mentation on the operations of the Revenue-Cutter Service and the Coast Survey during the war is in their own records and those of the Treasury Department. Robert W. Daly, "Pay and Prize Money in the Old Navy, 17761899," U. S. Naval Institute, Proceedings, 74:967-971 (Aug. 1948), hereafter cited as U. S. Nav. Inst., Proceedings; Charles H. Davis, Life of Charles Henry Davis, Rear Admiral, 1807-1877 (Boston, New York, 1899); Charles O. Paullin, "A Half Century of Naval Administration in America, 1861-1911," U. S. Nav. Inst., Proceedings, 38:1306-1336; 39:165-195, 735-760 (Dec. 1912, Mar., June, 1913); Madeline R. Robinton, An Introduction to the Papers of the New York Prize Court, 1861-1865 (New York, 1945); "Naval Force of the United States--Where Ships Are Now Stationed, etc.," Feb. 21, 1861, H. Rept. 87, 36 Cong., 2 sess., Serial 1105; U. S. Navy Department, Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion (Washington, 1894-1927. 31 vols.), hereafter cited as Official Records... Navies; U. S. Navy Department, Register of the Commissioned, Warrant, and Volunteer Officers of the Navy of the United States, Including Officers of the Marine Corps and Others (Washington, 1861-65), hereafter cited as Navy Register; "Report of the Secretary of the Navy, July 4, 1861," printed in S. Ex. Doc. 1, 37 Cong., 1 sess., Serial 1112 (p. 85-111); U. S. Navy Department, Report of the Secretary of the Navy, 1861-65 (Washington, 1861-65); Howard K. Beale and Alan W. Brownsword, eds., Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson (New York, 1960. 3 vols.); Richard S. West, Gideon Welles, Lincoln's Navy Department (Indianapolis, New York, 1943); and his Mr. Lincoln's Navy (New York, 1957). OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY OF THE NAVY When Gideon Welles was appointed as Secretary, Mar. 5, 1861, the Office of the Secretary of the Navy consisted of a chief clerk, a register and disbursing clerk, nine clerks who prepared and recorded correspondence, a warrant clerk, and two messengers. Charles W. Welsh, who had served in the previous administration, was replaced on Mar. 14 as chief clerk by Hobart Berrian, who served until May 5. Gustavus V. Fox, a former naval officer who had come to Washington to offer his services, replaced Berrian on May 9. On Aug. 31, 1861, a month after Fox had become Assistant Secretary, William Faxon was appointed as chief clerk, and he continued in that capacity throughout the war. He was responsible for administration of records, correspondence, and personnel of the Secretary's Office and for management of the finances of the Navy Department. To implement the more aggressive policy of Lincoln's administration toward the South, Secretary Welles had to strengthen the Navy immediately. To accomplish this and to manage the affairs of the Department in a time of crisis, when the loyalties of naval officers were uncertain, he found it desirable to obtain more assistance. In Mar. 1861 he ordered Commodore Silas H. Stringham to report to his office to assist in the detailing of officers. When war came in the following month, Stringham was detached, and an Office of Detail was created under Comdrs. Charles H. Davis and Maxwell Woodhull. Besides assigning officers to duty, this Office handled the appointment and instruction of volunteer officers, the purchasing of ships, and related matters. Successive Secretaries of the Navy during the war period: Gideon Welles, Mar. 5, 1861. Record Group 45. --The records of the Secretary's Office relating to the Civil War are in the Naval Records Collection of the Office of Naval Records and Library (Record Group 45), except where otherwise indicated. In order to bring related series of records together they are described below by type. Correspondence The correspondence of the Secretary's Office is general in subject matter in that it relates to most or all of the functions performed by that Office or even by the Navy Department, for the Secretary was often involved in matters handled by the bureaus. Most of the volumes relating to the Civil War are parts of longer series begun long before the war and continued after it. The letters sent are broken down by various classes of correspondents. A series of "Letters to Officers of Ships of War," 17981886 (available on microfilm as M 149), contains letters not only to officers in command of ships but also to other officers, commanders of flotillas and squadrons, commandants of Navy Yards, the Superintendent of the Naval Academy, and the Superintendent of the Naval Observatory, and even to midshipmen, paymasters, and engineers. The letters addressed to naval officers became so voluminous that in Sept. 1861 a new series, "Letters to Flag Officers," was begun; this contains letters to officers in charge of squadrons, flotillas, or single vessels. As these two series include orders and instructions on the operations of the vessels composing the blockading squadrons and of other naval vessels, they are of great importance for the Civil War. Letters to the Commandant and other officers of the Marine Corps are in another series of letter books, 1804-86 (Record Group 80). A series of "General Letter Books," 1798-1886, contains letters of appointment, instructions, and miscellaneous communications on diverse matters to other persons, including civilian agents of the Navy Department, contractors, Members of Congress, the Superintendent of the Coast Survey, Governors of States, Federal and local officials, bureaus of the War Department, and private individuals. Other series of letters-sent books include letters to Congress, 1798-1886 (chiefly to presiding officers and chairmen of committees); to commandants of Navy Yards and navy agents, 1808-65; to the President; to Cabinet officers and other agency