Lot
1005 
(Naval) "U.S.S. Richmond, New Orleans May 29th 1862", dateline on 3¢ pink (U36) blue lettersheet cancelled by grid cancel duplexed with light "Ship Island, May 30" cds to Brooklyn N.Y., reads in part "…As the McClelland leaves this port tomorrow with a mail for the North I take great please in penning a hasty line…almost wish myself out of this muddy river on the "rolling billows". If we are to attack Mobile as ordered we soon will be on the blue water again and will see some more of this horrible bloodshed…My last was written above Natchez. We went thin 3 miles of Vicksburg when the large ship was ordered down without attacking the place on account of the falling of the river. We arrived here yesterday after our trip up the river so resembling a pleasure excursion…I have heard our Captain say that he expected to spend the 4th of July in New York, Mobile is not yet taken though…", Very Fine letter with excellent Naval content. Estimate $400 - 600.
The USS Richmond was a wooden steam sloop in the United States Navy during the American Civil War. She served on the Mississippi River blockade. During this sailing, the Richmond departed New York on February 13th 1862 and joined the West Gulf Blockading Squadron off Ship Island on March 5th as Flag Officer David Farragut prepared to seize New Orleans. Richmond crossed the bar on 24 March with the fleet and began making preparations for battle. On 24 April Farragut's fleet ran past the forts, engaged and defeated the Confederate flotilla, and continued upriver for about 12 miles. Though Richmond was hit 17 times above the waterline, her chain armor kept out many rounds and limited her casualties to two killed and three wounded. Richmond landed her Marine detachment at New Orleans to help keep order until General Benjamin Franklin Butler's Army troops arrived. Richmond helped take possession of military installations at Baton Rouge, Louisiana on 10 May 1862. Four days later she cruised upriver, first to a point 12 miles below the juncture of the Red River, thence off Natchez River and finally to a position below the Confederate stronghold at Vicksburg on 18 June 1862.
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Realized: $450