the hammerless pattern, with safety 
 catches, and indicators on the triggers, revolvers and revolving guns 
 of from three to twelve chambers antedating the introduction of the 
 flint-lock, very creditable breech loaders, double barreled guns, and 
 most curious to relate, repeating muskets firing as many as eight shots 
 without reloading, one in particular almost precisely identical, with 
 the exception of the metallic cartridge, with the Spencer rifle used in 
 our civil war and since. 
 
 Even the idea of the Gattling and Nordenfeldt guns was touched 
 upon and patents issued for weapons of this type. 
 
 Henry the Eighth had a breech-loading arquebus somewhat similar 
 in construction and method of loading to the Snider and Winchester 
 rifles of our day. In 1808, a Paris gunmaker invented a percussion 
 breech loading gun in which the cap was affixed to the breech of the 
 cartridge. A needle of steel pierced this cap when the trigger was 
 pulled, igniting the charge. A slight modification of this gun in the 
 shape of the "Prussian Needle Gun," won the Franco-Prussian war. 
 
 Not stopping to cite further examples of ancient inventions which 
 have been slightly modified and adopted by modern gun-makers, and 
 their name is legion, but coming at once to the American "War of 
 Independence," we find the British army using as its regulation arm 
 the flint-lock smooth bore, known familiarly as "Brown Bess" or 
 "Queen's Arm." The 1x)re was over three quarters of an inch in diam- 
 eter and the bullet, which was generally somewhat smaller than the bore, 
 was wrapped in a loosely fitting patch which formed a cartridge. Its 
 effective ragge was about one hundred and fifty yards. Crude as this 
 weapon was, and far behind the inventions of the times, yet its simplic- 
 ity and ease of loading, as compared with the rifle of the day, made it a 
 most serviceable miHtary weapon. With the exception of the change 
 from flint to percussion lock it. was retained as the regulation arm of 
 the British Army until about 1850. 
 
 One corps of the British army, however, during this war, was 
 armed with a breech-loading gun, known as the Ferguson musket. It 
 
was a flint lock, and the breech mechanism consisted of a large screw 
 running perpendicularly through the breech and attached to the trig- 
 ger guard. When the guard was turned, the screw sank down through 
 the breech, leaving an opening in the top of the barrel through which 
 the charge was inserted. The screw was then raised to its place closing 
 the barrel. One of these is now a loan exhibit in our National Museum. 
 
 Our fore-fathers, however, less favored than their opponents, had 
 to depend upon a variety of weapons. Although many of the regi- 
 ments had guns of the "Brown Bess" type, yet the great majority of 
 the men, at first, carried their own weapons^ shot-guns, muskets of 
 every size and description and some rifles. The slope of Bunker Hill 
 bore witness to the destructiveness of these weapons at short range. 
 We do not wonder that Putnam made his men hold their fire until they 
 could see the whites of the red-coats' eyes. Later, through the good 
 offices of Lafayette, the United States received large supplies from the 
 L>ench Government of the Charleville Model 1763, a heavy, smooth 
 bore flint lock, and after the Springfield and Harper's Ferry armories 
 were established in 1795-6, this continued to be the model for the guns 
 manufactured there. As early as 1804 rifles of this type were produced 
 at Harper's Ferry. 
 
 Yet there were arms in the Revolutionary forces which far sur- 
 passed anything that the British had — or had ever encountered. 
 
 An article in a recent magazine on the subject of the birth of the 
 American Army says : "The rifle had been introduced into Pennsyl- 
 vania about 1700 by Swiss and Palatine immigrants and was made by 
 them at various border towns in that colony 20 years before the 
 Revolution. Our frontiersmen, appreciating the superior accuracy of 
 the grooved barrel adopted the rifle at once and improved upon the 
 German model with such ingenuity that within a few years they had 
 produced a new type of fire-arm, superior to all others, the American 
 backwoods rifle." At the outbreak of the Revolution the rifle was used 
 only in Central Europe and along the Western frontiers of our central 
 and southern states. Armed with this back-woods rifle the men of the 
 west came to the assistance of their eastern brethren, and were organ- 
 ized into regiments of riflemen, which cost the British dear before the 
 long war was over. They were employed as sharp shooters, and ere long 
 the British pickets found that it was unsafe to expose their heads even 
 at a distance of 400 yards. The same writer quoted above says : "So 
 frequent became the return of officers, pickets and artillerymen shot 
 
8 
 
 at long range, that Edmund Burke exclaimed in Parliament, 'Your 
 officers are swept off by the rifles if they show their noses.' " 
 
