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Materials for this work come from an undergraduate research assignment begun as in-depth research project concerning an accident at the West Point Foundry either during or in preparation for the American Civil War. The topical premise concerns the history of the town of Cold Spring, New York, where the engineers who worked at this foundry lived. It follows the need for the foundry following the war or 1812 and the Crimean War and then moves forward to the Civil War. the accident was a the mortar explosion which took a relative's head off during testing. There was also a series of scandals and hearings related to faulty equipment, namely the Parrot Gun, which grew too hot during firing and exploded regularly, killing soliders on the side the cannon whose intention it was to protect them. The concentration lies in the economic recession that followed the Civil War and the engineers marching through with the New York state governor unleashing a prison of Confederate prisoners on the eningeers and burning down half the town.