LOT Old Heritage Auctions  /  2007 Oct. Marketplace Auction #87101  / 

90021

1862 Autograph Dispatch With Merrimack Content

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Paper Start Price:25.00 USD Estimated At:1.00 - 1,000,000.00 USD
1862 Autograph Dispatch With Merrimack Content
<B>1862 Autograph Dispatch With Confederate Ironclad </B></I><B><I>Merrimack</B></I></B></I><B> Content</B></I>. One page, 7.75” x 5.5”, Washington, March 9, 1862, to Lt. L. Hunt, Ft. Lyon, with the usual folds, else very good. The dispatch reads in full: “<I>The reports about the Merrimac sic are all known. Our flag is flying on Cockpit point & the enemy are abandoning their batteries. Destroyed the illegible & burning their camps. The news you telegraph we got from other sources. Telegraph whether any information has been received through the balloon.</B></I>” The reference to the <I>Merrimac</B></I> sic in the dispatch most certainly refers to her actions the previous day in sinking by ramming of the sloop-of-war <I>Cumberland</B></I> on the Elizabeth river and her actions on the day of the dispatch of her battle with the ironclad USS <I>Monitor</B></I>. The USS <I>Merrimack</B></I> was decommissioned in 1860 and held in storage in Norfolk harbor. Shortly before the outbreak of the war an effort was made by the Union to sail her out of the harbor, thus denying her for possible usage by the secessionists. Her attempts to sail from the harbor were thwarted and her crew burned her. The Confederates, in desperate need of ships, raised <I>Merrimack</B></I> and rebuilt her as an ironclad ram, according to a design prepared by Lt. J. M. Brooke, CSN. Commissioned as CSS <I>Virginia</B></I> (commonly referred to as the <I>Merrimack</B></I>)February 17, 1862, the ironclad was the hope of the Confederacy to destroy the wooden ships in Hampton Roads. <I>Ex. Henry E. Luhrs Collection</B></I>.<BR><BR><BR><b>Shipping:</b> Flat Material, Small (<a target="_blank" href="http://www.heritageauctions.com/common/shipping.php">view shipping information</a>)
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