STONE, Ebenezer Whitton, soldier, born in Boston, Massachusetts, 10 June, 1801; died in Roxbury, Massachusetts, 18 April, 1880. In 1817 he enlisted in the United States army, from which he was discharged in 1821. He was connected with the Massachusetts militia in 1822-'60, receiving the appointment of adjutant-general in 1851 and filling the post till the close of his service. In 1840 he was a member of the legislature, serving on the military committee. The first full battery of light artillery in the United States, except those in the regular army, was organized by him in 1853, and through his efforts Massachusetts was the first state to receive the new rifled musket of the pattern of 1855. From experiments that he made with this musket, General Stone conceived the idea that cannon could also be rifled, and after successful tests in 1859, he ordered a model from John P. Sehenkl, the inventor of the Schenld shell. It is claimed that this was the first rifled cannon that was made in the United States, and that the invention was original with General Stone, though rifled cannon had been in use in Europe for several years. From April till October, 1861, General Stone, as chief of ordnance, armed and equipped twenty-four regiments of infantry, one of cavalry, and three light batteries of artillery. He was for twelve years a member of the Ancient and honorable artillery company, and became its captain in 1841. He prepared, under an act of the legislature, a "Digest of the Militia Laws of Massachusetts" (Boston, 1851), and a "Compend of Instructions in Military Tactics," and "The Manual of Percussion Arms" (1857).