215 28 18MB
English Pages 263 Year 2018
Ironclad captaIns of the cIvIl War
also by Myron J. sMIth, Jr., and froM Mcfarland Joseph Brown and His Civil War Ironclads: The USS chillicothe, Indianola and tuscumbia (2017) Civil War Biographies from the Western Waters: 956 Confederate and Union Naval and Military Personnel, Contractors, Politicians, Officials, Steamboat Pilots and Others (2015) The Fight for the Yazoo, August 1862–July 1864: Swamps, Forts and Fleets on Vicksburg’s Northern Flank (2012) The CSS arkansas: A Confederate Ironclad on Western Waters (2011) Tinclads in the Civil War: Union Light-Draught Gunboat Operations on Western Waters, 1862–1865 (2010) The USS carondelet: A Civil War Ironclad on Western Waters (2010) The Timberclads in the Civil War: The lexington, conestoga and tyler on the Western Waters (2008; paperback 2013) Le Roy Fitch: The Civil War Career of a Union River Gunboat Commander (2007; paperback 2014) Compiled by Myron J. smith, Jr. The Baseball Bibliography, 2d ed. (2006)
Ironclad captaIns of the cIvIl War Myron J. smith, Jr. Foreword by Mark f. Jenkins
McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers Jefferson, North Carolina
ISBN (print) 978-1-4766-6636-5 ISBN (ebook) 978-1-4766-3129-5 lIbrary of congress cataloguIng-In-publIcatIon data brItIsh lIbrary cataloguIng data are avaIlable
© 2018 Myron J. smith, Jr. all rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. front cover: view on the deck of the uss Monitor looking forward from the starboard side on the James river in virginia on July 9, 1862 (library of congress) printed in the united states of america
McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers Box 611, Jefferson, North Carolina 28640 www.mcfarlandpub.com
In memory of susan b. ekey 1945–2017 a good and gentle person
acknowledgments What I am able to offer here would not have been possible without the help of personnel at a number of libraries and archives who kindly provided insight and access to resources during the research and writing stages of this outing. among them were the folks manning the libraries and collections of the u.s. navy department; library of congress; national archives; Mariners Museum; emory university; university of tennessee; Mississippi department of archives and history; university of southern Mississippi; Missouri historical society; new york public library; new york historical society; university of arkansas; university of north carolina at chapel hill; duke university; east tennessee state university; Kentucky historical society; u.s. army historical center; free library of philadelphia; vicksburg national Military park; louisiana state university; tennessee state library and archives; Illinois state library; Indiana historical society; chicago historical society; ohio historical society; ohio state university; greeneville-greene county public library; and tusculum university. for their insights and suggestions in this and earlier outings, I would also like to thank and remember those who offered comments regarding the biographees on the Civil War Navies Message Board. these include alan doyle, tom ezell, henry e. Whittle, ed cotham, george Wright, the late terry foenander, shawn clark, david adams, gary Matthews, and terry g. scriber. since Mark f. Jenkins took over the naval forum subdivision a few years ago, the Civil War Talk Forum has also become quite helpful. a special tip of the hat goes to two colleagues who have been especially helpful. their interest and assistance has tremendously aided this project and its previous biographical inspiration: david tschiggfrie, editor, S&D Reflector, and david Meagher, historian and naval architect. finally, I am particularly grateful to my longtime friend and henry Walke aficionado, Mark f. Jenkins, for his insights and generous foreword.
