Colonel Burton's Spiller & Burr Revolver: An Untimely Venture in Confederate Small-Arms Manufacturing (Civil War Georgia)

Civil war history aficionados may find of interest this account of the rise and fall of a key Southern factory (lastly in Macon, Georgia), within the context of the emerging industrialism of the era. The author's great, great grandfather was the superintendent of the Spiller & Burr pistol factory, which manufactured its namesake Colonel Burton's revolver to equip the Confederate army. Drawing upon both primary and secondary sources, Norman furnishes diagrams of the pistols, contracts, advertisements, and the ill-boding fact for the South that only 17% of the firearm production establishments in 1860 were located in the states that would secede. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.