The first USS Nahant was a Passaic-class ironclad monitor of the United States Navy that saw service in the American Civil War and the Spanish-American War.
Nahant was launched on 7 October 1862, by Harrison Loring, South Boston, Massachusetts, and commissioned on 29 December 1862, Commander John Downes in command.
Life aboard the Nahant during the Civil War was documented in a book titled "A Year on a Monitor and the Destruction of Fort Sumter" ...
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The first USS Nahant was a Passaic-class ironclad monitor of the United States Navy that saw service in the American Civil War and the Spanish-American War.
Nahant was launched on 7 October 1862, by Harrison Loring, South Boston, Massachusetts, and commissioned on 29 December 1862, Commander John Downes in command.
Life aboard the Nahant during the Civil War was documented in a book titled "A Year on a Monitor and the Destruction of Fort Sumter" by Alvah F Hunter. In 1862 Hunter enlisted in the Union Navy, with difficulty as he was only 16. He served for a year on the Nahant as a cabin boy, keeping a careful diary. Later in life he wrote the book, which stands as one of the few detailed accounts of wartime routine on a monitor.
The new single-turreted monitor joined the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron at Port Royal Harbor, South Carolina on 20 February 1863, and saw her first action in the Union bombardment of Fort McAllister on 3 March.
A little over a month later, she...
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