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243
pages
English
Ebook
2017
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Publié par
Date de parution
31 octobre 2017
Nombre de lectures
0
EAN13
9781611177930
Langue
English
Poids de l'ouvrage
7 Mo
A thoroughly researched account of weapons innovation and industrialization during the Civil War
A year after seceding from the Union, South Carolina and the Confederate States government faced the daunting challenge of equipping soldiers with weapons, ammunition, and other military implements during the American Civil War. In The Best Gun in the World, Robert S. Seigler explains how South Carolina created its own armory and then enlisted the help of a weapons technology inventor to meet the demand. Seigler mined state and federal factory records, national and state archives, and U.S. patents for detailed information on weapons production, the salaries and status of free and enslaved employees, and other financial records to reveal an interesting, distinctive story of technological innovation and industrialization in South Carolina.
George Woodward Morse, originally from New Hampshire, was a machinist and firearms innovator, who settled in Louisiana in the 1840s. He invented a reliable breechloading firearm in the mid-1850s to replace muzzleloaders that were ubiquitous throughout the world. Essential to the successful operation of any breechloader was its ammunition, and Morse perfected the first metallic, center-fire, pre-primed cartridge, his most notable contribution to the development of modern firearms.
The U.S. War Department tested Morse rifles and cartridges prior to the beginning of the Civil War and contracted with the inventor to produce the weapons at Harpers Ferry Armory. However, when the war began, Morse, a slave-holding plantation owner, determined that he could sell more of his guns in the South. The South Carolina State Military Works originally designed to cast cannon, produced Morse's carbine and modified muskets, brass cartridges, cartridge boxes, and other military accoutrements. The armory ultimately produced only about 1,350 Morse firearms. For the next twenty years, Morse sought to regain his legacy as the inventor of the center-fire brass cartridges that are today standard ammunition for military and sporting firearms.
Publié par
Date de parution
31 octobre 2017
Nombre de lectures
0
EAN13
9781611177930
Langue
English
Poids de l'ouvrage
7 Mo
The Best Gun in the World
The BEST GUN in the WORLD
GEORGE WOODWARD MORSE AND THE SOUTH CAROLINA STATE MILITARY WORKS
Robert S. Seigler
THE UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA PRESS
© 2017 University of South Carolina
Published by the University of South Carolina Press
Columbia, South Carolina 29208
www.sc.edu/uscpress
26 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data can be found at http://catalog.loc.gov/
ISBN: 978-1-61117-792-3 (cloth)
ISBN: 978-1-61117-793-0 (ebook)
Front cover photographs: Two views of a Type III Morse carbine, serial number 715, courtesy of Museum and Library of Confederate History, Greenville.
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments
Introduction
CHAPTER 1 .
George Woodward Morse
CHAPTER 2 .
Morse’s Early Patents
CHAPTER 3 .
Nathan M. Muzzy
CHAPTER 4 .
War Department Evaluations, 1857–1858
CHAPTER 5 .
Springfield Armory
CHAPTER 6 .
Morse’s New Carbine, 1860
CHAPTER 7 .
Morse in Late 1860 and Early 1861
CHAPTER 8 .
Harpers Ferry, Nashville, and Atlanta
CHAPTER 9 .
South Carolina State Military Works and David Lopez Jr.
CHAPTER 10 .
1862
CHAPTER 11 .
Morse Comes to South Carolina
CHAPTER 12 .
Labor
CHAPTER 13 .
1863
CHAPTER 14 .
Lopez’s Resignation and Successor
CHAPTER 15 .
Morse’s Brass-frame Carbine
CHAPTER 16 .
Sale of the State Works
CHAPTER 17 .
Late 1863 and 1864
CHAPTER 18 .
1865
CHAPTER 19 .
State Military Works and Lopez, Postwar
CHAPTER 20 .
Morse’s Postwar Patent Petitions and Lawsuits
CHAPTER 21 .
Morse’s Final Productivity
Conclusion
Appendix 1 . Inventory of Machinery, Tools, and Stock of Tennessee Armory, Atlanta, March 1862
Appendix 2 . Surviving Morse Firearms Listed by Serial Number
Appendix 3 . List of Slave Workers
Appendix 4 . List of White Employees
Appendix 5 . Total Production of Morse’s Firearms
Notes
Bibliography
Index
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
So many people have committed decades of research to the life of George Woodward Morse and the South Carolina State Military Works (State Works) that I feel like little more than an interloper who has collated their efforts into a single volume. That being true, it has been nothing short of a privilege and honor to do so. The Board of Directors of the Museum and Library of Confederate History in Greenville, South Carolina, conceived the idea for this book. Led by Executive Director V. Michael Couch Sr., they desired to accurately preserve the history of the State Works and the people who were intimately involved with it, especially George Woodward Morse. It was only after the board asked me to write the book that I realized I had driven past the site of the State Works hundreds of times and that one of my great-grandfathers had carried a Morse carbine during the latter stages of the war. Curator and board member Webster Jones is the museum’s firearms specialist, and he tutored me in the workings of Morse’s designs. Another board member, Barton Cox, has spent innumerable hours studying Morse and the State Works over the years and has gathered a large file of information which became the framework for the book. Barton is a tenacious researcher who shared all of his knowledge with me. His analysis and encouragement during the research and writing phases of the project have been invaluable. The primary repository of historical records dealing with the State Works is the South Carolina Department of Archives and History. Patrick McCawley is the supervisor of archival processing there. His professional advice, research assistance, and willingness to introduce me to other researchers who have knowledge of Morse and the State Works proved to be of great benefit.
