Guide to the Oliver Ambrose Batcheller Letters, 1859-1898

Oliver Ambrose Batcheller was born in 1842 to Ambrose Rensselaer and Betsey Graves Batcheller. A career naval officer, Batcheller was appointed to the US Naval Academy from the state of New York on November 25, 1859, where he studied as a midshipman until May 1861, when the Naval Academy was evacuated to Newport, Rhode Island. Shortly thereafter, Batcheller, along with the rest of the upper three classes of midshipmen, was placed into active duty with the Navy.

In June 1861, Batcheller was attached to the sloop-of-war U.S.S. Vincennes of the West Gulf Blockading Squadron, stationed primarily off the mouth of the Mississippi River. In April 1862, Batcheller was temporarily transferred to the gunboat U.S.S. Kanawha, stationed off Mobile Bay, before returning to U.S.S. Vincennes, stationed off Pensacola, Florida in July 1862. In December of that year, Batcheller, now holding the rank of Ensign, transferred to the side-wheel steamer U.S.S. Mississippi. In March 1863, Mississippi attempted to approach Port Hudson, Louisiana, but ran aground under heavy fire and was subsequently set afire by its crew. Following the loss of U.S.S. Mississippi, Batcheller transferred to the screw sloop U.S.S. Monongahela, engaging rebel batteries below Donaldsonville, Louisiana. In November 1863, he was attached to the side-wheel steamer U.S.S. Sassacus while under repair in Washington, D.C. By January 1864, Batcheller was back in the Gulf of Mexico off New Orleans aboard the screw steamer U.S.S. Pensacola, before being transferred once again to U.S.S. Monongahela in April. Later that same month, he was promoted to Lieutenant. Four months later, in August, U.S.S. Monongahela took part in the Battle of Mobile Bay.

For two years following the war, Batcheller was attached to the European Squadron, aboard the side-wheel steamer U.S.S. Frolic and the steam screw frigate U.S.S. Colorado. During this time, in 1866, Batcheller was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Commander. In 1867, he transferred to the screw steamer U.S.S. Piscataqua, flagship of the Asiatic Squadron, protecting American citizens and interests during a Japanese civil war known as the Boshin War (1868-1869). In 1870, Batcheller returned to the Naval Academy as an instructor in seamanship. Batcheller married Margaret Thompson Lyon in 1871. In 1875, he was again assigned to the European Squadron, sailing aboard the screw frigate U.S.S. Franklin, which was then serving as the Squadron's flagship.

Following several years of Navy Yard and ordnance work in Boston, Batcheller, holding the rank of Commander since 1877, received command of the wood steamer U.S.S. Galena in 1882. The Galena offered refuge to U.S. citizens and diplomats residing in Alexandria, Egypt, during British bombardment of the city in June 1882 following anti-European riots. Under his command, Galena also served as the flagship of Rear Admiral Peirce Crosby from October 1882 until January 1883.

After serving as inspector for the First Light House District from 1885 to 1888, and another tour of ordnance duty, Batcheller was given command of U.S.S. Concord (PG-3), commissioned in February 1891. Following her fitting out, U.S.S. Concord cruised to the Caribbean, where Batcheller twice met with President Florvil Hyppolite of Haiti in December 1891 and January 1892. Batcheller's command of Concord was short lived, however, as he was forced to retire several months later due to declining health. Oliver Ambrose Batcheller died in Tryon, North Carolina on October 30, 1893.

Hamersly, Lewis R. The Records of Living Officers of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps. Philadelphia: L. R. Hamersly & Co., 1890

Navy Department. Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, Naval History Division. Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1959-1981.

The Oliver Ambrose Batcheller Letters, comprising four linear inches of documentation, spans two time periods of Batcheller's naval career, from 1859 to 1866 and from 1891 to 1892. The letters focus on his time as a student at the U.S. Naval Academy, his service in the U.S. Navy during the American Civil War, and his service as Commander of the U.S.S. Concord.

The collection consists almost exclusively of hand-written letters, with several additional hand-written excerpts of letters and a hand-written excerpt from a Batcheller family history.

The Oliver Ambrose Batcheller Letters, comprising two separate accessions, are arranged into a single series with no subdivisions. The first accession (Acc. No. 89-15) consists of letters written by Batcheller to his parents, with a few to his brother and sister, spanning from 1859 to 1866, addressing his experiences at the Naval Academy, as well as his naval service during the Civil War.The letters pertaining to the Academy include descriptions of everyday life at the Academy, including classes, exams, religious life, and recreation, as well as life aboard the school ship U.S.S. Plymouth. Batcheller's letters from the Academy also touch upon the political climate of the time, with reflections on the candidacy of Abraham Lincoln and southern secession, as well as the evacuation of the Naval Academy from Annapolis to Newport, Rhode Island. The letters pertaining to the Civil War originate from Batcheller's service, primarily in the Gulf of Mexico, upon the U.S. ships Vincennes, Mississippi, Kanawha, Monongahela, Pensacola, Sassacus, Itasca, and the transport Time and Tide. In the letters, Batcheller offers first hand accounts of engagements on the Mississippi River at the Head of Passes (October 1861), Port Hudson, Louisiana (March 1863) and the Battle of Mobile Bay (August 1864). Scattered among the letters are pieces of official correspondence, such as the 1866 notice of Batcheller's promotion to Lieutenant Commander. Also included in this first accession, and filed at the end of the collection, are several extracts from letters transcribed by one of Batcheller's descendants, as well as a photocopy of biographical and genealogical material entitled Preface and Postscript, taken from Frederick Clifton Pierce's Batchelder, Batcheller Genealogy, 1898.

The second accession (Acc. No. 97-28) consists of letters written by Batcheller to his wife, with several addressed to his father, spanning from January 1891 to April 1892. Originating from Batcheller's time as commander of U.S.S. Concord, the letters describe the fitting out of the vessel, the weather encountered throughout the ship's voyages, and the Caribbean and South American ports of call visited by Concord, including St. Thomas, Martinique, Santa Cruz, Haiti, and Montevideo. The letters also describe two meetings with Haitian President Florvil Hyppolite in December 1891 and January 1892.

In addition to the personal history of Oliver Ambrose Batcheller, research interests served by the Batcheller letters include the study of life at the Naval Academy in the nineteenth century, the early operational history of U.S.S. Concord, reactions to the election of Abraham Lincoln and the subsequent secession of the South, and the study of David Farragut's West Gulf Blockading Squadron, including the siege of Port Hudson and the Battle of Mobile Bay, as well as Union blockading practices in general.

A portrait of Oliver Ambrose Batcheller is located in the Special Collections Picture File, Special Collections & Archives Department, Nimitz Library, United States Naval Academy.

Additional first-hand accounts of service aboard U.S.S. Vincennes can be found in the John E. Hart Letters, MS 392, Special Collections & Archives Department, Nimitz Library, United States Naval Academy.