LINCOLN, ABRAHAM, President . Autograph letter signed ("A. Lincoln") as President, TO ADMIRAL JOHN ADOLPHUS DAHLGREN, Washington, D.C., 9 January 1864. 1 page, 8vo, integral blank, on Executive Mansion stationery, faint mat-burn, two minor fold tears. THE PRESIDENT RECOMMENDS A NAVAL INVENTOR TO THE INVENTOR OF THE DAHLGREN GUN President Lincoln endorses a military inventor: "Capt[ain] Lavender wishes to show you a contrivance of his for discovering, and aiding to remove, under-water obstructions to the passage of vessels, and has sufficiently impressed me to induce me to send him to you. He is sufficiently vouched to me as a worthy gentleman; and this known, it needs not my asking for you to treat him as such..." Lincoln was responding to a letter he received from Senator Edwin D. Morgan on 8 January 1864, in which the Senator asked the President to meet with Lavender: "I hope you may be able to spare him a few moments. He does not want an office..." (Library of Congress -- Robert Todd Lincoln Papers). Admiral Dahlgren responded to Lincoln's letter 23 January 1864: "There seems to me no objection to a trial of his project, and I beg leave, therefore, to recommend that such be made at some Navy Yard under the eye of one or more experienced persons. It would be almost impossible to make the machine here, as material and mechanics are already unequal to the daily pressing wear and tear of the vessels of the Squadron..." ( Ibid ). The exact nature of his invention and the outcome of any tests performed are unknown ( Collected Works... , ed. R.P. Basler, 7:118). Admiral Dahlgren (1809-1870) was appointed commander of the Washington Navy Yard in 1861 after Captain Franklin Buchanan resigned to join the Confederate Army. Dahlgren served actively during the war, commanding the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron off of Charleston and aiding General Sherman in the capture of Savannah, but is best remembered for his innovations in the field of naval ordnance. The heavy cast iron cannon he designed, known as Dahlgren guns, "completely revolutionized the armament of the Navy," and in 1862 he was appointed Chief of the Bureau of Ordnance while still only a Commander. ( DAB , pp.29-31).
LINCOLN, ABRAHAM, President . Autograph letter signed ("A. Lincoln") as President, TO ADMIRAL JOHN ADOLPHUS DAHLGREN, Washington, D.C., 9 January 1864. 1 page, 8vo, integral blank, on Executive Mansion stationery, faint mat-burn, two minor fold tears. THE PRESIDENT RECOMMENDS A NAVAL INVENTOR TO THE INVENTOR OF THE DAHLGREN GUN President Lincoln endorses a military inventor: "Capt[ain] Lavender wishes to show you a contrivance of his for discovering, and aiding to remove, under-water obstructions to the passage of vessels, and has sufficiently impressed me to induce me to send him to you. He is sufficiently vouched to me as a worthy gentleman; and this known, it needs not my asking for you to treat him as such..." Lincoln was responding to a letter he received from Senator Edwin D. Morgan on 8 January 1864, in which the Senator asked the President to meet with Lavender: "I hope you may be able to spare him a few moments. He does not want an office..." (Library of Congress -- Robert Todd Lincoln Papers). Admiral Dahlgren responded to Lincoln's letter 23 January 1864: "There seems to me no objection to a trial of his project, and I beg leave, therefore, to recommend that such be made at some Navy Yard under the eye of one or more experienced persons. It would be almost impossible to make the machine here, as material and mechanics are already unequal to the daily pressing wear and tear of the vessels of the Squadron..." ( Ibid ). The exact nature of his invention and the outcome of any tests performed are unknown ( Collected Works... , ed. R.P. Basler, 7:118). Admiral Dahlgren (1809-1870) was appointed commander of the Washington Navy Yard in 1861 after Captain Franklin Buchanan resigned to join the Confederate Army. Dahlgren served actively during the war, commanding the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron off of Charleston and aiding General Sherman in the capture of Savannah, but is best remembered for his innovations in the field of naval ordnance. The heavy cast iron cannon he designed, known as Dahlgren guns, "completely revolutionized the armament of the Navy," and in 1862 he was appointed Chief of the Bureau of Ordnance while still only a Commander. ( DAB , pp.29-31).
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.jpg "Source: Christie's")
.jpg "Source: Christie's")
