Western Book Reviews: Gunsmoke and Saddle Leather
It is not necessarily an easy job, writing western history. There is so
a lot of cultural load behind the genre, so much expectation. Unless
you are Bernard de Voto, how do you appeal to the general
market without losing the respect of your peers? Unless you’re wallace
Stegner, how do you surrender to the faculty without seeing your
Does the subject go bland like Ovaltine? The new coffee table by Charles G. Worman
book Gunsmoke and Saddle Leather: Firearms in the XIX-
Century American West (University of New Mexico Press, $ 55) goes a
a long way to achieve that difficult balance between authenticity and
fun, elbowing his way through the short list of entertaining texts that
however they manage to make some contribution to their disciplines.
Seventeen chapters and 522 pages, heavy as a gymnastics plate and thick as
a cheap sofa cushion, no need to snuggle in bed with this bastard.
No, Gunsmoke is meant to be scrutinized, read randomly while you’re
hunched over his knees in the piles, leafed through in search of
a familiar and faded face (Calamity Jane “, with a Stevens pocket rifle with
removable skeleton stock. “) or pistols associated with famous names
(“This Burgess [a 12 gauge folding shotgun] happened to pat garrett,
famous as the murderer of Billy the Kid, who served as a United States customs collector in The
Step … Garrett had this pistol with him when in 1908 he was shot and killed
by one of its tenants … “) Despite the imposing size, the book is an easy book
Way to kill an afternoon, a great hodgepodge of distracting goodies.
On the development of repeating rifles, for example, Worman writes,
“Manufacture of the Henry repeater ceased in 1866, shortly before the
Spencer’s disappearance. Oliver Winchester and his associates
recognized the need to improve the layout of Henry magazine.
The solution was patented in May 1866 by Nelson King, a
Hardened cargo door positioned on the right side of the brass frame … Loading
was achieved simply by inserting the cartridges one by one
Through the door. “For anyone with the slightest knowledge of firearms,
These few sentences represent a treasure trove of learned trivia. Henry
stopped production when? And Spencer’s? And that side load
Mechanism you remember from old Uncle Earl’s 06/30? Turns out that
It was an 1866 patent. For a firearms enthusiast or amateur historian,
anyone with the slightest interest in western history won’t get much better.
The academic value of the book arises from the considerable,
almost encyclopedic experience, his deep knowledge of the subject.
He loves to write captions, explaining that the
fuzzy, almost indecipherable pistol on the hip of a muleteer is not only
being pushed all the way forward, but it’s a Colt 1878 model; that the inside of
a cow beater’s litter shows us a Winchester Model 1873 rifle, a
Double-barreled shotgun and a holstered Colt Model 1878 revolver. “A pair
of hand weights on the ground next to the boots indicates that the owner should
have been health conscious. “The various chapters, although arranged in
approximate time sequence: Chapter eight, “The 1860s,” precedes
Chapter Nine, “The Crawling Cattle,” and Chapter Eleven, “The Slaughter of
Bison “- however, it can (and perhaps should) be read as standalone
essays.
This particular arena of Western history, of course, is full of titles,
each clamoring for their share of attention. Winchester has a book, for
example. Colt has a partner, Remington. Under your own treatment
print, Barnes & Noble has released a ton of coffee tables
browsers (A History of Arms, etc.). Goal effort by Charles G. Worman
manages to stand out. A firearms specialist and, previously, the co-
author of the two volumes, Firearms of the American West, a retired
deputy director of the National Museum of the US Air Force and a
A member of the Company of Military Historians, Worman is a capable and
entertaining guide, a scholar with no real agenda other than the
communication of your passion. Your book is an expert and valuable
in addition to a difficult genre.