Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1874 edition. Excerpt: ... 332) issued from the Adjutant-General's office, naming Adjutant-General Irvine, CommissaryGeneral of Ordnance Palmer, Colonel William G. Ward, of the Twelfth N. T. S. N. G.; Colonel George M. Baker, of the Seventy-fourth, and Inspector-General Burt, "a commission to make examination and trial of the recent inventions and improvements in breech-loading military small arms, and especially of such inventions and improvements as have been made for alteration of the muzzle-loading military arms now in use." After a number of sessions, lasting from November 29, 1866, to December 11, 1868, during which seventeen plans for transformation were presented, conspicuous among winch were the Allin, Berdan, and Roberts, besides ten arms entered as "not specially adapted to conversion," the most notable being the Remington, Peabody, and Sharps, the board, by its report, dated May 18, 1867, reported to the Adjutant-General favorably to the Roberts for transformation, and to the Remington in "order of merit of original arms not adapted to conversion." This official determination was, however, inoperative, owing to circumstances which need not be recited, and the subject of re-armament was suspended from official consideration until the winter of 1871. The Legislature of that year having appropriated the sum of $250,000 for the purchase of a complement of breechloaders for the National Guard, in accordance with the provisions of the bill, a board was constituted, by order of the Commander-in-Chief, of the following members: Franklin Townsend, adjutant-general; James McQuade, inspectorgeneral; Samuel William Johnson, chief of ordnance; with instructions "to examine into the merits of various kinds of breech-loading rifled muskets, and to report the result...
