Gideon Welles

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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 Glastonbury, Connecticut, USA
Died	February 11, 1878 Hartford, Connecticut, USA
Political party	Democrat, Republican
Spouse	Mary Jane Hale Welles
Profession	Politician, Lawyer, Writer

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.

Born in Glastonbury, Connecticut, Welles earned a degree at 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 state legislature as a Democrat. Following his service in the Legislature, 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).

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 who 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.

Lincoln met with his Cabinet for the first reading of the Emancipation Proclamation draft on July 22, 1862. L-R: Edwin M. Stanton, Salmon P. Chase, Abraham Lincoln, Gideon Welles, Caleb Smith William H. Seward, Montgomery Blair and Edward Bates.

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 Navy Department in disarray, with Southern officers resigning enmasse. His first major action was to dispatch the Navy's most powerful warship, the U.S.S. Powhatan, to relieve Fort Sumter. Unfortunately, Lincoln had unwittingly 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 extraordinarly 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. Welles ultimately left the Cabinet in 1869, having returned to the Democratic Party in 1868, after disagreeing with Andrew Johnson's reconstruction policies but supporting him during his impeachment trial.

After leaving politics, Welles returned to writing, authoring several books before his death, including Lincoln and Seward in 1874. His diary (posthumously published in 1911) remains a unique and fascinating insight into the personalities and problems of the men who coordinated the Northern efforts in the Civil War. Welles died in 1878 in Hartford, Connecticut.

Two ships have been named USS Welles for him.

[edit] Trivia

Was the great grandfather of famed American director and actor Orson Welles. [see Orson Welles's July 27, 1970 interview on the Dick Cavett show at about 35 minutes into the show]