(MILITARY CIVIL WAR) SELFRIDGE THOMAS O Autograph Letter Si

Sale 2271 - Lot 381

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Estimate: $ 800 - $ 1,200

(MILITARY--CIVIL WAR.) SELFRIDGE, THOMAS O. Autograph Letter Signed to the commanding officer of the U.S.S. Benton, regarding Negroes to be used as seamen. Single leaf, written on one side and docketed "Division Commander" on the reverse; faint creases where folded. On board the U.S.S. Vindicator, August 8, 1864

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Lieutenant Commander Thomas O. Selfridge, in command of the Vindicator, a 750 ton steamer, asks the commanding officer of the Benton, to send him some able bodied Negroes. Both the Benton and the Vindicator were on the Mississippi at this time, the latter being literally used as a "ram" to sink Confederate vessels. Shortly after her transfer from the Army, Vindicator was reworked at Mound City, Illinois, for use as a ram in the Mississippi Squadron. She was assigned Command to the 5th District of the squadron on 4 July and deployed off Natchez, Mississippi, later that month. Vindicator remained in the 6th District for the duration of the war and conducted a spirited, though unsuccessful, pursuit of the ram William H. Webb off the mouth of the Red River in Mississippi on 23 and 24 April 1865. During the chase, Acting Master D. P. Slattery of Vindicator stoked his boilers to near bursting point, commenting that "Such was the spirit animating every officer, man, and boy that all seemed to vie with each other in the rapid and intelligent execution of each order."