(CIVIL WAR) Dresser Jasper M Artillerymans letter providing

Sale 2533 - Lot 37

Price Realized: $ 281

?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price

Estimate: $ 400 - $ 600

(CIVIL WAR.) Dresser, Jasper M. Artilleryman's letter providing a detailed endorsement of the James Rifle cannon. Contemporary manuscript transcript of a letter to Richard Yates, Governor of Illinois, prepared and certified by the state's adjutant general Allen Fuller 9 days later. 4 pages, 9 3/4 x 7 3/4 inches, on one folding sheet; moderate foxing, folds. With full typed transcript. Fort Donelson, TN, 20 February 1862 (transcribed 1 March 1862)

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Jasper Dresser was a captain in the 2nd Illinois Light Artillery. 4 days after the Battle of Fort Donelson, hearing that Illinois was contemplating the purchase of additional James Rifle cannons, he wrote his governor with a strong endorsement, giving a day-by-day account of the effectiveness of his battery over a four-day engagement. On 13 February, after his battery came under heavy fire, "we soon replied and in ten minutes had either dismounted or silenced every gun in the battery . . . one of the shells from my guns struck a gun, dismounting it, exploded, killing a first lieutenant and one private." He concludes: "I think James Rifle Guns the most efficient in the service. We had practical demonstration of their superiority as we tried them side by side with the common smooth bore gun and the Parrott gun in this engagement."