heads, 1821-86; and to the Chiefs of Bureaus of the Navy Department, 1842-86; there is also a series of confidential letters, 1843-79. The foregoing series constitute a full record of the outgoing communications of the Secretary of the Navy, but investigators interested in specific subjects or areas of naval activity will have to spend much time paging through all the pertinent volumes, for the indexes at the front of the volumes and the separate "Key to Office Letters" are useful primarily for the names of correspondents. Letters received by the Secretary of the Navy comprise a number of series corresponding to the letters-sent files. The most important series relating to naval operations is the 102-volume "Squadron Letters," 1841-86 (available on microfilm as M 89). These are arranged by squadron in several subseries, so that an investigator interested in a particular squadron will find the letters segregated. The subseries are listed in Appendix B of the National Archives' preliminary checklist for Record Group 45 and in the List of National Archives Microfilm Publications. Other letters concerning naval actions are in the "Captains' Letters" (available as M 125), but this series was discontinued from Dec. 1861 to Jan. 1866. Still other reports on naval actions are in the "Commanders' Letters," 1804-86 (M 147), and the "Officers' Letters," 1802-86 (M 148), though most of the communications in these series concern only the writers. Communications from both regular and volunteer officers are in the "Officers' Letters." A special series was set up in Jan. 1862. This came to be called "Admirals', Commodores', and Captains' Letters," 1862-65; for the first 6 months, however, the letters in the volumes are largely from captains since the other grades were not created until an act of July 16, 1862 (12 Stat. 583). Continued only until Dec. 1865, this series concerns chiefly routine matters of personnel and the repair of ships. Information on the Marine Corps during the Civil War is in a series of letters received from the Commandant and officers of the corps, 1828-86 (Record Group 80). Other records pertain largely to the industrial and business activities of the naval establishment. A voluminous series of letters from commandants of navy yards and shore stations, 1848-86, concerns chiefly the movement and repair of ships; the appointment, detachment, and leave of naval and Marine Corps personnel; and the employment of laborers. Far less numerous are letters from navy agents and naval storekeepers, 184365, dealing with supplies and accounts. Letters from the President and the executive departments, 1837-86, and from the chiefs of the bureaus of the Navy Department, 1842-85, are in separate series. More varied in content are miscellaneous letters received, 1801-84 (136 vols. for 1861-65). These include letters from shipbuilders, business firms, Congressmen, former naval personnel, relatives of naval personnel inquiring about the fate of their kinsmen, agents and boards of the Navy Department, Presidential secretaries, State and Federal officials, naval officers asking leave, and imprisoned Confederate officers asking exchange; there are also intercepted letters of "rebels," and telegrams from the U. S. Military Telegraphs and from other sources. Besides the indexes at the front of the volume there is a separate index to letters received. Directives An act of July 14, 1862 (12 Stat. 565), provided that orders, regulations, and instructions issued by the Secretary of the Navy were to be recognized as regulations of the Navy Department, subject to alterations made by him and approved by the President. During the war the Secretary issued many directives, on many different subjects. General orders went out as they had in the past in an unnumbered series, but in Jan. 1863 the first numbered series was instituted. Printed regulations were issued separately during the war on such subjects as pay, pensions, prize money, sea service, and the Navy uniform. A codification of previous issuances, Regulations of the Navy Department, was published in 1863; and a new edition appeared in 1865. The general orders of the 1863 series and circulars of the war period were published by the Navy Department in 1887. Orders, circulars, and instructions form part of series covering longer periods of time in Record Group 45 (in volumes and in subject file IG) and in Record Group 80. These are largely printed, and their circulation resulted in their preservation elsewhere, as among the papers of naval officers, described below under Squadrons and Flotillas. Personnel Records Personnel records concern the appointment, employment, resignation, and retirement of officers and civilian personnel. Resignations of officers because of their Southern sympathies began to be received in the Navy Department in Nov. 1860 after Lincoln's election, and by the middle of 1861 a total of 259 officers had resigned or been dismissed. By Dec. 1, 1863, a total of 422 officers of the line had resigned. Lists of names of officers who resigned (which serve as an index to the volumes of resignations) are in the Navy Register, 1861, p. 93; 1863, p. 108-112; and 1864, p. 112, 191-195. Lists of names of officers dismissed between Jan. 1861 and Dec. 1863 appear ibid., 1863, p. 112-115; 1864, p. 113-114, 197-198; and in the report of the Secretary of the Navy for 1861. The Navy Registers also contain information about officers on active duty. The loss of so many experienced officers necessitated the recall of retired officers and the appointment of volunteer officers from the merchant marine. During 1861-65 some 7,500 volunteers were commissioned as line officers, engineers, paymasters, and surgeons. Chaplains continued in service but were not increased in