One notebook contains content produced between 1845 and 1853, while McCleery was studying chemistry, engineering, and other topics while livin gin Frederick City, Maryland. The letters date from the months in which Robert McCleery served as a Chief Engineer at Port Royal Harbor. The collection is a compact assemblage of routine paperwork concerning the maintenance of federal ships involved in blockading Charleston and Port Royal Harbors, S.C., including requisitions for machinery, foodstuffs, dry goods and personal goods, as well as routine repairs to ships. A few letters make minor note of staff relations on board ships.
Fundamentally routine in nature, the McCleery correspondence makes few direct references to blockading activity or the naval activity at sea. The collection represents, instead, the mundane, but essential port-side work required to maintain a fleet in good order.
McCleery, Robert W., d. 1863
Rank: Chief Engineer
Regiment: United States. Navy
Service: 1855 August 2-1863 September 15
A career Navy man, Robert W. McCleery was appointed 3rd Assistant Engineer in the on August 2, 1855, advancing to 2nd Assistant in 1858 and 1st Assistant in 1859. Continuing in the service during the Civil War, McCleery's climb through the ranks continued, when he was appointed Chief Engineer aboard the U.S.S. Wabash on August 11, 1862, and detailed to Port Royal Harbor, S.C., as part of the South Atlantic Blockading fleet. A vital post for maintaining the blockade and naval superiority of the Union, Port Royal was also an important port for refitting, repairing, supplying, and maintaining naval vessels. McCleery provided a vital, bureaucratic role in coordinating all of these activities. His death on September 15, 1863, was not listed as a war casualty.
