Scope and Content Note
The papers of Charles O’Neil (1842-1927) span the years 1833-1927, with the bulk of the material concentrated in the period 1872-1922. In his long naval career, O’Neil advanced from volunteer enlisted man’s status in 1861 to that of a rear admiral in 1897. Alternating duty at sea and ashore, O’Neil was involved with a variety of naval activities, most of which are documented in these papers. They are composed mainly of diaries, correspondence, subject files, photographs and miscellaneous material. The collection is organized into seven series: Diaries; General Correspondence; Official Correspondence; Subject File; Speech, Article, and Book File; Miscellany, and Oversize.
There is an almost complete set of diaries extending from 1872 to 1927. The entries in the diaries relate not only to O’Neil’s direct personal interests, but also reflect upon the general problems of the navy and of naval service in the over fifty-year span of recorded notations. Especially interesting are O’Neil’s comments on various events in the Spanish-American War, including such incidents as the blowing up of the Maine and the defeat of the Spanish fleet at Manila Bay. There are a number of letters from O’Neil to his parents, John and Mary Anne Francis O’Neil, and letters exchanged with his son, Ricard Frothingham O’Neil.
The correspondence in the collection covers the greater part of O’Neil’s naval career. There is a considerable amount of family correspondence and, during his retirement years, a large number of exchanges with former shipmates and with Confederate officers who had been his adversaries during the Civil War.
The years from 1897 to 1904, when O’Neil was chief of the Bureau of Ordnance, are most fully documented. Letterpress books in the Official Correspondence and material in the Subject File series trace O’Neil’s role as a pioneer in naval ordnance and in the development of armor plating. Interspersed throughout the collection are ordnance data, including reports, tests, experiments, and memoranda on a wide variety of technical subjects. Correspondence with individuals and companies supports this ordnance material. As chief of the Bureau of Ordnance, O’Neil communicated with congressmen and cabinet officers, and the papers document, the congressional investigations of the Gathman high explosive controversy from 1913 to 1915. Correspondents in the collection include George Dewey, Eugene Hale, John Davis Long, William H. Moody, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt, and John W. Weeks.
O’Neil’s sea duty included service in most of the overseas squadrons that the navy maintained from 1861 to 1896. Coverage of O’Neil’s early naval career, 1861 to 1872, is sparse. A few items in the genealogical files are the only documentation on O’Neil’s first few years of naval service. But from 1872 to 1896, when O’Neil was usually alternating duty at sea and ashore, his career as a naval officer is more fully covered. Especially interesting are his activities as commander of the Marblehead, from 1892 to 1896. During this command he became involved in the Bluefields Mosquito Reservation Revolt in Nicaragua and with the massacre of Armenian nationals in Turkey, both of which are treated in the Subject File.
The papers indicate that O’Neil made several unsuccessful attempts to prepare his memoirs for publication. A great many of his fragmentary notes are to be found in the Miscellany series. Similarly, a large number of notes and fragments on his genealogical research into the O’Neil and the Francis families are in the genealogical files. Although he composed many articles pertaining to his memoirs, only one appears to have been published, “Engagement between the Cumberland and the Merrimack,” in the June 1922 issue of the United States Naval Institute Proceedings. Photographs, newspaper clippings, scrapbooks on various aspects of his naval career, plus some financial papers and a biographical file round out the collection.