a few more items on display at the Rock Island Museum.

[tark]

These may be of interest. Only one is not firearm related, but it is an edged weapon of enormous historical significance.

John Buford was one of the many hero's of the battle of Gettysburg. His cavalry saber is on display at the R.I.A. Museum. There are some critics who claim that the saber isn't Buford's and that the engraving was done in the 1900s. Rest assured it is Buford's saber and yes, the inscription WAS engraved in the 1920s. A bit of history and provenance:

John Buford was a Brigadier General at the time of the battle. Late in 1863 he caught typhoid fever and died from the complications in December of that year. Lincoln heard of this and sent a currier to promote him, with the promotion dated "July 1 1863" The currier arrived and promoted Buford shortly before he died. Buford was a Major general for about three hours.

Buford was a visionary. He had little use for sabers. He rarely carried his. While he admitted that a saber never runs out of ammunition, he realized that there were better implements to fight with. They are called guns. Buford also figured horses were best utilized for transporting men from here to there, rapidly. Once you arrived "there" you dismounted and fought on foot. This is how his men fought at Gettysburg.

There has long been a rumor that Buford's two regiments were able to hold off Henry Heth's division because Buford's men were armed with the new Spencer cavalry carbines. Not true. The Spencer Cavalry carbines were not in production until November 1863. What most of Buford's men WERE armed with was a hodgepodge of breech loading rifles and carbines. Maynard's, Smith's, Sharp's and some Spencer infantry rifles were all in evidence. Buford's men had an enormous firepower advantage.

As to provenance, the saber was held by the Buford family after the war. It was given to the Daughter's of Union Veterans. ( google it ) at some point. It is unsure exactly when it was inscribed but it was done in the 1920s. The Daughter's of Union Veteran's presented it to the museum in 1959. It is on display today. It is my favorite artifact that is not a gun.

pic #4 is a Rappahannock Forge wall gun. They only made a handful of these. It is a monster and weighs over fifty pounds. The bore is about 1 1/4" These were mounted on a swivel and were used against other ships, or river barges. It has a rifled bore, which strikes me as curious. We have one, West Point and the Smithsonian each have one.

Pic #5 is one of the 85,000 Browning Machine guns manufactures on the Island during WW II . A cutaway version is shown above.

Pic#6 is the first, prototype "Brunton Bump." This was developed on Arsenal Island and was incorporated into the M-16A2 production.

 

[4v50 Gary]

I remember seeing the Raappahannock Forge wall gun at the West Point Museum. They were useful for fortress defense too. The French called them amusettes and even had a pair of wheels to cart them around with.