Annotation
[1] ALS, ICHi. This letter has been separated from the documents which once accompanied it in the War Records, but a copy of Stanton's endorsement dated February 17 is preserved in the Naval Records, indicating appointment of Captain Stephen V. Benet of the ordnance department, who was stationed at West Point. A copy of a later (undated) endorsement of the Navy Department indicates appointment of three officers, Captain Timothy A. Hunt, Captain John S. Chauncey, and Commodore John S. Missroon, to act for the Navy in making the tests (DNA WR NB RG 45, Executive Letters, No. 114a). An unsigned report dated February 20, 1863, summarized several tests by the Navy of Alfred Berney's fluid and incendiary shells, dating from March and April, 1862, all of which indicated unsatisfactory results (DLC-RTL). On April, 28, 1863, Assistant Secretary of War Peter H. Watson enclosed a report from Captain Benet dated April 10, which stated that ``the trial was satisfactory, & for incendiary purposes I do not hesitate to recommend it to the Department.'' (Ibid.). Alfred Berney was a chemist at Jersey City, New Jersey.