America's First Metallic Cartridge: The Burnside Carbine
This video explores the Burnside carbine, a significant early metallic cartridge firearm invented by Ambrose Burnside, famous for both his Civil War command and the hairstyle named after him. The carbine's innovation lay in its metallic cartridge that sealed the breech, though it required a separate percussion cap for ignition. Despite its initial promise and significant production during the Civil War (53,000 units across five variants), its cartridge design became obsolete by the war's end. The video details Burnside's unsuccessful attempts to get his carbine adopted before the war and its subsequent promotion and eventual decline under Charles Jackson's ownership.