 In the British camp, the riflemen, "clad in their Indian hunting 
 shirts," were called, ''Shirt-tail men with their cursed twisted guns, 
 the most fatal widow and orphan makers in the world." With this 
 rifle-corps, which adopted Indian methods, began the modern system 
 of warfare, fighting in open order as skirmishers, taking advantage of 
 every available cover, and picking off the officers or particular men. 
 The first pitched battle in which rifles were exclusively used by one of 
 the Armies, was at King's Mountain, where the British, under Fergu- 
 son, the inventor of the breech-loader of which I have spoken, and witb 
 which some of them were armed, met the Tennessee back-woods rifle- 
 men. Ferguson was killed with 390 of his men and lost 716 prisoners, 
 while the total loss of the Americans was 47 killed and 60 \younded, 
 although our forces charged up a mountain far more difficult than the 
 heights of Bunker Hill or Fredericksburg. 
 
 During the years that elapsed between the Revolution and the War 
 of 1812 one great improvement in military arms was brought out, 
 namely the invention of the percussion system, by means of which the 
 flint lock and priming pan were partially done away with, at least for 
 military guns. At first the fulminate was placed in the old priming 
 pan and struck by the hammer. Later it was placed between two small 
 pieces of paper forming a disk like the caps now used in the toy pistol. 
 Then the idea of placing the fulminate in a copper or tin cup which 
 fitted on the nipple of the gun was evolved. The first mentioned was 
 probably the plan used to fire certain guns manufactured for the United 
 States Army at Harper's Ferry, during the years of the War of 1812. 
 One of them I have here, but unfortunately it has probably been altered 
 to use caps. This is a smooth-bore, beautifully brass-mounted and 
 having a box to hold the fulminate. On the lock plate is the inscrip- 
 tion "Harper's Ferry, 1814." The extreme weight of the gun at the 
 muzzle end of the barrel, is a remarkable feature of it. It was pat- 
 terned after the sporting gun of the day. With such guns as this the 
 Americans were no better armed than their British opponents, and the 
 chances are that few of our soldiers had anything but the old style flint- 
 lock. But there were many descendents of the old Revolutionary rifle- 
 men who were true to their family traditions, and when called upon 
 to defend their country carried with them their back-woods rifles and 
 used them well. One writer, speaking of the battle of New Orleans, 
 
9 
 
 says, at this battle, "the backwoodsmen intrenched on an open plain it 
 is true, but outnumbered two to one by the pick of Wellington's veter- 
 ans from the Peninsular War, killed 700 of the enemy, wounded 1,400 
 and took 500 prisoners, while themselves losing but 8 men killed and 
 13 wounded." It reads like an account of some naval battle of the 
 late Spanish-American War, in the matter of disparity of losses. 
 
 It may seem strange, seeing the success of the rifle as used by 
 small bodies of troops in these two wars that the United States and 
 other Governments did not use it exclusively to arm their men. For 
 this apparent neglect there were several weighty reasons, the principal 
 one being the difficulty and slowness of loading. In order that the 
 spherical bullet might take the rifling it was made quite as large as the 
 bore, and when placed in the muzzle could be forced down through the 
 barrel only by the exertion of great force, causing the lead to spread 
 into the grooves. Other methods of loading were tried in order to 
 force the ball to take the rifling, such as loading at the breech with a 
 ball a trifle larger than the caliber, using a ball with a rim to fit the 
 rifling, surrounding the ball with a patchen which followed the grooves, 
 and having a shoulder or an iron stem in the base of the barrel upon 
 which the ball rested and could be hammered into the grooves. The 
 latter was Thouvenin's great improvement in rifles. All of these made 
 slow loading, leaded the gun rapidly and destroyed the shape of the 
 bullet, thus ifijuring its carrying qualities and accuracy. The recoil 
 also was very great and the gun necessarily heavy. At a time when 
 battles were fought almost hand to hand a light strong gun and one 
 quickly loaded was very desirable. 
 
