From Under Iron Eyelids

The Biography of James Henry Burton, Armorer to Three Nations

by Thomas K. Tate


Formats

Softcover
$22.95
$21.75
E-Book
$9.99
Softcover
$21.75

Book Details

Language : English
Publication Date : 5/11/2005

Format : Softcover
Dimensions : 5x8
Page Count : 516
ISBN : 9781420821260
Format : E-Book
Dimensions : N/A
Page Count : 516
ISBN : 9781463476878

About the Book

Contrary to popular belief the Minie ball was not used by either side during America’s Civil War. Instead infantry soldiers fired the Harpers Ferry bullet, a hollow based, cylindro-conical bullet designed by acting master armorer James Henry Burton. His reward was to be driven from his position by partisan politics and into the lap of Great Britain where he helped to establish the Royal Small Arms Factory at Enfield. Based heavily on Burton’s own papers, this book explains the problems and solutions to the armory production of small arms. A complete inventory of machine tools used to manufacture the Springfield rifled musket is listed in an appendix along with details and diagrams of three patents awarded to Burton.


About the Author

The author, a retired information management director and former computer programmer, is a competitive rifle shooter with a life-long interest in the Civil War. He is listed as a columnist in both The Accurate Rifle and Precision Shooting magazines and has been published in as diverse a range of publications as The New England Quarterly and the Thoreau Society Bulletin to America’s Civil War, Single Shot Rifle Journal and The American Rifleman. A veteran of the Cold War, he served three years in the U.S. Army as an intelligence analyst. He and his wife Marilyn are the parents of two married sons and with proper notification get to visit with their six very active grandchildren.