Chief of ordnance in the United States army, born in New York in 1780; died in Boston, MA, on the 25th of March 1848. Having graduated from West Point in 1805, he was appointed to the engineering corps, and during the War of 1812 served as assistant commissary general of ordnance, having attained the rank of major. “Columbiads” bomb-cannons constructed after a pattern invented by Major Bomford, were put into general use at that time. On the 30th of May 1832 he was appointed colonel and chief of the newly organized ordnance corps. From 1842 until his death he served as inspector of arsenals, ordnance, arms and munitions of war.