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table of contents acknowledgments
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foreword by Mark f. Jenkins Introduction
3
abbreviations
11
the captaIns a–Z
1
13
appendix: register of Ironclad captains bibliography Index
vii
247
233
229
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foreword by Mark f. Jenkins the ironclads of the american civil War look like no other vessels. they are almost unmistakable, and the shapes of the Monitor and the Virginia (formerly the Merrimack) are familiar to many. Indeed, a great part of the fascination with these vessels must come from their outlandish appearance. they were like nothing that had come before, and naval architecture evolved so quickly in the latter part of the 19th century that even their technological descendants soon looked very different. While few people would call them beautiful, most would agree that they certainly are intriguing. perhaps this instant attraction to the ships serves to draw attention away from the human element. faced with armor plates, big guns, and rotating turrets, the viewer can easily forget the gunners, engineers, and officers operating the machinery and steering the vessel’s course. but in many ways, these men were at least as interesting as the strange new ships they served aboard. they had to adapt to the rapidly changing technology in the midst of a shooting war, and they had to do it without a guidebook, as it was new to all. even more striking, not all of the technologies were evolving at the same rate. the guns could shoot farther than traditional methods of aiming could effectively control; and the lack of masts on many ironclads hampered ship-to-ship communications, which were still usually conducted with sig-
nal flags. In at least one instance, a monitor’s crew had to resort to a chalkboard to communicate with the steamship towing their ironclad. When a speaking tube broke down during the battle of hampton roads on March 9, 1862, Monitor skipper lieutenant John l. Worden had to resort to having his paymaster run verbal messages back and forth between the pilothouse and the gun turret. this sort of rapid adaptation to new challenges called for the best the men had to offer. some could adapt better than others. some made a quick retreat to more familiar surroundings; others succeeded and thrived in the new conditions. the story of human adaptation of technology—and adaptation to technology—is both as old as history and as new as the latest headlines and therefore always relevant. as fascinating as the ironclads themselves undoubtedly are, the men deserve at least as much attention. It was a transformative era for the american navy, as it was for all navies. Men who had been brought up to “hand, reef, and steer” and to climb ratlines to furl and unfurl sails were now expected to command ships that had no sails at all—and this in the middle of a national tragedy that divided families and comrades. on July 15, 1862, union commander henry Walke’s ironclad gunboat uss Carondelet fought it out (unsuccessfully) with confederate lieutenant Isaac newton brown’s ironclad css Arkansas in
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Foreword by Mark F. Jenkins the “old river” portion of the yazoo above vicksburg, Mississippi. twenty years before, Walke and brown had been messmates and friends on an around-the-world cruise aboard the sailing sloop uss Boston. While Walke and brown were unaware at the time that they were battling each other, there were plenty of occasions where the adversaries knew perfectly well whom they faced. the antebellum u.s. navy was a small organization with a tight-knit band of officers who had served with each other and were often related by marriage and by blood ties. they knew each other well, frequently using this knowledge in the service of their chosen navies. While in command of a later (non-ironclad) vessel, Walke took his knowledge of captain thomas Jefferson page into account in the confrontation with page’s css Stonewall off ferrol, spain, suggesting courses of action based on what he knew of page. the supreme tragedy, of course, is that these captains expended their efforts, and in some cases their lives, fighting each other. In some cases, survivors were fortunate to mend the disruptions to family and friends; but for
2 others the divisions and wounds, physical and emotional, lasted as long as life. none were unaffected. Myron J. (“Jack”) smith, Jr., has followed up his recent collection of short biographies of men connected with the civil War on the western rivers with this work dealing with the officers who commanded the union and confederate ironclads. as was the case with those covered in Civil War Biographies from the Western Waters, some of those profiled have been the subjects of full biographies; others have remained in the shadows; and some have never had their stories told in this way at all. Jack has performed a great service in bringing many of these fascinating men out of obscurity. I have had the privilege of getting to know Jack through our correspondence in the past several years, and I have the utmost respect for his scholarship. librarian and historian by trade and author by talent, he excels in extracting data from widespread sources and collecting it to produce results that are readable and informative. I am sure the reader will find this latest work to be both.
Mark F. Jenkins has created websites on the ironclads and the war on the Western rivers and has served as a Naval Forum moderator on CivilWarTalk.com. He is researching the life and career of Union naval officer Henry Walke. A marketing analyst, he lives in Westerville, Ohio.
Introduction the storm broke in april 1861. at 2:30 p.m. on april 13, Maj. robert anderson surrendered his beleaguered fort sumter, in charleston harbor, south carolina, to the confederacy. two days later, president abraham lincoln declared a state of insurrection and called for 75,000 three-month volunteers to quash the revolt. years of talk, hope, and work spent in seeking a solution to the economic, political, and social differences that divided the north and the south had ended in failure. the most tragic conflict in american history was “on.” When the southern states enacted ordinances of secession, they claimed as their own those states and geographical features lying within their borders. Quickly, leaders prepared for military defense, first locally and then for the entire new confederacy. Within weeks of the outbreak of the rebellion, northern politicians and commanders devised recovery strategies. among the keys to success for both sides would be the introduction of steam-powered armored naval vessels on a scale not yet seen, and employed in ways unpracticed. by the end of the 18th century, the gold standard for war craft were large sailing ships-of-the-line protected by thick oak sides and firing large numbers of smoothbore cannon. that would all change shortly into the 19th century. the concept of armored vessels of war, both powered and unpowered, was not altogether a new one in 1861 and dated back, some of said, as far as the Koreans in the 1500s. during the 1830s, warships began
