The Best Gun in the World

The Best Gun in the World
Title The Best Gun in the World PDF eBook
Author Robert S. Seigler
Publisher Univ of South Carolina Press
Pages 431
Release 2017-10-31
Genre History
ISBN 1611177936

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A thoroughly researched account of weapons innovation and industrialization in South Carolina during the Civil War and the man who made it happen. A year after seceding from the Union, South Carolina and the Confederate States government faced the daunting challenge of equipping soldiers with weapons, ammunition, and other military implements during the American Civil War. In The Best Gun in the World, Robert S. Seigler explains how South Carolina created its own armory and then enlisted the help of a weapons technology inventor to meet the demand. Seigler mined state and federal factory records, national and state archives, and US patents for detailed information on weapons production, the salaries and status of free and enslaved employees, and other financial records to reveal an interesting, distinctive story of technological innovation and industrialization in South Carolina. George Woodward Morse, originally from New Hampshire, was a machinist and firearms innovator, who settled in Louisiana in the 1840s. He invented a reliable breechloading firearm in the mid-1850s to replace muzzleloaders that were ubiquitous throughout the world. Essential to the successful operation of any breechloader was its ammunition, and Morse perfected the first metallic, center-fire, pre-primed cartridge, his most notable contribution to the development of modern firearms. The US War Department tested Morse rifles and cartridges prior to the beginning of the Civil War and contracted with the inventor to produce the weapons at Harpers Ferry Armory. However, when the war began, Morse, a slave-holding plantation owner, determined that he could sell more of his guns in the South. The South Carolina State Military Works originally designed to cast cannon, produced Morse’s carbine and modified muskets, brass cartridges, cartridge boxes, and other military accoutrements. The armory ultimately produced only about 1,350 Morse firearms. For the next twenty years, Morse sought to regain his legacy as the inventor of the center-fire brass cartridges that are today standard ammunition for military and sporting firearms. “Does justice to one of the greatest stories in American firearms history. If George Woodward Morse had not sided with the Confederacy, his name might be as famous today as Colt or Winchester.” —Gordon L. Jones, Atlanta History Center “Excellent and well-researched.” —Patrick McCawley, South Carolina Department of Archives and History “For connoisseurs and scholars of military history (especially Civil War), history of technology, or Southern/South Carolina history, this is a must-read and reference volume pertaining to a previously little-known aspect of the nineteenth century that had a far-reaching impact in the manner wars would be fought by soldiers decades later.” —Barry L. Stiefel, College of Charleston

The Old Pro Turkey Hunter

The Old Pro Turkey Hunter
Title The Old Pro Turkey Hunter PDF eBook
Author Gene Nunnery
Publisher Univ. Press of Mississippi
Pages 146
Release 2018-10-18
Genre Sports & Recreation
ISBN 1496820002

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During his life, Gene Nunnery was recognized as a master turkey hunter and an artisan who crafted unique, almost irresistible turkey calls. In The Old Pro Turkey Hunter, the vaunted sportsman shares over fifty years of personal experience in Mississippi and surrounding states, along with the decades-old wisdom of the huntsmen who taught him. Throughout the book, his stories make clear that turkey hunting is more than just killing the bird—it is about matching wits with a wild and savvy adversary. As Nunnery explains, “To me that’s what it’s all about: finding a wise old gobbler who will test your skill as a turkey hunter.” Through his stories, Nunnery reveals that the true reward for successful turkey hunting lies in winning the contest, not necessarily exterminating the foe. Real sportsmen know that every now and then the turkey should and will elude the hunter. As Nunnery looks back on his extensive career, he analyzes vast differences in practice, old and new. The shift, he decides, came during his last twenty years on the hunt, and that difference has only increased in the decades since this book was originally published. Michael O. Giles, Bass Pro staff team member, master turkey hunter, and award-winning outdoors writer and author of Passion of the Wild, writes a new foreword that brings the practice of turkey hunting into the present day. Filled with a tested mixture of common sense and specific examples of how master turkey hunters honor their harvest and heritage, The Old Pro Turkey Hunter is the perfect companion for the novice or the adept.

ABC's of Military Side Arms

ABC's of Military Side Arms
Title ABC's of Military Side Arms PDF eBook
Author David Blanchard
Publisher Perfect Commando Productions
Pages 55
Release 2017-04-28
Genre History
ISBN 1939977940

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ABC’s of Military Side Arms showcases the history of pistols and revolvers from the past to present, from the well-known to the obscure. Done in the style of a children’s ABC book, with a unique gun selected for each letter, and its technical data and historical over view listed side by side ABC’s of Military Side Arms is perfect for military history fans of all ages.

