Extract of a letter addressed to the Assistant Secretary of the Navy by J. Ericsson, November 26, 1862. Though these are purported to be the words of John Ericsson, I can confirm it is not his handwriting. The document dates to the Civil War period, however.

“The officers of the Navy, I am told, are highly displeased with me on account of certain newspaper reports. As I have not experienced any opposition from the officers of the Navy, but on the contrary been seconded in everything I have undertaken, I have had no cause to lodge complaint against anyone or express the slightest dissatisfaction. The story, manufactured by some injudicious bystander, out of Mr. Sterner’s congratulations after the successful trial of the muzzle box, ¹ is utterly unfounded. I did not on that occasion say that my plan had been opposed not have I at any other time made such statement. The story that two Admirals and twenty Naval officers were proved in the wrong, no doubt originated with a certain Editor, who in order to crush out my supposed futile effort to fire inside the port hole, asserted that the above Naval officers were all opposed to my plan.”

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¹ The Passaic Class of iron-clad monitors that followed the success of the Monitor featured guns mounted in a round turret. In battle, the smoke resulting from the firing of these guns made the environment inside the turrets highly undesirable. Ericsson was tasked with attempting to engineer a solution for this problem which he termed the “muzzle box.”