(NAVY.) Papers of Lieutenant James C. Williamson, regarding service in China in the Second Opium War and more. 81 items (0.2 linear feet), mostly official orders signed by Secretaries of the Navy or naval officers; condition generally strong, a few with moderate dampstaining or wear. Various places, 1832-1860 "Have lookouts stationed about the ship to look out for fire rafts & boats."
James Cara Williamson (1813-1871) of Jersey City, NJ enlisted in the Navy as a midshipman in 1832, and worked his way up through the ranks, reaching the rank of Captain in 1862. These orders span the first 28 years of his career.
An 11 October 1836 message from the New York Navy Yard orders him to "report to Capt. [Matthew Calbraith] Perry & Professor Ward for the purpose of attending the Naval School at this yard." As a lieutenant in the Mexican War, on 14 January 1848 he was ordered to "proceed without delay to Vera Cruz via New Orleans and report to Commo. Perry for duty in the Home Squadron." Two documents were drafted by the officers of the USS St. Louis in the harbor at Montevideo, Uruguay in 1850: one memorializing two officers who had just died of yellow fever, and the other forming an officer's social club, signed by 7 officers.
Williamson was in the East India Squadron during the Second Opium War. Included in this lot is an order from the first day of the Battle of the Pearl River Forts, 16 November 1856, from Commodore James Armstrong, appointing Williamson as temporary commander of the flagship USS San Jacinto: "You will have a supply of muskets and pistols kept loaded and in readiness for immediate use, and will have lookouts stationed about the ship to look out for fire rafts & boats." Ten days later, after the Americans had captured three Chinese forts, Armstrong ordered him "to proceed on the next trip of the steamer Cum Fa to the barrier forts and will on your arrival there report yourself to Commanders Foote and Bell for duty." On 13 January 1857, Williamson protested that he had not been given command of his rightful battery of artillery when "a warlike demonstration has been made on the Chinese by this squadron."
The lot includes Letters Signed by ten Secretaries of the Navy: Mahlon Dickerson (10), James Kirke Paulding (4), Abel Upshur (2), David Henshaw (4), John Y. Mason (9), George Bancroft, later a noted historian (1), William B. Preston (1), John P. Kennedy (1), James C. Dobbin (3), and Isaac Toucey (1).