Abstract:
At the outbreak of the Civil War, the Union army faced the task of supplying the growing numbers of Union conscripts with shoulder arms. Existing government stockpiles were inadequate, and the chief of ordnance was forced to consider the alternatives: government inventories of outmoded muskets; private manufacturers; and European arms manufacturers. Further confusing matters was the fact that, given recent strides in rifle development, new weapons promised higher rates of fire and easier handling, but high-quality innovations in rifle design were scattered among many impractical ones. Part A provides an overview of the complicated character of the ordnance environment at war's outbreak and lays out the tensions between improving Army rifle design and maintaining a smoothly functioning supply system. Part B chronicles the efforts of Christopher Spencer, inventor of an innovative repeating rifle, to secure contracts with army ordnance in the face of resistance. The case is designed to illustrate problems in the management of procurement and supply under critical circumstances and the place of innovation in that process: How reasonable is technological conservatism in times of crisis? It also raises issues of the interaction between existing strategic doctrine and new technologies. Finally, it illustrates some of the sources of innovation in weaponry and the paths by which such innovations may be adopted.
Learning Objective:
The case is designed to illustrate problems in the management of procurement and supply under critical circumstances and the place of innovation in that process: How reasonable is technological conservatism in times of crisis? It also raises issues of the interaction between existing strategic doctrine and new technologies. Finally, it illustrates some of the sources of innovation in weaponry and the paths by which such innovations may be adopted.
