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Lot #
218
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Extensive Civil War United States Marine Correspondance Archive
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| Massive archive of one hundred and two (102) letters by Marine Corporal Charles Leaman, oft quoted in Sullivan's "United States Marine Corps in the Civil War," ninety-eight of which are war-date letters, most multi-paged and in an easy to read hand, covering his time on the Flag Ship Philadelphia, of the South Atlantic Blockade Squadron, with great content on the bombardment of Charleston, Fort Sumter, Andersonville, the Hunley, the assassination of Lincoln and capture of Jefferson Davis and much more, they read in part: "...[12/9/62] I do not know much about the duties only what I see here, and that is not much, they have to stand guard sometimes every other day, sometimes every third day, they stand from nine oclock one morning until nine the next morning two hours on and four off. At six oclock they draw us up and at half past six they call us out in line to answer our names...When you are on guard duty a day they give you a day of liberty to go around town and after you come from a cruise they give you as much money as you want and a week or two to go wherever you please...We have a great many fellows that has been in the service for two and three terms and still more of them coming in. We have one fellow here that was in the rebel service and was taken prisoner at Corinth and released...[12/22/62 Marine Barracks, Washington] This morning we had our first drill with the musket, we were only out about half an hour...We have one Col. Harris, one major, sergeant major, one Capt. three Lieuts and about ten or twelve non commissioned officers. One sergeant who helped build the warehouse, from Lancaster named Murphy. He says he knows papa and Will. Our drill sergeant Hamilton, I guess is the best drill master in the M.B. [Marine Barracks.]...I had thought about enlisting in the U.S.M.C. ever since I saw the advertisement in the Ledger...There is of course a great deal of temptation here, but I think as little as any other part of the service because a man is not allowed to get drunk. If he does and any of the officers see him they put him in the cage in double irons...a great many have been in the V. [Volunteer Army] service in our army, and some are deserters from the rebels and their tales are very interesting...[12/30/62 Marine Barracks] The rebels are reported with in a few miles of Alexandria. Last Friday I saw the strangest wound I suppose during the war, on a man that must have been, from his looks, being both gray haired and stooped, 60 years of age. The ball went in his right side of his face and came out near his left eye, destroying the sight, and the old man came in here to see if any of his comrades where in that he had been with. For 10 years ago he said he had been at the Florida war and had been in the U.S. Service for 25 years. Of the 120 Marines captured on the [?] 60 where from this barracks...[1/18/63 Marine Barracks] The first thing I done was to get my hair cut and fixed up and went to Bell & Bro. and got my card [CDV] taken. I got a dozen taken and will tell you who I want to get them...I was on guard on Friday and will not be on again until tomorrow. There is nothing new going on here, only that there is a draft going away this afternoon of about fifteen. I do not know where they are going, or they do not know themselves...They have all been in the cage lately and some just was let out to get ready to go and the others are all on the restricted list. That is they are not allowed to go on liberty...[1/31/63 M. Barracks] Yesterday I was on liberty and met John Lindsay, he is in the hospital here. He is in the Regt with Jack, but does not know any thing about them for he has not been with them for some time. I am glad to hear that the prisoners of the Dragoons are safe...The Anderson Troop has been treated very badly but I do not think the most of them were right in doing what they did, when their Gen. asked them to wait, I think they should have done it, and fought like men like the others done. I see by the State that Palmer has been made Colonel and has gone to take command...[2/20/63 M. Barracks] U. Sam is getting a good many vessels made which will be finished soon and I think those here will be sent to some of them...[2/26/63 M. Barracks] Last Saturday two companies of us, taken from the navy yard and here, where marched in full uniform to the funeral of Commander Woodhill. He was taken to the Congressional Burying ground and placed in vault and after the services where over, we fired three rounds of blank cartridges over the vault and marched back again to the Barracks. We started at eleven and got back at quarter after three. We seen nothing but the coffin, which was covered with a flag and there lay on it a wreath, his hat and sword. His hat and sword were taken out again, the coffin was carried by six of us...