Cook and Brother of New Orleans – A Confederate Rifle Factory

Cook and Brother was one of the largest and most successful of the private ordnance factories in the South during the Civil War. It was formed by two British brothers who had moved to New Orleans, Frederick and Francis Cook. They opened a rifle factory at the intersection of Common and Canal streets, and began making Enfield pattern rifles. A contract was soon procured for sale of a thousand rifles to the state of Alabama, and in total they produced about 1100 rifles in New Orleans before the city fell to the Union. When that happened, they managed a hectic evacuation, and the armory was reestablished in Athens Georgia by early 1863. Production there took some time to ramp back up due to labor shortages, and they produced only about another thousand rifles in 1863. By this time they had a large contract with the CSA government, and managed an impressive 4500 more guns in 1864, before the entire enterprise collapsed as the CSA became unable to make payments.

What we have today are a very early New Orleans production rifle and an early Athens production cavalry carbine, the latter engraved with its owner’s name and unit (the 3rd Virginia Cavalry).

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4 Comments

  1. Nice history there Ian. In discussion you said 1600 in New Orleans but text says 1100. I have two ancestor’s that were in Virginia Cavalry but don’t know if it was that one.

    Molon Labe!
    Keep your powder dry and your faith in God.

  2. Hello Ian, just wanted to let you know about youtube’s new policy on firearms.

    https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/7667605?hl=en

    YouTube prohibits certain kinds of content featuring firearms. Specifically, we don’t allow content that:

    Intends to sell firearms or certain firearms accessories through direct sales (e.g., private sales by individuals) or links to sites that sell these items. These accessories include but may not be limited to accessories that enable a firearm to simulate automatic fire or convert a firearm to automatic fire (e.g., bump stocks, gatling triggers, drop-in auto sears, conversion kits), and high capacity magazines (i.e., magazines or belts carrying more than 30 rounds).
    Provides instructions on manufacturing a firearm, ammunition, high capacity magazine, homemade silencers/suppressors, or certain firearms accessories such as those listed above. This also includes instructions on how to convert a firearm to automatic or simulated automatic firing capabilities.
    Shows users how to install the above-mentioned accessories or modifications.

    Report content that violates this policy
    You can report videos that you believe violate this policy by flagging the video.

    I note that this does not discriminate about sources, so news and video games might also be affected.

    RIP youtube.

    • And yet for all the censorship you can’t actually stop the violence! Bad guys will do it whether they see videos or actually read books on how to do crap! Don’t tell them it can’t be done!!

      Back to the gun on sale, it’s a muzzle loader, not a rail gun! I don’t think we need to fear “drive-by bayoneting” anytime soon.

    • “RIP youtube.”
      This was actually my though, when I seen video of German WW2 sub-machine gun with flag with blurry something in place of Hakenkreuz. While, I can understand their motivation (as this symbol is banned in Austria, see Verbotsgesetz 1947) this seems to be oversensitive approach.

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