Scope and Content Note
The papers of Louis Malesherbes Goldsborough (1805-1877) span the years 1797-1874 and include correspondence, military records, financial papers, printed material, illustrations, and other material relating to his career in the United States Navy.
The collection is organized in five series: Correspondence and Other Papers , Letterbooks , Military Papers , Miscellany , and Oversize . Included is an account of the capture of Castillo de San Juan De Ulúa during the Mexican War in 1847, the capture of John H. Surratt, and Goldsborough’s work as superintendent of the Naval Academy at Annapolis, 1853-1857. Also included are items from the Civil War relating to the blockade of Charleston Harbor, General Ambrose Everett Burnside’s Roanoke Island expedition, operations on the James River, the scuttling of the Merrimack, Goldsborough’s command of the Minnesota in Hampton Roads, Virginia, while awaiting an expected second attack of the Virginia, and visits to the front lines by Abraham Lincoln and members of his cabinet. A draft of a letter from Stephen Decatur to James Barron which led to a challenge and duel is also included.
Correspondents include Jeremiah S. Black, J. L. Cabell, Salmon P. Chase, John J. Crittenden, Samuel Francis Du Pont, Edward Everett, Gustavus Vasa Fox, John Lothrop Motley, Joseph Smith, Josiah Tatnall, A. P. Upshur, Gideon Welles, and Charles Wilkes