Gideon Welles

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A prominent political leader from Connecticut, Welles first served in the Navy Department during the Polk administration as chief of the navy's Bureau of Provisions and Clothing.

As Lincoln's secretary, he resisted public demands of ships for the Northern coastline while concentrating on blockading and strangling the Confederacy during the Civil War. Welles used monitors for Southern harbors and ironclad riverboats for the Mississippi River. In July 1861, he allowed ships to keep contrabands on board. By September, he authorized enlisting contrabands under the same regulations as other enlistments. And in July 1862, he ordered the East Gulf Blockading Squadron actively to recruit contrabands (runaway slaves).

Administratively, through Congress, Welles reorganized the navy. In July 1861, he established the post of assistant secretary and temporary volunteer officers to fill wartime needs. That August, he retired older, infirm officers. Automatic officer retirement for over‐age and service limits began in December. In July 1862, line officers received nine ranks, and staff bureaus were raised to eight. The bureau changes reflected the new technologies developing in gunnery and steam engineering. With minor modifications, Welles's administrative changes would remain in place until newer technologies after World War II demanded further reorganization.

[See also Navy, U.S.: 1783–1865; Navy, U.S.: 1866–1898; Union Navy.]

Bibliography

• Gideon Welles, Diary, 3 vols., 1911.
• John Niven, Gideon Welles, 1973

Welles, Gideon (1802-1878) U.S. politician and Secretary of the Navy. Born in Glastonbury, Connecticut, on July 1, 1802, Gideon Welles attended the academy at Norwich, Vermont (now Norwich University). In the 1820s he pursued a career in journalism, became prominent in Democratic politics, and was an active supporter of Andrew Jackson. In the 1830s he served at various times as comptroller of Connecticut, postmaster of Hartford, editor of the Hartford Times, and a Connecticut legislator. In 1846, he was appointed by President James K. Polk as chief of the Naval Bureau of Provisions and Clothing, in which post he served until 1849 when he was removed by President Zachary Taylor, a Whig. Welles opposed slavery, and in 1855, he joined the newly-formed Republican Party and ran unsuccessfully for governor of Connecticut. From March 1861 to March 1869, he served as Secretary of the Navy under Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson, mobilizing and equipping the U.S. Navy for the Civil War and ensuring the efficient administration of his department and the measured introduction of new technology into the greatly expanded Navy.

See the Introduction, Abbreviations and Pronunciation for further details.

Gideon Welles (1802-1878), a member of Lincoln's Cabinet, is known especially for the diary he kept throughout the Civil War period.

Gideon Welles was born at Glastonbury, Conn. He was educated at the Episcopal Academy at Cheshire, Conn., and at the American Literary, Scientific, and Military Academy at Norwich, Vt. (later Norwich University). Though he studied law, his interest in writing led him, at the age of 24, to become part owner and editor of the Hartford Times. His writing up until then had consisted of "romantic trifles, " but his style now developed rapidly, and his vigorous editorials in support of Andrew Jackson attracted wide attention. Soon the Times was one of the leading Democratic papers in New England.

Welles's effort for the Democratic party revealed important mental and moral qualities which were to characterize his life. Few New Englanders had much use for Thomas Jefferson or those who came after him. The courage it took to support Jackson revealed a sincere and honest mind. With Welles's support the Democratic party gained in respectability.

In 1826 Welles was elected to the Connecticut Legislature. He labored for reform: his most important act was that of pushing through a bill removing the requirement that a person profess belief in God and in a future life in order to qualify as a witness in court. Although Welles himself was a deeply religious man, he insisted that this requirement denied religious liberty and freedom of thought. His efforts brought bitter criticism and insinuations that he had been corrupted by the lack of belief of men such as Jefferson and Jackson. He left the legislature in 1835 with the blunt statement, "I am ashamed to say regarding the civil and judicial complexion of my state, that a degraded, bigoted, hidebound, autocratic, proud, arrogant and contemptible policy governs her, through … unprincipled knaves."

Jackson appointed Welles postmaster at Hartford in 1836, a post he held to 1841. This office made him virtually the Democratic leader in the state. In 1845 President James K. Polk appointed him chief of the Bureau of Provisions and Clothing in the Navy Department. It was not a particularly important post, but it did give him some naval experience and connected him in the minds of others with the Navy.

Meanwhile Welles continued to write political articles for important newspapers and established friendly relations with such prominent men as jurist David Dudley Field and poet and editor William Cullen Bryant. He broke with his party over the slavery issue and in 1854 helped to organize the Republican party. He served as a national committeeman from 1856 to 1864 and headed the Connecticut delegation to the 1860 convention and favored Salmon P. Chase as the Republican presidential nominee. He did not support Abraham Lincoln even on the important third ballot, but he was completely satisfied with the final choice of Lincoln.

