At first, sales were slow, but then picked up when the company received an order for several hundred carbines from Jefferson Davis, who, at the time, was the Secretary of War under President Franklin Pierce and would later became President of the Confederate States of America. With money he borrowed from friends, Burnside started the Bristol Rifle Works to manufacture his carbine. The following year, Burnside resigned from the Army and moved to Bristol, Rhode Island, with his new wife, Mary. When the breech block was pivoted upward to the firing position, a front, tapered portion of the cartridge was inserted into the entrance of a barrel of the carbine, while an opening in a rear portion of the cartridge received the end of a breech pin that was driven into the cartridge when a trigger of the carbine was pulled.īurnside continued to develop his carbine after he was transferred to Fort Adams in Rhode Island in 1852.
The cartridge was loaded into the cavity when the breech block was pivoted downward to the loading position. Inside the breech block was a cavity for receiving a specially-shaped metal cartridge. The breech block was pivoted between the two positions by an elongated trigger guard. Indeed, initial testing showed Burnside's new breech-loading carbine to be far superior to other breech-loading carbines that had been recently developed by other inventors.īurnside's carbine had a breech block that was pivotally connected to a stock of the carbine so as to move between a lower, loading position and an upper, firing position. After his arrival in Washington, Burnside turned his mental design into a prototype carbine, which was well received by his fellow officers. On his long ride back, Burnside mentally designed a new breech loading carbine. with dispatches from the western frontier. In September of 1851, Burnside was ordered to return to Washington D.C. Burnside noted this deficiency in weaponry and began to think about developing a breech loading carbine. In that fight, Burnside and his troops had to rely solely on their sabers because their muzzle loading rifles were impractical to use while on horseback and they were not equipped with revolvers, which were not yet in widespread use. In 1849, Burnside was wounded by an arrow in his neck during a skirmish against Apaches, outside of Las Vegas, New Mexico. Later, he served in a light artillery unit that had been converted to cavalry duty to protect the Western mail routes through Nevada.
Army and was sent to Mexico at the end of the Mexican-American war. After graduating from Westpoint in 1847, Burnside became a commissioned officer in the U.S. Burnside was also the first president of the National Rifle Association.īurnside was born in Liberty, Indiana and attended the United States Military Academy at Westpoint. After the Civil War, Burnside served as Governor and Senator for Rhode Island and was a president for several railroads.
He was known for the unusual style in which he maintained his facial hair, from which the term "sideburn" is derived. Burnside would later become a General in the Union Army during the American Civil War, with a mixed service record. Patent No.: 14,491 issued to Ambrose Burnside for a "Breech Loading Firearm".
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