The following letter was written by Andrew Donald (“Don”) Campbell (1836-1890), the son of Allan McDougall Campbell and Martha Matternley (1802-18xx) of Nova Scotia. At the time of the 1850 US Census, Don was living under his mother’s roof in Westchester county, New York, his mother an apparent widow. At the time of the 1860 US Census, Don was living in a New York City boarding house with his older brother Allan working as a sign painter. His brother Allan was working as a postal carrier.

It appears that Don enlisted as a landsman in the US Navy in September 1864, giving his occupation as jeweler at the time. He was later promoted to a sergeant’s steward. As far as I can learn, Don only served aboard he USS Shawmut—a 593-ton steamer acquired by the U.S. Navy and put to use by the Union during the American Civil War. Shawmut served the Union Navy primarily as a gunboat with howitzers for bombardment, and various other rifles and cannon for use at sea in apprehending blockade runners attempting to “run” the Union blockade of the Confederate States of America. he was sent to Nova Scotia in 1864 in search of the iron-sided Confederate steamer Tallahassee which had preyed on merchant ships in the North Atlantic and often seeking refuge in the neutral British port of Halifax. She was cornered in Halifax Harbor at one point but escaped under cover of darkness out the eastern passage at high tide.

After cruising in Nova Scotian waters without seeing or hearing of her quarry, Shawmut returned to the Portsmouth Navy Yard on the 20th. On 9 January 1865, the gunboat was ordered to proceed to Wilmington, North Carolina, to join the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron. She participated in the attack on and capture of Fort Anderson, North Carolina, from 18 to 20 February. On the latter day, a boat from Shawmut was destroyed by a torpedo as it swept waters in the area.

Transcription

On board Receiving Ship Roebuck
December 14th, 1864

Brother Allan,

Your letter of the 7th I received yesterday afternoon for which accept my thanks. I began to think you had forgotten me. I wrote two letters to mother, one dated at Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, but which I had no chance to post until we got to this place, and the other I wrote the first week we were here, You asked me if Halifax looked like what I had imagined. There is a picture of it in the house. Well you just take that a put a few blockade runners in the stream and you have Halifax to a “T.” I knew the place as we were steaming into the harbor from that picture. I recognized the Citadel and Government House at once. There is a little steam ferry boat that runs between Halifax and Dartmouth which you would laugh at if you saw [it]—about as much like the Fulton Ferry boats as a dung boat is like a 60-gun frigate.

I should have liked to have gone ashore but I had no chance. The harbor is a beautiful one—long and narrow, but deep. They say there has been great improvements within the last ten years but every house looked to me as if it had stood a thousand years—they are so black and gloomy. But still I should think it’s a very handsome town in summer time. We could not buy any grub as no bum boats would come alongside; our greenbacks being worth only 30 cents and they will only take them at the exchange offices. When the gig’s crew run away, the Captain had to hire some of the blue noses to pull him on board and he was obliged to pay them in gold.

They are bitter secessionists—so much so that at St. Johns, they offered to stow our men away if they would come ashore. I think our ship looked more trim and neat on the outside than the British men-of-war I saw laying at Halifax. St. Johns, New Brunswick, looks something like Halifax—gloomy and black—but the tide has a tremendous rise and fall (about 30 feet) as it lies in the Bay of Fundy.  When it is flood tide, you will see the vessels almost on top of the docks, and at ebb [tide] they will be high and dry on the beach, showing their keels and the water 60 fathom away. They have here also one of those “gay but not gaudy” (as Sandy says) Ferry boats running across the harbor. Yarmouth, St. Mary’s, and Grand Menau look about the same.

You will see by the heading of this letter that we are not on board of our own ship now. Last week there was a survey made of the Shawmut and they found her in such a condition that they would not allow her to leave here until she has  been thoroughly overhauled and repaired, so they sent us on board of this receiving ship.

There are two guardo’s ¹ here—the old Sloop-of-War Vandalia, and the bark Roebuck. They are both lashed together but the substitutes are kept on board the Vandalia and the volunteers on the Roebuck. The first night after we left the Shawmut, we bunked on the Vandalia. Hell is a paradise to her. There was nothing but drunken rows and knifing and robbing on her the whole night while the officers and guards were afraid to stop it. I never passed such a night and hope never to pass such another.

On this ship, it is quiet but it is very cold. We have had a foot of snow here already and it looks like more coming. I don’t know how long we shall be here—some say two or three weeks and others two or three months. But I would rather be on board of my own ship. You want to know if there is any chance to get on the Shawmut. Take my advice and stay ashore. I think you have had enough of Uncle Sam and if the draft takes place and you are caught, why “skedad.” Tell Jack he need not be afraid of the draft for his leg will exempt him.  Ain’t you entitled, Al, to $100 bounty. I think you are, and you will get it if you put in your claim.

Tell Mother I got that mustering jacket from Mrs. Brabham for which I am much obliged. Give my love to mother, Mary , and all the rest of the folks, and my respects to Whit, Jack Royal, and the other boys. I should like to see Whit and Jack. Write soon and direct as before as it will reach me quicker. I am well at present and hope you are all the same.

Hoping to hear from you soon, I remain your brother, — A. D. Campbell

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¹ A guardo was a receiving ship or vessel on which enlisted men were temporarily quartered until drafted to sea-going vessels. Don’s letter informs us there were two of these ships lashed together off shore, one for quartering volunteers who were quiet and manageable; the other for substitutes (accepting a bounty to serve for someone who was drafted) who were unruly and unmanageable. The latter had to be guarded closely lest they desert (“bounty jumpers”).

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