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Lot 43
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Civil War Letters by Artist and Union Naval Officer Off Mobile Bay
Civil War Letters by Artist and Union Naval Officer Off Mobile Bay
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Description:

Civil War

Civil War Letters by Artist and Union Naval Officer Off Mobile Bay


ROBERT WEIR, three Autograph Letters Signed, to Anna Chadwick Weir, January 27-March 31, 1864.  12 pp., 5.375" x 8.25" to 5.75" x 7".  Ex-Bill Burger.



Naval officer and artist Robert Weir wrote this fascinating series of letters to his wife Anna aboard the USS Richmond off Mobile and Pensacola in the spring of 1864, just months before the climactic Battle of Mobile Bay.


Excerpts
--Robert Weir to Anna Weir, January 27, 30, 1864, Off Mobile. 3 pp.
“We are collecting a large fleet here now, but I can say nothing in regard to our movements. We may have some of Porters Iron Clads to aid us, but you need not get anxious for it will take a long time to get affairs in a state to do anything, and at least the Rebs must be thoroughly prepared for our every movement, as usual.”


Rear Admiral David Dixon Porter (1813-1891) commanded the Mississippi flotilla, consisting of ten ironclads, three monitors, eleven tinclads, one timberclad, one ram, and several support vessels. The flotilla participated in the Red River Campaign from March to May 1864 in Louisiana.


“I am selfish and crave letters all the time, and yet few of the officers have had letters so regularly & faithfully as I, tho’ you are quite my only correspondent. You must have had a trying hard time when waiting so very long for word from me, but you bore it quite as patiently as you have always done.”


“I have made some sketches for Harpers and written to him, so if he uses any of the drawings he will again send you the paper. It will be a great treat for me to look over them when we are together, should such a blessing again be in store for me.”


“We may not go to Pensacola for some time yet as we are now taking in some 80 tons of coal from the Albatross.”


The USS Albatross was a three-masted schooner built at Mystic, Connecticut, in 1858. It served with the Union blockade on both the Atlantic and Gulf coasts. Damaged in the siege of Port Hudson in the summer of 1863, it was repaired in New Orleans before rejoining the blockade off Mobile, Alabama.

--Robert Weir to Anna Weir, March 6-7, 1864, US Sloop of War Richmond, off Mobile. 4 pp.
“Of late I have had to sit on Courts martial in the trial of some of our men, and otherwise my hands have been pretty full. The Admiral is now in a quiescent state, having withdrawn the Bombers and Gunboats from the bombardment in Miss. Sound. I think his idea was to draw out their force of Iron Clads & Gun boats, he seems pretty well satisfied in regard to their strength, and now he is looking out to meet Seymours expedition some where on this coast, probably at St. Marks.”


Rear Admiral David G. Farragut (1801-1870) commanded the Union fleet of eighteen ships at Mobile Bay from his flagship Hartford.
Brigadier General Truman Seymour (1824-1891) led an expedition to Florida in February 1864 to take possession of Jacksonville. After securing that city, he proceeded west along the Florida, Atlantic, and Gulf Central Railroad, with the possible goal of capturing the Florida state capital of Tallahassee and linking with the Union Navy at St. Mark’s twenty miles south of Tallahassee on the Gulf coast. On February 20, Confederates under Brigadier General Joseph Finegan stopped Seymour’s forces at the Battle of Olustee, approximately forty miles west of Jacksonville. Seymour’s expedition returned to Jacksonville, which the Union occupied through the remainder of the war. Seymour returned to Virginia on March 28.


“Sherman seems to be busy tho’ with what intention other than a Raid I cannot see. The Rebs in Mobile seem to think he is bound for their spot and they are exerting every muscle and minute in its defense.”


From February 3 to March 6, 1864, General William T. Sherman (1820-1891) led an expedition from Vicksburg, Mississippi, to Meridian, Mississippi, 125 miles to the east, to disrupt the Confederate infrastructure. Sherman’s troops fought a series of skirmishes and destroyed Meridian, along with 115 miles of railroad, 61 bridges, and 20 locomotives. General William S. Smith and his cavalry force was to proceed south from Memphis and meet Sherman at Meridian, but Confederate cavalry General Nathan Bedford Forrest intercepted Smith and forced him to retreat. Sherman had to abandon his plans to continue into Alabama and returned to Vicksburg.


“I have seen another of my sketches in H—’s Weekly, one of the Reb. Rams. They seem to take special pains with my sketches, therefore I must return the compliment by sending them good things. Look out for them. The last I sent was the ‘Exploding gun on Gun boat Jackson.’”


“The New Rebel Ram at Mobile” appeared in Harper’s Weekly, February 20, 1864, with the attribution, “From a Sketch by an Officer on Blockade Duty.”


“You need not think there is going to be any demonstration made upon Mobile yet awhile, newspaper reports to the contrary notwithstanding. We look for Iron clads wh’ are unaccountably delayed by those who trifle with Government affairs and endeavor to prolong the war, for their own profit. Three Iron Clads will probably be here within the month, and when we do use them it will no doubt be to some purpose. It appears that that antiquated fossil Dahlgren has gobbled all wh’ have yet been constructed. he has more than he knows how to handle and will probably let some three or four pass on where the Old Salamander can & probably will make use of them.”


Rear Admiral John A. Dahlgren (1809-1870) served as commander of the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron from July 1863 to July 1865.


