ABSTRACT
Secretary of the Navy, 1861-69. President LINCOLN relied on Welles, a former Connecticut newspaper editor, for his civilian leadership of the Union Navy during the American Civil War. At the outset of that conflict, Welles persuaded Lincoln, despite political pressures from financiers in the US northeast, not to issue letters of marque to potential Union privateers. He also recognized the burgeoning industrial might of the Union as a major strategic advantage over the Confederacy, and led the transition to steam power and iron construction for naval ships. He also led the development of the Union’s powerful riverine forces that were crucial in joint operations with the Union Army, as well as blockade vessels that severely limited the Confederacy’s war effort along 3,500 miles of coastline. To supplement the naval building programme, he authorized the purchase of significant numbers of ships from the US merchant marine for the Union Navy. In 1864 he initiated construction of the 5,000-ton, 376-foot ironclad ram, USS Dunderberg. Although the ship was sold to a foreign navy, its radical design presaged the dreadnoughts to come at the turn of the nineteenth century. Following the Civil War and during the early stages of the presidency of Lincoln’s successor, Andrew Johnson, Welles also anticipated the transition of the USN from a primarily coastal, riverine force to a blue-water instrument of global expansion. Prior to his service as Secretary of the Navy, Welles served in the state legislature of Connecticut and as the Navy’s Chief of the Bureau of Provisions and Clothing.
