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Autograph letters signed by Sherman. 3½ and 3 pages, on 4-page lettersheets, the first ink, the second pencil, each with cover (with postage cut out).

Letters written by a sailor aboard one of the first ironclad steamers ordered by the U.S. Navy. Following word of the construction by the Confederate Navy of the C.S.S. Virginia (nee Merrimac), the U.S. Congress ordered three iron covered vessels - the better-known Monitor, the U.S.S. Galena with armor of interlocking iron rails, and the New Ironsides, named in homage to the U.S.S. Constitution, with a design based on the French ironclad Gloire. The New Ironsides (a picture of which is on one of the envelopes), served mainly on blockade duty off the coast of North and South Carolina. Sherman writes in detail about his duties and life aboard ship, and some action, "I think we are going to fighting again next month by the looks of things. Brig. Gen. Perry was aboard here all day Tuesday he and the Com. were comparing notes studying maps etc. The next thing I think will be to take Sullivan's Islands in the same way we took Morris Island by landing troops and taking it by siege... I think we can take Charleston and would as hief to it at one time or another, that we will have hard of fighting to do is true but we have done some, and can do more..."