Suppliers to the Confederacy: British Imported Arms and Accoutrements

Craig Barry and Dave Burt are now at their third installment in their series "Suppliers to the Confederacy".While the first ones focused on two "suppliers" that individually played an important role, i.e. Supplier to the Confederacy: S. Isaac Campbell & Co, London and SUPPLIER TO THE CONFEDERACY: PETER TAIT & CO. LIMERICK. (Colour Edition), this new book is more " product-centric". Everything in it revolves around the most important item imported from England to equip the confederate armies, the Enfield rifle musket, pattern of 1853, of which about 700,000 made their way across the Atlantic to the gray-clad armies between 1861 and 1865.I have only praise for this new book. The writing style is clear and concise, "to the point", and the authors have combined a wide variety of sources, i.e bibliography and pictures of original items from private and public collections (about 150 of them in color), in a very useful way to historians, reenactors and collectors. Yet it is more a history book than a "gunshow book", and one of the striking elements is how Barry & Burt have managed to exploit their sources (period literature, archives, periodicals, works by other authors, etc), to paint a very complete picture of their specialized field of study.Literally, each piece of the puzzle appears to fall into place as you turn the pages...References are also clearly indicated in the notes, with extra information as well, although a complete bibliography at the end of the book would have been useful (others may disagree with me).As the title of the book suggests, two main subjects are covered: British imported infantry small arms (but mostly Enfields) - and their accessories.The opening and last chapters ( I and VI) are devoted to these accessories, i.e the (mostly) leather items that accompanied the weapons ("appurtenances" and implements) or were ordered separately (accoutrements), such as the typically British "snake-hook" waist belt, the bayonet, its scabbard & frog, the percussion cap pouch, the expanse pouch (or ball bag) and its accompanying oil bottle, the rifle sling, the snap cap and rifle tools, the cartridge box (or pouch) and the knapsack with the mess tins and their cover. All of these items were produced by contractors that also worked for the British war department and were modeled on the regulation patterns, although they were made more cheaply and without the same thorough inspection procedures. They tended to be identical to the ones sold to the British volunteers( RIFLEMEN FORM: A Study of the Rifle Volunteer Movement 1859-1908).Although Chapter II gives some introduction on how Confederate agents went to work when they arrived in England in 1861, most of the remainder of the book ( Chapter III, IV and V) focuses on the other subject: i. e how the "Confederate" P53 Enfields were made and by whom.Unlike the P53s used by the British army, and that were made at the Royal Small Arms Factory at Enfield proper (Royal Small Arms Factory Enfield and Its Workers), using machinery imported from the USA(From Under Iron Eyelids: The Biography of James Henry Burton, Armorer to Three Nations) and featuring interchangeable parts, weapons sold to the Confederacy were made in Birmingham and London by " The Gun Trade". This means they were made by hand by a number of independent firms large and small, using a lot of outworkers, and the parts were not interchangeable - each part was hand fitted to each (rifle) musket.One exception to that, however, was the London Armoury Company in Bermondsey (London) that owned a set of machines similar to the ones used at RSAF.All these firms made civilian or military guns according to the level of the demand of each market, but in the 1850s and 1860s, because of the many wars (Crimean war, Indian Mutiny, American Civil War and some others), their military business thrived enormously (it was not to last, as the years after 1865 were much leaner...).Chapter III of the new book is a very complete and detailed description of how rifles were actually built, how the gun trade functioned, and how it was involved in supplying the South.I do not believe you can find anywhere such an excellent synthesis, and anyone interested in the history of the Enfield P53 and its derivatives (Small Arms Identification Series: 577 Pattern 1853 Rifle Musket and Snider Enfield No. 20) should own it. The same is true of chapter IV & V that examine one by one the various firms involved, in Birmingham and London; their names are well known to collectors.Finally, a series of 8 appendices dive deeper in a number of the topics covered in the main chapters.TABLE OF CONTENTSACKNOWLEDGEMENTSFOREWARD BY DAVID JARNAGININTRODUCTIONChapter One : BRITISH ACCOUTREMENTS IN CONFEDERATE SERVICE:THE SNAKE `HOOK' WAIST BELTTHE P1856/57 PERCUSSION CAP POUCHTHE P1861 BALL BAGTHE P1860 ZINC OIL BOTTLETHE P1854 FROGTHE P 1860 POUCH (CARTRIDGE BOX)THE P1856 KNAPSACKP1854 MESS TINS & COVERSCONFEDERATE COPIES OF BRITISH ACCOUTREMENTSChapter Two : EARLY CONFEDERATE PURCHASES:HUSE, ANDERSON & BULLOCHSINCLAIR, HAMILTON & CoChapter Three : THE ENGLISH GUN TRADE:GUN-MANUFACTURING IN THE 19th CENTURYTHE BIRMINGHAM SYSTEM OF MANUFACTURETHE LONDON SYSTEM OF MANUFACTUREChapter Four: HISTORY OF SOME LARGER BIRMINGHAM GUN-MAKERS:TIPPING AND LAWDENHOLLIS AND SHEATHSWINBURNCOOPER AND GOODMANW. SCOTT & SONSSARGANTBENTLEY & PLAYFAIRJOSEPH BOURNEWILLIAM GREENERJOSEPH WILSONR & W ASTONCHARLES REEVESChapter Five: HISTORY OF SOME LARGER LONDON GUN-MAKERS:THE LONDON ARMOURY COJ.E. BARNETT & SONSEDWARD. P BONDPARKER FIELD & SONSPOTTS AND HUNTPOTTSYEOMANSChapter Six: ENFIELD RIFLE IMPLEMENTS:APPURTENANCES ISSUED WITH THE P53 ENFIELD RIFLE MUSKETRIFLE SLINGSCONCLUSIONAPPENDICES;APPENDIX A: The Numbers GameAPPENDIX B: The Enfield RifleAPPENDIX C: The Manufacture of Small ArmsAPPENDIX D: Arms & Accoutrements IssuedAPPENDIX E: Invoice Major Anderson, 1st Georgia SharpshootersAPPENDIX F: The Papers of O.W. EdwardsAPPENDIX G: Atlantic Trading CompanyAPPENDIX H: A Ross & CoBIOGRAPHIES

