Nicknamed “Father Neptune” as Secretary of the Navy in Lincoln’s cabinet, Welles presided over the ten-fold expansion of the U.S. Fleet during the course of the war. This proved crucial to the successful execution of the “Anaconda Plan” which shut down the Confederate ports and put a stranglehold on rebel supplies, especially smuggled armaments. After the war he was engaged in politics and writing him memoirs til his death in 1878 at age 75.
Gideon Welles
