1861 CIVIL WAR. Important Bible from Slave Rescue & Anti-Blockade Runner Gunship, U.S.S. Pursuit

IMPORTANT BIBLE PRESENTED TO THE GUNSHIP U.S.S. PURSUIT BY THE NEW YORK BIBLE SOCIETY AT THE BEGINNING OF THE CIVIL WAR.

Here is an absolutely love, fresh-to-market piece of genuine Americana that saw rescued slaves, blockade runners captured, and was likely a central feature of life on one of the most active gunships of the Civil War!

At the commencement of the War between the North and the South, the Union invested heavily in a series of gunboats designed to blockade Confederate ports. This prevented the export of cotton to generate revenue and the smuggling of war materiel into the Confederacy.

One of the earliest and most successful of the gunboats was the U.S.S. Pursuit. Commissioned in December of 1861 and decommissioned only after the end of the war, she was engaged largely on the Florida coast and Cuba. Crew and ship had a reputation for efficiency. She sank or captured:

*The Anna Belle off Apalachicola, FL in March of 1862

*The La Fayette off Pensacola, FL in April of 1862

*The Florida off Pensacola, FL in April of 1862 [which was converted into a Union ship, the Hendrick Hudson and redeployed as part of the blockade]

*The Andromeda off the Cuban coast in May of 1862

And the list goes on. She also had a record of destroying production facilities for salt in Florida, without which the Rebel soldiers would die for lack of preserved foods for the field.

Civil War Navy Sailor Charles H. Tillinghast described an event in a letter of 1863 where, at Gadsden’s Point [Tampa Bay], the ship spotted on the coast a large group of women and men, the ladies in dresses, the men in rags, all black or in tatters, clamoring to be rescued by the passing U.S.S. Pursuit. As the Pursuit approached the shore, canons were uncovered and the Pursuit attacked. The ladies and black slaves were all Confederate soldiers dressed in drag and in blackface.

These events weren’t all shams though. The U.S.S. Pursuit seems to have rescued and engaged slaves freed during battles as sailors if they desired. For instance, there is listed a Franklin Gordon [Negro] who enlisted not in New York or Washington D.D., but in Tampa Bay, FL on Mar. 6, 1863 after an attack on the salt works there.

When the ship was originally commissioned in December of 1861, it was in New York. For the occasion, the New York Bible Society, both in light of the mortality and peril of the sailors and also in light of the moral significance of their mission to free the slaves, presented the U. S. S. Pursuit with a ship’s Bible. That is the item on offer here.

For sale is the original 1860, Brevier 12mo Holy Bible issued by the American Bible Society. Bound in full leather, it is stamped on one side, in gold, U. S. Bark Pursuit. On the other, New York Bible Society. Then, on the interior, it has a finely partially lithographed and partially handwritten label showing a 30 star flag at the top and then presenting this Bible to the U. S. S. Pursuit on December 18, 1861 as part of its original commissioning.

The whole is nicely preserved in original leather, some rubbing and head of spine chipped. Interior block is generally sound and clean and presentation label is foxed. Rather well-preserved considering its military provenance.

An artifact from the pursuit sold at auction recently for right about $3,500.00.