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How Repeating Firearms Remade America
“They say God created all men, but Samuel Colt made them equal.” This saying originated in the American West, testimony to the impact repeating firearms had in nineteenth-century America. Samuel Colt, known for the Colt revolver, may be the best-known gun maker in the United States. In the nineteenth century, he was one among many firearms pioneers.
“Gun Barons: The Weapons That Transformed America and the Men Who Invented Them,” by John Bainbridge, Jr. tells the story of the men who brought repeating firearms to market, and the companies they started. They included Christian Sharps, Benjamin Henry, Oliver Winchester, Horace Smith, and Daniel Wesson.
All founded companies to manufacture firearms. A few disappeared. Others, including Colt and Smith and Wesson, still exist. This book’s emphasis is on their histories during their birth century, the period between the late 1830s and 1898.
Bainbridge starts with the origin story; Samuel Colt’s 1836 patent for a “revolving gun.” He tells how Colt’s original company failed, and restored when the Texas Rangers purchased 1000 copies of a Colt design – the Walker Colt – for use in the Mexican-American War. Their use by the Rangers fueled the Colt’s popularity.
Yet, Bainbridge shows, Colt was merely the first man to bring the gun to market. Other players recognized the potential of these firearms and brought out their own designs. Bainbridge discusses these early entrants into the field. He presents the designs they brought out, and the patent battles fought during the 1840s and 1850s.
He traces the lives of the major players. Gunsmith Horace Smith started out working for Allen & Thurber. They had their own repeating design, one involving rotating multiple barrels. Smith went on to team up with Daniel Wesson. They hired Oliver Winchester, who started his own company in the 1850s. He, in turn, hired Benjamin Henry, who developed the Henry rifle. Meanwhile, Christian Sharps started a company using a rifle of his own independent design.
Although the companies struggled during the 1850s, the American Civil War supercharged demand. Soon, what had started out as small-scale manufacturing grew into a major industry, one whose growth continued after the Civil War ended. Demand in the American West and worldwide drove production.
“Gun Barons” provides an interesting and accurate history of the firearms industry and the eccentric, colorful men who founded it. While a history of technology, it is also a story about individuals.
“Gun Barons: The Weapons That Transformed America and the Men Who Invented Them,” by John Bainbridge, Jr. St. Martin’s Press (May 24, 2022, 344 pages $29.99 (Hardcover), $14.99 (Ebook)
This review was written by Mark Lardas who writes at Ricochet as Seawriter. Mark Lardas, an engineer, freelance writer, historian, and model-maker, lives in League City, TX. His website is marklardas.com.
Published in History
You know the drill…anyone on Ricochet who would like a review copy, send me a message and I’ll send you the freebie.
Only in the footnotes. I don’t think Morse ended up at Gun Baron level.
No, he didn’t. His attitude didn’t help him much, whatever the quality of his invention. He and his carbine are footnotes, but interesting ones.
Did the author make any mention of the Illinois 7th Volunteer Infantry? Henry rifles were purchased and issued to Union forces, but very few units were completely equipped with them. The 7th bought their own. Each man had plunked down the equivalent of four months pay for their own. At the Battle of Allatoona Pass, it very likely made the difference between victory and defeat.
Confederate Major General Samuel B. French:
Brigadier General John M. Corse:
I remember reading about a Confederate soldier commenting about the damned Yankee rifle that they could load on Monday and shoot all week.
I remember that one, but can’t recall whether it was this occasion or another.
I may put this on my list.
It saddens me to recall that when I was young I had no interest in history. Now I love this kind of thing, like the book about railroads you reviewed a few months ago.
My observation is that few people are interested in history until they reach their mid 30s. That interest continues into the 60s. After that the interest shifts towards genealogy.
Who was it who said, what we learn from history is that we don’t learn from history?
History:
An account, mostly false,
of events, mostly unimportant,
which are brought about by rulers, mostly knaves,
and soldiers, mostly fools.
— Ambrose Bierce
I am wondering what insights this quote might offer the followers of Howard Zinn and the folks behind the 1619 Project.
Howard Zinn and Nikole Hannah-Jones tried to rewrite the past to alter the future.
As a historian I have to rate this meme as true.