Robert Underwood Johnson, Clarence Clough Buell, Battles and Leaders of the Civil War: The Opening Battles. Volume 1.

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[624] administration, in a situation of peculiar difficulty. Although Mr. Welles had at one time been connected with the Navy Department, having been the civil chief of the Bureau of Provisions and Clothing from 1846 to 1849, he was in no sense a naval expert, and he was obliged to rely upon others for expert advice and assistance in his office. There was no one, however, at his office to give such advice and assistance, except the five chiefs of bureau, who were concerned only with the business of supplying materials, and who had really nothing to do with the general direction of the fleet,--meaning thereby the working force of ships, officers, and men actually employed in naval operations. To meet this difficulty, the Secretary wisely called Captain Gustavus V. Fox to the post of chief professional adviser. Captain Fox had formerly been an officer of the navy, and had borne a high reputation for professional skill. His connection with manufacturing enterprises during the few years preceding the war had emancipated him from the slavery of routine and had given him a knowledge of affairs which naval officers in general could not easily acquire. He had shown great intelligence and zeal in the second relief-expedition to Fort Sumter, where he acted in a semi-private capacity, and Mr. Welles decided to take him into the department. The duties for which he was wanted, and which he ultimately performed with such success, were those which are commonly assigned to an officer known as the chief of staff, namely, the disposition and direction of the fleet, and the conduct of naval operations. It is hardly necessary to add that without his previous experience as a naval officer he could not have performed these duties for a day. A temporary place was made for him on May 9th, 1861, as chief clerk. When Congress met in July, it created the office of Assistant Secretary, to which Fox was appointed on August 1st, and which he retained until after the close of the war. He was succeeded in the chief clerkship by William Faxon.

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The South entered upon the war without any naval preparation, and with very limited resources by which its deficiencies could be promptly supplied. Indeed, it would hardly be possible to imagine a great maritime country more destitute of the means for carrying on a naval war than the Confederate States in 1861. No naval vessels, properly speaking, came into their possession, except the Fulton, an old side-wheeler built in 1837, and at this time laid up at Pensacola, and the sunken and half-destroyed hulks at Norfolk, of which only one, the Merrimac, could be made available for service. The seizures of other United States vessels included six revenue-cutters, the Duane at Norfolk, the William Aiken at Charleston, the Lewis Cass at Mobile, the Robert McClellan and the Washington at New Orleans, and the Henry Dodge at Galveston ;¹ three coast-survey vessels, the schooners Petrel and Twilight, and the steam-tender Firefly; and six or eight light-house tenders. As all of these were small, and most of them were sailing vessels, they were of little value.

Several coasting or river steamers belonging to private owners, which were lying in Southern waters when the war broke out, were taken or