Notes and Queries

NOTES AND QUERIES Edited by Boyd B. Stutter 517 Main Street Charleston 2, West Virginia This department is designed as an open forum for researchers into Civil War themes and for readers of Civil War History in general. It is open for questions on, and discussion of, aU phases of die Great Conflict and its personnel. Also, notes on newly-discovered or Uttíe-known sidehghts of die war are welcomed. Address Notes and Queries Editor. NOTES Correspondence of Harvard Classmates Wanted: Enrolled in die class of 1855 at Harvard CoUege wereJames Benjamin Clarke, whosehome wasnear Jackson, Mississippi, and Thomas WilUam Clarke, of Roxbury, Massachusetts. These two classmates became fast friends and this friendship endured through the years of the Civil War. Thetwo Clarkes exchanged letters during die war years—those of James Benjamin Clarke are reported to contain valuable information concerning wartime conditions in Mississippi. Unfortunately die letters of the Massachusetts Clarke to Mississippian James Benjamin Clarke appear to have been lost; perhaps some reader of Civil War History may know of dieir present location or parts of the correspondence that have so far evaded researchers. Any information about the location of the letters or about die correspondence would be greatly appreciated by Professor Rodney C. Loehr, Department of History, University of Minnesota , MinneapoUs 14. Hungarian Archives Yield Papers of General Julius Stahel: A number of official papers and letters once belonging to Hungarianborn Union General Julius Stahel were recently discovered in die Budapest archives, including three papers signed by President Abraham Lincoln. The documents bearing Lincoln's signature are two commissions and a letter to Union General Carl Schurz. General Stahel, who came to the United States in 1856, joined the 207 208BO YD B. STU TLER Federal forces as a Ueutenant colonel at the outbreak of the war. He was later placed in command of cavalry units around Washington, but on promotion to brigadier and major general had active and distinguished field service as a cavalry commander. He won a Medal of Honor at Piedmont, Virginia, on June 5, 1864, when, though severely wounded, he continued to lead his division through the engagement. Other documents found in his estate include letters from Presidents Andrew Johnson and Rudierford B. Hayes, and from five Union generals . General Stahel died in 1912 at the age of eighty-seven, and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery. Nystrom's Armored Steam Corvette: Contributed by Richard G. Wood, MontpeUer, Vt. On August 29, 1861, John W. Nystrom of Philadelphia submitted to die Secretary of the Navy, Gideon WeUes, a set of "Plans and Specifications for an Armored Steam Corvette." In coming forward widi diis suggestion for an ironclad vessel he was in good company, as over a hundred proposals for ironclads were submitted prior to the classic struggle between die Monitor and die Merrimack, some of diem even before the fall of Sumter. Nystrom had been in Washington earlier on August 1, when he wrote Secretary WeUes on the subject of manufacturing iron plate, and from this letter we learn that he was ". . . an Engineer by profession and a naturalized Citizen of die United States." He was die recipient of a certificate from the Royal Technological Institute of Stockholm in 1846. (See Miscellaneous Letters, Aug., 1861, 1, Naval Record CoUection, National Archives.) Nystrom submitted a diirty-five page manuscript of specifications, with several drawings including a frontispiece in color, which now reposes in the Records of die Bureau of Yards and Docks, National Archives. Placed beside sketches of die utilitarian Monitor or the early Mississippi River ironclads, die design for an armored corvette proposed by Nystrom is elaborate, with some of the details bordering on die fantastic . In appearance the vessel did not seem a radical departure from die other craft of the day because it had masts and superstructure. Only die bulge of armor between deck and water line revealed die innovation . For dimensions, Nystrom's corvette was to have the following: length of deck, 175 feet; breadtii of beam, 27 feet; breaddi over the armored guards, 32 feet; draft, 10 feet; displacement, 875 tons; speed, 12 knots. But die central feature was, of course, the armor. As Nystrom noted, The science...