Diary of Gideon Welles, Volume I

“Wanting a man from New England, Lincoln took an ex-Democrat, trained in public business,

who had manifested his courage and the earnestness of his conviction by casting loose from his old associates on the question of slavery; and who also had shown a natural aptitude for politics, a quality which Mr. Lincoln, possessing it himself in a high degree, did not undervalue in others.” —John T. Morse, Jr., in the Introduction, 1909

Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson Vol. I  offers the view and experiences of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy during the Civil War, of the Abraham Lincoln administration, and of the Andrew Johnson administration that followed. This volume covers the period of 1861 to March 30, 1864.

It was a lifelong custom of Gideon Welles to keep a diary, including during his years in public office. By 1909, his diaries, edited by Welles’s son Edgar, were published.