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COSMOPOLITAN AND GWYN & CAMPBELL CARBINES
IN THE CIVIL WAR: A Definitive Illustrated History of Two Rare
and Unusual Civil War Cavalry Carbines and Their Use in the Field
by Thomas B. Rentschler
Cosmopolitan and Gwyn & Campbell Carbines
in the Civil War is a definitive illustrated history of two rare
and unusual Civil War cavalry carbines, their development, sales
to the government, use in the field by specifically known regiments,
capture and use by Southern troops, surplus sales after the war,
survival rates, and their present scarcity in the collectors'
market. Included are complete descriptions and illustrations
of each make, type, and model, including the mass produced types,
transitional variations, as well as illustrations of rare rifles
and early carbines.
This is more than a gun identification book.
It contains many illustrations, text, anecdotes, historical references,
footnotes, and commentary about the actual use of these carbines
in several exciting and pivotal campaigns, including western
Virginia in 1861, Grierson's Raid and Morgan's Raid. There are
three never-before-published photographs of cavalry troopers,including
the only one known with a Cosmopolitan Carbine.
The Cosmopolitan and Gwyn & Campbell are
often called the only contract arms made in the Midwest, and
a section of this book revisits that perspective. Another section
describes modern-day shooting of a Gwyn & Campbell and the
results of the experiment.The author has studied these guns over
more than four decades, and has examined the lion's share of
extant specimens, adding the knowledge gleaned from these studies
to the surviving records and the research of others to create
an encompassing and compelling microcosm of arms and cavalry
troops in the Civil War.
Cosmopolitan and Gwyn & Campbell Carbines
in the Civil War will prove to be interesting reading for arms
collectors and students, whatever type of Civil War arm is favored;
and it will interest those with a general curiosity of that war
because of the inclusion of descriptions of soldiering, the cavalry
trooper's horse and equipment, several 1860s photographs of cavalrymen,
general and obscure facts about the war, and the volume of detail
about these specific carbines and the many other types also used
during that great conflict. Hardcover
7" x 10". 128 pages. 84 b&w illustrations. $23.00
+ p/h
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