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Incidentally, I don't think a factory letter will give the build date, only the shipping date.
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This is correct.
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IIRC that was the question regarding the antique (not C&R) status of some Schofields that were not shipped until well into the 20th century; S&W certified that all the frames were made prior to 1899. I don't think that was true of other top breaks; many thousands were made after 1898.
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Again, correct. IIRC S&W has certified that all Model Number Three (single action .44s and .45s including Schofields) and .44 Double Action (aka New Frontier) frames were made prior to 1/1/1899, so all of these guns are legal antiques even though many of these guns- particularly .44DAs- shipped in the 20th century. I'll double-check this when I have my literature handy.
OTOH production of the .32 and .38 Double Action & Safety Hammerless models continued well into the 20th century, although the 1/1/1899 serial number cutoffs are well documented in the SCSW and elsewhere. According to the serial numbers I posted earlier, S&W produced 151,581 .32 Safety Hammerlesses (say that 5 times fast...) after 1/1/1899, almost 2/3 of the total production. The .38 Safety Hammerless remained popular right up to the beginning of WWII.