(CIVIL WAR NAVY) Reno Louis Description of the capture of a

Sale 2444 - Lot 103

Price Realized: $ 488

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Estimate: $ 500 - $ 750

(CIVIL WAR--NAVY.) Reno, Louis. Description of the capture of a Confederate blockade runner. Autograph Letter Signed to "Eddie" (possibly a nephew). 3 pages, 8 x 5 inches, on one folding sheet; minimal wear. (MRS) Gosport Navy Yard [Norfolk, VA], 9 December[?] 1864

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Reno was serving aboard a Union naval vessel: "We have caught a blockade runner at last. We spied him about 8 o'clock on Sunday morning and chased him about 5 hours, firing shot and shell all the time, untill at last one struck him below the water line and he heaved too. I went on board the prize to look at it. It is fine side-wheel steamer, iron. They had plenty of chickens &c aboard, of which we disposed off. . . . My share of the prize money comes to $400 dollars, my bounty money 300 dollars." Reno never names the vessels involved, but the capture of the blockade runner Armstrong by the USS Gettysburg and the USS R.R. Cuyler on Sunday, 4 December 1864 fits the bill. The Cuyler saw it first at 8:20 a.m., the Gettysburg joining the chase a few hours later. The Armstrong was steaming out of Wilmington, NC, and towed into the Gosport Naval Yard.