This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 7/24/2025
[MILITARY MANUSCRIPT]. MACNAGHTEN, E[dmund] C[harles] (d. 1861). Notes on Artillery. R. M. A. [Royal Marine Artillery]. [Ca. 1855]. Small 4to. A few small original text illustrations, tables within text, and 7 full-page original illustrations, some hand-colored. 438 numbered pages (about 80 of these numbered pages are blank). 8 x 6 ¼". Bound in contemporary half brown morocco over brown cloth boards, front board and spine lettered in gilt (some rubbing, sunning, edgewear to binding, front hinge repaired, gutter after front blank cracked, rear hinge starting, some occasional minor soiling in text). A FINE MANUSCRIPT, EXECUTED WITH EXTREME CARE AND PRECISION. THE MANUSCRIPT IS AN OFFICER'S NOTEBOOK FROM THE ROYAL MARINE ARTILLERY (RMA). The RMA was formed as a separate unit in 1804 to man the artillery in bomb vessels. The author was Edmund Charles McNaghten, his name is gilt embossed to the front cover and he has signed the manuscript E. C. MacNaghten RMA in pencil above several chapter headings. MacNaghten entered the RMA as a QC on May 10, 1853, and was promoted Lieutenant on August 1, 1855. He was killed in action at Te Arei, Taranaki, New Zealand, on March 17, 1861, twelve months to the day after he fired the first shot in the Taranaki Wars, while observing the enemy position from a point near the end of Pratt's Long Sap. Contents include: History of Artillery; General Construction of Guns; Foundry; Remarks on Casting iron Ordnance; Boring Department; Drilling and Bouching Machine; Proof Department; Cutting the Visual Lines on Bronze Guns; Carriage Department; Notes on Gunpowder; Portfires; etc. A beautifully executed manuscript, with careful and detailed descriptions by the officer who fired the first shot in the Taranaki Wars. A very nice piece of New Zealand history.