| Summary: | During the Civil War, Semple served as a captain of an artillery battery organized in Montgomery (known as Semple's Battery). He was later appointed a major and transferred to Mobile. In the letter he describes the Union bombardment of Fort McRee in great detail, and he predicts that the experience will encourage Confederate forces to seize Fort Pickens: "The men at the fort have worked like beavers and now the fort is stronger & safer than it ever was - It is not only so, but they now know they can defy the utmost power of the enemy and the fleet of the world can not enter Pensacola bay - it is a hard thing to batten down a fort like fort Pickens, but it is easy to make it very uncomfortable, and I think it not unlikely that after a weeks work the men may be so exhausted and harrassed [sic] that we may in the absence of ships, be able to go over and take possession." At the end of the letter, he asks his wife to keep the information to herself: "You must not permit any one to speak of any thing in this letter or coming from me - I may have spoken of matters not intended for the public." (The letter was originally directed to C. T. Pollard, but his name is crossed out, and the name of Semple's wife is written above it.) A transcription is included.
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