NARA has no record of Hugh Treanor serving on USS USS Monongahela, yet below is a letter he wrote to his sister.
I am trying to find his service records and what happened to him. Family did not know. Thanks Ellen
USS Monnongahela (sic) Port Hudson LA
Dear Sister
I send you these few lines to let you know where I am. I have been in the Mississippi River for the last 6 months. We have had 4 or 5 battels (sic) with the Rebels. But the hardest was at Port Hudson where we had 7 men killed and 24 wounded. That was on board one of our ships. Some of the other ships lost a great many men. It was an awful night. The Rebels are making for Texas. The times are very dull in N Orleans. There are very few Steamboats in the River. There is nothing but man of wars steaming up and down. The towns are all shot and burned. The country looks awful nothing to be seen but Contraband (word illegible) on the bank of the River. My time is out on the 5th of January and then I would like to come up the River as far as DuBuque to see how you are all getting on. If I do not get shot before my time is out. For the last 2 years and a half I have been in every Rebel State from (word illegible) more to N Orleans and never got (words illegible) yet. I hope you and your husband are doing well. I should like to have seen mother before she died. I wonder how Father gets along now by himself. I never have received a letter from DuBuque since the one you wrote me last year. I should like to know how the rest of my Brothers and Sisters are getting on and all the people in DuBuque. Suppose the times are very dull in the west now but the River is open which will make the times better in a few months. It is the sickly season here now. There are thirty men sick now on board of our ship but I am in good health thank god at present so no more.
From you Brother
Hugh Trenor
I send my best respects to all my Sisters and Brothers and my Father.
I hope you will send me an answer if you please and direct it to Hugh Trenor
USS Monnongahela (sic) South Western Blockading Squadron.
Undated letter from Hugh Trenor on board the USS Monongahela (see note below).
Note: Hugh’s mother died in 1860. While, Hugh had several sisters, this letter was in the possession of his niece Elizabeth Laughlin Theis, daughter of Hugh’s sister, Elizabeth Trenor (Treanor) Laughlin.
Ship was commissioned in Philadelphia in January 1863. This letter must have been written between then and April 1865. Where did Hugh serve before?