[3/6/63 M. Barracks] I happened to be on liberty last Wednesday and got up to the Senate chamber a little before twelve, but could not begin to get in for the seats and aisles were full. But after twelve a great many left so I got in to see the new Senators sworn. The news now is beginning to look a little better, so much so that I think Old Abe is preparing to fight more than C.S.A. If anything of the kind does happen, I guess we will see the first of it. I see by the Inquirer that the Anderson Troop are going to be reorganized again under Col. Palmer...[3/16/63 M. Barracks]It is reported here that a squad of recruits is coming on tonight from Philadelphia. It is reported here in the papers that Fort Donelson was taken again but I hope it is not so. I see by the Sunday paper yesterday that the Rebels are in a flourishing condition...[3/22/63 M. Barracks] Gen. Sumner was here at the Colonel last Saturday a week, and last Saturday he and the Major received a dispatch of his death. The other day I was down at the Navy Yard and was watching them forging out targets and pieces of iron for anchors, which is a real curiosity to see how easily they handle the immense pieces of iron, and they forge them with a hammer that weighs 16,300 lbs and done by the aid of steam handles like you would tack a hammer...They have got a machine for making caps, and another for making balls...speaking of...the drummer boys, one was about fifteen and the other about twelve...[4/9/63 Navy Yard]when I am sent away I will most likely be sent south on the blockade and now I think is the most proper time to go or at least the time I would like to go at any rate, so I shall try to get off as soon as I can, but I am afraid I can not for two or three months but there is a sloop of war laying here now, with steam up, that I think I will try to get on, she mounts four or five heavy guns, and I understood she is for the Charleston blockade...[6/1/63]There has been nothing new...only that coming in of about eighty paroled sailors last Thursday. They were taken on the Mississippi. They were a hard looking set both raged and dirty and had hardly any shoes for they say they sold their own to get something to buy grub or they would of starved...They say they were kept for a good part of the time (three months) on corn meal and water. A sentry wounded one of them for getting out of the lines a little when he did not know it going for a bucket of water. He was shot through the jaw with buck shot taking away all the teeth and gum of the lower jaw. They say they never expect him to live at all and at first they had to pump everything in to him. When he would go take a drink of water it would run out through the opening in his neck and run down his breast...[6/9/63]They are experimenting here every day and every few days they try to fire twenty to forty rounds in the fifteenth inchers, increasing the charge at times until they got it up to fifty lbs. The other day they cracked her and now they are putting another thirteen incher in her place, which only weighs 36 thousand some few hundred lbs. You can not see where the fifteen incher is cracked on the outside and I never went inside to see, but some of the Marines and sailors were playing hide and go hoop in her the other night. They say the crack makes a good hiding place. You must not think I am exaggerating at all...[6/15/63]we can raise a battalion of two companies from here an the Barracks. There was a battalion at the first Bull Run and some of the fellows are here yet, and there is also some here that was on the Congress and Cumberland...[7/13/63]Meade has routed Lee at Sharpsburg and that the latter is retreating to Williamsport...I think that the putting of Meade in Hooker's place was the best thing that ever happened to the Army of the Potomac. Not that Hooker was not able to manage the army, but Meade, just a new man taking the army, it gave Lee such a shock that he did not know whether he was on his feet or head, for there is no doubt that he knew pretty near what Hookers plans was...[9/10/63 Morris Island]I received your letter yesterday just after returning from an expedition of sailors and Marines against Fort Sumter...some twenty of each company, making in all about a hundred were ordered to get ready...we were towed down as near to the fort as the steamer could go...just as we got our position the sentry fired after challenging us...In a minute up went a rocket and in a minute we heard the guns from Moultrie, Johnson and the batteries on Sullivan's Island, and Sumter was playing with musketry and hand grenades as fast as she could, and only fired from a howitzer once or twice. She seemed to have two or three hundred men...There was only one by the name of Rogers, a Marine, wounded in our boat, which was commanded by Lieut Lowry of Marines...I hear there were 140 or 150 of us