Navy Profiles
What Does A Paymaster Do?
Paymaster Elisha W. Dunn only rates four lines in the 1892 Revised Roster, and that record only briefly states he was assigned to the Mississippi Flotilla and later the Mississippi Squadron from 1862 to 1865. Since 15 of the 100 Vermonters who served as officers in the Navy during the war were paymasters, it might be appropriate to find out a bit more about this position. The following vignettes highlight the tasks, trials and tribulations of a Navy Paymaster.
On November 1, 1861, Flag-Officer William McKean, Commanding Gulf Blockading Squadron, then situated off the South West Pass, Mississippi River, informed Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles, that he had ordered Paymaster Dunn to the steamer South Carolina in place of Assistant Paymaster Gould, who had been condemned by medical survey (he failed his physical!).1
On July 6, 1862, at Cairo, Illinois, Commander and Fleet Captain A. M. Pennock informed Flag-Officer C. H. Davis, that he had sent Paymaster Dunn to St. Louis to get paymasters for the gunboats Sumter, Mound City and Bragg, "as it is very important to have a paymaster on board to receive the accounts of the men, the provisions, etc."2
On September 7, 1862, at Cairo, Illinois, Commodore C. H. Davis, Commanding Mississippi Flotilla, onboard the flag-ship Eastport, ordered Paymaster Dunn, after completing some unspecified business in St. Louis, to proceed to Washington, to report directly to Secretary Gideon Welles, to "disentangle and resolve the difficulties" created by soldiers transferred from the Army of the Potomac to the gunboat flotilla without statements of their accounts, which resulted in significant pay discrepancies for these soldiers turned sailors. Davis selected Dunn because his "position as paymaster, having had a general supervision of the books and accounts of the acting paymasters of the flotilla, had fully qualified you to answer all questions of transfer that may arise under the head of pay and subsistence." Dunn also carried back to Washington Davis' thoughts on recently received regulations regarding the admission of volunteer line officers into the Navy on temporary service as it applied to the Western Flotilla.3
In December, 1862, A. M. Pennock, in a letter to Acting Rear-Admiral David Porter, defended keeping Fleet Paymaster Dunn in his current position, as he had "charge of the light-draft flotilla and various other boats, and it is absolutely necessary that he should be here to supply stewards, make out requisitions for provisions and clothing, furnish the paymaster of the different boats with money, and receive and enter on his books the transfers of crews to those boats already purchased and those which have not yet arrived."4
Another of Dunn's duties as Fleet Paymaster, was to arbitrate issues regarding term of enlistment for sailors who were claiming discharge because they had 'served their time.' In one case, the shipping articles (what we now call enlistment papers) contained no mention of a term of enlistment and no signature by a recruiting officer, but the sailor claimed he had enlisted for only one year. Dunn solicited clarification from Admiral Porter. This particular document highlights the rather loose method of enlistment for western sailors, which might account for the paucity of service information for Vermont sailors when compared to their land-bound counterparts.5
In April 1863, Lieutenant-Commander Breese, at Black Hawk, near Vicksburg, requested the presence of Paymaster Dunn "to settle the accounts of the Forest Rose," and other gunboats. Breese opined that most of the troubles, resignations and other ills his units were suffering were directly attributed to lack of pay.6
Paymaster Dunn's duties, during which he carried large sums of money, were considered significant enough that when he was sent downriver from Cairo in early May 1864, a second gunboat was sent along "as it is reported that boats are being fired upon all along below Memphis."7
On the night of June 1, 1864, the naval wharf boat at Mound City, Illinois, was burned. Onboard and destroyed were all of Paymaster Dunn's "books, papers, vouchers, etc., involving heavy accounts with the Government." In a report to the Chairman of the Naval Committees of the House and Senate, Rear-Admiral David Porter asked for favorable attention to Dunn's application to Congress for relief. In his letter, Porter said "Fleet Paymaster Dunn has been with me in his present capacity from the time I took command of this fleet, and I have found him an honest, faithful, and efficient officer, and such statements as he may make in regard to his affairs will be entirely reliable." It took Congress nearly two years, but based on Porter's recommendation, and Dunn's statements, "A Bill For the relief of Elisha W. Dunn, a paymaster in the United States Navy," was passed March 15, 1866.8
Shortly after the war, Paymaster Dunn served at the Navy Yard in New York and on the New Hampshire. The remainder of his career has not yet been determined.9
(to be continued ...)
Notes:
1. ORN, 16:752-3.
2. ORN, 23:252.
3. ORN, 23:343-4; there were several Vermonters from infantry regiments who had thus transferred.
4. ORN, 23:642.
5. ORN, 24:167-8.
6. ORN, 24:581.
7. ORN, 26:284-5.
8. ORN, 26:568-9; Senate Bill S-202, 39th Congress, 1st Session, March 15, 1866.
9. Peck, 691.
See Researching and writing about Vermont Blue-Jackets in the Civil War for explanations of references.
