spectfully, your obedient servant,
A. B. DYER,
_Brevet Major-General, Chief of Ordnance_.

I have recorded enough to show the recklessness and falsity of the
charge against the Confederates of using such missiles in small arms
during the late war, and the public is hereby specifically "_informed
whether the Nationals ever used them_."

In the Patent Office Report for 1863-4 will be found the following
account of the Gardiner musket shell:

No. 40,468--Samuel Gardiner, jr., of New York, N. Y.--_Improvement
in Hollow Projectiles_--Patent dated November 3, 1863.

The shell to form the central chamber is attached to a mandrel, and
the metal forced into a mould around it.

Claim--Constructing shells for firearms by forcing the metal into a
mould around an internal shell supported on a mandrel.

I have a box of these shells in my possession. They are open for
examination by any persons who may desire to see them.

This summer the distinguished officer who commanded the 143d regiment of
Pennsylvania volunteers, United States army, at the battle of
Gettysburg, informed me that during the last day of the battle, he and
his men frequently heard, above their heads, amid the whistling of the
minnie balls from the Confederate side, sharp, explosive sounds like the
snapping of musket caps. He mentioned the matter to an ordnance officer
at the time. The officer replied that what he heard was explosive rifle
balls, which the Confederates had captured from the Union troops, who
had lately received them from the Ordnance Department.

From the fact that the Gardiner shell is not fitted with a percussion
cap at the point of the projectile, and is not easily exploded by hand,
and from the additional fact that only about ten thousand are reported
as having been used in action, I am willing to believe that the primary
purpose of the Government of the United States in using them was the
exploding of caissons. There is, moreover, no evidence that any of these
shells were issued from the Ordnance Bureau after the year 1863. The
Gardiner shells are so constructed as to have no different appearance in
the cartridge from the common minnie ball--only the title on the box,
and an examination of the ball when separate from the cartridge, giving
any indication of its explosive character.

I know not _certainly_ if any other such projectile