[ALS] Union Soldier Stationed at Camp Newport News, following the Battle of Fredericksburg, writes about seeing a Monitor class ship as he fears he is going to be sent to South Carolina
![[ALS] Union Soldier Stationed at Camp Newport News](https://d3525k1ryd2155.cloudfront.net/h/423/521/1702521423.0.x.jpg)
- SIGNED
- Newport News, VA , 1863
Newport News, VA, 1863. Very good, closed tear along one fold, light soiling, contents faded, but clean.. [2] pp. 8 x 10 inches. February 15th, 1863. R.H. Irwin of Company E, 51st Regiment, 2nd Division, 2nd Brigade, 9th Army Corps. of the Pennsylvania Infantry. Irwin writes to his uncle & aunt, and, after commenting on his march from Fredericksburg, tells them of the improved camping conditions at Newport News, and of his seeing the a monitor. "I caught cold changing camp at Fredericksburg ... We had a pretty nice time coming down, but very much crowded...The camp is much pleasanter. There is know mud at all here...
I saw the Monitor yesterday, but was not close to it, they fire a shot know and then. I do not know wat at, they tell me some of the ... boats come down with in 3 miles of this place. I look for navle engagements before long I may be mistaken."
Most likely Irwin saw one of the new monitor class ships: the Passaic, the Montauk, the Nahant or Weehaukin, all of whom were completed and launched before February and headed South.
R.H. Irwin of St. Clair, Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania. seems to have survived the War. He is listed as School Treasuredr in Saint Clair in 1865. See: Wallace: Memorial of the patriotism of Schuylkill county in the American Slaveholdefs Rebellion (Pottersville: Banyon, 1865) p.64; Pennsylvania School Journal (1864), Volume 13; Page 196.
I saw the Monitor yesterday, but was not close to it, they fire a shot know and then. I do not know wat at, they tell me some of the ... boats come down with in 3 miles of this place. I look for navle engagements before long I may be mistaken."
Most likely Irwin saw one of the new monitor class ships: the Passaic, the Montauk, the Nahant or Weehaukin, all of whom were completed and launched before February and headed South.
R.H. Irwin of St. Clair, Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania. seems to have survived the War. He is listed as School Treasuredr in Saint Clair in 1865. See: Wallace: Memorial of the patriotism of Schuylkill county in the American Slaveholdefs Rebellion (Pottersville: Banyon, 1865) p.64; Pennsylvania School Journal (1864), Volume 13; Page 196.