NAVY DEPARTMENT, June 29, 1861.
SIR: The Department has received your communication of the 27th instant in relation to the occurrence at Mathias Point. You will return down the Potomac with the Pawnee as early as practicable. Commander T. T. Craven has been ordered to the command of the flotilla.
For his courage and gallant hearing at Mathias Point you will please rate John Williams, captain of the maintop of the Pawnee, master’s mate, at $40 per month.
The Department is highly gratified with your report of the gallantry, coolness, and presence of mind of Lieutenant Chaplin, and has expressed its appreciation in a separate letter, enclosing an extract from your report to him.
I am, respectfully, your obedient servant,
GIDEON WELLES.
Commander S. C. ROWAN,
Commanding u. S. S. Pawnee, Washington.
NAVY DEPARTMENT, June 29, 1861.
SIR: Annexed is an extract from a report* of Commander S. C. Rowan in relation to your gallant conduct at Mathias Point on the 27th instant, when you had command of a detachment from the U. S. S. Pawnee. The Department highly appreciates your brave and heroic bearing on the trying occasion, and is happy to communicate to you the complimentary extract from the report of your commanding officer.
I am, respectfully, etc.
GIDEON WELLES.
Lieutenant J. CROSSEN CHAPLIN,
U. S. S. Pawnee, Washington.
[Telegram]
NAVY DEPARTMENT, June 29, 1861.
Send to the Department the flag defended by John Williams, of the Pawnee, at Mathias Point.
GIDEON WELLES,
Secretary of the Navy.
Commander J. A. DAHLGREN,
Commandant Navy Yard, Washington, D.C.
Sources
Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion. Series I, Vol. 4. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1896.
Spirit of '61 