Several men, both living and deceased, have been instrumental in preserving the firearms and legacy of George Woodward Morse and the State Works. It is their work that provided the basis for my research. Three men once owned large collections of Morse’s firearms. George W. Wray Jr. was not only a collector of Morse firearms and related artifacts, but he was a prolific researcher into Morse’s personal background. His collection is preserved at the Atlanta History Center. It includes an impressive file of genealogical data on Morse, his family, and his achievements. Dr. Gordon L. Jones, senior military historian and curator at the Atlanta History Center, has been most gracious in allowing me access to Wray’s artifacts and files. Dr. Jones’s expertise and knowledge of George Morse have been invaluable in writing this book. A contemporary of Wray was Dr. H. Lloyd Sutherland, a veterinarian in Union, South Carolina, who studied Morse and once owned a large collection of his guns. Sutherland presented his findings in an article, “Arms Manufactory in Greenville County,” in the early 1970s. Though Sutherland’s collection was dispersed after his death, his legacy has been preserved by Dr. Jack Meyer, retired professor of history at the University of South Carolina. Dr. Meyer graciously shared his extensive, long-standing knowledge of Morse firearms and South Carolina history and has provided helpful guidance for my research. A third man, Dr. John Murphy, accumulated an extensive collection of Civil War firearms and accoutrements, including an impressive number of Morse artifacts, and donated it to the Greensboro (North Carolina) Historical Museum upon his death. Jon A. Zachman, curator of collections, Greensboro Historical Museum, most kindly opened the Murphy collection for in-depth examination.
Barry L. Stiefel, PhD, is in the Historic Preservation and Community Planning Program at the College of Charleston. Stiefel is David Lopez’s biographer, and he patiently answered many of my questions about Lopez’s life and family. Many others have contributed detailed research which has helped to complete this project, and to them I am grateful.
Introduction
About a year after South Carolina seceded from the Union, the state government recognized the acute need to expand its capability of manufacturing weapons. Taking action in early 1862, the Executive Council created an armory called the South Carolina State Military Works (State Works) and assigned to it a mission of manufacturing cannon, shot, and shell, as well as making and repairing small arms and other implements of war. Located briefly at a temporary location on the State House grounds in Columbia, the State Works was soon moved to a permanent site in the small Upcountry town of Greenville, where it operated until April 1865.
South Carolina ex-governor William Henry Gist and a prominent Charleston builder, David Lopez, were responsible for creating, constructing, and managing the State Works in 1862. An arms inventor, George Woodward Morse also appeared on the scene in 1862 to manufacture his innovative breech-loading carbine at the Greenville workshop, ultimately producing more than one thousand of them. In August 1863, a Charleston machinist, J. Ralph Smith, took over from Lopez as general superintendent, and in February 1865, Governor A. G. Magrath appointed another Charleston machinist, James M. Eason, to supervise Smith in managing the facility.
George W. Morse’s carbine serial number 874 is an example of a Type III, or third model. It was manufactured in late 1864 at the South Carolina State Military Works in Greenville. No fewer than 1,032 Type I, II, and III carbines were made in Greenville, along with several prototypes and presentation examples. Courtesy of South Carolina State Museum.
A view of the right-hand side of #874. Courtesy of South Carolina State Museum.
Amidst the turbulence of war, a complex series of events culminated in Greenville, where an interaction took place between Lopez and Morse, two men of nearly the same age but from very different backgrounds. Both were stellar innovators at their respective crafts, but neither is well remembered by history. Though many men played a role in the management of the State Works, it was primarily Lopez and Morse who defined it.
Both were exceptional men. David Lopez Jr. was a slaveholding descendent of Sephardic Jews and a prominent Charleston building contractor. He was an intelligent, hardworking man, who started out as a carpenter and became an innovator in building large structures. Lopez built Charleston’s Institute Hall, Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim (KKBE) Synagogue, and a large four-story department store as well as numerous smaller structures. He was instrumental in choosing the Greenville location for the State Works and personally supervised the construction of the physical plant there, not realizing the extreme limitations under which it would be forced to operate as the war progressed. Lopez’s decisions were not flawless, but his eighteen-month association with the State Works resulted in the establishment of an armory that persevered through financial adversity and managed to remain operational until the very end of the war.
George Woodward Morse was also a hardworking man who rose to the top of his profession, but he was more complicated and worldly than Lopez. He was a New Hampshire–born machinist by trade, and later a surveyor, engineer, Louisiana slaveholding plantation owner, and firearms inventor who rubbed shoulders with governors, congressmen, secretaries of war, and the president of the Confederate States. He lived in England for two years, where he interacted with engineers and statesmen of international stature. Firmly believing that his inventions would
