Apr 13, 2023 - Sale 2633

Sale 2633 - Lot 53

Unsold
Estimate: $ 1,000 - $ 1,500
(CIVIL WAR--CONFEDERATE--NAVY.) Letters regarding the gunboat CSS Isondiga, including a manuscript map of the Savannah defenses. 14 manuscript letters and 2 related documents, to and from Lieutenant J.S. Kennard in one folder; various sizes and conditions, most with scrapbook mount remnants on the left edge verso. Various places, 1863-1864
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Additional Details

These letters were among the papers of Lieutenant Joel S. Kennard (1819-1901), and relate to his command of the wooden steam gunboat CSS Isondiga in the defense of Savannah, GA.

A 27 January 1864 letter to Kennard from Captain W.W. Hunter includes a manuscript map of the Savannah defenses by Major General Jeremy F. Gilmer, Chief of the Engineer Bureau. It orders Kennard and the Isondiga "to lie under the guns of Fort Bartow in St. Augustine Creek covering Oatlands Island and the approach thro' Wilmington Narrows . . . to protect the passage of troops from the mainland to Whitmarsh and Oatlands Island."

On 6 March 1864, Kennard forwarded charges accusing his engineer G.W. City of drunkenness, "incapable of taking charge of the engine . . . at the time bound on a mission that might soon bring her in conflict with the enemy."

The latest letter in this lot is a 28 May 1864 order to Kennard signed by Captain Sidney Smith Lee, chief of the Confederate Navy's Bureau of Orders and Detail--and older brother General Robert E. Lee. It transfers Kennard from the Isondiga to CSS Macon. It is countersigned twice by Captain Josiah Tattnall.