Beschreibung:

37 items (27 war-date letters); 1863-1865. Having rushed to complete his medical studies at the New Hampshire Medical Institution, Richard H. Greene was appointed ship’s surgeon aboard the USS State of Georgia in November 1863. In this unusually rich, heartfelt, and intelligent collection of letters, mostly written to his fiancée Lottie, Greene provides a sense of shipboard life while performing blockade duty off the coast of the Carolinas, a sometimes-frustrating, but essential part of the war effort. Naval medicine mix in his letters with naval encounters, leaving Greene to wonder whether the wounds inflicted on the nation by Civil War could ever be healed. Greene’s letters begin as he boarded the State of Georgia, a fine large steamship, he wrote, fitted out with half a dozen seven-inch guns and two rifled pieces. My state room and accommodations are very fine, he added, My expenses are very great for outfit but I will make it out... Immediately upon arriving at Beaufort, S.C., in January 1864, the realities of military medicine brought all the ship’s efforts to a halt. I have got all my smallpox patients safely out of the ship, Green explained, and most all my other patients have recovered. I have had thus far this month a terrible time. Smallpox in its most malignant form in the ship and 25 others on their backs at the same time with serious bronchial symptoms. The ship in quarantine and no medicine to be got... After clearing quarantine, Greene soon discovered that quarantine duty was not as easy as it sounded. On Feb. 13, 1864, he wrote that the State of Georgia had taken part in a number of chases, but no captures: A great many rebels ships get in and out here for on our side at least we have only three or four ships. The department probably think there are more, but as some are out cruising and others off coaling, only the above numbers are here on an average. Three or four ships guarding ten or fifteen miles of coast are not much on a dark night so that they dash in and out without much difficulty. If we should even see them it is very hard to hit them with a shot as they are going at full speed and by time we get under way they are well out of our way unless we are very superior in speed... Although a surgeon with a full slate of duties, Greene provides several outstanding descriptions of engagements in the blockading squadron the ingenuity of blockade runners and the Confederate opposition. On March 6, he offers a nice account of a Confederate attack on Newbern that failed due to lack of coordination, and an even better account of attack on a blockade runner during which came under heavy fire in return. Perhaps the best account, however, describes an engagement on a stormy night near Norfolk, April 20, 1864, where one federal ship was wrecked after having mistaking a false Confederate light on shore for a lighthouse. We were puzzled by the same light, but the true light was discovered by our officers soon enough to prevent our being misled. We rolled sometimes fearfully and the wind fairly yelled through the rigging. Most of the time we could not stand without a support of some kind. I fell flat on the deck once the vessel rolled so suddenly.... We passed the wreck of the Merrimack, also those of the ships of war that she sunk in her famous attack... The letter also includes a superb description of wartime Norfolk, guarded by Marines and under constant construction: In the Opera House, sentinels with muskets pace up and down the aisle. All the young men have gone out of the place with the Confederates and a kind of gloom hangs over the city. A good many of the secesh ladies remain -- they turn their heads when they meet any of our officers. Most of them are in black. Though there are many troops & northerners in the streets, the city looks desolate. The pastors of some of the churches are put out & chaplains of our regiments officiate in their stead; few of the inhabitants attend the churches which are mostly occup