Her Great-Great-Grandfather was USS Monitor Chief Engineer Alban Stimers-- Part 2

Carol Miller, of New Jersey,  moved with her parents to Morada after retirement.

"I remember playing at my grandparents' home when I was a kid and there was a pocket watch under a glass dome," Miller said.  "I never though much about it.  What kid cares about a pocket watch?  Later,  I learned that it was a gift given to my great-great grandfather by the president -- Grant, I think, because he helped win the Civil War."

The pocket watch went to an uncle's family because he was the oldest sibling.

At the event, Carol Miller had a photo of Alban Stimers, a booklet about the USS Monitor with a picture of  his name in a stone at the  Mariners' Museum in Newport News, Virginia, and a model of the ship as well as a picture  of the battle between the Monitor and Virginia.

"He went in to the battle as 'an observer' " Miller said.  "But it got messy real quick and when a gunner was killed, he had to take over.  He knew every bolt  on that ship."

Hopefully she will donate the watch to the Mariners' Museum.

--Old B-Runner