Tool, Combination

Object number72.44

Date1862

MediumWood

DescriptionOctagonal brown block of wood with two quarter curved blocks of wood on the bottom.Dimensions4.75 x 2 x 7 in. (12.1 x 5.1 x 17.8 cm)
MarksPaper label reads: "Tools used by Mrs. Sarah Finn Millbach,/ at the Allegheny Arsenal, Lawrenceville, in the/manufacture of cartridges for soldiers of the Civil War/in 1862. Presented by ..."
Historical Notes Label TextSarah Finn Millbach used these tools at the Allegheny Arsenal to manufacture .58 caliber rifle musket cartridges. Skilled tool and die makers operated an arsenal machine that pressed minié balls from cold lead at the rate of 2,000 per hour. Arsenal workers then lubricated the bullets with a mixture of beeswax and tallow. Because of their smaller, nimble fingers, women and boys rolled paper tubes cinched closed with thread and filled each with 60 grains of gunpowder. They then inserted the minié ball into an outer tube, into which also went the powder tube. Completed cartridges were wrapped in bundles of 10 and packed in wooden cases holding 1,000 rounds. By the end of 1861, arsenal workers produced an average of 124,000 cartridges per day in order to meet escalating wartime demand.

Related person Sarah Finn Millbach

Related institution Allegheny Arsenal

Subjects