George Pinkney Morgan

• American

George Pinkney Morgan was an early Marion County coal developer, farmer and inventor, completing his design for a new type of rifle soon before the outbreak of the Civil War. His original designs on oilcloth and a model of the mechanism are still in existence. Letters from the period discuss the making of test models, possible patent complications arising from a similarity of the charge chamber to that of Soule's rifle, and army testing of the Morgan rifle. Although the rifle was compared favorably to Burnside's and Maynard's models- it could be manufactured more cheaply than the average $40 per rifle cost of these guns-- and was considered the equal of Sharp's rifle, rights to the gun were never acquired by the United States Army. - NRHP Registration, 13 March 2003

Lineage

• Father Stephen Morgan