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Available Now
Ink, Dirt and Powder Smoke: 
The Civil War Letters of William F. Keeler,
Paymaster on the USS Monitor
Union Navy Paymaster William F. Keeler's classic Civil War letters from the USS Monitor & USS Florida, complete and unabridged, now in a revised and updated single volume.
3D cover of Ink, Dirt and Powder Smoke: The Civil War Letters of William F. Keeler, Paymaster on the USS Monitor, edited by Charles W. McLandress, Seal River Publishing, 2023.

Title: Ink, Dirt and Powder Smoke: The Civil War Letters of William F. Keeler, Paymaster on the USS Monitor

Length: 696 pages

Publisher: Seal River Publishing

Publication date: Summer and Fall 2023 

Edited by: Charles W. McLandress 

"Of the many collections of Civil War letters, both published and unpublished, few of them are as vivid and pertinent as Keeler’s.” -- award-winning naval historian Craig L. Symonds (email correspondence with the editor, 2019)

ISBN: 9781738726905 (paperback)

9781738726912 (hard cover)

Libraries and bookstores can order the book through IngramSpark.

Sample letters from Ink, Dirt and Powder Smoke

William Keeler's two most historically important letters are those describing the battle between the USS Monitor and CSS Virginia on March 9, 1862 and the sinking of the Monitor in a violent gale off Cape Hatteras on December 31, 1862. 

The battle between the USS Monitor and CSS Virginia, March 9, 1862

The sinking of the USS Monitor, December 31, 1862

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