Diary of Gideon Welles: Thursday, September 4, 1862

City full of rumors and but little truth in any of them.

Wilkes laid before me his plan for organizing the Potomac Flotilla. It is systematic and exhibits capacity.

Something energetic must be done in regard to the suspected privateers which, with the connivance of British authorities, are being sent out to depredate on our commerce. We hear that our new steamer, the Adirondack, is wrecked. She had been sent to watch the Bahama Channel. Her loss, the discharge of the Oreto by the courts of Nassau, and the arrival of Steamer 290,¹ both piratical British wolves, demand attention, although we have no vessels to spare from the blockade. Must organize a flying squadron, as has been suggested, and put Wilkes in command. Both the President and Seward request he should go on this service.

When with the President this A.M., heard Pope read his statement of what had taken place in Virginia during the last few weeks, commencing at or before the battle of Cedar Mountain. It was not exactly a bulletin nor a report, but a manifesto, a narrative, tinged with wounded pride and a keen sense of injustice and wrong. The draft, he said, was rough. It certainly needs modifying before it goes out, or there will be war among the generals, who are now more ready to fight each other than the enemy. No one was present but the President, Pope, and myself. I remained by special request of both to hear the report read. Seward came in for a moment, but immediately left. He shuns these controversies and all subjects where he is liable to become personally involved. I have no doubt Stanton and Chase have seen the paper, and Seward, through Stanton, knows its character.

Pope and I left together and walked to the Departments. He declares all his misfortunes are owing to the persistent determination of McClellan, Franklin, and Porter, aided by Ricketts, Griffin, and some others who were predetermined he should not be successful. They preferred, he said, that the country should be ruined rather than he should triumph.

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¹ The cruiser Alabama.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 1: 1861 – March 30, 1864, p. 109-10

Another New Man-Of-War

The new steam sloop-of-war Adirondack has just been completed at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, and the Navy Department have been informed that she is ready for her armament, and may be put in commission at once if required.  Her rigging and external decoration were finished last week, and she now lies in the stream, a perfectly built model.

The Adirondack is one of the new steam corvettes ordered by the Government, and was built at the Brooklyn Navy Yard and launched on Washington’s birthday, the 22d of February last.  She is a wooden vessel, having been far advanced toward construction before the advantages of iron clad ships were made so manifest.  She is 237 feet 2 inches long, over all, has a breadth of beam of 36 feet, a depth of hold 10 feet 11½ inches, and will draw when laden 14 feet of water.  Her machinery is of the first class, and was constructed at the Novelty Works in this city.  It consists of two horizontal back-acting engines, with cylinders 42 inches in diameter and 30 inch stroke.  The boilers, of which two splendid once have been put up, are Martin’s patent, provided with the latest improvements of the inventor.  The propeller is a three bladed, true screw, 14 feet 3 inches in diameter, with proportionate to pitch.  Sewall’s furnace condenser is attached to the machinery, and a distilling apparatus, capable of distilling 300 gallons of water in 24 hours.  The armament of the vessel is prepared, but must not be described now.

Officers for Adirondack will be appointed in a few days, and it is expected she will make her trial trip in the first week of June.  Her model was designed in Washington by the United States Contractors, so that she is a “regular navy built man-of-war.” – {Tribune

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, June 7, 1862, p. 1