Lee wanted muzzle loading carbines?

Yes, as you say, the term cartridge was used for the paper and string tied powder plus bullet cartridges used in the muzzle loading rifle-muskets
Right, and I meant to add to my post that you did a very good job of describing the paper cartridge in your post! Always enjoy your posts on weaponry, very informative.
 
If a confederate trooper captured a Spencer or Sharps, or any other kind of breech loader could he be supplied with the ammunition to keep using it, no matter how superior the weapon might be? It appears that If the ammunition was metallic that could be an issue.

The Confederates had problems using captured arms firing cartridge cases. COL Mallet wrote that “Much labor was spent, but success never achieved, in drawing the copper cylinder [cartridge case] for small-arms cartridges.” Consequently, once supplies of captured cartridges ran out, the Confederates were unable to manufacture ammunition to feed many captured Federal breechloading arms. (Mallet, “Work of the Ordnance Bureau,” Southern Historical Society Papers, XXXVII)

Regards,
Don Dixon
 
“Much labor was spent, but success never achieved, in drawing the copper cylinder [cartridge case] for small-arms cartridges.”
The interesting thing about this statement is that drawn brass (or copper) is the more advanced and sophisticated way of producing a cylindrical cartridge case. The early rounds for the Martini-Henry used wrapped-brass, and this was sometimes fragile but generally worked.
 
The interesting thing about this statement is that drawn brass (or copper) is the more advanced and sophisticated way of producing a cylindrical cartridge case. The early rounds for the Martini-Henry used wrapped-brass, and this was sometimes fragile but generally worked.

Agreed, but...

I don't believe that it would have worked for a Burnside carbine or rifle, given the shape of the cartridge and chamber. One could have used a brass collar between the breech block and the chamber and loaded the Burnside like a muzzleloader, since it used semi-fixed ammunition. But, that defeats its function as a breechloader.

Spencer and Henry cartridges are considerably smaller than the .577-450 Martini-Henry cartridge, so I'm not sure that you could have developed a brass/paper hybrid cartridge for them. Additionally, Spencer and Henry cartridges were rimfire, while the Martini-Henry cartridge used the central primer which was developed later. Even if you could make a hybrid cartridge for the Spencer and Henry, you still have the problem of drawing a rimfire base for the cartridge, or developing central primer technology, which was in its infancy in the North, and modifying the captured weapons to use it.

Regards,
Don Dixon
 
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