Bannerman the Enforcer 17 by Kirk Hamilton

Author:Kirk Hamilton
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: winchester rifle, colt 45, gunfighters and outlaws, kirk hamilton, frontier pioneer usa, the old west southwest, western series ebook
Publisher: Piccadilly

The Gatling gun Cato had to work on was the 1874 model, one that was to become the ‘classic’ Gatling out of all the many models that were produced from its invention during the Civil War, clear up until 1911 when the U.S. Army began to look at other forms of machine guns. The 1874 was an open-barrel model, with a cluster of ten barrels, each firing as they reached the eight o’clock position. The caliber was .45-.70, the ‘government’ caliber, a heavier and more powerful weapon than previous models. Dr. R. J. Gatling always maintained that his invention prevented more bloodshed than it caused and was fond of quoting an event during the Ashanti War of 1874 when British troops were equipped with his guns.

On the Prah River, Ashanti warriors and chiefs gathered to do battle with the advancing British forces. Seeing the native chiefs and envoys gathered on the river bank, the British commanding officer ordered the Gatling gun brought forward. As a show of strength, he ordered burst after burst fired at floating logs in the river and trees on the opposite bank down from the gathered warriors. He used a whole drum of ammunition, sending wood splinters showering, actually cutting through the trunks of small saplings. The Ashantis were so impressed that they surrendered without further bloodshed. Later, one of the native chiefs committed suicide, he was so terrified by the demonstration of firepower. Rather than risk falling into the hands of the men who commanded such power, he took his own life.

It was a gun that was to win fame for its inventor all over the world and long after Dr. Gatling himself had departed this life. The Gatling gun was used in the Cuban ten years’ war of 1868 to 1878, on the Khivan Expedition during 1873, the Russo-Turkish War of 1877—which was still blazing in all its carnage and glory at the time Cato struggled to assemble the stolen Gatling in Conchos—the Zulu War of 1879, the Egyptian and Sudan campaigns during the 1880s, the Spanish-American War of 1898 and the Philippines Insurrection in 1899.

With each model of the gun, Dr. Gatling added more innovations, including enclosed barrels, new types of magazines, elevation wheels and traversing or oscillating devices. Some were mounted on wheels for ease of transport, while others, like the one Cato was working on, were built on tripods. They all had tremendous psychological effect on those who came up against the guns ...

Cato wondered what Edge had in mind. He had discarded his original idea that maybe the outlaw was going to sell it to the Indians. Edge wanted this weapon in working order in three days’ time. Cato’s guess was that the outlaw was planning a raid of some kind and was going to use the Gatling gun to back his play ...

They rounded up every kind of tool available in Conchos and, although there were some of the actual tools that came with the gun, Cato knew he was still going to have trouble with some of the assembly.

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