Daniel Webster Andrews (1835-1894) of Boston joined the Navy as an acting ensign aboard the USS Ino in the north Atlantic in 1863, moved to the USS Orvetta in the Gulf of Mexico late in 1864, and then after the war served on the USS Don. He seemed to enjoy life as an officer: "It is fun to walk the quarter deck of a man of war & give orders as every thing is like clock work. The officer of the deck has supreme charge of the ship when on duty" (13 November 1863). One letter dated 11 February 1864 is on illustrated Fortress Monroe letterhead. In Hampton, VA, he met some prisoners, "dressed every which way . . . & say that the Confederacy must be about played out" (8 March 1864). There he saw a rebel boat draw up near the USS Minnesota and fire a torpedo, which "burst just before it got alongside & . . . knocked every one down that was up" (12 April 1864). Off Charleston, the nearby USS Patapsco hit a mine: "She sank immediately, drowning 41 men & eleven officers. . . . the smoke stack is out of water in plain sight of where we lay" (16 January 1865). On 19 April 1865, he wrote "Just heard of Lincoln's murder, it is awful. Shall we let Lee & all the leading traitors go scott free after this?"
with--a large group of family papers, bulk 1823-1933, most relating to his parents, Boston merchant John Andrews (1790-1872) and mother Susan Masson Andrews (1795-1876), but also including papers from grandmother Sarah Farrington Masson (1768-1846), brother Charles T. Andrews (1830-1905), sister-in-law Lizzie Blood Andrews, and Charles's granddaughter Elizabeth Blaisdell Andrews (1911-2004), from whose estate these papers were acquired. Highlights include a group of 4 purchase orders for supplies sold by John Andrews to the USS Constitution in 1820 A long letter from Frank Hull to Lizzie Blood describing a trip to Central City, Colorado, 27 August 1863 and an 1817 commission to George Manners as British consul in Boston signed by George IV (damaged). See also the papers of Peter St. Medard, step-father of Sarah Farrington Masson, lots 26 and 177.