niversity of Alabama--writes, under date of July
11th, 1879, that to his "knowledge the Confederate States never
authorized or used explosive or poisoned rifle balls during the late
war." In this statement also General I. M. St. John and General John
Ellicott, both of the Ordnance Bureau, Confederate States army, entirely
concur.

The Adjutant-General of the United States also writes me, under date of
August 22d, 1879, as to the Confederate archives now in the possession
of the National Government, as follows: "In reply to yours of the 18th
August, I have the honor to inform you that the Confederate States
records in the possession of this Department furnish no evidence that
poisoned or explosive musket balls were used by the army of the
Confederate States."

Rev. J. William Jones, D. D., Secretary of the Southern Historical
Society, has written me to the same effect as to the archives in the
possession of the Society.

In the _third_ place, a brief examination of the United States Patent
Office Reports for 1862-3, and the Ordnance Reports for 1863-4, will
show that the "_explosive and the poisoned balls_" which the author of
the "Pictorial History of the Civil War" so gratuitously charges upon
the Confederates, were patented by the United States Patent Office at
Washington, and were purchased, issued and used by the United States
Government, and, what is still more remarkable, that _neither of the
aforesaid projectiles were in any sense explosive or poisoned_.

In the Patent Office Report for 1862-3 will be found the following, with
the corresponding illustration in the second volume:

No. 37,145--Elijah D. Williams, of Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania--_Improvement in Elongated Bullets_--Patent dated
December 9, 1862.

This invention consists in the combination with an elongated
expanding bullet of a leaded pin and a concave expanding disc, the
disc having its concave side against the base of the bullet, and the
pin entering the cavity thereof and operating to produce the
flattening of the disc, by which it is caused _to expand against the
walls of and enter the groves of the gun_.

Claim--First, the combination with elongated expanding bullets of a
pin, C, and expanding disc, B, applied substantially as herein
specified. Second, fitting the pin to the cavity of the bullet in
the manner substantially as herein specified, whereby the expansion
of the bullet is