 That the percussion cap was not generally adopted by the United 
 States as soon as invented is another surprising fact. Although this 
 system had been well elaborated, and proved more effective and easier 
 of manipulation than the old flint-lock, yet the United States held on 
 to the latter at least as late as 1838. In that year there was published 
 a book entitled "Abstract of Infantry Tactics for use of the Militia of 
 the United States," the avowed purpose of which was to train the 
 militia in the tactics and use of the weapons of the regular army. This 
 manual was prepared under an Act of Congress by General Winfield 
 Scott and others, and amongst other features gives careful instruction 
 on how to handle, load and fire the army weapon, a flint-lock musket 
 with priming pan and paper cartridge. It also contains a separate set 
 of instructions for light infantry and riflemen. These carried flint-lock 
 
10 
 
 rifles. So that while the continental Europeans, notably Prussia and 
 Sweden were arming their troops with breech-loading, percussion cart- 
 ridge rifles, our Government and the British were conservatively hold- 
 ing on to the smooth-bore or rifled muzzle-loading flint-lock. The 
 Prussians adopted the needle gun in 1841 and used it with winning 
 effect in their wars of the 60's and the Franco-Prussian War. It 
 will be briefly described later. 
 
 That there were good reasons for not adopting the percussion cap 
 system is very probable, one being that the Government was experi- 
 menting with Maynard's continuous priming contrivance, patented in 
 1845. There were good reasons also why the breech-loader of the day 
 was a faulty weapon. Two inventions shortly to be made were neces- 
 sary to make a rifle loading at the breech a success. Its great fault was 
 that using as it did a paper or linen cartridge which was consumed in 
 the discharge, the breech action became clogged and fouled with burnt 
 paper, powder dirt and smut, so that after a few shots it became almost 
 or quite impossible to close the breech. Then, too, the gases escaped 
 through the chinks of the mechanism, lessening the range of the bullet 
 and sometimes burning the soldier's face or hands. At times also the 
 breech lock would blow out and nearly fracture the holder's skull. 
 Numbers of such breech-loading rifles were invented by the Americans 
 during the years that elapsed from 1812 to 1860, notably the Gilbert 
 Smith rifle which was taken to England in 1838 and submitted to that 
 Government, but rejected because of the escape of gas at the breech. 
 
 An interesting English development of the idea of rifling during 
 these years was the Lancaster Patent. Lancaster evolved the idea of 
 constructing a smooth bore barrel, which itself twisted after the man- 
 ner of the grooves of the rifle. While this gun was as effective as most 
 of the rifles of the day, it has proved impracticable as the power of 
 explosives has increased. 
 
 Our government offered premiums for the invention of good effec- 
 tive breech-loaders and later of magazine rifles, which materially stimu- 
 lated the production of such weapons. 
 
 Meanwhile men were perfecting and inventing two ideas which 
 were destined to revolutionize gun making and make the rifle the ter- 
 rible weapon it now is. From the very inception of the use of the 
 percussion cap there had been efforts to perfect a cartridge which 
 should hold its own fulminate, and which should do away with the 
 additional movement necessary to prime the gun. As long as the cap 
 
11 
 
 was separate from the cartridge it was found necessary to use a self- 
 consuming cartridge, which fouled the breech rapidly. The first cart- 
 ridges that contained their own caps were also paper or cloth as for 
 instance that used in the needle gun where the cap was set on a wad at 
 the base of the bullet and the needle had to pass through the powder 
 charge to explode the cap. This gun, as an old German soldier of this 
 city has told me, was useless after several dozen shots, unless cleaned. 
 In 1836, however, a Frenchman patented a heavy paper cartridge with 
 metal base which contained the cap. From this cartridge dates the 
 success of the breech-loader, for all pin-fire guns. still use the same 
 type of cartridge except that in the course of time metal cases have 
 come into use instead of paper. To Messrs. Smith & Wesson, Ameri- 
 can revolver makers of great renown, is due the credit of perfecting 
 the metallic cartridge. Maynard, the inventor of the continuous primer, 
 invented it. 
 
 The other great invention of these years was the Minie Ball. The 
 old plan of loading a muzzle-loading rifle had been as I have shown 
 laborious and productive of much time and energy wasted. So invent- 
 ors set to work to make it easier by altering the ball. Several belted 
 balls were tried, that is bullets with projecting belts around their bases, 
 which were forced into the rifling by ramming, but these were not a 
 success. Other plans were tried, but it was not until 1848 when Minie 
 invented his hollow-based grooved ball that the difficult problem was 
 solved. Minie has generally received the credit for the invention, al- 
 though it is a fact that the principle of the expanding ball had been fully 
 explained in 1836, by an Englishman named Greener, and it is probable 
 that Minie had read this man's book. 
 
 The Minie ball, so familiar in shape now, contained in its hollow 
 base" an iron cup or wedge, and later a wooden plug, which upon the 
 discharge was driven farther up into the hollow, thus expanding the 
 base of the bullet which had several circular notches, into the grooves 
 of the rifling. This is the regulation type of bullet now, although the 
 iron cup and notches on the base have disappeared, being proved un- 
 necessary. 
 
