Civil War Whitney Mississippi Rifle Bayonet Ames

Original Ames Inspected Bayonet for the Whitney Mississippi Rifle. The ricasso is marked US JH to the obverse and to the reverse AMES MFG. CO. CHICOPEE MASS. The brass grip is also nicely marked R.K.K.W. JH. Excellent. When Eli Whitney III took over management of the Whitney Armory in 1842, he set about tooling up under his new contract from the U.S. government for making the model 1841 percussion rifle. Machinery and fixtures for making the 1822 contract flintlock musket had to be retooled or replaced in order to produce the lock and barrel of the new model. Whitney hired armourer Thomas Warner as foreman, who, as master armourer at Springfield Armory, had been implementing similar changes there. Warner spearheaded the drive to equip the Springfield Armory with a set of new, more precise...