killed, wounded and missing, 27 of them from the battalion. Lieut Bradford our Quarter Master, who volunteered to go, was killed and Lt. Meade of Co. B, was taken prisoner. How many of the boats are missing I do not know, but I hear there are seven. There are two that I know to be struck by shells...The trench which we were in and which would have had to have been gone over in a charge was about the depth of two men. Pointing upwards where you jump down in the trench is a row of pointed stakes, with any number of lances or boarding pikes covered with sand. After getting over that you come on planks with iron spikes in them and they can flood it. They left six or seven killed and wounded in each fort and there was one in Wagner just able to speak...[10/7/63 Flag Ship Philadelphia] the Rebels night before last made a desperate attempt to blow up the Ironsides, and actually did succeed so far as to explode one torpedo under her, but did not damage her in the least. One of the number is on board here as a prisoner, says there was only four of them. An officer besides him escaped. The machine was built for the purpose something on the plan, he says, of their steam ram only smaller and very little of it is to be seen about the water and the torpedo contained sixty lbs of powder and was carried in front of them and as they pushed it under it was maid to go off. They left Charleston he says about dusk and got here between 8 & 9 o'clock. The coming up, of course they were challenged, and not giving a satisfactory answer the sentry was ordered to fire and the fire was kept up for about ten minutes by the guard...all the time they were backing out, and a little while it exploded and they also fired with small arms and wounded the officer of the deck fatally. They did not get into place right under or it might have been a serious thing. The prisoner on board says the explosion destroyed the machine and that he left it before going to the Ironsides, switch to a schooner from which he was fetched on board here yesterday morning and was taken before the Admiral and came out as scared a man as ever you saw. The Admiral told him he was an assassin and that he should prepare to die, that he was going to hang him and ordered him in double irons...At dinner time the Admiral called him in again and I guess he told him a pretty straight tale for he took the irons off him...[10/29/63] Gen. Gilmore commenced last Monday at half past twelve and has been keeping a pretty steady fire ever since, slacking off a little at night but not all together. The monitors going in a while every day and on Monday about four o'clock the Reb Ram came out a piece but a little monitor moving up gave her a broad hit which she took and moved back. The firing is principally at Sumter and they now have one side leveled, but she still lays there, a stubborn heap and treats all the pounding with but contempt. The Ironsides has not been in yet...[11/3/63]There is a first rate view of Sumter form upper deck of our vessel, with a spy glass, which presents a ragged appearance being combed all the way around, and some of the gaps appearing to extend half way, and more down the side, which make it look like a forlorn hope for those inside...[11/25/63] On Sunday 16th night half past nine heavy firing was commenced on Sullivan Isl....In the morning the Lehigh Signals her self a ground between Sumter & Moultrie, she is under a pretty lively fire of cannon from Sullivan Isl & they were also trying to drop some mortars on her deck. The Iron Clads are ordered to prepare for action...The Lehigh had five men & one officer wounded there was a couple more wounded attaching a rope from the Nahant to the Lehigh to drag her off. There was two shots took slight affect on her deck the other done more damage under the water line, piercing the armor and splintering the wood which was done at low tide...On the morning of the 17th there was an attack made on Sumter but I hear it was nothing but a feint of Gen. Gilmore to see whether any one was in the fort, for there was no flag up the day before. I hear he found it pretty strongly garrisoned...we had a very good view of Sumter which looks the same old pile of bricks & they still keep putting shell in to it regularly...[12/5/63]Gen. Gilmore still keeps throwing shell slowly after the different Rebel batteries (Sumter receiving a share) to let them know he has not forgotten them...there was a man brought on board who called him self a refugee from Savannah, but had been arrested on suspicion of being spy...because he had a pass from the Secretary of War of Confederates, and also one from Beauregard to go to Europe on plea that he was a native and his people were in Russia...