Order of the Secretary of the Navy to Commander Rodgers, U. S. Navy, to cooperate with Major-General McClellan, U. S. Army, in the execution of the Eads plan of blockade.
Navy Department, May 16, 1861.
Sir: You will proceed to Cincinnati, Ohio, or the headquarters of General McClellan, where [ever] they may be, and report to that officer in regard to the expediency of establishing a naval armament on the Mississippi and Ohio rivers, or either of them, with a view of blockading or interdicting communication and interchanges with the States that are in insurrection.
This interior nonintercourse is under the direction and regulation of the Army, and your movements will therefore be governed in a great degree by General McClellan, the officer in command, with whom you will put yourself in immediate communication. He will give such orders and requisitions as the case to him shall seem necessary, you acting in conjunction with and subordinate to him.
Whatever naval armament and crew may be necessary to carry into effect the objects here indicated, you will call for by proper requisition.
Make your reports to this Department.
I am, respectfully,
Gideon Welles.
Commander John Rodgers, U. S. Navy,
Washington, D. C.