A USS Monitor Christmas 1862-- Part 1: "All Is Hurry On Board"

From the December 22, 2018, Daily Press (Virginia)  "Jonathan White OpEd:  A U.S.S. Monitor Christmas."

Christmas Eve 1862, Captain John Pine Bankhead, commander of the USS Monitor, received orders to proceed  from Hampton Roads, Virginia, to Beaufort, North Carolina.

They  were:  "Avail yourself of the first favorable weather for making the passage."  But, the weather didn't cooperate and departure was not done at the time.

The officers and crew of the Monitor spent Christmas Day in Hampton Roads aboard ship.  Some had received packages of "good things" from home and Captain Bankhead lamented that he had "neither Mother, wife or sister to send me such things."

Aboard the Monitor, paymaster William F. Keeler penned a short note to his wife, Anna:  "A merry Christmas  to you all there this morning.  I wish I was where I could tell you so instead of having to write it.  I shall think of you often today.  All is hurry on board preparing for sea."

The Last Christmas of the Monitor.  --Old B-Runner