Mar 10, 2020 - Sale 2533

Sale 2533 - Lot 70

Price Realized: $ 175
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 250 - $ 350
(CIVIL WAR--MAINE.) Ramsell, J. Lewis. Letter describing the Union expedition which captured Fernandina, Florida. Autograph Letter Signed to unidentified friend. 4 pages, 9 1/2 x 7 3/4 inches, on one folding sheet; minor toning and wear. Fernandina, FL, 18 March 1862

Additional Details

James Lewis Ramsell (1838-1867) of Parsonsfield, ME was a private in the 9th Maine Infantry. Here he describes the marine-based expedition by which Union troops sailing from Warsaw, GA captured Fernandina in the northeastern corner of Florida: "The gunboats felt there way in . . . the rebbels see us laying of there Sunday and . . . they tride to drive the inhabitants off but did not succeed. . . . They got started with one train load and one of our gunboats lade up by the brige, and as they was passing . . . they returned a shell and stoped the engine, killing two men. If the shell had birst, it would have killed a good menny of them, but they was mostly citizens. . . . The gunboats went up to St. Marries where they had to go up a narrow channel. When they got most up there, the rebbels come out, about four hundred, and fired in to them with there muskets, when the gunboat let them have grape cannister and shell, killing a good menny of them. . . . Then they went to Jaxonville . . . then they have gone to St. John's. . . . I tell you, they don't like to fight out this way."