 To the invention of the metallic cartridge and the Minie ball the 
 success of the breech-loader is entirely due. But for many years after 
 these inventions had been perfected the United States were not ready 
 to adopt, as their regulation arm, a gun loading at the breech. They 
 held on to the muzzle loaders, but breech-loading rifles which did not 
 
12 
 
 use the metallic cartridge but did use the Minie ball, were numerous, 
 and some of them most curious. 
 
 What is said to be the first successful American breech-loader, was 
 the invention of Colonel Hall in 1811. Some of the cavalry of our 
 army were armed with this gun as early as 1818 and it remained in use 
 up to the time of the Mexican War, but it could not have been a satis- 
 factory weapon. Its most interesting feature is that the sights are not 
 placed along the middle of the barrel, but to one side, the hammer 
 obstructing the usual line of sight. It was constructed both with the 
 flint and the percussion lock. 
 
 Another odd breech-loader which I have here and which is said to 
 have been used in the Mexican War is interesting because of the ingen- 
 uity and simplicity of its breech, and also because it uses, as far as I 
 can learn, for I never found anyone who could explain its action, what 
 was called the continuous primer. The breech block is drawn back by 
 a lever lifting up and backwards in a manner somewhat similar to the 
 Winchester action reversed, while the priming, which was probably a 
 series of small discs of fulminate placed upon a paper strip, was con- 
 tained in a circular box beneath the hammer, and was forced out by 
 cocking the hammer which, oddly enough, is on the side of the gun and 
 cocks back horizontally. 
 
 On pulling the trigger one disk was cut off and driven against the 
 nipple by the hammer. 
 
 The gun is a rifled cavalry carbine, of large caliber and made in 
 1847. It is stamped with the letters "U. S. N." and the name "Jenks," 
 who invented and patented it in 1838. The pull of the trigger is ter- 
 rific, and it is still in good condition. 
 
 One of the first and best of the American breech-loaders was the 
 Sharp's carbine. When first introduced, this gun was used wilh a 
 made-up linen cartridge ignited by a percussion cap, but later a patent 
 primer was applied, and still later a metallic cartridge was used with an 
 exploding pin. The breech-block falls by lowering the trigger guard, 
 exposing the chamber. The linen cartridge being inserted, the block is 
 raised, its sharp upper edge cutting off the end of the cartridge and 
 exposing the powder to the spark from the nipple. This rifle was sub- 
 mitted to the United States government in 1850 and highly recom- 
 mended. A portion of the English cavalry was armed with it in 1857. 
 Its defect was the old one of breech-loaders — escape of gas, and rapid 
 fouling of the breech. 
 
13 
 
 By 1859 the former arms of the United States Army had been 
 entirely superceded by the Springfield rifle and rifled musket. 
 
 This was the result of the recommendation for adoption in 1855 
 by Jefferson Davis, Secretary of War, of the following arms : 
 
 Caliber 69 Rifled Musket, Model 1822, Altered. 
 
 Caliber 69 Rifled Musket, Model 1842, Altered. 
 
 Caliber 58 Rifled Musket, Model 1855, New. 
 
 Caliber 58 Rifle, Model 1841, Altered. 
 
 Caliber 58 Rifle, Model 1855, New. 
 
 Caliber 58 Pistol Carbine, Model 1855, New. 
 
 The Muskets Models 1822 and 1842 were bored as rifles, while the 
 rifle model 1841 was re-rifled and the caliber increased from 54 to 58. 
 All of these arms were fitted with Maynard Magazine Primers. The 
 model 1842 musket and rifle were the first regulation service arms of 
 the United States with the percussion lock. 
 
 At a range of 300 yards the highest point of the trajectory of the 
 new Springfield Model 1855^ was not quite four feet. It resembled 
 strongly in appearance and shooting qualities the English Tower and 
 Enfield rifles, and was second to no muzzle-loader in its efficiency. 
 