number. Some increase occurred in the clerical staff of the Navy Department. An oath of allegiance was required of persons serving in the civil, military, and naval departments of the Government, by an act of July 2, 1862 (12 Stat. 502), which prescribed the form to be used. Letters and other documents relating to officer personnel, which in later practice were brought together in individual service records, were bound during the war in chronological or alphabetical order. These bound volumes include resignations, unaccepted resignations endorsed as "dismissed," letters or "acceptances" from regular and volunteer officers acknowledging the receipt of commissions and warrants and enclosing oaths of allegiance in separate series (those from Marine Corps in Record Group 80), copies of warrants issued to naval engineers, oaths of allegiance from officers, letters of appointment and orders to volunteer officers, correspondence on appointments of volunteer officers, orders to volunteer officers of the Mississippi River Squadron, orders and letters to acting master's mates and mates, and letters of resignation from volunteer officers dated in May 1865. Research concerning officers can be further pursued in several other types of records. Lists of officers serving on ships and with squadrons are bound in volumes by ship names; an alphabetical index to personal names facilitates their use. There are registers for applications for appointments as surgeon's mates, assistant surgeons, pay officers, chaplains, engineer officers, volunteer officers, master's mates, acting masters, and ensigns; and registers of requests for reinstatement. Other registers give information (with some biographical data) on the service of engineer officers, captains' clerks, paymaster's clerks, and pay stewards; men appointed on recommendation of Members of Congress; and available officers. The service records of volunteer officers can be found in still other registers. Applications for orders, orders issued, acknowledgments of orders, and orders and detachments issued to the Mississippi Squadron are registered; there is also a register of commissions and warrants issued to officials of the Navy Department, chiefly Chiefs of Bureaus (Record Group 80). A few muster rolls and payrolls of vessels and shore stations are in Record Group 45 (item 90 and appendix C, item 92), but most rolls are in Record Group 24, Records of the Bureau of Naval Personnel. For brief periods of the war there are lists of military and civilian personnel at the navy yards of Boston, New York, Pensacola, Philadelphia, Portsmouth, and Washington. Legal Records The legal and regulatory functions of the Office of the Secretary of the Navy produced records relating to contracts, claims, prize vessels and their cargoes, prisoners, courts-martial, courts of inquiry, and investigations. Under sec. 9 of the Judiciary Act (1 Stat. 77), cases of vessels captured while attempting to run the blockade were taken to U. S. district courts for adjudication. The net proceeds from 1,151 vessels captured, condemned as prizes, and sold from May 1861 through Apr. 1865 amounted to $20,501,527, which was distributed among the officers and crews of the capturing vessels. Prize lists of the names of such officers and crews were sent to the Navy Department and, after the decrees were received from the courts, were forwarded to the Fourth Auditor of the Treasury, who made the payments. Lists of the names of the vessels captured and of the captors are in Report of the Secretary of the Navy, 1865, p. 457-535, and in H. Ex. Doc. 279, 40 Cong., 2 sess., p. 2-33; Serial 1343. Confederates captured aboard vessels or ashore by the U. S. Navy were taken to Fort Lafayette, N. Y., or other military prisons, but persons who could prove foreign nationality were released. Among the legal records the principal series relating to prize cases consists of case files or dossiers for particular claims; these contain letters from naval officers; U. S. attorneys and marshals; the Second Comptroller, the Fourth Auditor, and the Solicitor of the Treasury; the Solicitor of the Navy; and private claimants, informers, and others. Some case files include prize lists, inventories of prizes, libels of information, records of proceedings of courts and boards, copies of correspondence, and other documents. Other records relating to prizes include registers, lists of vessels, and indexes of prizes, prize lists, registers of prisoners captured on blockade runners, court decrees concerning the distribution of prize money, and summaries of district court proceedings in prize cases. Still other records in this group include files of correspondence with consuls relative to blockade runners and Confederate cruisers and correspondence on Confederate prisoners of war and on investigations of frauds in naval procurement. A volume of contracts for the manufacture of machinery for vessels covers only Aug. - Dec. 1862. Though many other documents on the above topics are in other correspondence series, these special files constitute an important segment of the documentation. Fiscal Records Accounting records were kept throughout the Navy Department, but final responsibility for fiscal matters rested in the Office of the Secretary of the Navy, which had correspondence on this subject with Congress, the President, the Secretary of the Treasury, and the Treasurer of the United States. A disbursing clerk and a warrant clerk functioned in the Office during the war. Under an act of Mar. 3, 1817 (3 Stat. 366), navy accounts were transmitted to the Fourth Auditor of the Treasury; and this official, after examining and certifying them, forwarded them to the Second Comptroller for payment. The adjusted accounts were kept thereafter by the Fourth |