|
1874 ORDNANCE DEPARTMENT ORDERS – COMPLETE BOUND
SET OF ALL ORDERS ISSUED THAT YEAR BY THE ORDNANCE
DEPARTMENT – A UNIQUE OFFERING IDENTIFIED TO AN ORDNANCE
OFFICER ASSIGNED TO THE WATERVLIET ARSENAL:
Absolutely a one of a kind offering, this bound volume
was created by James H. Rollins, Captain of Ordnance, US
Army, who was on duty at the Watervliet Arsenal in
1874. Capt. Rollins collected and retained each of the
74 Ordnance Orders issued by the department during the
course of 1874 and at the end of the year had the orders
protected in this leather bound volume.
Each of the Ordnance Orders nominally consists of one
page, with some exceptions being longer, each is
countersigned in red ink by Rollins indicating his
receipt of the order, and each page shows evidence of
unique folds where the Captain folded the order to keep
it safely in his pocket or valise until he could put it
in his file in preparation of having the set bound.
Some pages show more wear than others, obviously carried
in his pockets longer than other pages. This unique
wear pattern on each of the pages illustrates to me how
dedicated he was to his project.
According to the Historical Register and Dictionary
of the U.S. Army, Volume 1, by Heitman (page 844),
Captain James Hickman Rollins was born in Missouri. He
graduated from the US Military Academy in the class of
1857 and was assigned to the artillery. He transferred
to the Ordnance Department in 1863 and continued to
serve in that department until his retirement in 1883.
Capt. Rollins died in 1898.
Some of the content of these orders is quite mundane as
you can imagine, being of the nature of housekeeping
issues, leaves and transfers and in one case a black
bordered page reporting the death of Brigadier General
A. B. Dyer, Chief of Ordnance, in May of that year.
However, a number of the Ordnance Orders deal with
subjects of great interest to collectors including the
trial of the Schofield Smith and Wesson revolvers; the
original price list for Colts Revolvers, and the
Springfield .45 caliber Carbine and Rifle; establishment
of the Board for Examining Infantry Equipment at Ft.
Leavenworth; establishing nomenclature for arms and
ammunition on invoices; appropriations from Congress for
the manufacture of arms and equipment; regulations
governing the sale of rifles to officers; and the
formation of the board of officers to examine the “cause
of the tearing off of cartridge heads in the new model
arms”. The volume measures 8 ¾” by 6 ½” and is leather
bound along the spine and the outer corners of the front
and back covers. The title is embossed on the spine in
gold leaf, and the binder’s label is present inside the
rear cover, showing the book was created in Troy, New
York, location of the Watervliet Arsenal. The binding
is tight with no loss of integrity and no damage to the
pages. The covers and spine are scuffed, but intact and
overall clean.
In addition to the historic content of the individual
orders, this volume, bound as one complete set, presents
as an extremely unique – very likely one of a kind – and
very interesting Ordnance Department collectable, with
the added values of having a firm identification to the
officer who conceived of the idea and owned the book,
and the significance of the year of publication of the
orders being coincidental to the introduction of the new
model firearms and many new accoutrements and pieces of
horse equipment. This
piece should be in an advanced Springfield or Ordnance
Department collection.
SOLD
|
