July 14th, 2011
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 7/14/2011
War-date Union sailor’s Autograph Letter Signed by Timothy Dee, USS Cour de Lion, Potomac River, September 2, 1862, and reads in part: “...At this place (Aquia Creek) before their evacuation last spring the rebs had a very formidable battery & there is every probability of their having the place again as there are strong indications of a skedaddle on our part. Last night our soldiers destroyed all the bridges over the Rappahannokc, burned all their stores & storehouses & all the public property & retreated from Fredericksburg to this place when they are to embark, under cover of our gunbaots, for Washington....at ten oclock there was a terrible explosion, louder than any thunder I ever heard, which shook our old boat like a leaf. I have since been told that it was the blowing up of a powder-mill at F[redericksburg]. Everything is in readiness for a repetition of the same play at this place which has been the depot for supplies for the Army at Fredericksburg. The rebs are expected every hour & there are not more than enough transports to take away what troops are still left here. It seems too bad to destroy so much valuable property (there is at least two hundred thousand dollars worth) when it could be saved until the Gov. could find means to move it. We have five gunboats here & with their heavy bull-dogs they defend the stores against all the men the rebs can spare at this point, the place is of no consequence other than a supply depot as we are to have no men here there will be no need of it. There has been some hard fighting here for the last few days. We have heard a continuous roar of cannon from morning till night in the direction of Manassas & Bull Run. It is evident that Johnny is doing his best to get into Washington before the new recruits can arrive...if they lose their jig is up...” Fine condition. Coeur de Lion, was a side wheel steamer, was loaned to the Navy Department by the Lighthouse Board in 1861; outfitted at New York Navy Yard; and sailed 2 October 1861 for Washington, D.C., Acting Master Alexander in command. On November 10, 1861 the "Coeur de Lion" towed the barge USS George Washington Parke Custis (1861) the first de facto aircraft carrier. Until the end of the war Coeur de Lion patrolled in the Potomac River, James River, and other rivers of Virginia. She burned the schooners Charity, Gazelle, and Flight in the Appomattox River on 27 May 1862 and the schooners Sarah Margaret and Odd Fellow up the Coan River 1 June 1862. Enforcing the blockade, Coeur de Lion captured the schooners Emily Murray off Machodoc Creek, Virginia, 9 February 1863, and Robert Knowles 16 September 1863, and Malinda 3 June 1864, in the Potomac. During a reconnaissance up the Nansemond River, she exchanged fire with enemy batteries on 17 and 19 April 1863, taking the surrender of one of these on the 19th.
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