2022-11 Raynors HCA Auction
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 11/18/2022
BOCOCK, Thomas Salem (1815-1891) was a nineteenth-century slave owner,[1] politician and lawyer from Virginia. After serving as an antebellum United States Congressman, he was the speaker of the Confederate States House of Representatives during most of the American Civil War. Autograph Letter Signed, "Th: S. Bocock" 1 page, Washington DC, Feb 1855, written to Secretary of the Navy J.C Dobbin recommending an appointment of John L. Porter in Naval construction. In small part, "I feel authorized to recommend him to you as a gentleman, and a man of eminent skill ... only one Naval construction now in the service, who was appointed from the Southern part of the Union ..." Porter began working for the Confederate States Navy at the Gosport Navy Yard, at Portsmouth. He modified his previous ironclad design and submitted it to Secretary Stephen R. Mallory of the Confederate States Navy on 24 June 1861. Chief Engineer of the Navy William P. Williamson, Lt. John Mercer Brooke and Porter developed a plan of the conversion of the scuttled and burned steam frigate USS Merrimack to an ironclad, which became CSS Virginia when commissioned in February 1862. Porter had overall responsibility for the conversion, [2] while Brooke was responsible for her iron plate and heavy ordnance and Williamson oversaw the ship's machinery.
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