Auditor and are described under the Department of the Treasury. The extant fiscal records in the Navy Department are fragmentary. Volumes of letters received from the Fourth Auditor and the Second Comptroller, 1847-84, contain form letters communicating the status of the accounts of paymasters, pursers, and navy agents; acknowledgments of the receipt of bonds from these officers and of documents; notices of death of naval personnel; contracts; and letters concerning the settlement of accounts, payments to prize commissioners, complaints about prize money, claims for lost property and arrears of pay, recovery of prize money erroneously paid, submission of returns by pay officers, and the administration of fiscal matters. Bills approved by the Secretary of the Navy for services, supplies, and equipment cover 1853-95 (Record Group 80). Other Records Reports from a Board of Naval Examiners, Jan. -July 1862, relate to inventions and other scientific projects referred to it by the Secretary of the Navy for examination. The retained records of this board are discussed below, under Boards and Commissions. Replies by the Secretary to persons who submitted inventions, etc., are copied in the "General Letter Books." The work of the board was continued during 1863-65 by another body called the Permanent Commission, whose reports fill a thick volume. Correspondence between the Secretary of the Navy and the Secretary of the Treasury and other correspondence concerning the employment and supply of revenue cutters serving under the Navy, which was copied from various records of the Secretary's Office, make up another volume. Records in Other Custody. --Secretary Welles accumulated a valuable body of papers while in office and took them with him on his departure. His son, Edgar T. Welles, appears to have lent part of the papers--12 letter books, 1862-69--to the Office of Naval Records and Library for use in its publication program. The Welles papers were eventually given to the Library of Congress. The collection includes letter books, diaries, narratives supplementary to the diaries, scrapbooks of newspaper clippings for the period when Welles was Secretary of the Navy, and many letters from naval officers, which afford interesting information on the war. Other collections of Welles papers are in the New York Public Library, the Illinois State Historical Library (a small group of letters concerning Lincoln's selection of his Cabinet officers), and the University of California Library at Los Angeles (letters addressed to Welles in 1861 concerning appointments in the Navy Department and in the Naval Academy). Handbook of Manuscripts in the Library of Congress, p. 520 (Washington, 1919); New York Public Library Bulletin, 29:209 (Apr. 1925), A. Howard Meneely, ed., "Three Photographs accumulated by the Navy Department over the years are now in the Navy Pictorial Archives in the Naval History Division of the Department. Though some of the photographs are contemporary, most of them are copies of photographs by Brady and other photographers and photographs of paintings, models, and monuments. The collection includes pictures of naval actions, ships, officers, and navy yards. The pictures of ships show scenes aboard as well as the ships themselves. The pictures of naval heroes of the Civil War include Confederate as well as Union officers, and there are a few pictures of naval officers' wives. The pictures of navy yards are of indoor as well as outdoor scenes. The portrait collection includes oil paintings of Isaac Toucey by G. B. Matthews and of Gideon Welles by Matthew Wilson. Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Navy The creation of the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Navy was recommended by Secretary Welles in his report to Congress of July 4, 1861. He considered an Assistant Secretary necessary to relieve him of much detailed work. He was authorized to make the appointment by an act of July 31, 1861 (12 Stat. 282), and on that date he appointed Gustavus V. Fox, who served as Assistant Secretary until 1868. With 18 years experience as a naval officer, Fox was eminently qualified to assist Welles in regard to professional matters. He came to play an important role in directing the naval war and in managing Navy Department affairs, especially negotiations with contractors and legal matters. Apparently Fox kept no separate files except for such papers as he considered personal. There are, however, many letters addressed to Fox in the regular letters-received files of the Secretary's Office, described above. These are particularly numerous in the "Miscellaneous Letters," indicating that Fox was responsible for handling part of this correspondence--that with contractors working for the Navy Department, for instance. Since he acted as Secretary in Welles' absence, some of the letters were probably addressed to Fox at such times. Richard S. West, Jr., "(Private and Confidential) My Dear Fox--." U. S. Nav. Inst., Proceedings, 63: 694-98 (May 1937). Records in Other Custody. --Fox carried off from the Navy Department a quantity of his papers, which were eventually given to the Naval History Society and are now deposited with its collection in the New-York Historical Society. Selections from the papers, principally correspondence with admirals commanding blockading squadrons, were published under the editorship of Robert M. Thompson and Richard Wainwright as Confidential Correspondence of Gustavus Vasa Fox, Assistant Secretary of the Navy, 1861-1865 (New York, 1918-19. 