Description:

CONTRABANDS HELP CREW A UNION GUNBOAT
A good war-date Union sailor's letter, 4pp. folio, written by Petty Officer John Hagerty, USS Carondelet, East Port, Ala., Mar. 22, 1865, in part: "…Maggie I sent you another picture of the Boat that was taken at Fort Pillow by an artist when we laid there...on Sunday we were all a shore…the captain…put a guard of 8 men with muskets to keep the men from going down to the transports…we had fine fun playing all kinds of games but…7 of the men tied a new kind of a game …run past the guard and went down to the boats and got good and drunk…they were all put in the brogan double irons for 5 days on hard tack and water…there was 18,000 soldiers left here yesterday...after the Rebel General Forrest. There is 2 divisions of cavalry here…I think the war will be over this summer…then I can say that I was a volunteer instead of a drafted man…tell your friends…that is aching to enlist to go in the Gun Boat Service for it is…the nicest place for if you se the soldier here in the wet weather. They look like something that a cat would fetch in a wet day while the gun boat men are nice and dry…if a man comes to quarters without his shoes blacked he will be put on the black list…I was rated as a petty officer...I had them scrubbing the Engine room. I made one of them go over his [for] the second time and he says, 'Massa Hagity I [do] not like you for a Massa…for you [will] kill de Naggar a fore long'. Maggie, they are the real Southern Slave Niggers and they don't know any thing but pick Cotton…". Very good.

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February 19, 2014 11:00 AM EST
Elkton, MD, US

Alexander Historical Auctions LLC

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