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Abraham Lincoln Recommends Naval Cadet Just Days Before the Battle of Mobile Bay
Abraham Lincoln Recommends Naval Cadet Just Days Before the Battle of Mobile Bay
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Abraham Lincoln
Washington, DC, July 29, 1864
Abraham Lincoln Recommends Naval Cadet Just Days Before the Battle of Mobile Bay
LS

ABRAHAM LINCOLN, Manuscript Letter Signed, to Gideon Welles, July 29, 1864, Washington, DC. Letter written by Lincoln's private secretary John Hay; closing and signature written by Lincoln; on Executive Mansion stationery. 1 p., 5" x 8". Expected folds; general toning; slabbed PSA Mint 9; with Charles Hamilton authentication.

President Abraham Lincoln signed this letter to Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles to support the appointment of Theodore T. Wood to the U.S. Naval Academy, temporarily relocated to Rhode Island. Congressman Augustus Brandegee of Connecticut had recommended his nephew, Wood, for the appointment, and Lincoln three times recommended him to Welles. Wood entered the Naval Academy in September 1864.

Complete Transcript
Executive Mansion,
Washington, July 29, 1864.
My Dear Sir
If Mr Brandagee's nephew T. T. Wood can receive one of the appointments to the Naval School now pending it would oblige and gratify me.
Yours truly
A. Lincoln
The Honorable / The Secretary of the Navy

Historical Background
In March 1864, Congressman Augustus Brandegee of Connecticut, who also served on the House Committee of Naval Affairs, wrote to President Abraham Lincoln, requesting his aid in gaining an appointment for his nephew Theodore Talbot Wood to the U.S. Naval Academy.

On July 20, 1864, Brandegee wrote to Lincoln reminding him of earlier efforts on behalf of Brandegee's nephew: "You were kind enough when I last saw you to give me a line to the Sec Navy requesting him to appoint my nephew T T Wood to the Naval Academy ‘in case it would not change the direction of other appointments mentioned to him before' I have forgotten the precise phrase, but words substantially as above. You had previously given me a note to the Sec some months before, requesting him ‘to call your particular attention to Woods case when the appointments came up' which I had filed with Woods papers in the Dept." When Brandegee gave Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles Lincoln's note from June 1864, Welles told him that the appointments then pending were limited by law to sons of officers "to which class young Wood would not be admissible." Undaunted, Brandegee suggested to Welles that Lincoln's endorsement might apply to the appointments made in July, "in case of failure to appoint from seceded states." Brandegee continued in his letter to Lincoln, "His reply was that those appointments belonged to the Secretary, & not the President. Now, Mr President, I fear from the relations existing between the Conn Secretary & myself, that if it depends on his grace I shall receive no favors."

Welles was also from Connecticut and was a former Democrat, so it is likely that he and Brandegee had old political differences. To overcome them, Brandegee pleaded with Lincoln, "I am exceedingly anxious to obtain this appointment. It is the only favor I have ever asked for myself, and you have been so kind as twice to indicate your wishes in that direction. May I beg you once more to drop one word to the secretary intimating to him that it would ‘please you to see T T Woods name in the list of appointees...." On Brandegee's letter, Lincoln's personal secretary John Hay wrote an endorsement: "Ansd [Answered] 29th / Prest requests Sec Welles to make appointment. / J.H." Hay also drafted this letter on that date. Lincoln's third letter on behalf of Wood seems to have overcome Welles's reluctance, and Wood entered the Naval Academy in September 1864.

The United States Naval Academy relocated from Annapolis in the slave state of Maryland, where it had been established in 1845, to Newport, Rhode Island, in May 1861. When the Civil War ended, the Academy moved back to its original home in Annapolis. However, instructor Steven B. Luce remained in Newport and established the Naval War College in 1881.

On August 5, 1864, Rear Admiral David Farragut ordered his ships forward through a minefield that guarded the entrance to Mobile Bay with the retort, "Damn the torpedoes." Farragut's fleet quickly reduced the Confederate fleet to a single vessel, the ironclad CSS Tennessee, which attacked rather than retreating to the support of shore batteries from the forts, inflicting more damage than it received. After an engagement of more than three hours, however, Farragut's ironclads shot away the smokestack and destroyed the rudder chains of the Tennessee, leaving it immobile and forcing its crew to surrender, ending the battle.

Farragut's victory at Mobile Bay put an end to blockade running from that port and relieved some pressure on General William T. Sherman's army in Georgia. After moving into the bay and defeating the Confederate navy there, Farragut's fleet concentrated fire on the two forts guarding the entrance. The commander at Fort Gaines surrendered it on August 8, while Union army regiments approached Fort Morgan along the narrow barrier island on which the fort sat. After enduring a siege and bombardment for nearly three weeks, the Confederates surrendered it as well. The Union did not occupy Mobile itself until the spring of 1865.

Theodore Talbot Wood (1847-1886) was born in Connecticut, the son and namesake of Theodore Talbot Wood and his wife Mary Brandegee Wood, but grew up in New Jersey. He entered the U.S. Naval Academy from New Jersey in September 1864 and graduated in June 1868. He served on a variety of vessels before being commissioned as an ensign in 1869 and promoted to master in 1870. He was commissioned a lieutenant in 1874. He served on several other Navy ships and at the New York and Norfolk Navy Yards. In 1875, he married Helen Stansbury Briant (1847-1925) in New Jersey, but their only child died as an infant in 1877. In December 1882, he was ordered to the USS Swatara. He died in Norfolk of a malaria-related illness contracted on duty in Panama.

Augustus Brandegee (1828-1904) was born in Connecticut and graduated from Yale University in 1849. He began legal studies at Yale Law School and completed them in a private law office in 1850. Admitted to the bar in 1851, he began to practice with his tutor. He served in the Connecticut House of Representatives in 1854, 1858, 1859, and 1861, and as judge of New London's city court from 1857 to 1859. He was elected to Congress from Connecticut as a Republican in 1862 and reelected in 1864, serving from 1863 to 1867. While in Congress, he served on the House Committee on Naval Affairs, for part of the time as chairman. He later served as mayor of New London (1871-1873) and practiced law there for the rest of his life.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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