July 14th, 2011
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 7/14/2011
War-date Union soldier’s Autograph Letter Signed, “Amos Downing” Mortar Boat No. 11, 4pp. octavo, Head No. 10 Island, March 25, 1862, and reads in part: “...We are at this point about seven days with our fleet comprising of gun and mortar boats and transports. We came within two and a half miles of the enemy’s fortifications. Our boat and No. 12 took their position and commence the appiration of destruction. Their batteries open on us but fell short. We silence their battery in four shot from our heavy mortar the shells scattering the Rebels from their guns. Our boat fired nineteen of them monster shells only weighing two hundred and thirty pounds in one and a half hour. Sunday we commence again and Tuesday the gun boats and all the Mortars open on the fortifications. They returned the fire briskly. Several shot took effect on the gun boats. One rifle shot went through the Benton upper deck and landed on the Commodore’s writing desk but doing no damage. We silenced their guns. Their loss must be heavy. Our loss was two killed and seven wounded on board the St. Louis. That was done by the bursting of a gun. On Wednesday we had a jolly fight there that fell all around us but no one got hurt...We are only detail for Special Service. Our wages is 20.50 cent...” VG. The Battle (also known as the Siege) of Island Number Ten was an engagement at the New Madrid or Kentucky Bend on the Mississippi River during the American Civil War, lasting from February 28 to April 8, 1862. The position, an island at the base of a tight double turn in the course of the river, was held by the Confederates from the early days of the war. It was an excellent site to impede Union efforts to invade the South along the river, as vessels would have to approach the island bows on and then slow down to make the turns. Unfortunately for the defenders, it also had an innate weakness in that it depended on a single road for supplies and reinforcements, so that if an enemy force could cut that road, the garrison would be trapped.
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