Series 48. Henry A. Wise (pre-1855-1868)

The series consists of private and unofficial correspondence received by Henry Augustus Wise during his tenure as head of the Navy's Bureau of Ordnance and Hydrography, manuscripts of books he wrote under the pseudonym Harry Gringo, and correspondence related to the publication of his "Captain Brand" by Harper's Weekly. The letters provide details of the ordering, manufacturing and testing of ordnance, as well as everyday personal introductions and invitations. His correspondents include Percival Drayton, commander of the ironclad Passaic and Superintendent of Ordnance at the New York Navy Yard; R. Aulick, Assistant Chief, Bureau of Ordnance; Commander R.B. Hitchcock; Assistant Secretary of the Navy Gustavus Vasa Fox (see Series 17); Monitor designer John Ericsson (see Series 16); Admiral David Porter, whose 1862 correspondence includes humorous sketches of anthropomorphic armaments; public official Hamilton Fish; and Theodore P. Greene (see Series 24).

Comments penciled on letters in letter book 10 imply that their publication was planned: "Drayton letters, almost without exception, are well worth printing"; and "Those relating to Navy agents and [. . .] (for example) are very pertinent. They should appear". There is no indication within the series that they were published.

Biographical Note

Henry Augustus Wise (1819-1869) entered the Navy as a midshipman in 1834. During the Mexican War (1846-1848) he saw action in the Gulf of California, and then became an expert on gunnery. When the Civil War began, Wise had to decide between staying in the US Navy and serving his home state of Virginia for the Confederacy. He retained his commission, and among his first duties was the burning of Gosport Navy Yard (Norfolk, VA). After a few months on blockade duty he was assigned to the Bureau of Ordnance and Hydrography, the agency responsible for the Navy's armaments and the shore stations where they were produced and tested. He became acting chief in 1863 and was appointed chief in 1864, which position he held until illness necessitated his resignation in 1868. He died in Naples, Italy, the next year.

Arrangement

The letters were previously disbound from letter books and numbered for indexing in approximate chronological order. However, there are often numbers missing within a documented range. The folders are arranged in letter book order and the letters within them in order as numbered, which is not always strictly chronological.