Thank you so much for taking the time to transcribe your ancestor's account of the action and fate of the C.S.S. Webb. I will respond in kind.

I am fairly sure that the Florida town mentioned by you as Mortimer's birthplace is Holmes Beach, Florida. It is not, his birthplace was Clark or Westfield, New Jersey. Clarks settled the Manatee County area in the 1850's. You are, in fact, kin to the Clark entrusted to the Corp of Exploration by President Jefferson, as well as kin to the Clarks who were founding Fathers and signers of several fundamental documents of this government. If you ever make it to Springfield, New Jersey you might visit their gravesite.

No, I'm not kin directly, but we sure shared some of the same bad weather over the centuries.

Regards, Henry E. Whittle