At the age of 16, Alvah F. Hunter enlisted in the Navy and was assigned to a Union Civil War monitor. He engaged in 19 sea battles, principally in the destruction of the batteries that protected Charleston, S.C., thereby closing the ports to blockade runners. In 1863, he received an honorable discharge as a "1st Class Cabin Boy." The following year, he joined the Signal Corps of the Army, where he served until the war was over. He later married and became a father and a successful businessman, although he is known to Civil War historians solely on the basis of his manuscript, A Year on a Monitor and the Destruction of Fort Sumter. The memoir is believed to have been written during the war or shortly thereafter and is virtually the only writing in print by an enlisted person during the Civil War era.