 At the breaking out of the Civil War, then, the United States 
 forces, what there was of them, were for the most part armed with this 
 Springfield rifled musket or rifle, of which this is an example. The 
 Maynard primer had, however, disappeared. The patriotic efforts of 
 Secretary Floyd had been successful in depleting the government 
 arsenals of over one hundred thousand muskets, so that at the outset 
 at least the Confederate army was armed as well as or better than the 
 Federal. The arsenals were set to work, however, with great energy 
 and soon began to turn out rapidly the rifles necessary to arm our new 
 army of volunteers. Not only was a strong effort made in this direc- 
 tion, but various bodies of state troops were encouraged to provide 
 themselves with arms of their own choosing and purchase. Invention 
 also was greatly stimulated by inducements offered by the Government 
 and innumerable new styles of breech-loaders, and several magazine 
 rifles made their appearance. Of these latter, the Spencer rifle was 
 beyond question the most effective and was the first really successful 
 magazine rifle ever introduced. It was patented in 1860, and in that 
 same year offered to the United States Government^ and highly recom- 
 mended. Some of the volunteers were armed with it and rendered 
 good service throughout the war. It was considered that one man 
 
14 
 
 armed with the Spencer rifle was equal to six provided with the muzzle- 
 loader. The Confederates viewed it as a diabolical weapon, which was 
 loaded on Sunday and fired throughout the week. The magazine was 
 in the stock of the rifle, the metallic cartridges being dropped into an 
 opening in the butt, and by a spiral spring and lever action of the trig- 
 ger guard, forced one by one into the barrel. The lever action also 
 ejected the empty shells of the exploded cartridges. It was found that 
 this rifle could be fired 7 times in 10 seconds, but only 15 times in one 
 minute, as it took some time to re-load. 
 
 Other rifles that were in more or less use by the Federal forces 
 were the Enfield and Tower patterns, English rifles of the type of the 
 Springfield, the Ballard, Henry and other effective breech-loaders, soon 
 to be noted and various early model flint-locks altered to the percussion 
 lock. 
 
 The Peabody rifle, also an American invention, was recommended 
 by the Government in 1862. ^ It was the fore-runner in principle of the 
 famous Henry, Martini, Wesley Richards and Winchester rifles, the 
 latter of which is hereafter described. 
 
 One company of New Hampshire sharpshooters, under a Captain 
 Jones, was armed with the Berdan rifle, a telescopic sight, small caliber 
 muzzle loader. It was a fine rifle but scarcely suited to long marches 
 and rapid assaults, as it is variously stated by authors to have weighed 
 from 32 to 40 pounds. About nightfall after a long day's march or 
 fight, the bold sharpshooter must have thought he had an elephant on 
 his hands. 
 
 Another effective and ingenious weapon was the colt revolving 
 rifle constructed after the plan of Colt's famous revolvers and weigh- 
 ing in the neighborhood of 15 pounds. Although a heavy gun, it was 
 highly thought of both by our officers and the British. This particular 
 gun was used on Jhe Mississippi fleet by a Cincinnatian. 
 
 Many other breech-loaders received consideration by our Govern- 
 ment^ both before and during the Civil War, but to enumerate them 
 would take up more time than is allotted to me this evening. 
 
 Among the best of them were the Smith, Gallagher, Merrill and 
 Burnside patents, all of which I have here. The latter was the inven- 
 tion of General Burnside and was declared in 1857 and 1858 by a Com- 
 mission of Army Officers to be the most satisfactory breech-loader sub- 
 mitted. 
 
 A few of the Sharps, Burnside, Merrill and Colt type were issued 
 to our troops in the late fifties, by way of experiment. 
 
15 
 
 But in 1861 the regulation arm of the United States Infantry was 
 the Springfield rifled musket or rifle,a good weapon, but with certain 
 defects. Like all muzzle loaders it was slow in loading, if it missed 
 fire either the gun was taken apart to remove the defective cartridge 
 or the soldier in his excitement rammed in charge after charge on top 
 of it and thought he was firing each time he pulled the trigger. There 
 was some years ago in the Governor's Island Museum a barrel of one 
 of these rifles into which the soldier had thus rammed six or seven cart- 
 ridges, the first one finally exploding, bursting the barrel and probably 
 killing the man. 
 
 But it was with this weapon that the Civil War was won, and our 
 nation preserved as one nation. Therefore, though its modern success- 
 ors make it look clumsy and archaic, it holds the place of honor in our 
 grateful memories. 
 
 Since that war and through the impetus given by it and the 
 Franco-Prussian War to the invention and improvement of military 
 weapons, the gun-makers have been earnestly striving to turn out a 
 breech-loading magazine rifle of such simple action and easy loading 
 capacity that the most ignorant private could handle it intelligently. 
 Speed was to be largely sacrificed t6 simplicity. As a first step our 
 Government, in 1865, converted its Springfield muzzle-loader into a 
 single-fire breech-loader by cutting out a portion of the barrel and at- 
 taching a breech action which, with few changes, is the same as sup- 
 plied to our volunteers during the late Spanish War. It was, down to 
 1892, the regulation arm of our army — the caliber being gradually 
 decreased. 
 