[12/6/63]I was down on the birth deck, and hearing a sudden & unusual noise on deck with the cry of a Monitor sinking...there was nothing to be seen but about half of the Torret...The cause of her going down a great many of the crew says was carelessness of not securing the battle plate of the forward hatch...The Admiral seemed very much hurt, and I think he had reason to be, for he called her his best Monitor one that had stood a couple of heavy gales...she had been 56 hrs. aground under fire of the enemies...[12/26/63] Christmas morning there was a great fire in the direction of Charleston...at the same time I seen it, there was pretty heavy firing on Cumming Point, I suppose General Gilmore was sending his compliments, it being Christmas morning...[1/28/64]On the 22nd there was a torpedo brought on board from Stono, and the story that come with it is that there was three of them set by the Rebels at Stono, and where replaced by Union men on their side not to do harm. These three deserters that I have mentioned pointed them out to the crew of the Pawnee who got them and brought one of them here for the Admiral to see. There nothing but a wooden keg, you might call it, pointed at both ends with two brass cocks in the center and opposite sides of it, which where the means of setting it off I suppose, and a thick coat of pitch covered it all over. The powder was taken out before it was brought here...[2/22/64]Last Friday morning we received the news at Port Royal, brought up by the gunboat Paul Jones from Charleston, that the sloop of war Houstonic was saved the night before by a torpedo boat from Charleston, which cause a great excitement for a time among officers not excepting the Admiral although he was not excited as much as you would suppose....we knew those boats would work not only from reports of deserters but that attack on the Ironsides was proof enough that they were not to be trifled with and if they should have succeeded in placing that torpedo properly under her, it is hard to tell what may have been the result...but luckily it exploded at her side and wasted its strength against the iron plate, but not without goring her slightly...The Ironsides is very well protected with a net and a light also, which she runs around her every few minutes and by it can see anything on the water for two or three hundred yds. The Monitors have nothing of this kind to protect them, and I think it very strange they did not make the attempt at one of them instead of going outside of the Bart to the wooden fleet...[4/27/64] Stmr. Harvest Moon]The 40,000 men that passed through Washington yesterday shows there is some thing going to be done. The Rebels seem to be still lucky at some points, and still are starving and murdering...[5/11/64 Stmr. Phila.] yesterday the Sangamon & Nahant goes up in the morning and layed very close to Sullivan Isl. firing at Sumter as usual. After each of them was struck a number of times and slightly damaged with several of the men wounded...Sullivans Isl. fired 65 shot and a great many of them good ones...[6/21/64]There has been several parties of refugees come out since have been here. There was five men and a woman came out last Saturday night a week in a small schooner with fifteen bags of cotton on board. They come out in pretense of running the blockade. After coming out they came to an Iron and gave themselves up...There is a man on board, who came day before yesterday, that has escaped three times from the Rebs....The time of his capture before, he was about to be hung for taking sketches of places he seen...He escaped to the schooner T.A. War....We have information here from a Charleston paper of the 14th that there was fifty of our Gens, Cols, Lieut Cols, and Majors arrived that day in the city...they will be given comfortable quarters in that part of the city where the fire of the enemy is the heaviest, and will notify us that if we fire on the city we will be killing our own men. Last fall while firing on Sumter, they sent out a flag of truce, saying that if it was not stopped they would put our men on the parapets of the Ft. The Admiral informed them that if they done so, he would lash their men to the turret of the Monitors and since there has been nothing more heard of it...[7/7/64] We are now about two miles from Stono, up the river with two Monitors...so close to the Rebs that they can see what damage the shells do with the naked eye. They can see the Rebels in their rifle pits thrown clear out of there, muskets and all...I understand that it was the 3rd that the unsuccessful charge on Ft. Johnson was make...there was two Regts of the N. York and Penna troops selected for the charging of the Fort. The Penna regt. had succeeded in capturing the Ft. with eighty prisoners, which is all it was garrisoned with. But when they were attacked again by another party of Rebels the NY Regt failed to support them and they were compelled to retire with some hundred and twenty captured...