May 11 Rare Autograph & Book Auction
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 5/11/2023
Partly printed page of a bifolium, 8" x 10", Navy Department; January 7, 1862. A document appointing an acting assistant engineer in the U.S. Navy, notifying him to report to Captain Hudson in Boston for assignment. Signed, "Gideon Welles." Toning. Bit of paper loss along the corners and edges affecting both sheets of the bifolium.
Gideon Welles (July 1, 1802 – February 11, 1878), nicknamed "Father Neptune", was the United States Secretary of the Navy from 1861 to 1869, a cabinet post he was awarded after supporting Abraham Lincoln in the 1860 election. Although opposed to the Union blockade of Southern ports, he duly carried out his part of the Anaconda Plan, largely sealing off the Confederate coastline and preventing the exchange of cotton for war supplies. This is viewed as a major cause of the Union victory in the Civil War, and his achievement in expanding the Navy almost tenfold was widely praised. Welles was also instrumental in the Navy's creation of the Medal of Honor.
With One of a Kind Collectibles LOA
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