USS. "Curlew," Journal from a Confederate Officer in Charleston, SC 

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Nov 21, 2014 - Nov 22, 2014

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• Lot Description
  U.S. Steamer Curlew, Southern Atlantic Blockading Squadron, U.S. Navy Journal Kept in a Book Captured from a Confederate Officer in Charleston, SC 
  
  65pp.
  
  Although today it plays only a small role in popular ideas about the Civil War, the Navy was a key element in the Union strategy to crush the rebellion, and the means by which the industrial power of the north would gradually starve the southern war machine. Charles Duncan’s journal of his time commanding the Steamer Curlew, one of many ships requisitioned by the U.S. Navy at the start of the war, offers a revealing look into the earliest months of the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron and includes a singularly detailed account of early-war Port Royal Expedition and the dramatic capture of Hilton Head, SC, signaling the re-entry of Federal forces into the secessionist heartland.
  
  Built by Samuel Sneden in 1856 for the Commercial Steamboat Company of Providence, RI, the Curlew began life as a 150 foot wooden-hulled propeller freighter running between her home port and New York City. With the outbreak of the Civil War, however, she took a different tack. Purchased by the Federal Navy for $44,000, the Curlew was outfitted as a gunboat and assigned to the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron, armed with a 30 pound rifled gun on its fore deck and six smooth-bored 32 pounders on the main. Under the command of Lt. P.G. Watmough, the Curlew saw its first action at Port Royal, but after her machinery proved inadequate, she was towed back to New York and returned to her owners. The Curlew was chartered twice more during the war, however, first by the Quartermaster’s Department in October 1862, when she traveled as far south as New Orleans, and second from June-October 1863, when she was again deployed as a gunboat. Returning to commercial service for a final time, the Curlew was running out of Baltimore in November 5, 1863, when she collided with the steamer Louisiana near Point Lookout, Md., and sank, the crew escaping. While the Curlew escaped Louisiana intact, Louisiana exacted her revenge.
  
  This ledger-sized volume includes the logbook of the Curlew during its first stint in the U.S. service, and begins with a splash: This book was taken from Bay Point Fort, Port Royal, Beaufort District, South Carolina, after the surrender of Forts Hilton Hear and Bay Point... and previously belonged to Capt. E. A. Rave of the 12th Regiment South Carolina Volunteers, now appropriated by Charles L. Duncan of the U.S. Navy for a private Journal. The aforementioned book itself is a lined “blank book” manufactured by noted Charleston, SC, printers and stationers Evans & Cogswell and carries pasted on the inside cover one of their distinctive and handsomely engraved nameplates. What follows is a full 20 pages of Duncan’s detailed account of the actions of the Curlew during that expedition, with a particularly rich account of the capture of Hilton Head and Bay Point. Characteristic entries:
  
  Nov. 5, 1861: At 8 oclock the batteries on Hilton Head & Bay Point commenced fire, at 8:45 entered to discover the probable strength of their Batteries…At 11.55 the Curlew weighed anchor and steamed up to the assistance of the Smith, a few shots were exchanged with the rebels without any effect, they being at too great a distance... 2.30 PM Capt went on board Flag Ship, the Curlew in the meanwhile got underweigh, 3.30 Capt returned and the advance commenced. The attack was to be directed against Hilton Head, the main line led by Flag Ship and followed by a line of four steamers, in the following order: Pembena, Senica, Curlew, and Penguin... Much more.
  
  Nov. 7, 1861: ... At 11.20 all the ships engaged on Hilton Head Battery at 11.23 the Flag Ship made signal for all the ships to follow her motions, at 12.43 the firing on both sides now very brisk and heavy. At 1.35 the Gun Boats only engaged, they keep up the Flank firing but are feebly answered, the larger vessels laying a mile further up the Bay. 2.10 the land Batteries have ceased firing. 2.27 they are apparently deserted. 2.37 the Flag Ship hoists signal to form in order of Battle without regard to seniority -- she is now moving down towards Hilton Head. At 3 PM the Fort surrendered, and all hand called on Deck and gave three rousing for the victory and three more for the commodore, it is now plain that the whole encampment of the enemy is entirely deserted.... at 3.18 the stars and stripes were proudly on South Carolina soil and on the same flag staff where but half an hour before the secession Flag loomed up in all its glory.... The Curlew escaped unharmed although in the hottest of the engagement, 43 shells & 182 shots were fired from our main deck...
  
  To reinforce his account, Duncan copied a long letter from a shipboard comrade describing the same incidents in equal detail. The journal of the Curlew contains less combat thereafter, but it provides no less an important record of events. In addition to including copies of some of the orders issued by Blockading Squadron commanders, the journal offers interesting details about the seamen’s first contact with the people of South Carolina and includes these fascinating records of the turbulent days onshore and interactions with the enslaved population left behind:
  
  Nov. 9, 1861: The Curlew & Pembina were ordered up Beaufort River -- at 2 PM weighed anchor and steamed slowly. At 4 PM came to anchor off Beaufort Town in 4 fathoms of water. We found the town deserted by the whites, with the exception of one man who was Oh Be Joyfull. The negroes were pillaging and plundering the town. The negroes inform us that the rebel steamer run ashore up the river Friday, the Privateer Lady Davis one of the number...
  
  Nov. 11: At 12 midnight I was requested by Capt. Watmough to take the Gig with a picked crew armed and equipped as the emergency required, and go on a sort of a reconnoitering expedition. My friend Campbell, as soon as he knew that I was going, volunteered his services, which proposal I gladly accepted, so we started, and as Campbell then said, we presented quite Piratical appearances. We pulled along the banks of the River, around the marshes, and along the shore of the town, but neither saw or heard anything but the negroes pillaging the town and carrying off in Boats their Booty. I hailed a number of Boats and ordered them to come alongside, which they seemed rather loth to do, But after repeated calls and some encouragement on my part (which I should not have given had I not known they were poor ignorant negroes) they succeed in mustering much courage to obey the command. In conversation with the negroes, they told us they were most starved to death, and had nothing to eat but oysters and that their masters were hooting them for fear they would run away, and be of service to the Yankees, as they call us. We returned to the Curlew at 4 AM much pleased with our midnight excursion...
  
  The war-date portion of the journal ends Nov. 23, however it also includes a list of ships sailing from Fortress Monroe in October 1861 as part of the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron, listing each ship and commander, as well as guns or tonnage, for transports. The remainder of the volume includes later naval accounts, 1876-1888, mostly for labor and repair work on ships, and at the end (not counted in the total page count) are some civilian accounts.
  
  Duncan’s journal is a rare survival, as an important record of the early operations of the Federal Navy, as a relic of war, and as testimony to the establishment of the first union beachhead in South Carolina. 

  Condition

  Bound in half-leather over paper boards; age toning and expected wear, but fully legible and solid. Title page has a vertical tear that extends near the top left corner of the page through one fourth of the page, but it doesn't deter from the text.
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