wells

The Papers of Gideon Welles (1802-1878) span the period 1777-1911, with the core of the material concentrated in the years 1820-1878. The papers include diaries, correspondence, writings, naval records, and scrapbooks reflecting all phases of Welles's career as a newspaper editor, politician, and naval administrator. Welles was a gifted diarist, correspondent, and essayist, and his papers are a rich source of primary materials for the study of the political and social history of the United States in the nineteenth century. The Diaries series includes a fifteen-volume diary, 1862-1869, written when Welles was secretary of the navy, and a three volume retrospective narrative, 1861-1869, plus notes and journal entries for earlier periods in his life. Welles's Civil War diaries were excerpted and edited by his son, Edgar Thaddeus Welles, for publication in a three-volume set in 1911, drafts of which are also included in the series.The Letterbooks record the day-to-day operational and administrative policies enacted by the Navy Department during the Civil War including those related to the establishment of blockades, ship construction and naval ordnance, the outfitting of ironclads, naval engagements and tactical maneuvers, and the pursuit and capture of Confederate cruisers and subsequent rewarding of prize money. In addition to the Diaries and Letterbooks, the papers also include a series of Navy Department records collected by Edgar Thaddeus Welles while he was chief clerk of the Navy Department, 1865-1869. See sample links below.

(Page count: ≈ 14,000)

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