General Edmund Rice earned distinction as the inventor of several military accouterments including; Rice's Trowel Bayonet, Rice's Stacking Swivel for rifles and carbines, Rice's Knife Intrenching Bayonet and Rice's ImprovedBlanket Roll and Shelter Half Tent.
Rice's first military invention was a combination bayonet and hand shovel or trowel used to dig quick field intrenchments and throw up works or cover in a hasty defensive situation. The Rice Trowel Bayonet also could be placed on the end of the Springfield Rifle and used as a formidable weapon. The first of several versions was the Model 1868 Rice Trowel Bayonet of which only five hundred were produced.In June of 1868 Rice was assigned to the Springfield Armory to supervise the manufacture of the Model 1868 for trial by the U.S. Army.
While stationed there his daughter Corinne Miles Rice was born to he and his young wife, Annie Dutch Clark Rice. General Nelson A. Miles was the godfather of baby Corinne. Annie tragically died only six months after her daughter was born, of tuberculosis at the tender age of twenty years.
This terrible loss drove Rice into an inventive frenzy which produced several other models of Trowel and Intrenching Bayonets along with the Stacking Swivel, which is still used on modern military arms to this day.
Rice spent many years promoting his bayonets and marketing them. In 1873 10,000 of the final model of Rice Trowel Bayonets and Stacking Swivels were manufactured at the Springfield Armory for use by the U.S. Army and Militia.
He also invented and marketed his combination Shelter Half Tent/Blanket Roll. After his death in 1906 his second wife put in a claim to Congress regarding his patent on this item and was eventually awarded $100,000. She later settled for $50,000.
