Important and Lengthy War-Date Letter from West Point about Weaponry
West Point: 1862. 6 pages (front and back), 10 x 8 inches, West Point, New York, September 8, 1862. Signed "S. V. Benet" and written to Col. Alexander Hamilton Bowman, Supt. of the United States Military Academy, reporting on an ordinance trial of a projectile designed by American inventor Michael Ritner that could actually penetrate iron...but would be denied a production contract, in very small part: "...One of the objects of the trial was to test the penetrating power of..... More