reference to a “Jew” appears in Dolf Goldsmith, The Devil’s Paintbrush, Sir Hiram Maxim’s Gun, 2nd ed. (Toronto: Collector Grade Publication, 1993) p. 7, citing the London Times.
15. Chinn, The Machine Gun, p. 128. It was 1883. The idea was ahead of its time—machine guns were still struggling for military acceptance, and Maxim had conceived of an assault rifle, which would not be carried into combat for decades.
16. Maxim, My Life, p. 157.
17. P. Fleury Mottelay, The Life and Work of Sir Hiram Maxim (London: John Lane, 1920), p. 10.
18. A transcript of Maxim’s presentation to the Royal United Services Institution on December 11, 1896, entitled “The Automatic System of Fire-Arms: Its History and Development,” is on file at the Smithsonian. The account is taken from the opening page. Archives Division, National Air and Space Museum.
19. Ian V. Hogg, Machine Guns: A Detailed History of the Rapid-Fire Gun, 14th Century to Present (Iola, Wisc.: Krause Publications, 2002), pp. 34–35.
20. Goldsmith, The Devil’s Paintbrush.
21. Maxim, My Life, p. 163.
22. Ibid., p. 170.
23. Chinn, The Machine Gun, pp. 134–35.
24. Julian Symons, England’s Pride: The Story of the Gordon Relief Expedition (London: Hamish Hamilton, 1965), p. 196.
25. Lord Charles Beresford, The Memoirs of Admiral Lord Charles Beresford, Volume I. (Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1914), p. 263.
26. Symons, p. 198.
27. Ibid., p. 203.
28. Alex MacDonald, Too Late for Gordon and Khartoum: The Testimony of an Independent Eye-Witness of the Heroic Efforts for Their Relief and Rescue (John Murray, publisher, 1887), p. 241.
29. Beresford, Memoirs, p. 267.
30. The Nineteenth Century and After, vol. 13, James Knowles, ed. (London: Sampson, Low Marston & Co., 1903), p. 91.
31. Chinn, The Machine Gun, p. 131.
32. Maxim, My Life, p. 203.
33. Ibid., p. 238.
34. Armstrong, Bullets and Bureaucrats, p. 175
35. Williston. “Machine Guns in War.”
36. “Robari (The Story of A Very Little War.)” MacMillan’s Volume LXXXI, Nov 1899–April 1900, pp. 99–105.
37. Details of Rattray’s travels and life were provided to the author by his grandson, Alan Swindale.
38. Rattray’s letter is posted on www.fivenine.co.uk, a British genealogy website.
39. “I am glad to learn the Fletcher note has been paid,” Gatling wrote in a letter to General John Love, January 30, 1874. On file at Indiana Historical Society. The “Fletcher note” refers to the debt.
40. “Statement of the Condition of the Company,” handwritten by Gatling for the shareholders, October 4, 1876. On file at Connecticut State Library.
41. “Cash Receipts and Disbursements during the year ending Sept. 30, 1889.” On file at Connecticut State Library.
42. Armstrong, Bullets and Bureaucrats, p. 77.
43. Wahl and Toppel, Gatling Gun, p. 135.
44. Letter from Frederick W. Prince, secretary of the Gatling Gun Company, to the U.S. Navy Bureau of Ordnance, September 22, 1894. On file at Connecticut State Library.
45. Norton, American Breech-Loading Small Arms, p. 242.
46. Army and Navy Gazette of London, May 7, 1892.
47. G. S. Hutchison, Machine Guns: Their History and Tactical Employment (London: Macmillan and Co., 1938), p. 67.
48. The notes on Maxim’s workplace personality are from a section of Maxim Nordentfelt Days and Ways, quoted at length in Goldsmith, The Devil’s Paintbrush, p. 58. The details on overcapitalization are from a directors’ report, quoted at length in the same book, p. 59.
49. “An Abridgement of Mr. Hiram S. Maxim’s Lecture delivered at Dartford, March 16th, 1897,” p. 5. On file at the Smithsonian.
50. John H. Parker, History of the Gatling Gun Detachment, Fifth Army Corps, At Santiago, With a Few Unvarnished Truths Concerning that Expedition (Kansas City, Mo.: Hudson-Kimberly Publishing Co., 1898), p. 11.
51. Biographical Register of the Officers and Graduates of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., Since Its Establishment in 1802, supplement vol. VI-A, 1910–20 (Saginaw, Mich.: Seemann & Peters Printers, 1920), pp. 642–44.
52. Parker, History of the Gatling Gun Detachment, p. 20. Parker’s book, like his actions outside Santiago, was prescient. His suggestions for machine-gun employment presaged World War I. The book also serves as social criticism of the American army circa 1900. Parker championed the enlisted man, and his writing was spiced with his observations—and derision—of the machinations of army generals for status and power, and, chillingly, of what he saw as the abandonment by the army of soldiers in Cuba who had contracted tropical diseases. These men, he said, were not provided for as the army sailed home for victory parades. He was a tactical visionary. He was not popular.
53. Armstrong, Bullets and Bureaucrats. p. 83.
54. Goddard, Army Ordnance, pp. 8–9.
55. “The Yuma Penitentiary. One of the Most Remarkable Prisons in the United States. Filled With Desperate Characters. In Many Years but One Has Escaped,” New York Times, March 1, 1896.
56. Times of London, February 22, 1879. On file at Connecticut State Library.
57. All three newspaper clippings are on file, undated, at Connecticut State Library.
58. Peter Cozzens, Eyewitness to the Indian Wars, Volume Five: The Army and the Indian (Mechanicsburg, Pa: Stackpole Books, 2001). A soldier’s diary on p. 319 describes the encounter. “With one Gatling on board, we started up the river Yellowstone. Had a lively target practice this P.M. at a large brown bear which was seen ahead on a sandbar. He made a lively retreat for the shore and into the thicket as we drew near. The men forward gave him a volley, but he still kept on.” The entry thus is not fully clear, and can be read in two ways. The Gatling was certainly present, and the order of the writing strongly suggests it was fired. The phrase “gave a volley” indicates that the soldiers might have fired their rifles simultaneously. Armstrong, in Bullets and Bureaucrats, documented six uses of a Gatling gun against Native Americans from 1874 to 1878; p. 80.
59. Parker, History of the Gatling Gun Detachment, p. 14.
60. Ibid., p. 10.
61. “The Story of San Juan. How Parker and His Gatlings Turned The Tide Of Battle,” undated newspaper clip, circa 1898, on file at Connecticut State Library. The report was written by Parker, who was given a tag line.
62. John H. Parker, History of the Gatling Gun Detachment. From the preface, written by Theodore Roosevelt.
63. Ibid.
64. Hutchison, Machine Guns, p. 67.
65. Ismat Hassan Zulfo, Karari: The Sudanese Account of the Battle of Omdurman, translated by Peter Clark (Bath, U.K.: Pittman Press, 1980), pp. 96–100.
66. Ibid., pp. 172–73.
67. Winston S. Churchill, The River War (originally published in 1900; reprinted by
