The gun club.
During the Federal war in the United States a new
and very influential club was established in the city
of Baltimore, Maryland. It is well known with
what energy the military instinct was developed amongst
that nation of shipowners, shopkeepers, and mechanics.
Mere tradesmen jumped their counters to become extempore
captains, colonels, and generals without having passed
the Military School at West Point; they soon rivalled
their colleagues of the old continent, and, like them,
gained victories by dint of lavishing bullets, millions,
and men.
But where Americans singularly surpassed Europeans
was in the science of ballistics, or of throwing massive
weapons by the use of an engine; not that their arms
attained a higher degree of perfection, but they were
of unusual dimensions, and consequently of hitherto
unknown ranges. The English, French, and Prussians
have nothing to learn about flank, running, enfilading,
or point-blank firing; but their cannon, howitzers,
and mortars are mere pocket-pistols compared with the
formidable engines of American artillery.
This fact ought to astonish no one. The Yankees,
the first mechanicians in the world, are born engineers,
just as Italians are musicians and Germans metaphysicians.
Thence nothing more natural than to see them bring
their audacious ingenuity to bear on the science of
ballistics. Hence those gigantic cannon, much
less useful than sewing-machines, but quite as astonishing,
and much more admired. The marvels of this style
by Parrott, Dahlgren, and Rodman are well known.
There was nothing left the Armstrongs, Pallisers,
and Treuille de Beaulieux but to bow before their
transatlantic rivals.
Therefore during the terrible struggle between Northerners
and Southerners, artillerymen were in great request;
the Union newspapers published their inventions with
enthusiasm, and there was no little tradesman nor
naif “booby” who did not bother
his head day and night with calculations about impossible
trajectory engines.
Now when an American has an idea he seeks another
American to share it. If they are three, they
elect a president and two secretaries. Given
four, they elect a clerk, and a company is established.
Five convoke a general meeting, and the club is formed.
It thus happened at Baltimore. The first man
who invented a new cannon took into partnership the
first man who cast it and the first man that bored
it. Such was the nucleus of the Gun Club.
One month after its formation it numbered eighteen
hundred and thirty-three effective members, and thirty
thousand five hundred and seventy-five corresponding
members.
One condition was imposed as a sine qua non
upon every one who wished to become a member—that
of having invented, or at least perfected, a cannon;
or, in default of a cannon, a firearm of some sort.
But, to tell the truth, mere inventors of fifteen-barrelled
rifles, revolvers, or sword-pistols did not enjoy
much consideration. Artillerymen were always
preferred to them in every circumstance.
