A Year on a Monitor and the Destruction of Fort Sumter By Alvah F. Hunter

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characters A Year on a Monitor and the Destruction of Fort Sumter

This memoir begins with the sixteen-year-old Hunter's plaintive efforts to enlist in the Navy. At a time when the Union was about to announce its first conscription, young Hunter is told the Navy has no need for him. But he perseveres and is 'rewarded' by an appointment to the monitor Nahant as a wardroom boy. Hunter thus becomes an intelligent and articulate observer at the very bottom of the Navy's pecking order. As a novice to naval life, Hunter takes pains to describe in detail the day-to-day aspects of working and living on an ironclad monitor--a type of vessel whose life span was very short. The accuracy of his memory is assured by the fact that he compiled his narrative from a diary that he kept during the war.--Craig L. Symonds, History Professor, U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland. A Year on a Monitor and the Destruction of Fort Sumter

Written by a great-great-granduncle of mine. Much of the book is quite tedious, but the combat portions are very interesting. Did you know you can see the fuses on cannon balls burning as they spin through the air? Alvah F. Hunter A nice memoir of a starry-eyed, young sailor during the civil war. Interesting to see into his daily life aboard the ship. Quick read. Alvah F. Hunter I read this as a view into the life of another individual who was also a cabin boy on a Monitor out of Boston at the same time as Hunter. Hunter may have even met the individual I’m researching, same age, engaged in the same battles, same lengthen of service. There are not many books about the enlisted boys of the US Navy during the Civil War. A very interesting book of an older man reflecting on his youth during the Civil War. Alvah F. Hunter