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The U.S. War Department in the Gaslight Era: Stephen Vincent Benet at the Ordnance Department, 1870-91
- The Journal of Military History
- Society for Military History
- Volume 68, Number 1, January 2004
- pp. 105-132
- 10.1353/jmh.2003.0351
- Article
- Additional Information
Examination of the career of Chief of Ordnance Stephen Vincent Benét suggests that the War Department was a more active place during the last two decades of the nineteenth century than has been conventionally asserted. Benét played a significant role in the American Army's organizational/technological modernization, which had its modest beginnings before the Spanish-American War and continued, incrementally, through the Progressive Era.