NOT SOLD (BIDDING OVER)
0.00USD+ applicable fees & taxes.
This item WAS NOT SOLD. Auction date was 2003 Aug 24 @ 10:00UTC-08:00 : PST/AKDT
<b>Civil War Union Letters</b><hr><b>Superlative Account of the Mortar Flotilla at New Orleans!</b>
<b>April 1862, Letter About Admiral Porter’s Mortar Fleet, With Its Innovative “Porter’s Pots,” Just Prior To The Battle of New Orleans, Very Fine.
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Autograph Letter Signed, James Atkins, 4 pages, 8” x 10,” U.S. Steam Sloop “Brooklyn.” Head of the Passes Mississippi River, April 9, 1862; to his father. One tiny split at the right margin and two minuscule holes along one fold are the only taints on this otherwise unblemished letter. With printed transcription.
In part: “We are soon to gain the greatest naval victory of the war, or to suffer the saddest defeat. The strength of the rebel fortification is not known but... We do now know that their guns - or some of them have a range of two and one half or three miles... We have some instruments, however, which I think will open their eyes. They are mortars throwing thirteen inch shells, with a range of four miles. There are twenty-two of them mounted on as many schooners. Besides these, the schooners each mount two thirty-two pounders... [These schooners] have been been expressly fitted for this service... Not withstanding extra support and bracing some fears are entertained as to their ability to withstand the tremendous shock occasioned by the discharges of the mortars...
“If we are to go by the forts and deliver our broadsides as we pass, there are a sufficient number of steamers... as can fight to advantage in the narrow river... Two of Porter’s fleet are old N.Y. Ferry boats and mount four fifty-eight pounders and two ninety pound rifled guns, one on each end. The ‘Harriet Lane’ is his flag ship. There are then, now here, five 1st Class steam sloops; Viz. -Hartford’ (flag ship), ‘Richmond’, ‘Brooklyn’, ‘Pensacola’ and ‘Mississippi’ - two 2nd class DO. - the ‘Iroquois’ and ‘Oneida’ thirteen gunboats and Porter’s twenty-five vessels, making in all forty-five: and it is expected that a considerable addition is to be made... before the attack.... It now appears that the mortars are to clean these fellows out in the coming action. At any rate, the bombs will give the dears a friendly visit or two to... show them what they have to contend with. Think of thirteen inch bombs bursting inside of the forts: ginger, won’t the sandy fly! ...”
The rest of this magnificent missive is concerned with correcting the New York Herald’s account of the Brooklyn and South Carolina’s capture of the Confederate blockade runner, Magnolia - and how the dishonest officers of the South Carolina “gulled” the Brooklyn out of its share of the prize money. Rumors, too, are repeated: that Pensacola is evacuated, the Rebels are retreating from the Potomac, Foote is fighting at Island No. 10 and has hemmed in the Confederate ironclad ram Manassas. A lengthy postscript, dated the 11th, notes the arrival of the Connecticut, discusses the Rebel seizure of a French ship, and reports that an investigation is being launched to determine whether the captain of the Iroquois got drunk and told the captain of the French ship “all our plans, our strength and everything he knew.”
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<p>1. This is a Mail Bid, Phone & Fax Auction, Closing Date:
August 23, 2003. Mail, Phone & Fax Bids accepted, these absentee bids will be executed over eBay Live Auctions on Sunday, August 24th, beginning at 10 AM Pacific Time. The sale is conducted in accordance with the regulations of the State of California and the City of San Diego.
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