Naval History and Heritage Command

Biographical Note

Horatio Bridge was born in Augusta, Maine, on 8 April 1806, to James Bridge and his wife. Entering in 1821, Bridge graduated from Bowdoin College in the class of 1825 along with Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Bridge’s life-long friend, Nathaniel Hawthorne. Although trained as a lawyer, Bridge joined the US Navy in 1838 and served as Paymaster General during the Civil War. He retired in 1868 as a Paymaster with the rank of Commodore.

Scope and Content Note

This collection consists of letters gathered by Paymaster General Horatio Bridge. The letters are chiefly correspondence to and from several Secretaries of the Navy, including Paul Hamilton, William Jones, Benjamin W. Crowninshield, Smith Thompson, John Branch, Levi Woodbury, Mahlon Dickerson, and George Bancroft. Correspondents include such prominent Navy officers as Isaac Chauncy, Oliver Hazard Perry, Hugh L. Campbell, David Porter, Thomas Macdonough, Thomas ap Catesby Jones, and Matthew Calbraith Perry.

The collection is organized in two series. Series I contains the bulk of the letters in a chronological arrangement. Series II holds several oversize items. In this series are an 1823 certificate of guardianship of Stephen Borders signed by the Governor of Georgia; an 1814 letter to President James Madison concerning Lieutenant William S. Cox, signed by Richard Dale and several Navy officers; letters from the Mayor and City Council of Savannah and petitions from the District of Maine seeking protection during the War of 1812.

Restrictions on Use:
Manuscripts are unavailable for loan and must be consulted in the library. Photocopying of manuscripts in this collection is prohibited, though the use of digital cameras without flash by researchers to reproduce materials is permitted. The use of personal scanners by non-library staff personnel must be approved by the reference staff on a document-by-document basis (Reference: Naval History and Heritage Command Instruction [NAVHISTCENTINST] 5070.1C.).

Preferred Citation

Collection of Horatio Bridge, Navy Department Library, Naval History and Heritage Command, Washington, D.C.

Subject Headings (LCSH)

United States. Navy — History — 19th century. 
United States — History — War of 1812. 
United States. Navy — Officers — Correspondence. 
United States. Department of the Navy.

Related Materials

The George J. Mitchell Department of Special Collections and Archives of the Bowdoin College Library holds a collection of Horatio Bridge’s papers.

Box and Folder List

Box 1

Series I: Letters, 1791-1845

22 June 183620 October 1836

Box 2 (Oversize)

Series II: Oversize, 1803-1834