Gunboat Cincinnati
Off Island # 25,
November 23rd/62 [1862]

Dear Sister[Jenny],

The gunboat Marmora brought the mail this morning and with it came your letter and the writing paper and stamps. The paper and stamps just came in time for I would have been unable to answer your letter without them.

We left Cairo last Sunday and we are now anchored off this island which is nothing more or less than a large sand bar.Island # 10We have been unable to proceed very fast on account of low water. We anchored a few miles from Island no.10 on Sunday night and had to stay there Monday and Tuesday on account of the fog. On Wednesday we again started. We passed several batteries before coming to the island. One of them, the Executive Officer, pointed out to us as one they had captured and spiked the guns. This was the first battery. We saw the place where the Cincinnati lay during the fight. The trees around the place were all shot off leaving it quite bare for some distance around. The island is quite high out of the water at present. It is nearly round. One of the officers says it contains forty or fifty acres. I don’t wonder it took so long to capture it as it looks quite formidable and would give an enemy a good deal of trouble in case of an attack. We have come across numerous sand bars on our way down the river and we had to cast anchor and go out in small boats to sound before we could proceed. We have been anchored off this bar all day yesterday and will very likely have to stay until the water gets higher as it is very low at present.

There has been one death since we came aboard. He was one of the boys from the Dolsen. He undertook to be a fireman, but being a green hand and unused to being cooped up in a hot firehold such as are in gunboats like these, it is supposed the heat struck his brain. Beside this, when he came out of the hold he was sweating from head to foot and sat down in front of an open port and took cold. It was pitiful to hear the poor fellow moan as he tossed about on his cot. Before he died he laid quite still rolling his eyes. He was insensible for a couple of days before his death. The heat of the firehold in a gunboat is very great. It is so hot oftentimes that a man can hardly breathe, and when he comes out from the hold the sweat pours off him like rain. A man must have a strong constitution to stand it. This poor fellow was one of the healthiest men aboard. We buried him in the woods leaving nothing but a rudely painted board to mark his resting place.

I don’t know whether I have told you about our contrabands or not. We have the jolliest happiest set you ever saw. They are very innocent but full of fun. Sometimes we have what you’d call a gay old time with them. They are some of the real live darkies just from the plantation. Sometimes at night we get them together and have a regular plantation jig. One of them called Aleck pats and Charley and Black Hawk do the dancing. George Washington, a black boy with the thickest lips I ever saw, is powder boy to our gun.

We have been divided into gun crews, three different times. I suppose they have got them fixed right now. gunnersI was at no. 4, a broadside gun, then at no. 3, a bow gun, and now at no. 6, a broadside gun. I was 2d shotman and 1st pumpman to the first crew and am 1st sponger and 2d boarder to the last.

We came near having an addition made to our contrabands this morning. Four were seen walking along the shore of the island. Three of them were opposite the boat and one was down towards the end of the island. The Ex[ecutive] officer sent the dingey over to the island and brought them aboard. We kept them aboard awhile and then the captain ordered them to be sent ashore.

We have to go to quarters regularly three times a day. At night we have to get the guns all ready for action, so that if we were attacked by guerillas we would be ready for them. We also have a whole watch instead of one part at a time on duty, giving us none too much sleep at night. Yesterday we scrubbed the boat outside and in and now the decks are as clean as the table. We have got to keep everything clean here.

This morning we had divine service for the first time on board the boat. This Divine Serviceis the 1st time I have seen any respect paid to the Sabbath since I’ve been here. But we’re in the regular navy now and we’ve got to live up to the rules of it. There is no more work to be done on the Sabbath. Before this, work went on the same on Sunday as Saturday but now the men can have the day of rest.

Yesterday we were told what badges we were to wear to distinguish our rates. Petty officers wear an eagle and anchor. Seamen, a star[;] ordinary seamen a diamond and landsman a stripe. Those of the starboard watch wear theirs on the right and those of the port on the left arm.

I hear you have had some cold weather in Buffalo. The weather here for most of the time has been very fine . We have had one or two cold spells however. The days are warm and the nights are cool. You wish to know how my cold is. I am still hoarse yet but otherwise I’m perfectly well. Has George gotten better yet? Has the singing school begun yet? I got a letter from Mr. Johnson week before last saying they were talking about starting it. I’m glad to hear that Mrs. Lander is so much better, also that the business has been settled. If Mr. Wheeler has taken the business out of their hands I know everything will be settled rightly. I am happy to hear that you had a good time while at Berger but you goose what made you come home, why didn’t you stay there all winter and continue to have a good time, but I suppose it is for your own good. If you had continued to grow fat at the rate you have done you’d weight somewhere near two hundred before long and that would have been a sad calamity. I am thankful to you for sending the paper and stamps but there is another thing I must ask for and then I hope I am through troubling you, that is a pencil. Send me one of the best lead pencils as I can’t use a pen and have to use a borrowed pencil. Put it in your next paper. There are some refugees on the fan tail of this boat. They came down the river with their goods this morning. The fan tail is the stern. Two more contrabands are now on the shore of the island. I have always forgotten to ask how the Ingrahams are getting along. I hope that dancing school has been broken up. I suppose when this reaches you I’ll be in Memphis. As the mail don’t go away very often tell Father and Mother to hurry up their letters. I wish I had better descriptive powers that I might make my letters more interesting. But goodbye J[enny] nothing more to write.

Your affectionate Brother,

Daniel

 

P.S. Direct as before. Four contrabands came aboard last night, two of the same as were here before. We’re going to keep them now for coal heavers. Our refugees left on a transport at five o’clock in the morning. The master of the contrabands, [THE REST OF THIS LETTER IS MISSING]

Footnotes

Map: United States War Department. 1895. Map of rebel fortification at Island No. 10. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/df/Battles_of_New_Madrid_and_Island_Number_10.png (Accessed May 5, 2008). (Clicking on map will enlarge it.)

Photographs: Interior of gun turret on USS Passaic. Line engraving, 1862. NH58734. U.S. Naval Historical Center . http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/images/h58000/h58734.jpg.

Matthew Brady Organization. Divine Services on board USS Passaic off Charleston SC during the Civil War. Photograph. NH 59426. U.S. Naval Historical Center. http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/images/h59000/h59426.jpg.