Category: Arms & Armament
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A Sharpshooter Story
I’ve been researching sharpshooters for several years now, so it’s always nice to find something new like this from the history of the 115th New York. It’s interesting for a couple of reasons. One is the story of the conversion of the 13th Indiana into a sharpshooter battalion in all but name. This is almost […]
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Smith & Wesson Revolvers
Smith & Wesson is now a giant in the firearms industry, but New England gunmakers Horace Smith and Daniel Wesson didn’t start that way. In fact, their first efforts ended in failure. In 1853 Smith & Wesson patented the “rocket ball,” a conical lead ball with a hollow base filled with power having a primer […]
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Around the Web
I have been consumed with some projects lately, which has left me no time to blog. Thanks to James and Brett for keeping the flag flying. I’ll try to surface from time to time and post some items of interest pertaining to the Late Unpleasantness. From Alexandria, LA comes a interpretive segment at a local […]
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Phenomenal Research Resources on CD/DVD from the National Archives, Part 1: Ordnance Returns
Editor’s Note: This post was cross-posted at The Siege of Petersburg Online: Beyond the Crater. Microfilm Rolls Available for Purchase Online from the National Archives As my Siege of Petersburg site Beyond the Crater continues to expand, my research has often led me to exciting and useful new resources online. One such recent example was […]
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Infantry Hand Weapon Study Available
Earlier this year I posted some excerpts from an Army study (once classified Secret) from the early sixties, “Operational Requirements for an Infantry Hand Weapon,” which was instrumental in the military’s decision to adopt the smaller caliber M-16 rifle. Other militaries did essentially the same study and came to the same conclusions, adopting reduced power […]
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Short Takes
Body armor has been around since Neolithic times and made somewhat of a revival in the Civil War. However it was never officially sanctioned and was mostly discarded both for its weight and because it left its wearer open to implications of cowardice. Modern soldiers wear quite a lot of it, but as in the […]
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Blondie’s Gun
Last year I posted about Clint Eastwood’s weapons in the Spaghetti Western The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly. In it I pegged Eastwood’s sidearm as an 1858 Remington cartridge conversion, but according to an article in the new issue of American Rifleman by Angus McClellan, it was an 1851 Colt Navy Conversion in .38 […]