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Civil War-dated partly-printed DS, one page, 8 x 9.75, August 5, 1862. Commission from the U.S. Navy Department for Commander Thomas H. Stevens, which states that the “President of the United States has promoted you to the grade of a Commander, on the Active List, in the United States Navy…and to take rank next after Commander G. H. Preble.” Signed at the conclusion by Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles. The bottom assigns Stevens as commander of the “U.S. Steamer Maratanza, Baltimore, M’d.” In fine condition.
Thomas Holdup Stevens, Jr. (1819–1896) was a United States Navy officer who rose to admiral and distinguished himself in multiple major operations of the American Civil War. In late April 1862, Stevens transferred to the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron and took command of the gunboat Maratanza, which he led in support of General McClellan’s Peninsula Campaign. Promoted to commander in July, he later held short commands of Monitor and then Sonoma, capturing five Confederate vessels and pursuing the privateer Florida in a 34-hour chase.
Detached from Sonoma in June 1863, Stevens joined the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron and commanded the ironclad Patapsco in repeated assaults on Charleston’s defenses. By mid-1864, he was in the West Gulf Blockading Squadron with Oneida, fighting in operations leading up to Mobile Bay. Farragut assigned him to the monitor Winnebago, which he commanded during attacks on Fort Powell and at the Battle of Mobile Bay. Stevens then returned to Oneida, remaining in command through the end of the war.
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