2 vols.). These volumes are important for research on naval operations; most of the letters are as much concerned with official matters as are in the letters in the Secretary's Office. Office of the Solicitor and Naval Judge Advocate General Early in 1864 the discovery of frauds in connection with naval contracts resulted in the employment of a counsel by the Navy Department. Before this Secretary Welles had attended to the legal business of the Department, had delegated it to the Assistant Secretary, or had obtained legal advice from other officials within the Government, including the Attorney General. To find and investigate evidence of fraud against the Navy Department, Col. Lafayette C. Baker was detached for a short period by the War Department; he was succeeded by Col. H. S. Olcott, who was designated as a "special commissioner" (detective) by Secretary Welles on Feb. 16, 1864. A month later the need for an attorney to scrutinize evidence and act as judge advocate in general court-martial cases against persons accused of fraud led to the engagement of Nathaniel Wilson as counsel. H. H. Goodman was also employed as a special counsel and judge advocate in fraud cases during 1864-65. To investigate and prepare for trial cases of theft at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, William E. Chandler, an attorney of Concord, N. H., was employed in 1864. The development and magnitude of this legal business were called to the attention of the chairmen of the House and Senate Committees on Naval Affairs by Secretary Welles in letters of Feb. 10 and Feb. 20, 1865. He pointed out that the suits involved large sums of money and much detailed work, that many general court-martial cases required scrutiny and careful preparation, that the forms and execution of contracts needed care and attention, that frauds and abuses by contractors and employees necessitated investigation and prosecution, and that miscellaneous legal questions were innumerable. With these letters he supplied a draft of an act authorizing the President to appoint a Solicitor and Naval Judge Advocate General. Under an act of Mar. 2, 1865 (13 Stat. 468), the appointment was given to Chandler. He resigned on June 17, 1865, to become Assistant Secretary of the Treasury and was succeeded in July 1865 by John A. Bolles of Massachusetts. A circular of Mar. 14, 1877, designated a Naval Solicitor and Judge Advocate, whose title was changed by another circular of July 2, 1878, to Acting Judge Advocate. Finally an act of June 8, 1880 (21 Stat. 164), authorized the President to appoint an officer of the Navy or the Marine Corps to serve for a term of 4 years as Judge Advocate General in the Navy Department. After the establishment of the Office of the Judge Advocate General the Secretary of the Navy issued a circular, June 28, 1880, directing that matters involving questions of law were to be referred to the Judge Advocate General and that records of all general and summary courts-martial, courts of inquiry, and naval examining and retiring boards were to be filed in the new Office. Some transfers of records apparently occurred, but such records are now divided between Record Group 125, Records of the Office of the Judge Advocate General, and Record Group 45, Naval Records Collection of the Office of Naval Records and Library. Henry P. Beers, "Historical Sketch of the Office of the Judge Advocate General," U. S. Nav. Inst., Proceedings, 67: 670-674 (May 1941); "Report of the Secretary of the Navy, Communicating . . . Information in Relation to the Printing of the Argument of the Judge Advocate in the Trial of Franklin W. Smith, and in Relation to the Employment of Agents Record Groups 45, 125. --The correspondence of the solicitors and others who investigated frauds during 1864-65 is in several series of records. Letters received from Olcott, Wilson, Goodman, and Chandler, Feb. Dec. 1864, are separately bound in 4 volumes. Letters sent by Chandler as special counsel, Dec. 1864-Apr. 1865, are in one press copy book. Letters sent by Chandler as Solicitor and Naval Judge Advocate General and by his successor, Bolles, are in a volume of fair copies, Mar. 1865-Jan. 1866. Other letters of the Solicitor of the Navy are in some miscellaneous case files relating to prize cases, claims, complaints, charges, and courts of inquiry, which span the war period but are indexed only from 1863. Throughout the Civil War the Secretary of the Navy sent questions on legal matters to the Attorney General. The replies he received are in a series of "Opinions of the Attorneys General." Numerous letters to the Solicitors and others mentioned above are in the general letter books in the Records of the Office of the Secretary of the Navy (Record Group 45), and letters received from them are in the miscellaneous letters received in the same group. The general courtmartial cases of Scofield & Co. (no. 4072) and Smith Brothers (Franklin W. Smith and Benjamin G. Smith) contain further correspondence (Record Group 125). For both the administrative and legal aspects the documentation appears to be complete. Also in Record Group 125 are a few other series of records covering longer periods of time containing some material relative to the Civil War. Nearly half a foot of papers is in a file of the proceedings of investigators and boards of investigation regarding charges against civilian employees of navy yards. A volume of miscellaneous papers relating to naval discipline, including arrests, courts-martial, desertions, dismissals, and suspensions, contains a few documents concerning the attack of the U. S. S. Essex on the C. S. A. ram Arkansas. A