29 October 1863

Maury, Matthew Fontaine, 1806-1873

Autograph letter signed

Title: to his cousin

Asks for help advertising for information regarding Lieutenant John H. Maury, captured below Vicksburg 27 January 1863. Maury was in England, possibly outfitting the raider CSS Savannah. John Herndon Maury, son of Matthew F. Maury, disappeared 27 January 1863 on a late-night scouting expedition on the Warrenton Road. Only the evidence cited in this letter was found; Grant and other Union officers said they could not find him among the captured. After the war an eyewitness reported that the younger Maury had been murdered that night by bushwackers.

GLC03350

3 March 1864

Maury, Matthew Fontaine, 1806-1873

Autograph letter signed

Title: [to White, Esqr.]

Maury, serving as a Confederate naval agent in Britain, asks the recipient (possibly Mr. "White") in London to forward the enclosed (not included) to Dr. Miller "of the [illegible] Committee." Matthew Fontaine Maury was a naval officer known as the "Pathfinder of the Seas." Maury had served as head of the U.S. Naval Observatory and was noted for his pioneering scientific work. A native of Virginia, Maury resigned his commission as commander in the U.S. Navy at the outbreak of the Civil War and joined the Confederate Navy, where he researched torpedo warfare. Maury was then sent to England to…

GLC02466.09

28 August 1862

Maury, Matthew Fontaine, 1806-1873

Autograph letter signed

Title: to C.C. Memminger

Asking Confederate Secretary of the Treasury C. C. Memminger to find an appointment for "Mr. Caldwell of Fredericksburg…a respectable citizen," who has been discharged from the Army after being injured. Endorsed by R.M.T. Hunter and L. C. De Jarrette, both recommending appointment. Maury was America's foremost oceanographer and was commissioned into the Confederate States Navy as Chief of Harbor Defenses.

GLC09252

18 October 1860

Maury, Matthew Fontaine, 1806-1873

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Dr. Guernsey

Written by Maury as Superintendent of the Naval Observatory. References Guernsey's's letter of 17 October. The handwriting is hard to read, but he seems to be requesting that a copy of a map or a book be returned to him. The recipient could possibly be Alfred Hudson Guernsey, the editor of Harper's Weekly magazine, but this could not be confirmed.

GLC03479.26