Signed CDV of ID'ed Naval 3rd Assistant Engineer William P. Stiver

CDV of ID'ed Naval 3rd Assistant Engineer William P. Stiver. This image was taken by W. H. Getchell out of Boston, Mass. The image was glued down at some point and has reminants but it still is in great condition on the verso. Stiver was in the 12th New York Infantry before joining the US Navy 1862 to December 1865. He served on the US Monongahela.
 
Monongahela—the first United States Navy ship to bear that name—was built by the Philadelphia Navy Yard and was launched on July 10, 1862; sponsored by Ms. Emily V. Hoover, daughter of Naval Constructor Hoover who superintended the ship's construction; and commissioned on January 15, 1863, Captain James P. McKinstry in command. Initially assigned to the North Atlantic Squadron, Monongahela sailed instead to reinforce Rear Admiral David G. Farragut's West Gulf Blockading Squadron off Mobile, Alabama, remaining on duty off that port until ordered to attempt to run past Confederate batteries on the Mississippi River at Port Hudson, Louisiana on the night of March 14–15, 1863. As Army forces ashore conducted a mortar bombardment, the squadron got underway about 22:00, heavier ships USS Hartford, USS Richmond, and Monongahela screening the smaller USS Albatross, USS Genesee, and USS Kineo from the forts, with steam frigate USS Mississippi bringing up the rear. In the course of the ensuing furious engagement, only Hartford and Albatross succeeded in passing upriver, Richmond losing her steam power early in the battle and drifting downstream out of range with Genesee lashed alongside. Monongahela grounded under the guns of a heavy battery, taking a pounding and losing six men killed and 21 wounded, including the captain, until she worked loose with Kineo's aid. While attempting to continue upriver, her overloaded engine broke down, and the sloop was forced to drift downstream with Kineo. Mississippi—grounding at high speed—was hit repeatedly and set afire, eventually blowing up and ending the engagement. On 27 May, Confederate defenders turned back a major assault on Port Hudson following constant bombardment by Monongahela, serving as temporary flagship of Admiral Farragut, and other ships of the squadron. On July 7, the ship, in company with USS New London, engaged southern field batteries behind the levee, 12 mi (19 km) below Donaldsonville, Louisiana, Monongahela's new skipper Commander Abner Read being killed in this action. She then departed on October 26 for Brazos Santiago, Texas, to support General Nathaniel Banks' troops in the capture of that town and Brownsville from November 2–4, in addition capturing several blockade runners. Monongahela continued her duty off Texas, covering the landing of 1,000 Union troops on Mustang Island, Aransas Pass, Texas on November 16–17 and supporting a Union reconnaissance at Pass Cavallo on the gulf shore of Matagorda Peninsula from December 31, 1863, to January 1, 1864. She returned to blockade off Mobile, soon after, stopping numerous blockade runners throughout the spring and summer of 1864.On July 15, the warship's boats conducted a reconnaissance of the Mobile Bay area to determine the Confederate torpedo (naval mines) defenses; and then on August 3, Admiral Farragut took his stripped-for-action squadron of 18 ships, including four monitors, against those defenses. In the fierce fight and great victory that followed, Monongahela bombarded Confederate forts and then rammed the heavy Confederate ram Tennessee. The sloop succeeded only in damaging herself in the full speed drive into the armored enemy ship, but combined heavy gunfire from the other Union ships forced the Confederate warship to surrender, ending the battle and closing the last major gulf port to the South. Monongahela remained on duty with the West Gulf squadron until the end of the Civil War.