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Description
The Brooke rifle
was a type of artillery designed by John Mercer
Brooke. It was a Confederate version of the Union
Parrott rifle. Brookes can be best identified by the
presence of at least one band of wrought iron at the
breech and a sharply tapering barrel. These were
manufactured primarily at the Tredegar Iron Works
(sometimes referred to as J.R. Anderson & Co, after
owner Joseph Reid Anderson) in Richmond, Virginia
and at Noble Brothers Foundry in Rome, Georgia.
Because no southern foundries had the capacity to
single-band wrap the rifles like the Parrott design,
a series of smaller bands was used, usually 2 inches
(51 mm) thick and 6 inches (150 mm) wide. Brookes
manufactured at Noble bear the foundry imprint
"NBF", those from Tredegar "TF" or, less commonly, "JRA&Co".
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