This collection is composed of 39 items, including correspondence, general orders, legal documents, and a handwritten manual of arms and drilling. These items are largely associated with R.T. Renshaw, a Union sailor from North Carolina, and document many of the activities of the U.S. Navy in the area off the North Carolina coast, including Albemarle Sound, the Neuse River, Pamlico Sound, and Hatteras Inlet. Renshaw himself authored only a handful of the items gathered here, including two letters (one incomplete) home to his wife Ella (#25 and #38), and a miniature manual of arms (#37). The remaining items in the collection were authored by various Navy commanders, including Gideon Welles (#3), Ambrose Burnside (#35), David D. Porter (#26), Samuel Phillips Lee (#6, 7, 32 and 33), Louis Malesherbes Goldsborough (#1 and #2), and Melancton Smith (#18, 19, and 20). They discuss naval victories, blockading, ammunition and firearms, a survey of Union and captured ships, and lease of civilian schooners after the war. Additionally, the collection contains a postwar document in Spanish (#34) regarding the Virginius incident, and Admiral S.P. Lee's orders to Renshaw dated around the same time from Havana, Cuba (#32 and #33). Arranged chronologically.
Captain Richard T. Renshaw began his naval career as a midshipman in 1838. Prior to his resignation in 1852 he had been commissioned to acting master. When the Civil War broke out, Renshaw reentered the Navy as a lieutenant (1861), served in the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron and was later promoted to commander (1862) and captain (1868).
- GLC#
- GLC02254
- Type
- Header Record
- Date
- 1862-1865
- Author/Creator
- Renshaw, Richard T., 1822-1879
- Title
-
Papers from Battle of Roanoke Island to end of war re: torpedoes
[decimalized .01-.39] - Place Written
- Various Places
- Pagination
- 39 items
- Primary time period
- Civil War and Reconstruction, 1861-1877
- Sub-Era
- The American Civil War
Showing 20 of 39 records