 In 1866 the Winchester Arms Company began to turn out its 
 wonderful magazine rifle which both as a military and as a hunting 
 rifle, is a marvel in the hands of an intelligent man. It is on the "pump- 
 handle" principle, the trigger guard being lowered ejects the empty 
 cartridge, cocks the trigger, and on being raised again puts a fresh 
 cartridge in place ready for firing. The magazine is beneath the whole 
 length of the barrel and holds from 9 to 16 cartridges according to their 
 length. It can be discharged iii nearly as many seconds as there are 
 cartridges, and it may also be used as a single-fire gun, by cutting off 
 the* magazine. It is this rifle, which in the hands of the gentle wards 
 of the Nation, our Western Indians, annihilated Custer and sent many 
 a peaceful settler or blue-coated soldier of Uncle Sam to the White- 
 man's happy hunting grounds. The later model, 30 caliber Winchester 
 is one of the most powerful weapons in the world, but the complexity 
 
16 
 of its parts and intricacy of its mechanism make it too delicate a 
 weapon to be handled intelligently by the ordinary rank and file. And 
 now this Company, and also other manufacturers are putting out auto- 
 matic and self-loading guns. 7'his gun is one of the latter type. The 
 recoil ejects the empty shell and inserts a fresh cartridge so that the 
 gun is always loaded till the magazine is empty. 
 
 Without going further into this type of rapid fire magazine guns 
 of which the Winchester is the best, I will come at once to the rifles in 
 which the events of the Spanish War have especially interested us. 
 
 First there is the Springfield rifle, so called, with which our volun- 
 teers were armed at the breaking out of the late Spanish-American 
 War, and of which some mention has already been made. The action 
 of the breech block is so simple that it hardly needs description, and 
 besides practically this same breech has been used in converting the old 
 Springfield into a breech-loader since 1865. The merits and defects of 
 this gun have been so frequently discussed of late that they need but 
 be mentioned. It is an effective gun at a comparatively short range, 
 its breech block is ingenious and perfectly safe, and very simple, but 
 its cartridge used the lead bullet and black smoky powder, it was a 
 single-firer and was of 45 caliber, which is too large according to the 
 latest ideas of warfare. 
 
 The use of the black powder made the Springfield a dangerous 
 weapon for friend as well as foe, as was seen in the Santiago campaign 
 and has been demonstrated in the Philippines since. The discharge of 
 a Springfield was the signal for a concentration of the Spanish musk- 
 etry and artillery upon the white puff of smoke, with the result that the 
 regulars violently objected to being placed close to the volunteers. As 
 rapidly as possible the Government displaced these Springfield rifles 
 with the Krag-Jorgensen. 
 
 Another single-shot gun which this war brought prominently to 
 our notice was the Remington. Probably no gun of recent years has 
 had the world-wide use that this has, except the Mauser. Its strength, 
 simplicity and ease of manipulation have made it a favorite among 
 many peoples. 
 
 "The United States Magazine Rifle," or as it is erroneously called, 
 the "Krag-Jorgensen" is an invention of two Swedes, Krag and Jor- 
 gensen, who patented the weapon and disposed of the patent to the 
 United States in 1892. It was until recently the regulation arm of the 
 United States Army, and was manufactured at the Springfield arsenal 
 and so stamped. The name Krag-Jorgensen in no place appears upon 
 
17 
 
 it. Since the adoption of the new rifle, these have been turned over to 
 the State troops in large part. 
 
