contracts were made for seven iron double-bowed ships. Toward the end of 1863 the Navy Department decided upon the construction (at navy yards with plate obtained by contract) of four armored, double-turreted monitors of 5,600 tons, but these battleships were never completed. The superintendence of the construction of the first ironclads was entrusted by the Department to Joseph Smith. It would normally have been the responsibility of John Lenthall, Chief of the Bureau of Construction, Equipment, and Repairs; but Lenthall--who had been chiefly responsible for the design of the outstanding wooden frigates, such as the Merrimac-did not look with favor upon ironclads. In 1862 Smith became Chief of the Bureau of Yards and Docks, and this explains why the records of that Bureau contain some papers relating to ironclads (see below). The Chief of the Bureau from July 23, 1862, to 1871, was Capt. John Lenthall. James P. Baxter, 3d., The Introduction of the Ironclad Warship (Cambridge, Mass., 1933); Frank M. Bennett, The Steam Navy of the United States (Pittsburgh, 1896); Report of the Secretary of the Navy, 1861-65. Record Group 19. --Many records of the Bureau of Construction and Repair are now part of the records of the Bureau of Ships. The outgoing letters are separately bound according to class of correspondent and include letters to the Secretary of the Navy concerning vessels in service, construction and repairs to vessels, timber and other materials for vessels, personnel, funds for the Bureau, and other matters. Letters to officers concern the construction and repair of vessels, requisitions for funds, materials, payrolls, etc.; and they include for July 1861-Nov. 1863 many letters to Rear Adm. Francis H. Gregory, the General Superintendent of Ironclads at New York City. Letters sent to Gregory from Nov. 1863 are in a separate volume. A series of miscellaneous letters sent includes letters to newspapers, the Fourth Auditor of the Treasury, and other individuals, firms, and contractors on the following topics: advertisements for proposals to supply timber and other materials and to construct or repair vessels, contracts for repairs or construction, payments for advertisements, and the performance of contracts. Letters received from these correspondents touch on the same subjects. Those from Gregory and his successor, Commodore Cadwalader Ringgold, contain many enclosures consisting of correspondence and reports of engineers and inspectors under their jurisdiction, reports of boards appointed to make surveys of vessels or to submit recommendations on the claims of contractors for extra costs incurred in building vessels, and other reports on the construction, purchase, and alteration of gunboats under contract. Incoming papers include letters received and reports. Most of the letters received are in a single series, Jan. 1862-Dec. 1867; they include letters from private concerns, shipbuilders, private individuals, the Fourth Auditor of the Treasury, and others. The letters concern bids, awards, the execution of construction contracts, payments for wages and materials, inventions, the sale of vessels by the Government, and advertisements. Beginning in Jan. 1864, letters and telegrams from contractors were separately bound. There are smaller runs of letters received from the Secretary of the Navy, from officers, and from the commandant of the Philadelphia Navy Yard. Reports of local inspectors of ironclads contain data on progress in the construction of vessels. Other correspondence of the Bureau, including both original papers and copies derived from its files, are in the subject file of the Office of Naval Records and Library, discussed above. (The "archiving" procedure explains the disappearance from the Bureau files of some of the correspondence and other records listed in the first volume, p. 6 and 7, of Robert W. Neeser's Statistical and Chronological History of the United States Navy, 1775-1907, published in 2 volumes, New York, 1909.) Information on naval vessels is available in several other files. Some reports on ships under construction or repair include an alphabetical list of surveys and reports for the Civil War period. There are records about the acquisition of ships and others about their disposal. Reports of boards of survey present data on the condition of ships and their equipment. A compilation by a naval constructor at the Philadelphia Navy Yard contains instructions and specifications for the building of ships. With proposals and other papers, 1861-62, relating to ironclad gunboats are documents concerning a board appointed by Secretary Welles in 1862 to examine and report upon the proposals. Other records include contracts for the construction of naval vessels, 1861-64, bound alphabetically by name of vessel; a small compilation containing data on the raising of sunken vessels, which gives leads useful in searching other records; a small volume of miscellaneous material concerning war vessels, 1863-65; some separately filed reports on the performance and condition of vessels, beginning in 1864; and monthly reports on work done on naval vessels at the Mare Island Navy Yard, 1862-65. Other records concern materials, supplies, and stores. Contracts for materials and machinery for vessels and hardware are accompanied by specifications and certifications of sureties. Data regarding the articles on hand at navy yards and stations, the quantity issued, and their value can be found in returns of stores. The use of stores by ships is exemplified by a record of the receipt and issuance of stores by the Ino, 1861-62. For the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron there are a ledger of supplies, 1864-65, and a record of supplies received at the Norfolk Navy Yard, 1864-65. The fiscal operations