FARRAGUT, David (1801-1870). Letter signed ("D.G. Farragut") as Rear Admiral and Commanding Officer of the Gulf Blockading Squadron, Flag Ship "Hartford", Pensacola Bay, 20 October 1862.

One page, bifolium, 198 x 319mm, (mailing folds, light foxing).

Farragut directs Allen V. Reed of the U.S. store ship "Potomac" to report to Captain Robert B. Hitchcock of the USS Susquehanna "...for duty as member of a General Court Martial..." occurring just one day later. Earlier in his career, Hitchcock commanded the steam-frigate USS Merrimack from 1858-60, just before its seizure by the Confederacy in 1861 and its later conversion into the now famed ironclad, the CSS Virginia. At the start of the Civil War, Hitchcock commanded the USS Constitution and was charged with its evacuation of Norfolk

[With:] An earlier Navy Department envelope addressed to Reed in an unknown hand, original contents not included, hand-cancelled 14 December 1860.