Lot
2022 
U.S.S. Housatonic, old English imprint handstamp embellished "off Charleston Sept 9th" on cover to Stratford, Conn. bearing 3¢ rose (65) tied by four-ring cancel duplexed with "Old Point Comfort, Va. Sep 12" double-circle postmark to Stratford, Conn.; additional pencil docketing at left, photocopy of original letter datelined "U.S. Str. 'Housatonic' 7th Sepr. 1863, Off Morris Island. Charleston S.C." describing the Battle for Battery Wagner and the Siege of Charleston "…I feel like sending greeting to all loyal hearts to night. Reason enough, too: for Old Sumter is a ruin and the Federal Troops hold the key of Charleston and its harbor. All Morris Island had been abandoned to us. Day after day we anxiously watched our … as it worked nearer and nearer to Wagner which was kept silenced by the iron-clads. Every morning we could see that the serpentine trench was a little nearer the sand fort than the day before. Two or three days ago our ditch was within 50 yards of it. Day before yesterday, the star and stripes were within 30 yards and the Ironsides used her guns all day to keep the sharpshooters in Wagner from firing into the trenches…This morning was the time fixed upon for the final attack. The vessels moved up; so did the army. They marched - the soldiers, over the walls of Wagner without opposition. Wagner had been vacated…" with several pages of further battle information; faulty at left, Fine and scarce cover. Estimate $300 - 400.
The Second Battle of Charleston Harbor, also known as the siege of Charleston Harbor, siege of Fort Wagner, or Battle of Morris Island, took place during the American Civil War in the late summer of 1863 between a combined U.S. Army/Navy force and the Confederate defenses of Charleston, South Carolina.
Later on February 17, 1864, the Confederate submarine "Hunley" sank the blockader, the USS "Housatonic" off Charleston S.C., marking the first wartime sinking of a ship by a submarine.
Realized: $900