2023-03 HCA Auctions
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 4/7/2023
Civil War surgeon ALLEN S. HEATH, practiced medicine in New York until the Civil War, when he obtained a commission as surgeon in the United States Navy. Later, he became surgeon on the staffs of General King in West Virginia and of General Michael Corcoran's Irish Legion in Georgia. He was wounded so seriously in the latter campaign that it handicapped him in his profession during the remainder of his life. Heath writes a five page letter to the founder editor of the New York Herald, James G. Bennett, datelined US Steamer Daylight, Beaufort Harbor, NC., June 7, 1862. In part, "Believing the Herald to speak the sentiments of a large majority of the people of the North, I ask why the Navy are compelled to carry out the abolition schemes of the Tribune? About three weeks since the gunboat Chippewa brought from Wilmington station eighteen Negroes, a large majority of whom were either old, maimed and decrepit males, females and children, all dependent upon this vessel for care and support ... rendering this vessel entirely subservient to that that .. business of catering for nxxxxrs. ... The men have borne the violation of their contract with the government for one year's service with laudable submission, but they bitterly, and I think justly, complain of being made servants to nxxxxrs. ..." Heath continues with complaints regarding the lack of support of the vessels of the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron "Although this Port is open by Proclamation of the President, only seven coal schooners with coal for the squadron, four with Army supplies, and harbor schooners have yet arrived. ... tar, pitch, resin, and spirits of turpentine are not to be had ..." USS Daylight , a 682-ton screw steam gunboat, was built in 1859-60 at New York City. Originally in commercial use, she was chartered by the Navy in May 1861 and placed in commission in June as USS Daylight . During next three and a half years, she operated along the coasts of Virginia and North Carolina, enforcing the Federal blockade of the Confederacy. She captured or helped capture four would-be blockade runners in 1861 and five in 1862, as well as taking part in the destruction of three more in 1862-63. In April 1862, Daylight participated in a bombardment of Fort Macon, North Carolina, and was damaged by Confederate gunfire. Transferred to the James River in October 1864, she remained in that area until the Civil War's climax in May 1865.
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