Benson J. Lossing, Pictorial Field Book of the Civil War. Volume 1., page 560

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[560] iron-clad vessels, and recommended the appointment of a competent board to inquire into and report on the subject. Already there had been spent more than a million of dollars in the construction of an immense iron-clad floating battery, for harbor defense, by Messrs. Stevens, of Hoboken, New Jersey, most of it by the Government, and yet it was not completed. He recommended a special inquiry concerning that battery, before the large sum asked for its completion should be appropriated.¹

The call for recruits for the Navy was promptly complied with, and for the want of them no vessel was ever detained more than two or three days. Since the 4th of March, two hundred and fifty-nine officers had resigned their commissions or had been dismissed from the service for disloyalty; and several vessels were sent to sea at first without a full complement of officers. The want was soon supplied. Many who had retired to civil pursuits now patriotically came forth promptly to aid their country in its struggle for life, and were re-commissioned ;² while many masters and masters' mates were appointed from the commercial marine.³ The Naval School and public property at Annapolis, in Maryland, had been removed to Newport, Rhode Island, because it was unsafe, in the state of public affairs in Maryland, to continue the school there. Fort Adams, near Newport, was tendered by the War Department for the temporary accommodation of the school.

1 Until just before the war, this structure had been shut in from the public eye. It was to be seven hundred feet long, covered with iron plates, so as to be proof against shot and shell of any kind. It was to be moved by steam-engines of sufficient power to give it a momentum that would cause it to cut in two any ship-of-war then known, when it should strike it at the waist. It was intended to mount a battery of sixteen heavy rifled cannon, in bomb-proof casemates, and two heavy columbiads for throwing shells. The latter were to be on deck, fore and aft. The smoke-stack was to be constructed in sliding sections, like a telescope, for obvious purposes; and the vessel was to be so constructed that it might be sunk to the level of the water. Its burden was to be rated at six thousand tons. It is yet (1865) unfinished.

2 The following is the form of the naval commissions:--

The President of the United States of America,

To all who shall see these presents, Greeting: Know ye, that reposing special Trust and Confidence in the Patriotism, Valor, Fidelity, and Abilities of-------, I have nominated, and, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, do appoint him a-----, from the---day of----, 18--, in the service of the United States. He is therefore carefully and diligently to discharge the Duties of----, by doing and performing all Manner of Things thereto belonging. And I do strictly charge and require all Officers, Seamen, and Marines, under his command, to be obedient to his Orders as----. And he is to observe and follow such Orders and Directions, from time to time, as he; shall receive from me, or the future President of the United States, or his Superior Officer set over him, according to the Rules and Discipline of the Navy. This Commission to continue in force during the pleasure of the President of the United States for the time being. Given under my hand at Washington, this---day of----, in the year of our Lord One Thousand Eight Hundred and Sixty-one, and in the Eighty-fifth year of the Independence of the United States.

Abraham Lincoln. Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy.

Navy Department seal.

These commissions :are printed on parchment. At the top is seen a spread eagle on a rock in the ocean. on which is a mariner's compass, the fasces and olive-branch, with sailing vessels-of-war in the distance. At the bottom, Neptune and the Goddess of Liberty, in a shell drawn by horses and surrounded by Tritons; and below this the seal, surrounded by a wreath, and military and naval trophies.

3 Report of the Secretary of the Navy, July 4, 1861.

Scanned printed text.

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Benson J. Lossing, Pictorial Field Book of the Civil War. Volume 1.

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The President of the United States of America,