 The "Krag-Jorgensen," as I will call it, however, is a magazine 
 rifle, firing five times without reloading, and has the bolt system of 
 breech, which was first practically introduced in the Prussian needle 
 gun in 1841. It may be interesting in this connection to compare the 
 bolt action of this French Chassepot Model 1866, the French gun of the 
 Franco-Prussian War, an improvement in every way upon the Prus- 
 sion needle gun, which by the way, was a Frenchman's invention. The 
 Krag is loaded by dropping five cartridges into the magazine in the 
 side of the breech. A spring arm, called the "follower," forces them 
 into place one by one as the breech bolt is turned and drawn back, the 
 empty shell being ejected by a small lever which is also worked by the 
 breech block or bolt. It is caliber 30, is sighted up to 1,900 yards, and 
 can be fired as a single shot rifle at the rate of 42 shots to the minute. 
 It has a muzzle velocity of 2,200 feet per second as campared with 
 1,300 of the 45 caliber Springfield, and the twist of rifling is one turn 
 in 10 inches. The needle which strikes the cartridge cap works through 
 the hollow bolt and is acted upon by a spiral spring which drives it for- 
 ward upon pulling the trigger. The magazine can be cut off by a stop, 
 a cartridge placed in the chamber with the hand, and the gun used as a 
 single-firer. The ordinary way to use the gun is to load the magazine 
 full, cut it off, and use the gun as a single-firer, reserving the magazine 
 for some emergency when it is necessary to fire rapidly. The bullet 
 has a cupro-nickel steel jacket enclosing a core of tin and lead composi- 
 tion. In range, flatness of trajectory and accuracy there is little 
 to choose between the Krag-Jorgensen, the Lee Straight Pull and the 
 Mauser, but I have heard some of our army officers and privates com- 
 plain of bad points in the Krag. They considered the mechanism some- 
 what intricate, that there were too many parts and that it was difficult 
 to take the gun apart. The latter is probably a good point as it prevents 
 the soldier from tinkering with his gun. A special book of instructions 
 as to the mechanism of the gun was issued by the Government to the 
 officers, so that they might instruct their men in the use and manage- 
 ment of it. 
 
 The gun used by our Navy during the Spanish War was the 
 Lee Straight Pull, a fine magazine rifle manufactured by the Win- 
 chester Arms Co. It represents about the limit in smallness of caliber 
 in military arms, being only a little over 23 caliber. It loads from 
 above and is practically equal in efficiency to the Mauser or Krag. 
 
18 
 The bolt action is very simple, being a straight backward pull, requir- 
 ing but two movements to cock and load the piece, as compared with 
 three in the Krag, Mauser and Springfield. 
 
 The velocity of the bullet of this gun at fifty feet from the muzzle 
 is 2,500 feet per second. At a distance of fifteen feet the bullet will 
 penetrate fifty-three inches of pine boards, while at a range of three 
 hundred yards it rises only about nine inches above a horizontal line. 
 This is a fair example of the power of these modern army weapons. 
 
 The Mauser rifle is, in the opinion of many experts, a superior 
 weapon to the Krag-Jorgensen. It is a German invention of many 
 years standing, in fact an outgrowth of the old needle gun. The prin- 
 ciple of firing and manipulating the breech-bolt is practically the same 
 as the Krag, but in several respects the action is much simpler and 
 easier understood. The magazine is especially simple and open, con- 
 sisting of nothing but a zig-zag spring, which can be removed in an 
 instant with the assistance of a nail or small stick. When the magazine 
 is empty, that fact is indicated by the stoppage of the breech-block on 
 attempting to push it forward for firing. The breech-block may be 
 entirely removed with great ease for examination or repair, or disab- 
 ling the gun in case it must be abandoned, by pulling out a small arm 
 on the left of the breech. But one of the best features of the Mauser is 
 its simplicity and rapidity in loading. Five cartridges are held at their 
 bases by a brass piece called a "clip." One end of the "clip" is placed 
 in a notch in the top of the breech and with the hand the cartridges are 
 pressed down into the magazine. The action of closing the breech 
 pushes the first cartridge into place for firing. Should the magazine get 
 out of order it may be removed or cut ofif and the gun used as a single 
 firer. Should the spiral spring in the bolt break, a new one may be 
 placed in position in less than a minute. The Mauser has been kept up 
 to date by constant improvements. It is now the regulation arm of 
 more than half a dozen nations. 
 
 This particular Mauser was surrendered by the Spanish at Santiago 
 and sold by our Government with thousands of others to any one who 
 wished to buy one. It is called the Spanish Mauser, is stamped with 
 the Spanish arms, and was manufactured for Spain at Berlin, Germany. 
 It is in perfect condition as far as its shooting qualities are concerned. 
 