[7/16/64]We received news of the sinking of the Alabama by the Kearsarge some days and it causes quite an excitement on deck. It is glorious news without doubt. It is a great pity that Capt. Winslow did not capture or sink the whole crew. Capt. Semmes being sunk has a brother here in command of the Lehigh and before he knew of the Alabama being sunk he said he would like to meet him to low him out of the water. Capt. Winslow has saved him the trouble...Contrabands comes around in small boats with tomatoes, green corn, and water melons & c in which I indulge a great deal...[8/5/64]we were all ordered on board of a tug and just before leaving to go on board the H[arvest] Moon a number of us where ordered to remain on board this vessel and as I was on duty on board at the time I was one of the number left....I would of liked to have seen the exchange. There where a number of Gens. and Cols. exchanged, I understand and among them was Gen. Seymour, who went north from this Dept. with Gen. Gilmore. The exchange was scarcely over when the firing from shore commenced as usual...[10/11/64] Rebel deserters are coming over continuously but I have not much faith in them...I have seen two men that have been lately confined at Andersonville and by being removed it gave them a chance to escape and if you could only see them your only wonder would be how they managed to get here, for you would not think them able if they had even been given permission. They were here more than a day in charge of the Dr. and they looked so very skeleton like and tired out, that I did not like to trouble them with any questions...[10/20/64] The news from the election cause quite an excitement among some of the men that are in favor of Little Mac. He seems to have quite a number of friends on board here. It is hard for one to think that a man like McClellan at the head of so large an army as that of the Potomac and for so long a period could have a heart so deceitful as to sell the labors of our armies for the past three years and move for a nominal and perishable peach...[12/23/64] Sherman is alright. Grant, Sheridan, and it is hoped Thomas is alright...Sherman will have Savannah as surely as I have this pen. He has it now pretty well invested. Foster and Dahlgren has command of its only communication to or from the North. Dahlgren is assisting him as much as possible with his vessels, but no one is able to assist him more than he is able to assist himself. ...[1/4/65 Stmr. Phila. near Savannah, Georgia]The Admiral is laying here superintending the removal of the obstruction of the river, which is a very difficult matter as the obstructions consists of piles driven in an irregular manner across the river, and between them are thrown logs and bricks. They have left a passage of some sixty feet, just wide enough for the passage of one vessel, which I judge was used by blockade runners...[1/24/65 Port Royal Harbor SC]I have now been on board this vessel for two weeks with the Admiral, and have been to Savannah or off its wharf, and twice to Charleston from this place...the Admiral is not idle and is determined to assist Sherman all he can...I regret to have to mention the loss of the Monitor 'Patapsco.' The terribleness of the catastrophe can not be described and the feelings of the sufferers can not be imagined...65 out of 104 brave souls where offered up as a sacrifice to the treachery of the Rebel warfare, only one man, who was not on the deck at the time was saved, and he but one minute before was innocently raised from his bunk by nature as it where providentially, and before he had time to return, his bunk was blown to pieces and the vessel sinking, just giving him time to escape through the turret...The last account we heard of the poor unfortunate men they were fighting with each other who should gain the tops of the turret. If our report is correct they went down enemies to each and most probably the last word from many of them would be the end of a damning prayer for his drowning comrade and ship mate...[2/24/65 Off Charleston]official news came on board the following morning that the city was being evacuated...We came to anchor off the wharf about half past three and there were quite a number of shabby looking people were on the wharf to greet us...The Navy Yard was still burning and the fire on the Blk. Runner 'Syrene' had just been drowned by the Tug 'Gladiator'...There was quite a number of escaped prisoners came on board...The people consider themselves terribly outraged at the colored troops being in town and anything but the worst that can be thought and said of them is done. I do not approve of the manner in which many of the colored troops behaved by insulting defenseless citizens...The citizens are hoping that white troops may soon occupy the town...[3/6/65]On the morning of the 1st we got under way from off the fort and proceeded down the main channel for the bay. We were under way about fifteen mins when we struck a torpedo and in four minutes (on who timed her says) we where on the bottom in fifteen or sixteen feet of water...This resting on the bottom was a lucky one for it saved us from the unpleasant and cold swim...one man was killed instantly by the explosion. He was the War Room steward (colored) and had just finished the thirty extra days of his time and was...getting ready his things for his anticipated trip home...