James H . Burton James H . Burton ( August 17 , 1823 – October 18 , 1894 ) was born in Shenandoah Spring , Virginia . Educated at the Westchester Academy in Pennsylvania , Burton entered a Baltimore machine shop at age 16 . In April 1844 , he went to work at the Harpers Ferry Armory , serving as a machinist . He subsequently served as Foreman of the Rifle Factory Machine Shop , where he gained a considerable amount of knowledge and respect for the work of John H . Hall . Hall pioneered mechanized arms production and interchangeable manufacture at Harpers Ferry between 1820 - 1840 . According to Burton , Hall ' s Rifle Works housed " not an occasional machine , but a plant of milling machinery by which the system and economy of the manufacture was materially altered . " During the next three decades , Burton followed Hall ' s example by furthering the mechanization of arms production . The Minié Bullet . In 1849 , Burton was promoted to Acting Master Armorer . During the next four years , Burton experimented with improved designs for the Minié bullet at Harpers Ferry . The Minié bullet , introduced in 1848 by Captain Claude - Étienne Minié of the French Army , was a conical slug of lead slightly more than half an inch in diameter and about an inch long , with a hollow base which expanded when the rifle was fired . This prevented leakage of the powder gases , and served to expand the base of the bullet outward into the riflings of the gun barrel . Its effective range was from 200 to 250 yards – a significant improvement over previous bullets . Burton carefully documented his work in a set a detailed drawings . These drawings show that he was experimenting with several different Minié bullet designs . According to Colonel Benjamin Huger of the Ordnance Department , Burton was studying the " tige " and Minié principles ( the " tige " bullet had a steel stem designed to expand the bullet into the weapon ' s rifling ) . Burton designed a barrel which used a hard metal plug to expand the bullet into the rifling , and developed a hollow - base bullet design that worked even better . In 1855 , Burton ' s modified design for the Minié bullet was adopted by the United States Army . James Burton at the Enfield Armory . In 1854 , Burton left Harpers Ferry to take a job with the Ames Manufacturing Company of Chicopee , Massachusetts , which supplied both federal armories with precision machinery for the manufacture of firearms . Just one year later , in June 1855 , Burton accepted a five - year contract as Chief Engineer of the Royal Small Arms Manufactory in Enfield Lock , England . Here , Burton was responsible for setting up new production machinery purchased in the United States , much of it from Ames . Burton returned briefly to Harpers Ferry in June 1859 to marry Eugenia Harper Mauzy . The wedding took place in the Harpers Ferry Presbyterian Church on Shenandoah Street in the Lower Town . Just four months later , after their return to England , James and Eugenia Burton learned the startling news of John Brown ' s Raid in a series of emotional letters from Eugenia ' s parents , George and Mary Mauzy . James Burton at the Richmond Armory . The sectional divisiveness brought about by John Brown ' s Raid soon affected the life of James H . Burton . On January 21 , 1860 , the Virginia assembly passed a bill " For the better defence [ sic ] of the State . " The old Virginia Manufactory of Arms – renamed the Richmond Armory in 1861 – was reactivated after being shut down for 38 years . When J . R . Anderson & Company was awarded a large contract to supply machinery for the reactivated manufactory , the firm engaged Burton to engineer the Richmond Armory contract in November 1860 . On December 4 , Burton returned to Harpers Ferry to obtain model rifled musket patterns and components for his new employer , returning to Richmond with a large portfolio of drawings . In June 1861 , Burton was appointed superintendent of the Richmond Armory , where his complete familiarity with the machinery for manufacturing United States firearms proved indispensable to the Confederacy . In fact , much of the machinery at Richmond had been confiscated from the Harpers Ferry Armory by Confederate forces in June 1861 under Burton ' s own direction . Burton was commissioned Lieutenant Colonel in the Confederate States Army in December 1861 , and placed in charge of all Southern armories . In June 1862 , Burton left Richmond for Macon , Georgia , where he established a new armory for the Confederacy . One year later Burton traveled to England to " purchase and contract for the machinery , tools and material required for the new Armory . " Burton returned to Macon in October 1863 , where he awaited delivery of several shipments of machinery from the firm Greenwood & Batley of Leeds , England . The machinery and tools were finally shipped to Bermuda in late 1864 , where they awaited reshipment to run the Union naval blockade . But then the Civil War ended . Burton was taken prisoner along with the Confederate garrison at Macon in April 1865 . He subsequently signed the " Oath of Allegiance to the United States " and on October 4 , 1865 , was granted a Presidential pardon by Andrew Johnson . After the Civil War . After the war , Burton returned to England to superintend a new armory for Greenwood & Batley . Returning to the United States in 1868 , Burton took up residence in Leesburg , Virginia . He returned to Leeds , England in 1871 to engineer a firearms contract for the Russia n Government . But ill health intervened , and in 1873 he returned to Virginia for good and took up farming near Winchester , Virginia . Here , James H . Burton died on October 18 , 1894 , far removed from the weapons technology he had been so instrumental in developing .