In his effort to construct a Cabinet which represented all sections and all parties, Lincoln knew he must appoint someone from New England and that this person must be a former Democrat. Welles was by all odds the best choice and was offered the Navy Department.

With only the limited experience gained earlier in the Bureau of Provisions and Clothing, Welles took over a Navy Department short on both men and ships. The secession of the Southern states had created an even more serious problem. As he himself said: "When I took charge of the Navy Department, I found great demoralization and deflection among the naval officers. It was difficult to ascertain who among those that lingered about Washington could [be trusted] and who were not to be trusted." Furthermore Congress had adjourned without providing funds or authorizing the enlistment of additional seamen. Almost all of the naval force was scattered about the world, some in European waters and most of "the small Home Squadron" in the Gulf or the West Indies, "nearly as remote and inaccessible."

Welles reorganized his department, bought ships where possible, and did his best to keep the Norfolk Navy yard from falling into Confederate hands. He might have saved the navy yard if Gen. Winfield Scott had been able to supply troops and if Lincoln, anxious to avoid provoking Virginia into seceding, had not insisted on a fatal delay. Welles made mistakes at first, but he was well ahead of public opinion in the building of ironclad ships. While congressmen ridiculed the idea, he went ahead and was ready with these ships when the battle between the Monitor and the Merrimac made them a national necessity.

Welles checked favoritism in building new navy yards. He opposed the blockade of the South at first, but when the tactic was adopted, he made it increasingly efficient. In all he created an adequate navy where there had been almost none.

As a member of the Cabinet, Welles was loyal both to Lincoln and his successor, Andrew Johnson. He was rather conservative even regarding slavery and opposed Radical Reconstruction and military rule of the South after the war. He disapproved of the suppression of newspapers, the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus, and the too rapid granting of Negro suffrage.

Most important of all, Welles kept a diary. Always tolerant and fair-minded, with a keen ability to understand men and their basic worth, he made a record which is an invaluable historical document. He was on the inside of events, and from his early newspaper days he had acquired an uncanny ability to pass judgment on men and events. He recognized Lincoln as "in every way large - brain included."

Further Reading

Welles's Diary, edited by Howard K. Beale (3 vols., 1960), offers considerable insights into his life. A full-length work is Richard S. West, Jr., Gideon Welles: Lincoln's Navy Department (1943).

Additional Sources

Niven, John, Gideon Welles: Lincoln's Secretary of the Navy, Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1994.

Gideon Welles
24th United States Secretary of the Navy
In office March 7, 1861 – March 4, 1869
Preceded by	Isaac Toucey
Succeeded by	Adolph E. Borie
Born	July 1, 1802(1802-07-01) Glastonbury, Connecticut, U.S.
Died	February 11, 1878 (aged 75) Hartford, Connecticut, U.S.
Political party	Democrat, Republican
Spouse(s)	Mary Jane Hale
Children	Edgar Thaddeus Welles Thomas Glastonbury Welles John Arthur Welles Herbert Welles Samuel Welles Edward Gideon Welles Anna Jane Welles Mary Juanita Welles
Alma mater	Military Academy at Norwich, Vermont
Profession	Politician, Lawyer, Writer, Journalist
Signature

Gideon Welles (July 1, 1802 – February 11, 1878) was the United States Secretary of the Navy from 1861 to 1869. His buildup of the Navy to successfully execute blockades of Southern ports was a key component of Northern victory of the Civil War. Welles was also instrumental in the Navy's creation of the Medal of Honor.^[1]

Welles's house in Glastonbury, Connecticut, 1937.

Contents 1 Biography 2 Tenure in Lincoln's Cabinet 3 Tenure in Johnson's Cabinet 4 Later Life and Death 5 The Diary of Gideon Welles 6 Posthumous Dedications 7 References 8 External links

Biography

Gideon Welles, the son of Samuel Welles and Ann Hale,^[2] was born on July 1, 1802 in Glastonbury, Connecticut. His father was a shipping merchant and fervent Jeffersonian; he was a member of the Convention which formed the first state Connecticut Constitution in 1818 that abolished the colonial charter and officially severed the political ties to England. The constitution is also notable for having reversed the earlier Orders and provided for freedom of religion.

He was a direct descendant of Gov.Thomas Welles,^[3] the Fourth Colonial Governor of Connecticut and the transcriber of the Fundamental Orders.

