The collection donated by Henry Bohlen includes a letter by Judah P. Benjamin, Secretary of War, CSA, in which he reprimands the firm of R.S. Archer for furnishing a large number of field guns "cast in a cupola furnace, you well knowing the extreme danger of using such guns, the almost certainty of their explosion... It is bad enough that our brave defenders should expose their lives to the fire of the enemy under such odds as exists against us, but to furnish them arms more dangerous to themselves than to the enemy is utterly inexcusable..." Also includes a letter of R.S. Archer who complains of orders by Josiah Gorgas, Chief of Ordnance, CSA, and a letter of Gorgas to Archer on the subject of the criticism of his firm.
