Band at the execution

[NHjohn]

(06-29-2014 07:03 PM)L Verge Wrote:  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?

The question is, whether the "Ordnance Bureau" in Washington, D.C. had its own band, and where was that band stationed? The article says Benton was assistant to the Chief of Ordinance and commanded the Arsenal. Sounds like two positions held at the same time. Then the article refers to the "National Arsenal," after the war. One would think that was in Washington, D.C., but it's Springfield, Mass., as in the Springfield rifled musket. I would probably guess "Ordnance Bureau" and "Department" mean the same. As I wrote somewhere, I can say without reservation, the U.S. Treasury Department in Washington, D.C., had its own brass band. The U.S. Army Quartermaster Department in DC had it's own band, the Military Governor of Alexandria, Va, General Slough had his own band, the U.S. General Hospitals known as Finley, Carver, Harewood, Lincoln,Cambell and Armory Square had their own bands.(Armory Square was where the Air and Space Museum is now.) No reason not to think the Ordinance Bureau had a band. Just have to find it.