Michigan in the Civil War
Swift, Nellie
The papers of this Eaton Rapids, Mich., resident include two letters written in Nov. and Dec. 1862, by S. T. Strank. Strank was on the Gunboat Carondelet, and the December letter names the boats in a fleet below Vicksburg. He also describes the sinking of the Cairo by a torpedo (mine) and the clearing of several torpedoes from the Yazoo River afterwards. He speaks of the pitiable condition of contrabands coming to them.