July 14th, 2011
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 7/14/2011
War-date Union sailor’s Autograph Letter Signed by John Hagerty, US Gun Boat, Carondelet, off East Port, Alabama, March 18, 1865, 4pp. quarto, on US Christian Commission lettersheet, and reads in part: “...the soldiers had a sham battle on Tuesday last and it is reported in the newspapers that we had a fight here and that the US Gun Boat Carondelet was blown up but thank god it is another false report. On Tuesday morning at 9 oclock our men opened fire with musketry and artillery and about that time there was 7 transports went down to Paducah and the report there that there was a battle at East Port and that our boat was blown up...I thought that I would write to you for fear you would hear it and be uneasy...Brigadier General Hatch was on board yesterday and he wanted to bet one hundred dollars that he war would be over by the 4th of July and I hope it will...” Very good condition. The USS Carondelet was one of those to pass the Vicksburg and Warrenton, Missouri batteries in April 1863, Carondelet took part on 29 April in the five and one-half hour engagement with the batteries at Grand Gulf. She remained on duty off Vicksburg, hurling fire at the city in its long siege from May to July. Without her and her sisters and other naval forces, the great operations on the rivers would not have been possible and the United States victory might not have been won.
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