Band at the execution

[L Verge]

http://digital-library.usma.edu/libmedia.../V1882.PDF

Check this out. There is a program from the annual West Point reunion in 1882 that commemorates Benton, since he died the year before in 1881. Key points: West Point class of 1842 (year ahead of Grant - same year as Longstreet); assigned to arsenal at Watervleit, NY; significant role in development of Springfield Rifles at the Armory in MA; 1861 sent to D.C. as primary assistant to the Chief of Ordnance Ripley.

1863 - assigned to the Washington Arsenal. Biography is in the Lebanon, New Hampshire, Historical Society. Died in 1881, in Springfield, Massachusetts. Buried at West Point.

Working directly under the Chief of Ordnance, would he have a band assigned to him? Wonder if he was among those who demonstrated rifles, etc. to Mr. Lincoln at the Arsenal during the war?