Colonel Burton's Spiller Burr Revolver: An Untimely Venture in Confederate Small-Arms Manufacturing

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.

In 1861, with very few resources, the Confederacy attempted to arm itself. Several armories and factories were created in the South to help meet these needs. Colonel Burton's Spiller & Burr Revolver is based exclusively on primary sources, and provides a detailed history about one of those manufacturing firms during the Civil War. The book describes how the factory's history applies to Southern industrialism in the mid-nineteenth century. Revolving around the creation, operation, and demise of a pistol factory, this book illustrates the struggles of the factory and thus of the Confederacy during the Civil War.