CIVIL WAR LETTER

Moreau Forrest

Lt. Commander in the US Navy during the Civil War

Moreau Forrest (January 29, 1841), MD—November 24, 1866, Santa Cruz, West Indies; USN). Forrest was appointed an acting USN midshipman on September 22, 1858, and was immediately ordered to the US Naval Academy. Upon the outbreak of the Civil War, he left Annapolis to serve the Union on the Atlantic blockade. He was promoted to the rank of lieutenant on August 1, 1862, and, from that time on, sent two-thirds of his pay to his mother, widowed in 1852.

In January, 1863, Forrest became executive officer of the experimental ironclad Keokuk, which was sunk off Charleston, S.C. in April. In July, he became SABS flag lieutenant, remaining in that post until October 1864 when he was ordered to assume command of the USMS 11th District in Admiral Samuel Phillips Lee’s “Brown-water navy,” headquartered at Chattanooga, TN. With his flag in the General Burnside (No. 63), he received considerable commendation for the handling of the four-tinclad Upper Tennessee flotilla during the December 1864-January 1865 Nashville campaign. Once his Western unit was demobilized in the spring of 1865, Forrest returned east where he taught Mathematics briefly at the US Naval Academy and then was was posted to the North Atlantic Squadron in February 1866 and promoted to the rank of lieutenant commander on July 25. — [Civil War Biographies from the Western Waters…pg. 80, by Myron J. Smith, Jr.]

Moreau died at sea of yellow fever while serving on board the USS Florida. Date of death was 24 November 1866 at the east end of Santa Cruz. He was buried at sea on the same day.

This letter was written by Matthew Robinson, Jr. (1828-1897), Moreau’s older half-brother. Matthew was the son of Capt. Matthew Robinson, Sr. (1794-1833) and Mary Leeke Dashiel (1807-1899). Capt. Robinson died at Kingston, Jamaica, in February 1833. He was the master of the brig “Mary” at the time. Previously he had been master of the “General Smith.”

All of these letters by Matthew Robinson (Jr.) were written in 1865 when he was approximately 36 or 37 years old. They were written between 8 February and May 30 while serving as Captain’s clerk on Moreau’s staff as he commanded the 11th District of the Mississippi Squadron in the Brown-water Navy. Most of the letters were written from the vicinity of Bridgeport, Alabama.

Though beyond middle-age in years, Matthews letters suggest the mental maturity of a much younger man, indicating to me that he was somewhat intellectually challenged. It appears he first attended Newark college (Delaware) but then concluded his education at St. Mary’s College in Baltimore. Afterwards he studied law and attempted a legal career, he was yet unsuccessful, and happily accepted a clerk’s job working for his brother at the relative low pay of $50 a month.

TRANSCRIPTION

[USS General] Burnside
Near Bridgeport, Alabama
April 20, 1865

My dear Mother,

I sent to you yesterday from Chattanooga $10 in one letter and $10 in another. I send to you today $20. All is to get for me from Bichy ¹ a blue cloth navy sack [coat] if it does not cost one cent more than thirty dollars. Should it cost more, get Bichy to furnish and make for me a blue “flannel” Navy sack. Secondly, a pair of blue flannel pants. Thirdly, get from Bowers a pair of light, long boots. All will be cash. Should you have any money over, get some white shirts. I am dreadfully in want of clothes. Admiral Lee is expected over to visit. Get the things with all possible haste. Push the matter through as quickly as possible. Send the things in a box directed Moreau.

On the 12th we left Bridgeport and are now on our return. We have been up as far as Knoxville. I give Moreau $25 per month towards my mess bill.

Please get these clothes and boots for me. A plain blue cloth sack will do. I think I have made the instructions plain so be so kind as to get them for me and get them as quickly as it possibly can be done. I will send money enough to pay for all the clothes and boots. I must have the clothes so assist me in this matter in getting them quickly. I expect I will hear from you when I reach Bridgeport which we are now near to.

[unsigned]

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¹ Hermann Bichy was a tailor with a shop located at 8 Tessier Street in Baltimore.