He married on June 16, 1835, at Lewiston, Mifflin County, Pennsylvania, Mary Jane Hale,^[4] who was born on June 18, 1817 in Glastonbury, Connecticut the daughter of Elias Hale and Jane Mullhallan. Her father, Elias, graduated from Yale College in 1794, and was a lawyer. She died on February 28, 1886 in Hartford, Connecticut and was buired next to her husband in Cedar Hill Cemetery in Hartford, Connecticut. Gideon and Mary Jane were the parents of six children.^[5]

He was educated at the Episcopal Academy at Cheshire, Connecticut, and earned a degree at the American Literary, Scientific, and Military Academy at Norwich, Vt. (later Norwich University). He became a lawyer through the then-common practice of reading the law, but soon shifted to journalism and became the founder and editor of the Hartford Times in 1826. After successfully gaining admission, from 1827-1835, he participated in the Connecticut House of Representatives as a Democrat. Following his service in the Connecticut General Assembly, he served in various posts, including State Controller of Public Accounts in 1835, Postmaster of Hartford (1836-41), and Chief of the Bureau of Provisions and Clothing for the Navy (1846-49).^[6]

Welles was a Jacksonian Democrat, who worked very closely with Martin Van Buren and John Milton Niles. His chief rival in the Connecticut Democratic Party was Isaac Toucey, whom Welles would later replace at the Navy Department. While Welles dutifully supported James K. Polk in the 1844 election, he would abandon the Democrats in 1848 to support Van Buren's Freesoil campaign.

Mainly because of his strong anti-slavery views, Welles shifted allegiance in 1854 to the newly-established Republican Party, and founded a newspaper in 1856 (the Hartford Evening Press) that would espouse Republican ideals for decades thereafter. Welles' strong support of Abraham Lincoln in 1860 made him the logical candidate from New England for Lincoln's cabinet, and in March 1861 Lincoln named Welles his Secretary of the Navy.

Tenure in Lincoln's Cabinet

Lincoln met with his cabinet on July 22, 1862 for the first reading of a draft of the Emancipation Proclamation.

The Running Machine
An 1864 cartoon featuring Welles, William Fessenden, Edwin M. Stanton, Abraham Lincoln and William Seward takes a swing at the Lincoln administration.

Welles found the Naval Department in disarray, with Southern officers resigning en masse. His first major action was to dispatch the Navy's most powerful warship, the USS Powhatan, to relieve Fort Sumter. Unfortunately, Lincoln had simultaneously ordered the Powhatan to both Fort Sumter and Pensacola, Florida, ruining whatever chance Major Robert Anderson had of withstanding the assault. Several weeks later, when William H. Seward argued for a blockade of Southern ports, Welles argued vociferously against the action but was eventually overruled by Lincoln. Despite his misgivings, Welles' efforts to rebuild the Navy and implement the blockade proved extraordinarily effective. From 76 ships and 7600 sailors in 1861, by 1865 the Navy expanded almost tenfold. His implementation of the Naval portion of the Anaconda Plan strongly weakened the Confederacy's ability to finance the war through limiting the cotton trade, and while never completely effective in sealing off all 3,500 miles of Southern coastline it was a major contribution towards Northern victory. Lincoln nicknamed Welles his "Neptune".

Despite his successes, Welles was never at ease in the United States Cabinet. His anti-English sentiments caused him to clash with William H. Seward, Secretary of State, and Welles's conservative stances led to arguments with Salmon P. Chase and Edwin M. Stanton, the Secretaries of the Treasury and of War, respectively.

Tenure in Johnson's Cabinet

After Lincoln's assassination Welles was retained by President Andrew Johnson as Secretary of the Navy. In 1866, Welles, along with Seward, was instrumental in launching the National Union Party as a third party alternative supportive of Johnson's reconciliation policies. Welles also played a prominent part in Johnson's ill-fated "Swing Around the Circle" campaign that fall. Although Welles admitted in his diary that he was dismayed by Johnson's behavior on the trip, particularly the president's penchant for invective and engaging directly with hecklers, Welles remained loyal to Johnson to the end, even congratulating him in 1875 when Johnson, now an ex-president, was launching a comeback political bid with his election to the U.S. Senate from Tennessee.

Welles ultimately left the Cabinet on March 3, 1869, having returned to the Democratic Party after disagreeing with Andrew Johnson's reconstruction policies but supporting him during his impeachment trial.

