1858 letter written aboard the USS Atlanta in Barbados from a future officer in the Confederate Navy and witness to the battle of the Monitor and Merrimac. Contents include a racist rant against free blacks in Barbados

Barbados: n.p., 1858. Letter. Good. Letter. 8" x 10". 4 pages. 3 pages of contents. Page 4 clipped section at bottom. Paper folded and in very good condition otherwise. Eggleston writes - "I am perfectly willing to leave Barbados and its free, impertinent darkies. I would like to lasso some 50 or 100 and put them to work in a cotton field. I am convinced that such a field is the only one in which the darky character can be truly developed. Here they do nothing but stroll about the streets & chatter like so many monkeys from sunrise to sunset. We employ them to coal our vessels and how I have wished for Jack Stringer with a bull whip among them whenever (truncated) I have had anything to do with them". Eggleston would later serve as a Lieutenant on the CSS Virginia and was later promoted to Captain in the Confederate Navy. Eggleston was one of the lieutenants of the Virginia (Merrimac) during its life under the Confederate flag. During his life, Eggleston provided details of the legendary battle of the two ironclad ships which can be found under various web sites. (Inventory #: 25598)