of the Bureau are documented in several series, some of which are voluminous. Statements of the transfer of the value of services and supplies for work at navy yards to the accounts of other bureaus and statements of the transfer of funds appropriated are chronologically arranged. A record of the cost of acquiring, repairing, and equipping ships covers ships purchased and ships built under contract and gives information on the disposition of ships. Another record shows the amount of funds and the value of stores received and expended at navy yards. A record of payments on contracts for ships, 1861-64, is conveniently arranged by name of ship. In another volume is a record of accounts approved for payment to contractors who constructed or repaired vessels, for advertisements asking bids, and for other purposes, 1864-68. Statements of payments made to contractors, of current contracts, and of outstanding vouchers are filed together by name of navy yard from which they were received. There is also a record of requisitions for funds drawn on the Secretary of the Navy in favor of naval agents and paymasters. A few records of the Bureau relate to its personnel. The proceedings of boards to examine applicants for appointment as assistant naval constructors, Apr. -May 1862, contain the examination questions, the applicants' answers, and the boards' recommendations. Another file includes letters of application and recommendations for appointments as assistant naval constructors from 1865 onward. A series of reports lists occupations at certain navy yards; another shows the number of employees on the payroll chargeable to the bureau. Another series of records includes the following miscellaneous items: invoices and bills of lading, showing stores shipped; lists of newspapers authorized to publish advertisements; newspaper clippings of proposals and advertisements of sales; and proposals of 1862 to build a wharf at Port Royal, S. C. Ship plans for the Civil War period are in a numerically arranged file, 1794-1910. The file comprises chiefly plans of U. S. naval vessels accumulated by offices and bureaus of the Navy Department, but it also contains plans of foreign naval vessels, a few Confederate vessels, U. S. navy yards, and ships' facilities at foreign ports. Card indexes, arranged alphabetically by name of ship or by class of ship or in other ways, facilitate the use of the plan file. A miscellaneous file contains still other plans, 1863-1919. National Archives, Preliminary Inventory [No. 133] of the Records of the Bureau of Ships, comp. by Elizabeth Bethel, Ellmore A. Champie, Mabel E. Deutrich, Robert Photographs assembled by the Bureau of Ships and its predecessors include some materials relating to the Civil War--pictures of ships, scenes on ships, battles, individual officers, groups of officers, and shore establishments. These are largely copies of artists' drawings, sketches, and paintings rather than contemporary photographs. In some cases, however, they are postwar photographs of vessels and persons who served in the war. A small quantity of other pictorial material on the Navy is in the Mathew B. Brady collection in the Records of the Office of the Chief Signal Officer (Record Group 111) and in the Records of the War Department General Staff (Record Group 165). BUREAU OF EQUIPMENT AND RECRUITING The Bureau of Equipment and Recruiting was one of the new bureaus established by the naval reorganization act of July 5, 1862. In accordance with that act, the Secretary of the Navy directed, on Oct. 8, 1862, the transfer of "all matters pertaining to fuel, hemp, rigging and sails, anchors and cables, furniture, cooking utensils, stores in master's, boatswain's and sailmaker's departments, together with towage, pilotage, recruiting and transportation of men, with the materials, labour and bills of expenses, connected therewith hitherto under the Bureau of Construction." On Nov. 7 of the same year the Secretary of the Navy issued a detailed directive to the Bureau, setting forth "the varied duties connected with recruiting for the Navy." To perform its duties the Bureau was given charge of all ropewalks and shops manufacturing anchors, cables, rigging, and other equipment. Inspectors of equipment were stationed at shipyards to see that specifications were met. The equipping and supplying of ships at navy yards was carried on under the direction of equipment officers. Articles supplied to vessels passed into the charge of the vessels' equipment officers, who were required to maintain records of them and to submit returns to the Bureau. Recruiting was carried on at naval rendezvous and on receiving ships and other naval vessels. After their acceptance recruits were trained on board ships. The administration of enlisted men and of recruiting and apprentice training was transferred to the Bureau of Navigation in 1889, and the Bureau of Equipment and Recruiting was thereafter known as the Bureau of Equipment. In 1910 the Bureau was abolished and its functions were transferred to the other bureaus of the Navy Department. Successive Chiefs of the Bureau during the war period: Comdr. Albert N. Smith, June 1863. Record Group 24. --The 1889 transfer from the Bureau of Equipment and Recruiting of personnel duties, including the supervision of enlisted personnel, recruits, and naval apprentices, was accompanied by the transfer of correspondence volumes dating from 1862. This correspondence is now part of the records of the Bureau of Naval Personnel. Letters sent, bound chronologically according to class of correspondent, include letters to the Secretary of the Navy, to officers, to commandants of navy yards and stations, to the commandant at Mound City, to commanders of squadrons and naval forces on station, to the Superintendent