LETTER FROM NAVAL ENGINEER TO HIS WIFE, MOURNING LINCOLN'S DEATH AND INSTRUCTING HER TO BUY A PHOTOGRAPH OF LINCOLN

Autograph letter signed by George Purdy Hunt. Addressed to Cordelia Eames. Mobile Bay, Alabama, 7-8 May 1865. 2 pages, 8vo. With original cover. 

A letter from engineer George P. Hunt aboard the USS Metacomet. He wrote to his eventual wife, Cordelia Eames, lamenting over President Abraham Lincoln's death and funeral train. Eames lives in Brooklyn, New York, and Hunt wishes he could've been there to witness the procession: "I wish I could have been in New York, it must have been a mournful sight. I would have given anything almost to have had the privilege of seeing him once again. It is gratifying to see that the country has so well appreciated the man & show so much sympathy for his loss." 

In the letter, he originally sent $10 to Eames so she could purchase him "a good Photograph" of Lincoln, advising her that if she needs more money, he'll send it and that "If you think a better one may be bought after a while you may wait." 

The Metacomet was a wooden sidewheel steamer, originally launched in March 1863 and was commissioned on 4 January 1864. She joined the West Gulf Blockading Squadron in the blockade of Mobile Bay, where she participated in the Battle of Mobile Bay on 5 August 1864. According to the Naval History and Heritage Command, Hunt would have been a second assistant engineer during the Battle of Mobile Bay — a letter sold in Alexander Historical Auctions's Militaria & Americana Fall 2025 sale, lot 1344, shows Hunt writing to Eames, detailing his preparations for the battle.

Originally born in England, Hunt (1836-1887) moved to New York and began his career in the U.S. Navy in 1861 as a third assistant engineer aboard the USS Rhode Island. He was promoted to second assistant engineer, first on the USS Dacotah from 1862-1863, then the Metacomet from 1864-1865. On the Fourth of July in 1865, Hunt became the first assistant engineer, not receiving another promotion to chief engineer until 1880. He passed away in 1887 on the steamer Catalonia, burying his remains at sea. 

[Civil War, Union, Confederate] [Manuscripts, Documents, Letters, Ephemera, Signatures, Autographs] [Navy, Naval History, Brown Water Navy, David Glasgow Farragut, David Dixon Porter, Battle of Mobile Bay, Battle of New Orleans, Blockade, Confederate Blockade]