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DiscoverMaineMagazine.com known alumni, including President Franklin Pierce. After being admitted to the bar, Bridge practiced law in Augusta and Skowhegan (then known as Milburn), Maine. After 10 years of practice, the field of law was not what Bridge had expected it to be, and in his own words, he found it “distasteful.” In 1838, at the relatively late age of 32, Bridge joined the United States Navy as a ship’s purser, which was a far cry from serving in a more respectable position in the courtroom. But he found the travel refreshing, and his role as an officer responsible for all aspects of administration and supply, enjoyable. His subsequent tours took him to Africa, Europe, and the Pacific. Fortunately for Bridge, knowing his law-school classmate Franklin Pierce was an important connection. Upon election to the Presidency, Pierce re-assigned Bridge and appointed him to serve as Chief of the Navy’s Bureau of Provisions and Clothing, otherwise known as the Paymaster General. This position managed the entire Department of the Navy’s materi-
el-support organization. Bridge held this post for many years past Pierce’s administration and throughout the Civil War. Bridge handled his position with skill and greatly pleased each subsequent administration with his innovative ideas. He also had the distinction of serving as the first man in the Navy to employ the notion of comprehensive fleet supply. Until that time, supply to the fleet was a haphazard distribution of food and supplies that was entirely unorganized, which allowed some ships to have lavish supplies while others lacked basic amenities. In regard to the skills and abilities that he showed in management of the Navy’s supply corps, Senator James Grimes from Iowa stated, “No Bureau of this government has been more admirably and accurately managed than the Bureau of Provisions and Clothing” and “I think a great reason, and a very important one, is because there is at the head of that Bureau an honest, vigilant, and faithful man.” Bridge was eventually promoted to the rank of Commodore due to
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his superior service to the U.S. Navy. Commodore Bridge, at the age of 40, met and married Charlotte Marshall in Boston, Massachusetts. They subsequently had one daughter who unfortunately died at the age of five. During that difficult time, Bridge received a letter from Hawthorne, who attempted to appease his life-long friend in his usual eloquent and poetic style: I trust you will be able to feel that though it is good to have a dear child on Earth, it is likewise good to have one safe in heaven. She will await you there and it will seem like home to you now. Affectionately, Nath Afterwards, Bridge returned to work and made many significant innovations to the Navy’s supply system such as advertising for competitive bids to enhance quality, and processing preserved meat, dairy, and vegetable products for organized distribution. Perhaps his most notable achievement was a reaction to the rum ration. In 1862, agitation due to the rum ration had become so pronounced (continued on page 16)
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