 The new model Springfield recently adopted by the United States 
 is a beautiful and powerful weapon. The model 1902 first adopted has 
 been altered in some respects, and it is now one of the most effective of 
 high power rifles. It is a 30 caliber bolt gun with central magazine and 
 
19 
 
 is loaded from above with five cartridges from a clip which is ejected 
 by the forward motion of the bolt. The barrel has four grooves with 
 one turn in eight inches." The cartridges and bullets are practically of 
 the same model as those of the Krag except that the Springfield cart- 
 ridge has a groove instead of a rim about the base, and the bullet i<, 
 much sharper at the point. The 4-5 grains of high power, smokeless 
 powder which the cartridge contains, give a pressure of 4,200 pounds 
 per scjuare inch and a muzzle velocity of 2,300 feet per second, while at 
 the distance of 1,000 yards the velocity has been determined to be 95S 
 feet per second. With the magazine empty the gun mav be used as a 
 single loader by the insertion of one cartridge at a time. An interesting 
 and valuable feature of the gun is the wind-gauge. A graduated scale 
 at the base of the sight and a thumb screw enable the soldier to alter 
 the line of sight so as to scientifically allow for the drift of the' bullet 
 due to a cross wind. 4"his has had a wonderful effect upon the marks- 
 manship of our men. Armed \\ith this gun our army team not only 
 won the international rifie shoot against the r)ritish and other teams, 
 but also broke all records for these contests. 
 
 With the adoption of such arms, and the corresponding advances 
 made in heavy ordinance and raj)id fire and machine guns, war between 
 two evenly matched and equally well armed nations has become a 
 (|uestion of long distance shooting, of lying behind cover and blazing 
 away at nothing, for there is no smoke to indicate the location of your 
 enemy. There is nothing more interesting in the history of the recent 
 Russo-Japanese War than the description of the Japanese trenches 
 before I'ort Arthur. The Russian guns swept fields that were abso- 
 lutely bare, not a particle of raw earth, or a blade of grass disturbed, 
 indicated the presence of the enemy, yet in those fields, within a few 
 hundred yards of the fortification, lay concealed an army of sixty 
 thousand men. Four miles back the great Japanese naval guns roared 
 and leaped upon their concrete foundations, sending their immense 
 steel shells over a mountain range into the doomed fortress. 
 
 Infantry tactics must be adopted almost to the exclusion of cavalry, 
 in actual battles, for no cavalry in column or mass formation could live 
 five minutes under the fire of Maxim, Xordenfeldt or Gattling guns, 
 backed by the Mauser, Springfield, Lee Metford or Winchester. 
 
 Neither can -the enormous expense of war be longer tolerated, and 
 it begins to appear that by perfecting weapons of destruction we are 
 doing more and more to ensure perpetual peace. 
 
1^0 
 
 APPENDIX. . 
 
 The following- named weapons were displa\ed before the Com- 
 niandery as illustrations to the paper : 
 
 •. Flint-lock 'Musket— 1809— Springfield-Charleville Model. 
 • Early r>ackwoods Rifle — Kentucky ]\lodel. 
 
 Harper's Ferry Model — 1814. 
 
 Breech-Loading Rifle. Flail's Patent — 1811. 
 
 Breech-Loading Rifle. Jenks' Patent — 1838. 
 
 Breech-Loading Rifle, Sharp's Patent— 1852. 
 
 Springfield Rifled :\Iusket— :Model ISCJl. 
 ■Spencer ^Magazine Breech Loader — ]\Iodel 18(51. 
 
 English "Tower" Rifle— :\Iodel 1861. 
 
 Colt Revolving Rifle— Model 1857. 
 
 Breech-Loading Rifle — Burnside Patent — Alodel 1856. 
 
 Breech-Loading Rifle — Smith's Patent — Modd 1857. 
 
 Breech-Loading Rifle — Gallagher's Patent — Alodel 1860. 
 
 Breech -Loading Rifle— rMer rill's Patent — Model 1858. 
 
 Winchester Repeating Rifle — Model 1873. 
 
 Winchester Self-Loading Rifle— Model 1905. 
 
 Springfield Single-Shot Breech Loader — Caliber .45. 
 
 Remington Single Shot Breech Loader (Sporting Model). 
 
 U. S. Springfield Rifle (Krag)— Model 1895. 
 
 French Chassepot — Bolt Gun — Model 1866. 
 
 Spanish Mauser — Model 1896. 
 
 Lee Straight Pull (U. S. Navy)— Alodel 1898. 
 
 U. S. Springfield (Improved Dec, 1907)— :\Iodel 1903. 
 
 PISTOLS. 
 
 Ancient Flint-Lock Pistol. 
 
 Early Percussion-Lock, Muzzle-Loading Pistol. 
 
 Spies (London) Percussion-Lock, ]\Iuzzle Loading Pistol. 
 
 Colt Revolver— Model 1850. 
 
 Williamson's Six-Shooter, 1864 (Copper-Nipple Cartridge) 
 
 Colt's New Armv Revolver. 
 
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