ATKINS, William E. (1844-1912). Autograph letter signed ("Will E. Atkins") as Flag Officer Commanding United States Veteran Navy, to R. C. Phillips. Cincinnati, Ohio, 17 March 1903. 3 pp., 4to, on "Headquarters / United States Veteran Navy” stationery (light soil, creasing at folds). Atkins, a veteran of the Civil War Navy, provides a complete history of the iron clad ram Lafayette, from its construction in St. Louis and Cairo, to its initial crew members and engagements throughout the war, to its ending in 1865 when it was sold and dismantled in New Orleans. 

[With:] Receipt, 1 p., 7 3/4 x 12 1/2 in., on letterhead ledger sheet of the “U. S. Ordnance Steamer ‘Great Western.’” (red "99" in upper right corner, creasing at folds). Document indicates ordnance received by the USS Lafayette from O. C. Badget, U. S. N. Ordnance Officer, Gunboat Flotilla, on an unspecified date in 1863, the year entered on the verso.

The Lafayette was a sidewheel steamer converted to an ironclad ram and commissioned at Cairo, IL, 27 February 1863, with Captain Henry A. WALKE in command.  She participated in the Battle of Vicksburg, April – July 1863, and the Red River Campaign in the spring of 1864, as part of David Dixon Porter’s Mississippi Squadron.