Astor House, N.Y. Oct.
8, 61.
Dear Mr. Fox
I answered yr telegraph in some haste last evening and write
to say that ten days from the seventh will answer or we will make to answer
should I be in advance of it, for in my present view and judgment I cannot
spare any of the vessels you have so judiciously designated.
2. Captain Blake having signified his willingness that
Midshipman Preston should leave the Academy I beg you will order him to Wabash
for I greatly want such a person. The signal business alone for such a fleet to
avoid separations and collisions &c will occupy one mind. He is also a
draughtsman which will be of importance.
3. Please reward old Commodore Gregory's devotion to his gun
boats for which I feel greatly indebted, by ordering his son Hugh M. Gregory to
Wabash of which I wrote you before.
4. Goldboro' (Florida) wants a Gunner.
5. A Masters Mate to Curlew.
6. The number of contraband at Fortress Monroe was nearly
all a sham. Sherman tells me there are only some four hundred men, and
Wool says he will not give them up.
7. The QrMaster is bothered about the transportation of
their Gun Powder—their fort and siege powder, not the fixed ammunition, they
have 2400 bbls! I can take some on the Wabash. Shall I take one of the Barks at
the Yard and make a magazine of her to be towed down?
8. Just had a French & Eng. man of war boarded direct
from Charleston, had not seen the Wabash — Vandalia and Flag. off Charleston
when they left.
9. Gen. Sherman has asked as a favor to him that Lt.
Crossman, now in Philada. be ordered to some vessel in the exped. he
being anxious for service on it. He is a son of the Army Quarter Master of that
name and I believe clever.
10. Davis is hard at work and so am I, Rodgers also here,
all doing our best, full of hope and spirit.
Yours faithfully
S. F. Dupont.
G. V. Fox Esq.
Ass. Secty.
P.S. Should have written sooner but was told you would be
here, until Mr. & Mrs. Blair told me otherwise.
Davis says please not forget Preston.
SOURCE: Robert Means Thompson & Richard Wainwright,
Editors, Publications of the Naval Historical Society, Volume 9: Confidential
Correspondence of Gustavus Vasa Fox, Assistant Secretary of the Navy, 1861-1865,
Volume 1, p. 56-7
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