Rear Admiral David G. Farragut earned the nickname “Old Salamander” in April 1862, when he skillfully slipped thirteen of his ships past Fort Jackson and Fort St. Philip, which guarded the Mississippi River, seventy miles downriver from New Orleans. Confederates soon surrendered the two forts and evacuated New Orleans.

-- Robert Weir to Anna Weir, March 31, 1864, USS Richmond, off Pensacola Naval Yard, Florida. 5 pp.
“we left Mobile for this place and met with a terrific gale, in whi we had to ‘lay to’ until this morning during wh’ time we lost one boat & some of our spars and it was thot at one time we wld. have to undergo the hazardous work of throwing some of our guns overboard to save the ship. Our engine worked more faithfully than ever, and we go here at 2 o’ck this afternoon, where now we rest at anchor near the Admirals ship Hartford, as quiet as a rock.”


“We do not expect to remain long, and we may be obliged to go to N. Orleans after coaling, in order to get a new Fresh water condenser wh’ we are in need of.”


“My hands are full here all the time but the life is a dogs and calculated to ruin the best of men. I sometimes think and know indeed that some men have the blue devils ten times worse than my Daisy wife every dreamed of. I think the principal cause of mine is in being with such a miserable incompetent set of officers as this noble ship is manned with.... Our officers are all very young and of no experience whatever, while our Capt. is an old woman, timid, irresolute and cant bear responsibility.”


Thornton A. Jenkins (1811-1893) commanded the USS Richmond during the Battle of Mobile Bay in August 1864 and was likely in command when Weir wrote this letter.

“What is the use of building such splendid war vessels when we have no one to properly handle them. How often I think of poor Noble Cummings. his example alone while living was worth millions to our Government. shall we ever see his like again? The reality of present affairs in our Navy places me in this gloom. Our people are asleep afloat & ashore.”


Andrew Boyd Cummings (1830-1863) served with distinction as the Executive Officer of the USS Richmond, and participated in the action at Fort Jackson and Fort Saint Philip, Louisiana. He showed conspicuous gallantry as Admiral David Farragut’s squadron passed the batteries at Fort Hudson, Louisiana, on March 14-15, 1863, and died of wounds received there, at New Orleans on March 18.

“we wait patiently for Iron Clads, then something will probably be done, but you need not feel any ways alarmed my darling one.”


Rear Admiral David G. Farragut’s West Gulf Blockading Squadron received the ironclad monitors USS Manhattan on July 20, USS Chickasaw and USS Winnebago early in August, and USS Tecumseh on August 4, 1865.


On August 5, 1864, the Union fleet attacked the Confederate fleet led by Admiral Franklin Buchanan and three forts that guarded the entrance to Mobile Bay. In the assault, Farragut became famous for a paraphrase of his order, “Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!” Farragut won control of the bay after destroying one Confederate gunboat and capturing another gunboat and the ironclad CSS Tennessee with the loss of the USS Tecumseh, which was sunk by a torpedo (underwater mine). The Confederates also abandoned or surrendered the three forts, closing the last Confederate port on the Gulf of Mexico east of the Mississippi River.


Robert Weir (1836-1905) was born in New York, the son of Robert Walter Weir (1803-1889), a professional painter of the Hudson River School and professor of drawing at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. The younger Robert Weir ran away to sea and sailed on several whaling cruises, including one on the Clarabell from 1855 to 1858. He became a manager of the Ontario Knitting Company in Cohoes, New York. He married Anna Chadwick (1834-1910) on September 16, 1862. He had enlisted in the Union Navy in August 1862 and served as third assistant engineer and second assistant engineer on the USS Richmond. He received a commendation for his role in the attack on the batteries at Port Hudson, Louisiana, in March 1863. In August 1864, he produced a watercolor of the Battle of Mobile Bay. He made many sketches and wrote short stories, many of which were published in Harper’s Weekly and other venues. Also in 1864, he wrote and illustrated the 45-page Uncle Samuel’s Whistle and What It Costs: A Tale, and had it privately published. He resigned from the navy in July 1865. After the war, he worked as an engineer with the Croton Water Works and was a consulting engineer for the Union Subway Company. In 1893, he moved from New York to Montclair, New Jersey.



USS Richmond (1860-1919) was a wooden steam sloop launched from the Norfolk Naval Shipyard, which took an initial voyage to the Mediterranean before returning to New York City in July 1861. It joined the Gulf Blockading Squadron in September 1861. It carried one 80-pounder Dahlgren smooth bore gun, twenty 9-inch Dahlgren smooth bore guns, and one 30-pounder Parrott rifle. After repairs in New York, it participated in the capture of New Orleans and the bombardment of Vicksburg and Port Hudson on the Mississippi River. After an overhaul in New York City late in the summer of 1863, the Richmond rejoined Admiral David G. Farragut’s squadron at New Orleans in November, then began blockade duty off Mobile, Alabama. The Richmond participated in the assault against Mobile Bay on August 5, 1864, and helped to overpower and capture the CSS Tennessee. A total of 33 sailors and marines serving aboard the Richmond earned the Medal of Honor during the Civil War, more than on any other ship. Twenty-nine of the medals were awarded for actions in the Battle of Mobile Bay. The ship was decommissioned at the Boston Navy Yard on July 10, 1865. The Richmond was repeatedly recommissioned and decommissioned through the remainder of the nineteenth century and up to World War I. It was finally struck from the Navy list in June 1919.


This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.


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