American lawyer and politician (1815–1882) best known as the author of the best-selling 1840 nautical memoir Two Years Before the Mast. Excellent ALS signed “R. H. Dana, Jr.,” two pages, 5 x 8, March 11, 1862. Dana writes to future Attorney General and Secretary of State W. M. Everts. In full: “Is not something to be done, to relieve us from the slough of official inferiority into which we have sunk! The very Department stands disgraced in the eye of Europe & America by this affair of the Merrimack. I can hardly sleep or eat, for the thought of it. The South has solved the problem of modern naval warfare to our defect & dishonor. The Deus interrit of the Monitor saved the Minnesota, but not the credit of the government….” After the USS Merrimack was sunk in April 1860, it was raised by the Confederacy, rebuilt as an ironclad, and rechristened as the CSS Virginia. At the Battle of Hampton Roads in March 1862, the Virginia faced off against the USS Monitor, the first ever battle between two ironclads. Though the latter ship was forced to retreat, neither vessel was seriously damaged, and it was the last time that either would see battle. The Virginia was finally destroyed by a fire and explosion on May 11, 1862, while the Monitor was towed out to sea later in the same year and sunk in a ship graveyard. Intersecting mailing folds, otherwise fine condition. RRAuction COA.
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