Unparalleled research into what goods Great Britain actually sold and supplied to the Confederacy during the American Civil War.

Fascinating information and the book is well illustrated with photographs of original equipment. I am therefore puzzled why the authors included crudely drawn "proof marks" rather than shelling out a few dollars more to have them professionally illustrated. In addition, Schiffer in order to save money is shrinking the size of their publications. At roughly 6/12 by 9/12 - they are approaching the size of the old Blandford military books. Despite these criticisms I would recommend this book to folks who have a serious interest in Civil War equipment. I plan on buying the other books in the series.

I was very pleased with this book but was disappointed with a couple of things. The author did cover an immense amount of information on confederate purchases and who was involved with the manufacturing of the P53s but he did not cover the combination tools for the rifle, sergeant and private tools, or the various bullet molds that were sold to the Confederate States to manufacture bullets for the P53 Enfield. The advertisement stated that the book would cover tools and implements. “The book also looks at all the implements and accoutrements issued with the Enfield rifle musket,” Other than the lack of this information the book was a wealth of information.

A LOT of research went into this work, and it shows on every page. Numbers of imported goods, where they came from, where they went, details on construction, excellent photos, are all in this book.A great resource for reenactors, in particular, interested in knowing which items were issued to which units and when.

Love this book they did there homework on this part of the war great job job

Excellent

If you are interested in CW imports from England this is a welcom addition to the available information. Pictures were somewhat small for a reference book. Other than that it was very informative.

I'm rather baffled by this book. It's a very attractive hardback volume with lots of interesting photos, and the authors have clearly done a lot of research. But in places, it is very badly written. For example, the Foreword, written by one David Jarnagin, begins as follows:“Unless you have put in the time it takes to do the research to really study military equipment that was made over a hundred and fifty years ago this topic is hard at best; now include the fact it is a foreign system and the task becomes even harder, and all the while stating it is the country that, at the time, the sun never set on its empire”. (p. 5)Is this fluent English? It certainly doesn’t seem so to me. The line “and all the while stating it is the country that, at the time, the sun never set on its empire” seems virtually incomprehensible.Here’s the beginning of Appendix B:“Everybody has heard of the Enfield rifle, which is in course of adoption by the service, as fast as stores for that purpose can be made; and everybody has heard almost fabulous accounts of the immense cost at which the gigantic government establishment where they are made has been founded and is carried on. Had our limits allow us to do so, we should have wished to have fully gone into the matter, and the manufacture of the rifle throughout, and to have described the various processes which it undergoes, and the wonderful machinery by which it is accomplished”. (p. 154)This, again, seems to me to be extremely badly written. At the very least it should be “Had our limits ALLOWED…”.These passages seem like they were written by a non-native English speaker, but the authors are clearly British and American, so I’m rather confused as to why the book is so poorly written (at least in places). Perhaps it just needed a good editor.

Here the authors give you a lot of info and details, in word and pic. Especially the pictures and the long part about rifles and their marikings is intresting. Could be abit more of pics from the equipment, especially the stamps and marks.You should buy this!