[Ulysses S. Grant]; Brigadier-General Alfred Terry; Board Of Ordnance Officers

Ordnance Memoranda No. 15: Report of the Board of Officers ...for the Purpose of Selecting a Breech-System for the Muskets and Carbines of the Military Service, Together with Their Report Upon the Subject of Trowel-Bayonets... To Which is Added the Report...on the Subject of the Proper Caliber for Small-Arms

Hardcover, Washington, D. C: Government Printing Office, 1873. First Edition. Very Good. President Ulysses S. Grant's personal copy with his name in gilt on the upper board. Ordnance Memoranda No. 15 is a thick and long hardbound report covering 3 main topics: the selection of a new service weapon for the military forces in both musket/rifle and carbine forms, the research of bayonets, and the best caliber round for the chosen small arms. Octavo, pp 414. Specially bound by the Government Printing Office for President Ulysses S. Grant. His copy is bound in full black leather with gilt spine titles, gilt seals of the Ordnance Department on both upper and lower boards, and General U. S. Grant in gilt on the upper board. Although he was President at the time, Grant still preferred to be addressed as General Grant. This highly detailed and technical report on the Army's choosing of the Springfield 1873 and the .45 catridge includes 98 pages of photos of the tested firearms usually disassembled, several tables including 5 pages of fold-out tables, 22 fold-out diagrams of chambers of guns with different caliber catridges in them, 2 appendices, general index, errata. Fold-out diagram number 2 is torn along the creases and in three pieces, but all pieces present. Full black leather bindng is rubbed at both ends of spine and all corners. Binding rubbed along creases where spine meets both upper and lower boards with small spots of loss of leather. Gilt bright, especially Grant's name and the Ordnance Dep seals. Bookplate of previous owner on front pastedown. Previous owner was a big-game hunter, firearms collector, real estate developer, and major rare book collector. While Grant was President his old colleague William Tecumseh Sherman was General of the Army tasked with winning the Indian Wars on the northern plains. The Army realized it needed better weapons and on June 6, 1872 Congress passed an act requiring the Army to empanel a Board of Ordnance Officers to select a breech loading musket and carbine for the military services. The Board tested 99 weapons, the number is a bit misleading due to the officers testing some muskets multiple times in different configurations, and ended up selecting the 99th weapon on their list - what became known as the Springfield 1873. The officers were thorough in their examinations and tested muskets and carbines from all the leading manufacturers of the day including Springfield, Remington, Sharps, Whitney, Spencer, and foreign manufacturers including Martini-Henry and Werndl. Twenty-one different arms made it to supplementary testing. Several muskets were changed from their original calibers to .45 once the Army concluded that .45 was best for small arms (this included the Springfield 69 in .50 that became the Springfield 99 in .45). The officers chose a single shot musket although they acknowledged the benefits of magazine arms and were impressed with the Ward-Burton magazines. The Springfield 1873 carbine famously saw battle at Custer's defeat at The Battle of the Little Big Horn. That disaster prompted the army to switch from a copper cartridge to a brass one, although modern historians and archeologists doubt that the Springfield jammed in high enough rates to affect the outcome of that particular battle. The Springfield 1873 served throughout the Indian Wars and was still in use by secondary units in the Spanish-American War. An updated version was released in 1884, but the Springfield 1873 was the main service rifle of the US military until it was replaced by the Springfield 1892. The Springfield 1873 is one of the "guns that won the West." ; 8vo 8" - 9" tall; 414 pages. [Item #82547]

Price: $5,000.00