Beschreibung:

Autograph letter signed to Georgia Governor Joseph Brown detailing the invention of a new artillery piece, a canon which would fire shot across a wide horizontal plane.
Petersburg, VA: 11 June 1863. 6 pp. (223 x 146 mm). Condition: light toning. [With:] Two enclosures sent with the above, comprising a well-executed manuscript drawing of the canon annotated by Lynch and a 2-pp. contemporary true copy of a manuscript about the gun titled "Description and Trial of the Lynch Cannon." V.p.: 1862-1863. the invention of a new and lethal anti-personnel field gun. A superb letter to the Governor of Georgia describing a new cannon and the successful trial of that weapon by the chief of ordnance of the state of Virginia. Lynch's cannon was designed to fire a horizontal spread of shot capable of sweeping an entire company of infantry with one round. He writes, in part: "I have invented a cannon for which invention I have obtained a pattent [sic]. At the instance [insistence?] of Gov. Letcher - I made a rough & imperfect cannon in order to prove my experiment the efficacy of the cannon for field use and after completing it, Gov. Letcher had a fence of boards put up of 100 feet long by 8 feet high as a target to shoot at - and as the result of the experiment - I herewith inclose [sic] to you a copy of Coln. C. Dinmock's report to Gov. Letcher. While this trial is entirely sufficient to satisfy any one of the principal [sic] of the cannon - which is to spread the shot in horizontal line from right to left and thereby preventing the waste of shot over the men's heads and also those that seek the ground - form the round bore cannon, through gravitation, I also find that my cannon will spread grape and canister shot - about five times the lateral width - of the round bore'd cannon…" Lynch then offers some statistics showing the sheer savings in ammunition and men that the invention would afford. He explains that that he had an initial commitment to have the cannon cast at the Tredegar Works in Richmond. He continues, noting the deadly effectiveness of the weapon: "…Gov. Letcher himself witnessed one days trial… many officers of the Army also witnessed the effect of the lateral spread only on 100 feet of firing brought out exclamation of surprise to all … Gov. L[etcher] told me that he handed the original report… to Presdt. Davis and after he read it - he told me that Prest. Davis said to him if the cannon did perform what Col. Dunnock's report said, that he pronounced it the greatest cannon in the world…" Lynch's letter to Governor brown is accompanied by a highly-detailed and professionally-rendered drawing of the gun. The diagram includes notes in Lynch's hand: "the gun is cast-iron and the cartridge wrought iron, the cartridges are good for five hundred shots. The grooves or rifles are deeper at the breech than at the mouth and the ball revolves once every 6 feet…" A fascinating collection concerning a weapon, that if successfully manufactured, could very well have altered the course of the Civil War.