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Gideon Welles Re: Ironclad Voyage to California around South America
Gideon Welles Re: Ironclad Voyage to California around South America
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Description:

Gideon Welles Re: Ironclad Voyage to California around South America

Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles sent this letter to congratulate Lieutenant Commander Francis M. Bunce on his command of the successful voyage of the ironclad USS Monadnock from the East Coast around Cape Horn to San Francisco, California. The voyage was roughly 14,000 miles and took eight and a half months.

GIDEON WELLES, Manuscript Letter Signed, to Francis M. Bunce, August 1, 1866, Washington, D.C. 2 pp., 7.75" x 9.75" Expected folds; separation on several folds; clear, bold signature.

Complete Transcript
Navy Department
Washington 1 August 1866.
Sir:
Commodore Rodgers has forwarded to the Department your report of the performance of the turreted steamer Monadnock, and the successful termination of her interesting voyage. It gives me pleasure to acknowledge the obligation you have conferred on the Department, and to thank you for the service which you have rendered the country in this great achievement.
Many naval critics, and even accomplished officers, questioned the practicability of this untried experiment, which you gallantly volunteered to execute, and which you have so triumphantly accomplished. Throughout your long voyage from the North Atlantic to the North Pacific, the Department has watched your progress with solicitude and rejoiced in your success, which it never doubted.
I congratulate you and the officers and crew of the Monadnock on an achievement which has been executed with courage and ability that reflects credit on the service, and which gives you a professional record as distinguished and deserving as if won in a successful naval engagement.
Very respectfully,
Gideon Welles
Secretary of the Navy
Lieutenant Commander / Francis M. Bunce
Commanding U.S. Iron Clad "Monadnock," / San Franciso, / Cal.

Historical Background
Built at the Boston Navy Yard and launched in March 1863, the ironclad USS Monadnock was commissioned in October 1864. Armed with four muzzle-loading Dahlgren guns in two twin-gun turrets, the Monadnock steamed to Norfolk, Virginia, where it joined the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron and participated in the assault on Fort Fisher near Wilmington, North Carolina. It then joined the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron and entered Charleston Harbor two days after the Confederates abandoned the city and took possession of a blockade runner. It then steamed to Hampton Roads, Virginia, then up the James River, where it participated in the final assault on the Confederate capital of Richmond and helped clear the river of naval mines.

After the war, the Monadnock went to a navy yard in Philadelphia, where it was fitted with a 3.5-foot breakwater to prevent contrary seas from battering the forward turret and taller wooden pilot houses. The USS Monadnock left Philadelphia for its historic voyage on October 5, 1865, accompanied by the USS Vanderbilt, USS Powhatan, and USS Tuscarora. Though accompanied by these other vessels, the Monadnock steamed the entire way to California under its own power, but temperatures in its fire room ranged from 120 to 140 ?. The squadron stopped at numerous South American ports, passed the Strait of Magellan, and arrived at Valparaiso in March 1866, just as a Spanish squadron prepared to bombard the town. Commodore John Rodgers attempted to convince the Spanish admiral to forego the attack, without success. The squadron reached San Francisco on June 21, 1866, and the Monadnock entered the Mare Island Navy Yard on June 26 and was decommissioned on June 30. Eight years later, the Monadnock was sold for scrap.

Newspapers referred to the Monadnock as "The Wonder of the Age," and the Monadnock and Vanderbilt had entered San Francisco Bay through the Golden Gate without a local pilot. A correspondent from San Francisco reported that thousands of citizens went to see the vessel and observed, "It seems an ignoble fate for such a noble vessel to be laid away to rest in inglorious idleness like a huge alligator in the muddy waters of Napa creek; but such are the orders from the Navy Department, and there is no help for it." A correspondent to the Providence Journal wrote, "Prophecies without number have not been wanting that every new vessel would prove a failure. The 'Monadnock,' despite the assertions of many wise-heads, has steamed safely from port to port until she reached our western coast, and every one of these present days and hours gives yet more emphatic denial to the prophecies of those who lacked faith in ironclads." Assistant Secretary of the Navy, who strongly supported ironclads, chose the ironclad USS Miantonomoh for his voyage to convey President Andrew Johnson's congratulations to Tsar Alexander II of Russia on his escape from assassination. The Miantonomoh was the first monitor to cross the Atlantic Ocean.

Gideon Welles (1802-1878) was a Connecticut native, journalist, Democratic state legislator, Hartford Postmaster, and Chief of the Bureau of Provisions and Clothing for the Navy early in his career. In the 1848 presidential election, Welles left the Democratic Party over the issue of the expansion of slavery. Welles founded an influential Republican organ, the Hartford Evening Press, in 1856. Abraham Lincoln appointed Welles as Secretary of the Navy, and Welles was highly effective in mobilizing the resources of the country for an extensive blockade and offensive operations against the Confederacy. Abraham Lincoln nicknamed Welles his "Neptune," and Welles served as Secretary of the Navy from 1861 to 1869.

Francis Marvin Bunce (1836-1901) was born in Hartford, Connecticut, and graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1857. He was promoted to lieutenant by the beginning of the Civil War and participated in the Union blockade of the Confederacy as part of the Gulf Squadron and then served as executive officer of the gunboat USS Penobscot during the siege of Yorktown in the Peninsula Campaign. He later supported the attack on Morris Island and Fort Wagner outside Charleston Harbor, South Carolina. In 1863, he participated in the siege of Charleston aboard the monitor USS Patapsco. He later served on or commanded several other monitors for the remainder of the war. After the war, he commanded the monitor USS Monadnock in its voyage around Cape Horn to San Francisco, the first extended ocean voyage by a monitor. Over the next three decades, he alternated land and sea duty and gained promotion to captain (1883), commodore (1894), and acting rear admiral (1895), when he took command of the North Atlantic Squadron. He favored training ships to act as a squadron rather than individually and the outbreak of the Cuban War of Independence heightened tensions with Spain. In 1897, he took command of the New York Navy Yard in Brooklyn, from which he sent the battleship USS Maine to Key West, Florida, from which it was deployed to Havana, where its explosion triggered the Spanish-American War. He was promoted to rear admiral in 1898 and retired from the Navy at the statutory retirement age of 62 on December 25, 1898.

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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