Autograph letter signed by Lewis Hutchinson, U.S. Navy. Port Royal, South Carolina, 5 & 6 February 1865. 2 pages, 7 1/2 x 12 1/2 in., on “captured” blue Confederate imported stationary. With partial original cover with “U.S. SHIP” stamp. 

This letter was written by seaman Lewis Hutchinson to his wife while he was aboard the U.S.S. Juniata following the Second Battle of Fort Fisher. He describes being “one of the party sent ashore from this ship and by God’s mercy, escaped unharmed through all of its perils. We charged the fort on the sea-front in the most dangerous place and were repulsed with fearful loss, the musketry firing was the most terrific that I ever encountered and I ought to be something of a judge whilst the grape and canister shot came among us like rain. I do not see how anyone escaped alive or unhurt.” 

The Second Battle of Fort Fisher occurred in mid-January 1865. The Union Army, Navy, and Marine Corps attacked Fort Fisher, which was a port for blockade runners, and successfully defeated the Confederate soldiers there, causing them to surrender. 

[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] 

Envelope with large losses and dampstain; however, address is legible. Occasional short separations along old folds.