Description:

Farragut David 1801 - 1870 Admiral David Farragut and General Benjamin Butler facilitate closer cooperation between the Union Army and Navy
Endorsement Signed, "D. G. Farragut, Rear Admiral Comm[andin]g West Gulf Blockading Squadron" accomplished on the bottom of an Autograph Letter Signed "W J Meredith Paymaster", 1 page, 7.75" x 12.25", Flag Ship Hartford, Pensacola Bay, November 1, 1862 requesting $10,000 to meet payroll for the crew. Offered together with a Manuscript Document Signed, "Benj[amin] Butler Maj[or] Gen[eral] Com[mandin]g" 1 page, 8" x 7.5", New Orleans, December 23, 1862 accepting a loan of $25,000 from the Army to the Navy for the use of paymaster Meredith. Both documents bear expected folds, light soiling, and some minor marginal wear, else very good to fine condition.


The first piece, a letter from the paymaster of the U.S.S. Hartford requesting the approval of funds from Farragut, reads, in full: "Sir: There is required for the use of this vessel in the Paymaster Department under the head of the appropriation for Pay Ten thousand dollars." Farragut, together with the captain of the U.S.S. Hartford, James S. Palmer, approves the request, adding their endorsing signatures below.

Apparently, $10,000 would only last so long as evidenced in the second document, which documents the approval by General Benjamin Butler, commanding at New Orleans, of a $25,000 loan from the Army to the Navy to meet the latter's payroll requirements. It reads, in full: "Received form Paymaster W J Meredith US Navy a draft dated Dec[embe]r 20th 1862 for Twenty five thousand dollars ($25,000) on Gideon Welles Secretary of the Navy under which the appropriation for 'Pay of Navy' Said Draft being given by Rear Admiral D G Farragut to me in return for Twenty five thousand dollars ($25,000) advanced by the Army to the Navy, Twenty dollars of which was for disbursement by Paymaster W J. Meredith and five thousand dollars by Paymaster G L Davis."

Cooperation between the United States Army and Navy was a contentious issue since the founding of the republic. The two service branches were independently represented in the cabinet and both had developed distinct organizational cultures. The outbreak of the Civil War demanded closer cooperation between the two branches as the Navy would be required to help land large bodies of troops in costal and river operations against the Confederate States. Perhaps the finest examples of Army-Navy cooperation came during the operations against New Orleans in 1862 and later at Mobile Bay in 1864. In the latter episode the Army lent it's signal officers to Farragut's fleet in order to coordinate both the naval force as well as the troops landed to take the forts guarding the bay. The operation proved a resounding success and closed the last major oceanic port controlled by the Confederate States.

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