Letters Received from Commissioned Officers Below the Rank of Commander and from Warrant Officers, 1802–1886

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Letters Received from Commissioned Officers Below the Rank of Commander and from Warrant Officers, 1802–1886

Letters Received from Commissioned Officers Below the Rank of Commander and from Warrant Officers, 1802–1886

1802-1886

https://catalog.archives.gov/id/718927

This series consists of letters from lieutenants, lieutenant commanders, ensigns, assistant surgeons, pursers, paymasters, chaplains, and professors of mathematics holding commissions as regular or volunteer officers of the U.S. Navy, boatswains, sailmakers, coopers, carpenters, gunners, and engineers. Letters for the period 1802-1807 include reports from lieutenants assigned to the command of gunboats and other vessels that were part of the American fleet in the Mediterranean. Prior to 1862 there are letters from officers holding warrants as midshipmen and during the Civil War period there are letters from masters and mates. A supplemental volume for 1884 has some letters from higher ranking officers, including the Colonel Commandant of the Marine Corps; and there are a few letters from officers of higher rank in other volumes. Many of the letters concern administrative and personnel matters, such as orders for duty, leave or furlough, pay, desertions, resignation, general courts-martial, health, and the settlement of accounts. Letters also include descriptions of naval engagements, epidemics, reports of captures, reports of delays in sailing, arrivals in port, and repairs performed on vessels. After 1865 the Office of Detail, a division of the Bureau of Navigation, handled many of the matters concerning duty assignments and leave for commissioned officers and received the letters from officers on these subjects. There are also post-1860 reports of services performed by chaplains. Among the letters received relating to naval operations are reports of captures of enemy vessels received from lieutenants in command of or assigned to vessels in the Mediterranean during the war with Tripoli and on the Great Lakes or in the Atlantic during the War of 1812. Also included are Lt. John McLaughlin's reports of Indian hostilities during the second Florida Indian War, 1839-1842. A number of letters contain reports from lieutenants and passed midshipmen who led or participated in exploring relief expeditions during the period 1839-1884. Scientific matters are the subjects of letters received from officers assigned to the Depot of Charts and Instruments, the Naval Observatory, and the Nautical Almanac Office during the 1830s, 1840s, and 1850s. Reports of local political conditions in various parts of Latin America, particularly Mexico, are included in letters dated immediately before and after the Mexican War of 1846-1848. Among the letters are reports of Lt. C. G. Hunter from Trieste on the movements of the combined fleet of Sardinia and Naples and the Austrian Army in June 1848 and a letter of April 23, 1850, from Lt. Thomas J. Page describing conditions in China after the death of Emperor Tao-kuang. Also, lieutenants who traveled to various parts of Europe submitted lengthy reports of their observations of foreign naval vessels and shipyards upon their return to the country. Enclosures in the form of returns, lists, muster rolls, drawings, and maps are located with some of the letters, and there are some telegrams after 1850.

193 linear feet

eng, Latn

National Archives at Washington, D.C