Digesting History: The U.S. Naval War College, The Lessons of World War Two, and Future Naval Warfare, 1945-1947

Digesting History: The U.S. Naval War College, The Lessons of World War Two, and Future Naval Warfare, 1945-1947
Title Digesting History: The U.S. Naval War College, The Lessons of World War Two, and Future Naval Warfare, 1945-1947 PDF eBook
Author Hal M. Friedman
Publisher Government Printing Office
Pages 412
Release 2010-12-20
Genre History
ISBN 1884733867

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Product Description: Digesting History: The U.S. Naval War College, the Lessons of World War II, and Future Naval Warfare, 1945–1947, by Professor Hal M. Friedman, studies the contribution of the Naval War College, especially in the presidency of Admiral Raymond Spruance, to strategic thought during the first critical postwar years—that is, between the end of the war and the formulation of Containment. This transition period is especially valuable as a window through which to explore institutions such as the College in transition from a hot war to a cold one. While seminal studies exist of the College’s work in the interwar years, none have been published on this period.

The Pentagon Wars

The Pentagon Wars
Title The Pentagon Wars PDF eBook
Author James G Burton
Publisher Naval Institute Press
Pages 293
Release 2014-02-15
Genre Political Science
ISBN 1612513697

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From the late 1960s through the mid-1980s, a small band of military activists waged war against corruption in the Pentagon, challenging a system they believed squandered the public’s money and trust. The book examines the movement and its proponents and describes how the system responded to the criticisms and efforts to change accepted practices and entrenched ways of thinking. The author, an air force colonel and part of the movement, worked in the pentagon for fourteen years. He presents a view of the Department of Defense that only an insider could offer. He exposes serious flaws in the military policy-making process, particularly in weapons development and procurement. The details he gives on the unrelenting push for high-tech weapons, despite their ineffectiveness and extraordinary cost-overruns, provide a strong case for the charge of ethical bankruptcy. The second half of the book deals with the author’s attempts to get frontline equipment tested under combat conditions. For the first time, readers learn the nasty details of his battle with the army over line-fire testing of the Bradley Fighting Vehicle—a battle that he eventually won, leading to the personnel carrier’s redesign and the saving of many lives. Never reluctant to name names and reveal details, James G. Burton presents a forceful case. And his revelations offer insights not found elsewhere into the motivations and actions of the people who wield power from within. Nor does he stop at the walls of the Pentagon. In his epilogue he tells what happened in the field during the final hours of the Gulf War that allowed Hussein’s elite Republican Guard to escape. Now back in print after having inspired a feature HBO film, this explosive account of insider corruption is sure to serve policy-makers for generations to come.

From Cochise to Geronimo

From Cochise to Geronimo
Title From Cochise to Geronimo PDF eBook
Author Edwin R. Sweeney
Publisher University of Oklahoma Press
Pages 722
Release 2012-09-04
Genre History
ISBN 0806186518

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In the decade after the death of their revered chief Cochise in 1874, the Chiricahua Apaches struggled to survive as a people and their relations with the U.S. government further deteriorated. In From Cochise to Geronimo, Edwin R. Sweeney builds on his previous biographies of Chiricahua leaders Cochise and Mangas Coloradas to offer a definitive history of the turbulent period between Cochise's death and Geronimo's surrender in 1886. Sweeney shows that the cataclysmic events of the 1870s and 1880s stemmed in part from seeds of distrust sown by the American military in 1861 and 1863. In 1876 and 1877, the U.S. government proposed moving the Chiricahuas from their ancestral homelands in New Mexico and Arizona to the San Carlos Reservation. Some made the move, but most refused to go or soon fled the reviled new reservation, viewing the government's concentration policy as continued U.S. perfidy. Bands under the leadership of Victorio and Geronimo went south into the Sierra Madre of Mexico, a redoubt from which they conducted bloody raids on American soil. Sweeney draws on American and Mexican archives, some only recently opened, to offer a balanced account of life on and off the reservation in the 1870s and 1880s. From Cochise to Geronimo details the Chiricahuas' ordeal in maintaining their identity despite forced relocations, disease epidemics, sustained warfare, and confinement. Resigned to accommodation with Americans but intent on preserving their culture, they were determined to survive as a people.

Wars of the Age of Louis XIV, 1650-1715

Wars of the Age of Louis XIV, 1650-1715
Title Wars of the Age of Louis XIV, 1650-1715 PDF eBook
Author Cathal J. Nolan
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Pages 654
Release 2008-07-30
Genre History
ISBN 0313359202

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Dominated by the ambitions of France's King Louis XIV, Europe in the years 1650-1715 witnessed a series of wars from which emerged many of the theories, practices, and technologies that characterize modern warfare. During this period, European armies evolved modern ideas of army organization and military leadership, as well as modern views of campaign strategy and battle tactics. As European soldiers and colonists moved into Asia, the Middle East, and the Americas, the practice or influence of their military techniques and ideas also affected wars fought in those places. In this volume's 1000 plus entries, an award-winning author of reference works on international relations and war describes and defines important events, technologies, and individuals from this seminal period of global military history.