of the Naval Academy, to Navy agents and pay officers, and to the Fourth Auditor; there are also letters sent concerning recruiting and miscellaneous letters sent. The letters received include letters from the Secretary of the Navy, from officers, from commandants of navy yards, from Navy agents and pay officers, from the Fourth Auditor and the Second Comptroller, from the Fourth Auditor concerning bounty payments for service in the Civil War, and from miscellaneous correspondents. Registers index both the letters sent and the letters received. There is also a volume of letters received by the commanding officer of the U. S. naval rendezvous in New York, Aug. 1863-Apr. 1865. Other correspondence volumes, relating to coal, coal agents, hemp, china, glass and plated ware, or addressed to or received from naval storekeepers, purchasing agents, and purchasing paymasters, which were probably transferred to the Bureau of Supplies and Accounts, are now missing. (See the list in Neeser, Statistical and Chronological History, 1:9). Records relating to enlisted personnel are also now in this record group. Series of records that are helpful in tracing the service of enlisted men are weekly returns of enlistments at naval rendezvous, 1855-91, and on board receiving ships, 1855-1902, keys to enlistment returns (an index to the preceding series), 1846-1902, muster rolls, and logbooks. These and other personnel records were indexed on cards; a copy of the index, on microfilm, is in the National Archives. This index actually abstracts information from the records and presents it in chronological order. Correspondence concerning enlisted men who applied for pensions, filed claims, asked for discharge documents or service records, etc., is in jackets filed alphabetically by name. This conveniently arranged file, 1842-85, contains many jackets for men with Civil War service. There are also extensive lists of recruits who enlisted as substitutes and volunteers, Feb. 1864June 1865, and returns for similar recruits enlisted at Boston, June-Dec. 1864. Shipping articles set forth the conditions of enlistment and contain signatures of sureties for bounties paid and wages advanced and signatures of witnesses and parents of minors. Besides noting the conduct and proficiency of enlisted personnel, conduct books contain information on the enlistment, physical description, and personal history of each man; but since they are arranged alphabetically by name of vessel they are difficult to use. Discharge papers date from Jan. 1, 1864 (the earlier ones, for which there is an index, are missing), and contain copies of discharges, discharge certificates, descriptive lists of men, and correspondence. Discharge orders dating from Feb. 4, 1864, contain the names of men to be discharged. The types of personnel employed on receiving ships can be ascertained from the index to personnel on the Ohio, 1861-65, and from a register of personnel received on board ships at Baltimore. Other pertinent records include continuous service certificates, correspondence relating to medals of honor, 1863-65, and returns of deserters. Concerning naval apprentices, there are registers, a muster roll, returns, a general record of apprentices on the Sabine, correspondence and reports on training aboard that ship, shipping articles, and parents' consent to enlistment; most of these records date from July 1864. National Archives, Preliminary Inventory [No. 123] of the Records of the Bureau of Naval Personnel, comp. by Virgil E. Baugh (Wash- BUREAU OF MEDICINE AND SURGERY The Bureau of Medicine and Surgery was established by an act of Aug. 31, 1842 (5 Stat. 579). Its duties included administering naval hospitals, dispensaries, and laboratories; and furnishing medicines, medical supplies, stationery, blank books, forms, and instruments. It also controlled the preparation, inspection, storage, and transportation of these materials; and it gave medical examinations to candidates for enlistment and to naval personnel. During the war the naval hospitals had to be enlarged and increased in number to care for the sick and injured of the Navy. While the hospital at Boston was being extended the adjacent marine hospital was used for Navy personnel. In Philadelphia a hospital was set up in the Naval Asylum. Extra space was found in a temporary building and in a marine barracks at New York, where an addition to the naval hospital was undertaken. In Washington the Government Hospital for the Insane (St. Elizabeths Hospital) provided quarters for a naval hospital throughout the war. Reoccupied on Sept. 1, 1862, the hospital at Norfolk was soon filled with sailors from the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron. Other hospitals had to be provided for men of the blockading squadrons; so temporary ones were set up at Beaufort, New Bern, and Port Royal. A temporary structure at Pensacola, where Confederates had completely destroyed the hospital, was built to serve the West Gulf Blockading Squadron; and the Treasury Department made the marine hospital at Key West available for the East Gulf Blockading Squadron. For personnel manning the vessels that operated on the lower Mississippi River and its tributaries, a hospital was opened at New Orleans, Dec. 1863. The sick and wounded of the Mississippi River Squadron were cared for in hospitals at Mound City, Ill., first in an Army hospital and later in one procured by the Navy. The Mound City hospital was moved in 1863 to a more central location at Memphis, Tenn. A hospital ship, the Red Rover, a former Confederate vessel refitted at St. Louis, plied the waters of the Mississippi. At Mare Island, Calif., there was a hospital for men of the Pacific Squadron. Many medical officers were employed by the Navy during the war. Fleet |