Biographical Note
Henry Willis Wells was born on July 4, 1841, in Massachusetts. Wells began his sailing career at the age of fifteen, circling Cape Horn in the ship Ocean Telegraph (clipper). During the Civil War, he sailed with the United States Navy from 1861 to 1864, serving on multiple ships including the Cambridge (armed steamer), the Ceres (armed steamer), and the Gem of the Sea (bark). For the majority of the war, Wells was stationed along the Chesapeake Bay and into North Carolina. Aboard the Cambridge, he witnessed the Battle of Hampton Roads (also known as the Battle of the Monitor and Merrimack or the Battle of the Ironclads) in March 1862. In November 1862, Confederate forces took Wells prisoner and sent him to Libby Prison in Richmond, Virginia; he was released as part of a prisoner exchange that December. Wells died on December 31, 1864, when his ship, the Annie (schooner), was lost at sea off the coast of South Carolina.