AMERICAN MILITARY SHOULDER ARMS, VOLUME III: Flintlock Alterations and Muzzleloading Percussion Shoulder Arms, 1840-1865

1-250713

Describes muzzleloading percussion shoulder arms procured by the U.S. government for issue to federal and state armed forces in the period that includes the Civil War. During the 1840s, only a handful of American manufacturers were capable of producing significant quantities of arms having fully interchangeable components. By the early 1850s, at least one firm was producing rifles with close enough tolerances to be considered fully interchangeable. And thanks to the invention of the expanding bullet, rifled arms could be used by an army's entire infantry. For the first time, line infantry were equipped with arms capable of rapid reloading and of consistently hitting a man-sized target at distances as great as three hundred yards. This exhaustive reference work will be a must for serious arms collectors, dealers, and museum specialists. Contains 299 halftones.