Description:

CIVIL WAR SURGEONS LETTER ABOARD USS DAYLIGHT
Civil War surgeon ALLEN S. HEATH, practiced medicine in New York until the Civil War, when he obtained a commission as surgeon in the United States Navy. Later, he became surgeon on the staffs of General King in West Virginia and of General Michael Corcoran's Irish Legion in Georgia. He was wounded so seriously in the latter campaign that it handicapped him in his profession during the remainder of his life. Fine war-date A.L.S. 4pp. 4to., aboard the "US Steamer Daylight Off New Port News Va., July 9th 1861", to his wife in part: "...We will soon return to the Fort (or roads) where we had generously tendered us all the ice we can take, and plenty of saw dust to pack it in...This morning we bought of the slaves, a potent pailful[l] of black berries, a peck of tomatoes and a bushel of new potatoes; thus adding greatly to our comfort. Tell Morris when we saw the darkie with the berries, we at once engaged them and told him to keep them for us until we returned. On our return we found him using all sorts of arguments to keep them [for us], but one Army officer was determined to have them, when as a knock down argument the darkie exclaimed in the richest Virginia style, I tells ya Massa, dees ere beries is 'done sold!' and thar are no use to topkin, 'for I's an unust nigger, I is!' No suree dem's for de gemun's as goes on de Daybreak, Yah-Yah; with a great deal more of a similar sort...The Capt. of the Albatros is on board and also leaves for the cruising ground on the coast just north of us...Yesterday 25 of Col. Taylor's Officers and Men, attacked 75 Cavalry, and 50 Infantry, and completely routed them, the rebels even having a field piece. The truth is their cause is as cotton, as the villains are cowardly. do hope our forces will pounce upon them at once and so finish the trouble in Virginia...". In very good condition. Colonel Taylor is probably Robert F. Taylor Colonel of the 33rd New York Infantry. The USS Daylight, a 682-ton screw steam gunboat, was chartered by the Navy in May 1861 and placed in commission. During next three and a half years, she operated along the coasts of Virginia and North Carolina, enforcing the Federal blockade of the Confederacy. In April 1862, Daylight participated in a bombardment of Fort Macon, North Carolina, and was damaged by Confederate gunfire. Transferred to the James River in October 1864, she remained in that area until the Civil War's climax in May 1865.

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May 13, 2009 10:00 AM EDT
Stamford, CT, US

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