July 14th, 2011
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 7/14/2011
War-date Union sailor’s Autograph Letter Signed, “John Ross” Frigate ‘Minnesota’ Beaufort, North Carolina, January 6, 1865, and reads in part: “...I went down to the shipping office with my things I took a drink of whiskey and they drugged it and they ship me and when I woke up I found myself aboard of the good ship. So I tried to get away but it wouldn’t do...and they said that I got 5000 dollars, but I didn’t get a cent and they said that if I make a noise about that they would put me in the brig...so I told them that I didn’t care a damn about it and then they did do it, and they kept me there five days and then they sent me down to Fort Monroe to the United States Frigate Minnesota...They let me out just before they commenced to fight at Fort Fisher...We had two days hard fighting and then we didn’t take it. But if old Ben Butler had a took his men in we could a took it, but the dumb blind old son of a bitch...he wouldn’t do it so we had to come away and give it up so we is already to give them another fight...” Good condition. On December 24 and 25, 1864, the USS Minnesota took part in amphibious operations at Fort Fisher which guarded Wilmington, North Carolina (the First Battle of Fort Fisher). During the landings she took a position about a mile from the fort and laid down a devastating barrage on the Confederate stronghold. However, General Benjamin F. Butler withdrew his troops nullifying the gains won by the joint Army-Navy effort. Three weeks later the Union Navy returned Federal Troops, now commanded by the more vigorous General Alfred Terry, to Fort Fisher (the Second Battle of Fort Fisher). A landing force of 240 men from Minnesota, covered by a barrage from their own ship, participated in the successful assault. This operation closed Wilmington, denying the Confederacy the use of this invaluable port. During the Second Battle of Fort Fisher, nine sailors and Marines from the Minnesota earned the Medal of Honor as part of the landing party which assaulted the fort.
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