file of personnel reports from commanding officers of naval vessels and shore stations contains material on the punishment of enlisted men and their conduct, lists of prisoners in naval prisons and prison ships, lists of officers, and reports of the proficiency of officers. Office of the Commissioner of the Naval Code Under a joint resolution of Congress of Mar. 3, 1863 (12 Stat. 825), Charles B. Sedgwick, former U. S. Representative from New York, was appointed on Mar. 28, 1863, to revise and codify the naval laws of the United States. On Mar. 1, 1864, Sedgwick transmitted to the Speaker of the House the text of the code of naval laws, and both his letter and the code are printed in H. Ex. Doc. 47, 38 Cong., 1 sess., Serial 1189. No records of the Commissioner have been found. The letter of appointment and his acceptance are among the records of the Office of the Secretary of the Navy (Record Group 45). Office of Naval Records and Library The Office of Naval Records and Library developed from two elements of the Navy Department. The library of the Department was placed under the Office of Naval Intelligence when that Office was established in the Bureau of Navigation by General Order 292, Mar. 23, 1882. Shortly afterwards Prof. James R. Soley was put in charge of the library. An act of July 7, 1884 (23 Stat. 185), provided a small staff for "collecting, compiling and arranging the naval records of the war of the rebellion." This function was entrusted to Soley, thus bringing under one director the Departmental Library and the Naval War Records Office. By an order of Oct. 19, 1889, the Office of the Library and Naval War Records was transferred to the Office of the Secretary of the Navy. An appropriation act of Mar. 4, 1915 (38 Stat. 1025), consolidated the allowances for the two offices into a single sum for the Office of Naval Records and Library. The Office was transferred by order of the Secretary, July 1, 1919, to the Office of Naval Intelligence, which in May 1915 had become a part of the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations. The Office of Naval Records and Library is now part of the Naval History Division, which developed during World War II. In assembling Civil War documents for publication the Office of Naval Records and Library drew upon various sources. About 1889 it received the records of the Office of the Secretary of the Navy; these included the "Squadron Letters," other letters received from officers, and letters to officers. All the pertinent series in these records were searched page by page, and copies were made for the compilation. The documents copied were stamped in red, "C. N. W. R."; those not copied were marked with a zero. Documents copied but not published evidently found their way into the area and subject files set up by the Office. The records of bureaus were drawn upon in a similar manner. War charts of waters off the Southern States were collected, and a list of them was published in 1889. Examination of the records of the Secretary's Office revealed that, though the reports from the commanders of squadrons and vessels were present, the correspondence between them and their subordinates was frequently missing. The Office of Naval Records and Library therefore began an extensive and long-continued program for finding and acquiring the private papers of officers of both Union and Confederate Navies. Requests for funds were eventually successful, and an agent was employed to assist the Director in the necessary inquiries and travel. Through such effort the Office received gifts of important lots of papers and was allowed to make copies from others. The Office usually left intact log books and bound letter books containing copies of outgoing communications. The letters received by naval officers, however, were "archived" or placed in area and subject files, which are described below. After years of preparation, volume 1 of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion appeared in 1894, and volume 30, the last, in 1922. An index volume was published in 1927. Most of the documents printed are in series 1 (27 vols.), which concerns the operations of Union and Confederate naval vessels on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts and inland waters and the operations of cruisers on the high seas. Volume 1 of series 2 contains statistical data on both U. S. and C. S. A. Navies, letters of marque and reprisal issued by the Confederacy, a list of muster rolls of the Confederate Navy, and a long document relative to a Confederate congressional investigation of the Navy Department; volume 2, correspondence of the Confederate Navy Department, 1861-65; volume 3, proclamations by President Davis and Confederate diplomatic correspondence. Insofar as the conduct of naval operations was concerned, the first series embraces only a selection of the available correspondence. For detailed studies of many aspects of the naval history of the Civil War the original records are indispensable. Record Group 45. --The Office of Naval Records and Library received as gifts the papers of many officers who served during the Civil War and copied letters relating to the war from other collections lent to it. Since these copies and the original letters received were usually distributed in the area file and the subject file, it is not possible to give complete descriptions of the individual collections of papers. By tracing an officer's service during the war through personnel records in the Secretary's Office and biographical directories such as Hamersley and the Navy Registers, it would |