American Historical Ephemera & Photography

A group of 3 documents from Secretary of Navy Gideon Welles to Rear Admiral A.H. Foote, all issued in the weeks before Foote's unexpected death while enroute to take command of the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron.

WELLES, Gideon Welles. Letter signed ("Gideon Welles"), as Secretary of the Navy, to Rear Admiral A. H. Foote. Navy Department (Washington, D.C.), 9 March 1863. 1p, 4to (toning at edges, occasional feathering of ink). Welles orders Foote to report to Rear Admiral William B. Shubrick for duty "as a member of an Advisory Board of which he is appointed President and which is ordered to convene at the Navy Department, at 12 A.M. on Tuesday the 10th inst.”  Signed at the top: “W. B. Shubrick President" and by three “members,” Jos. Smith, F. H. Gregory, and A. H. Foote. With addendum at bottom: “Reported 10 March 1863 / W. B. Shubrick.” 

WELLES, Gideon Welles. Letter signed ("Gideon Welles"), as Secretary of the Navy, to Rear Admiral A. H. Foote. Navy Department (Washington, D.C.), 10 June 1863. 1 p, 4to, (light soil, remnants of blue paper/prior mount adhered to verso). Welles orders Foote to “Proceed to New York and take passage as early as practicable in the US Steam Sloop of War Tuscarora for Port Royal, SC." Endorsements at the head for payment of $23.20 for mileage, and “$834 two mos. adv. Pay New York June 16th 1863.”  Note at the foot in secretarial hand:  "Have performed the journey to New York in obedience to the above order. / New York June 15th 1863.”  Signed by Foote “AH Foote / R. Admiral.” 

WELLES, Gideon Welles. Letter signed ("Gideon Welles"), as Secretary of the Navy, to Rear Admiral A. H. Foote in New York. Navy Department (Washington, D.C.),  13 June 1866. 1 p., 4to, marked “Confidential” (light toning at edge lines). Welles writes: “I transmit, herewith, for your information, a copy of a letter received at the War Department [not present], in reference to the rebel forces now in the City of Charleston.” This refers to preparations for the Second Battle of Charleston Harbor, fought in August -September 1863.  The combined forces of the Union Army and Navy inflicted heavy damage and reduced Fort Sumter to a heap of rubble, but the Confederates retained control at the end of the battle. 

By the time of Foote's unexpected death from Bright's disease on June 26, 1863, he had risen to become one of America's first rear-admirals and established himself as a seminal figure in the mid-19th century US Navy.