American Historical Ephemera & Photography Online

SEWARD, William H. (1801-1872). Autograph letter signed ("William H. Seward") as United States Senator from New York. 1p, 16mo, 15 March 1849, to William D. PRESTON, Secretary of the Navy, forwarding papers relative to the application of Hiram Wheeler[?] for an appointment to the Office of the Purser of the Navy.  Seward was Lincoln’s Secretary of State throughout the Civil War, having served as Governor of New York and Senator.  In 1860, Lincoln edged him out to become Presidential Candidate of the Republican Party. 

BANCROFT, George.  ALs, 3 pp., 16mo, New York, May 1853, recommending Dr. [William] Whelan for appointment by the Secretary of the Navy [James C. DOBBIN].  Bancroft was himself Secretary of the Navy from March 1845 to September 1846, during which period he established the Naval Academy at Annapolis.  He was also a journalist and historian, known primarily for his magisterial History of the United States, From the Discovery of the American Continent, 7 vols. (1854 – 1961).  Whelan began his Navy career as a Surgeon’s Mate in 1828, and advanced slowly but steadily.  Five months after Bancroft’s letter, President Pierce appointed Whelan as the Navy Department’s Chief of the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, where he served throughout the War.  Among his accomplishments were establishing the first Navy Hospital Ship, the Red Rover, in 1862, and during the war years building four Navy hospitals—at Annapolis; Mound City, IL; Memphis; and New Bern, NC. 

[With:] A letter of 22 August 1844 in which Secretary of the Navy John Y. Mason is asked to consider provide a warrant as a midshipman to "a very promising and spirited young gentleman." -- ARNOLD, Otis. ALS, 2 pp. 4to, 21 May 1843, in self-folded envelope with Post Office stamping and initials, from New Orleans, to his wife Elizabeth in Troy, NY.  Arnold, who may have been a merchant sailor on antebellum Mississippi, writes to his wife with useful information about commercial traffic on the Mississippi, wages, etc.