After receiving a basic education at his father’s school, Birnie entered West Point, graduating first in his class in June 1872. Commissioned as a lieutenant in the infantry, Birnie spent several years at Fort Douglas, Utah. He then served five years as a leader of exploratory field parties operating in seven western states for the Geographic Surveys West of the 100th Meridian. In 1878 he became an ordnance officer, and in 1879 was assigned to the Springfield Armory in Massachusetts.

Following his eighteen months in Springfield, he took a nine-month leave of absence to visit four European countries and study factories producing ordnance material. For the next six years, he was assigned as the assistant to the Constructor of Ordnance at the West Point Foundry in Cold Springs, New York. While there he made his first major contributions to ordnance in the area of built-up gun construction. It should be noted that built-up gun construction applies to heavy artillery with a specifically-enforced barrel. Before Rogers Birnie’s contributions, nothing had been done in the United States. Built-up gun construction then became the norm for guns mounted aboard twentieth-century battleships, rail guns, coastal artillery, and siege guns during WWII.

In 1886, Birnie was advanced to the rank of captain after fourteen years of service and assigned as Assistant to the Chief of Ordnance, a post he would hold for a dozen years. Here he spent most of his time drafting studies that would support the Ordnance Department’s request for ordnance construction monies. He was instrumental, for example, in persuading Congress to pass the Fortification Bill of 1888, which led to the upgrade of seacoast fortifications in this country.

A further result of this legislation was the construction of the nation’s first modern gun-making plant at the Watervliet Arsenal, New York. In 1891, Birnie’s book, "Gun Making in the United States" was published. During the Spanish American War, Birnie, then still a captain, was appointed lieutenant colonel of volunteers. From July 1898 until April of the following year, he served successfully as Chief Operations Officer for the 7th Corps, then with the Army of the Cuban Occupation, and finally as Chief of Ordnance with the Division of Cuba in Havana. In April 1899, he reverted to his regular army grade of captain.

While he was serving in Cuba, Congress authorized Birnie’s transfer to the Corps of Engineers with a promotion; he declined to accept because the precedent would not be beneficial to the Army. He was detailed to Springfield Armory for several months, following which he was appointed to the Ordnance Board and the Board of Testing Rifled Cannon at Sandy Hook Proving Ground. After fifteen years in the grade of captain and nearly thirty years in the army, Birnie was promoted to major in 1901, lieutenant colonel in 1906, and colonel in 1907. From January 1908 until October 1912, he was commandant of Sandy Springs Proving Grounds. Called to Washington D.C. in September 1912, just before the end of his tour at Sandy Hook, he was directed to assume the duties of acting Chief of Ordnance. For the remaining months of his army career, Colonel Birnie was a member of ordnance boards concerned with material, testing, and fortifications. He retired on April 5, 1915, at the age of 64 after 43 years of military service.

For some years after his retirement, Colonel Birnie was a consulting engineer and, for several years, a senior partner in a firm of consulting engineers.

In 1935 the Army Ordnance Association awarded its Medal of Merit to Colonel Birnie with the following citation: "For engineering skill and invention in the development of modern armament. The Army Ordnance Association acclaims Colonel Birnie as a leader in the field of modern gun construction and as a technical officer of exceptionally distinguished service to the Ordnance cause. In 1887, he presented a thesis before the Military Service Institution on Gun Making in the United States which marked the beginning of a new era of metallurgical development in gun construction and modernized the entire theory and practice of gun design and manufacture."

Many prominent military leaders attempted to promote him to the rank of general, but existing laws did not permit the Secretary of War to do so. General Leonard Wood, the Army Chief of Staff, stated that "the science of gun construction owes Colonel Birnie a lasting debt of gratitude. His rules and formulas are known by gun makers throughout the world."

For many years Colonel Rogers Birnie was considered one of the top ordnance experts in the United States Army. He died September 26, 1939, and is buried in the United States Military Academy's Cemetery at West Point. Today he is considered one of Taneytown’s most outstanding native sons.

David Buie is a Taneytown Resident who has a passion for
Carroll County and its place in history.

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