Later Life and Death

After leaving politics, Welles returned to Connecticut and to writing, editing his journals and authoring several books before his death, including a biography, Lincoln and Seward, published in 1874. Towards the end of 1877, his health began to wane. A streptococcal infection of the throat killed Gideon Welles at the age of seventy-five on February 12, 1878. His body was interred at Cedar Hill Cemetery in Hartford, Connecticut.

The Diary of Gideon Welles

Welles' three-volume diary, documenting his Cabinet service from 1861-1869, is an invaluable archive for Civil War scholars and students of Lincoln alike, allowing readers rare insight into the complex struggles, machinations and inter-relational strife within the President's War Cabinet. Although offering a unique and quite non pareil portrayal of the immense personalities and problems facing the men who led the Union to ultimate victory, the first edition (published in 1911) suffers from rewrites by Welles himself and after his death, by his son; the 1960 edition is drawn directly from his original manuscript. The 1911 version of his diary may be found on Google Books: Vol. I (1861-March 30, 1864), Vol. II (April 1, 1864-Dec. 31, 1866), Vol. III (Jan. 1, 1866-June 6, 1869).

Posthumous Dedications

Two ships have been named USS Welles in his honor. The Dining Commons at Cheshire Academy and the Gideon Welles School in Glastonbury, Connecticut are also named after him.

References

• Boulard, Garry "The Swing Around the Circle--Andrew Johnson and the Train Ride that Destroyed a Presidency" (iUniverse, 2008)

1. ^ "Types of the Medal of Honor: 1862 To Present". US Army. http://www.cmohs.org/medal/medal_types.htm. Retrieved 23 July 2006. 
2. ^ http://books.google.com/books?id=BFFPAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA113&lpg=PA113&dq=samuel+welles+and+mary+hale&source=bl&ots=Nb5z-XJjCc&sig=7cokLHT-mVBGmLf_ScsF0dMRWNc&hl=en&ei=1-j4SZy-F-mClAex_oG_AQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2#PPA113,M1
3. ^ Siemiatkoski, Donna H (1990). The Descendents of Governor Thomas Welles of Connecticut, 1590-1658, and His Wife, Alice Tomes. Gateway Press. http://books.google.com/books?id=wpNYAAAAMAAJ&source=gbs_ViewAPI&pgis=1. 
4. ^ http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=9B04E1DE1E38E033A25757C0A9659C94679FD7CF
5. ^ http://www.courant.com/media/acrobat/2009-04/46517497.pdf
6. ^ http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/h?faid/faid:@field(DOCID+ms003053)#Biographical%20Note

External links

• Mr. Lincoln's White House: Gideon Welles
• Gideon Welles at the Naval Historical Center
• Gideon Welles at Find A Grave
• Welles Family Association, Inc.
• Biographical sketch of Thomas Welles Connecticut State Library
• [1] Obituary of Edgar T. Welles

Military offices
Preceded by Isaac Toucey	United States Secretary of the Navy March 7, 1861 – March 4, 1869	Succeeded by Adolph E. Borie

v • d • e United States Secretaries of the Navy Cabinet Level Stoddert • Smith • Hamilton • Jones • Crowninshield • S Thompson • Southard • Branch • Woodbury • Dickerson • Paulding • Badger • Upshur • Henshaw • Gilmer • Mason • Bancroft • Mason • Preston • Graham • Kennedy • Dobbin • Toucey • Welles • Borie • Robeson • R Thompson • Goff • Hunt • Chandler • Whitney • Tracy • Herbert • Long • Moody • Morton • Bonaparte • Metcalf • Newberry • Meyer • Daniels • Denby • Wilbur • Adams • Swanson • Edison • Knox • Forrestal Dept. of Defense Sullivan • Matthews • Kimball • Anderson • Thomas • Gates • Franke • Connally • Korth • Nitze • Ignatius • Chafee • Warner • Middendorf • Claytor • Hidalgo • Lehman • Webb • Ball • Garrett • O'Keefe • Dalton • Danzig • England • Winter • Mabus

v • d • e Cabinet of President Abraham Lincoln (1861-1865) Vice President Hannibal Hamlin (1861-1865) • Andrew Johnson (1865) Secretary of State William H. Seward (1861-1865) Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase (1861-1864) • William P. Fessenden (1864-1865) • Hugh McCulloch (1865) Secretary of War Simon Cameron (1861-1862) • Edwin M. Stanton (1862-1865) Attorney General Edward Bates (1861-1864) • James Speed (1864-1865) Postmaster General Montgomery Blair (1861-1864) • William Dennison (1864-1865) Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles (1861-1865) Secretary of the Interior Caleb Blood Smith (1861-1862) • John Palmer Usher (1863-1865)

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