[3/21/65]The funeral of Lt. Bradford, USMC, wounded and captured at Ft. Sumter. It was the first funeral he had, but it was the third time he has been placed under the ground. He died from the effects of the wound received and through the influence of Dr. MacKay, now a prominent Union man in the City, was placed in the Masonic burying ground in the Magnolia Cemetery. Other parties not being satisfied, he was removed and placed in Potters field where all but a few of our men are buried...The slaves seize everything and call it their own and say to their masters you are the slaves now, we are free. The people of Charleston say as soon as the Yankees come they could not get any more work out of them for they said they were free. Many outrages are committed by them but a few miles from the city...I have been out to see the race course where our prisoners brought from Andersonville were kept without shelter of any kind. There is still to be seen the small mounds they have formed to keep themselves out of the swamps and the holes they have dug to get the filthy swamp water...I understand they died on an average while there of twenty per day. All are buried in spot close by, they are laid in trenches as close as possible and at the head of each is a small board with a number and looking at the last I found it to be (249) two hundred and forty nine...The Magnolia is a very fine cemetery...The Captain and seven men who were drowned in the torpedo boat at this city on the 15th October, 1863, are lying side by side. The epitaph for each is worthy of notice and I think is premature. After giving their names it says 'Died in the service of their country 15th Oct. 1863.'....[4/14/65 Charleston Harbor] The flag was raised at one oclock when the saluting from the fort, the fleet and the remaining forts commenced and in a few minutes the fort fleets and all was hidden with the smoke...all manner of flags are flying except the rag that reigned her the day four years. We could see the flag being raised very plainly from this vessel...'The Oceanus' arrived last evening with the glorious news of the capture of Lee...[4/19/65 Charleston Harbor]We are just the mournful recipients of the horrible news 'The President assassinated.' I have tried in many ways to relieve myself of the disastrous pictures the startling news forms in my mind...Ever since the news reached us all the flags of the different vessels have been at half mast and minute guns fired (21 guns) from each vessel and the same number of guns are to be fired at sunset this evening by order of the Admiral...Hail the President, for in him we have lost a great and all important man at this period, and by his death I am much afraid a chair is left vacant which cannot be immediately filled...Richmond had not been only captured but the army of the south, and infact the rebellion, has surrendered to Gen. Grant and I should not be surprised that by this time Johnson has done the same...On the 15th I was in the city and heard several short addresses at Zion Church delivered by Wm. L. Garrison, Senator Wilson of Mass, Geo Thompson, Judge Kelly of our state and Theodore Lilton, Editor of the Independent. The audience was nearly all colored, and the addresses all of the same character and not exactly to suit the occasion in my opinion for in place of telling them what they really are and what they should and must do fit themselves for their new state and become better they spoke to them in a manner that would cause them to believe they are already fit for freedom and are scarcely second to any people which in my opinion is a wrong mode of talking to them. It was an occasion I think I shall not soon forget, for it was the first time I have seen the colored Major Delany and I must say it was a sore sight to me. Not because the man was negro but I think the experiment is too premature...[5/23/65]I suppose we had the news of the capture of the 'old woman' before you, one of my mates woke me upon one in the morning...I would give considerable for his picture in his most suitable costume...I think he will be considered by President Johnson as one of those who have hauled down the American flag & fired on our vessels. We have seen the picture of Sgt. Corbett who made that great miss, and unintentional shot at Booth, now I should like to see the picture of the yankee who was low minded enough as to look at an old woman's boots to see if the Hon. Jeff was not in them. I think he is equally entitled to his place in Harpers..." much much more. Fine and wonderful archive of Marine Corps letters covering all aspects of the patrol and bombardment of the coast off South Carolina during the Civil War. | |||||||||||
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