to use steam propulsion, initially as adjunct to sail power, employing large engines and side paddle wheels. screw-powered vessels came into the picture during the 1840s and, at about the same time, the british and french began a large steam-powered shipof-the-line building race that continued a decade longer. simultaneously with this propulsion revolution a significant advance in ordnance power took place that saw the introduction of shell-firing cannon and explosive ammunition. this development put paid to the wooden fighting ship, as demonstrated in a war between russia and turkey. In the united states as early as the 1840s, new Jersey engineer robert l. stevens persuaded the u.s. government to grant him $250,000 and two years to build an american craft, the “stevens battery.” Its progress—or lack of same—was keenly watched by interested parties in the u.s. and abroad, including u.s. senator stephen r. Mallory. by 1861 the stevens enterprise was still not completed, however, though it had already consumed $586,717.84. realizing the necessity for increased protection, the anglo-french navies began an upgrade in warship shielding during the early 1850s, starting with the introduction of light-draught floating batteries covered with heavy iron and mounting large guns. the allies employed floating batteries with success during the crimean War. these were followed by the propelled (steam and sail) armored ships Gloire (1859) of france, Warrior
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Introduction (1861) of the uK, and similar units in other armadas. the years thereafter until the arrival of hMs Dreadnought in 1906 were known as the age of the Ironclads. Major warships built by the powers featured, to various degrees and in different configurations, the three attributes later summarized by british naval historian richard J. hill: “a metalskinned hull, steam propulsion and a main armament of guns capable of firing explosive shells.” “It is only when all three characteristics are present,” he wrote, “that a fighting ship can properly be called an ironclad.”1 When, even before fort sumter, the new confederacy was initially formed by a few of the southern states, it was from the start anything but timid in its approach to new naval thinking. stephen Mallory, who was confirmed as the confederate navy secretary on March 4, 1861, was keenly aware that rebel yells alone would not defeat the u.s. navy in the pending civil conflict. all the guns available on all the war craft in southern hands did not then equal the battery of a single federal sloop-of-war. so it was that, as soon as he was sworn in, the new confederate navy boss took stock of his situation. the floridian quickly determined that richmond would never be the power center for a major sea power. but by doing a few things well, his new command might be able to extract maximum advantage against the larger yankee foe. Within weeks, secretary Mallory was encouraging the development and deployment of commerce raiders, submarines, underwater mines (then known as “torpedoes”), small “mosquito” gunboat flotillas, and amphibious raids. as the war was launched and deepened, the former vessels, most successfully those purchased in britain and france, caused panic among union merchants, while the subsurface attacks actually destroyed nearly 50 federal warships. as James phinney baxter put it, secretary Mallory “staked the success of the confederate navy on two well conceived projects: the creation of com-
4 merce destroyers … and the construction of ironclads to break the blockade and carry the war to the enemy.”2 It was in the area of ironclad warship design and operations that the confederate navy and its chief made their greatest mark and the one most germane to this story. these “armorclads,” as they were called by prof. William n. still, Jr.,3 would, it was hoped, by their inherent quality counter the superior number of warships available to the enemy. Mallory and his colleagues initially believed that an ironclad fleet could be purchased from europe, and in May 1861 the confederate congress appropriated funds for that purpose. simultaneously, the richmond government came into possession of the abandoned usn yard at gosport, near norfolk, virginia, along with huge stores of ordnance and several abandoned, albeit damaged, warships. as readers may recall, one of these was the half-burned steam frigate Merrimack. the decision was quickly taken to convert this prize into an ironclad that could command local waters and maybe steam beyond. designed by John luke porter and John M. brooke, the powerful ship, christened css Virginia, had a built-up, ironcovered box, called a casemate or shield, affixed to its deck. protected inside was a battery of heavy guns, while the vessel’s machinery was protected in the hold down below. during the late spring and summer of 1861 as the Virginia took shape, designs were prepared for a number of other southern ironclads, some of which would win renown, including Arkansas, Atlanta, Tennessee, Albemarle, and Richmond. It is of interest that the first southern ironclad, operational in february, was the Manassas, a small one-gun vessel based at new orleans that would cheer the confederacy as, on october 12, she became the first armorclad in history to enter combat when she participated in the battle of head of passes. unhappily for richmond, its effort to purchase a foreign-built ironclad fleet fizzled; only one vessel, the Stonewall,
5 was acquired and that too late to make a difference. Most of the usn remained loyal to the union at the outbreak of the conflict, though a large number of its officers “went south.” the blue water fleet comprised some 50 vessels, including six large steam-frigates, and within a short time the federal navy department began an active acquisition and conversion program. Much of this initial effort was turned toward finding vessels to operate a blockade of confederate coastal waters and cities. simultaneously, the war department undertook the construction of a fleet on the Western waters designed to assist the u.s. army in its efforts to crush the rebellion in the Mississippi valley. as early as summer, designs were in hand for the construction of this river fleet, including a number of ironclads. While conversion of the Merrimack continued, union intelligence provided sufficient information to spur the usn into action, and once a specially appointed Ironclad board deliberated, it let contracts for three armorclads: the revolutionary, turreted Monitor, designed by swede John erricson; the little underarmored Galena; and the war’s most invulnerable warship, the giant oceangoing New Ironsides, which featured a conventional broadside battery. While these three were under construction, James b. eads completed seven ironclad gunboats at st. louis and Mound city, with the first entering service in January 1862. the army’s Western ironclad flotilla was the first into combat in february and several of its units attacked the southern bastions at fort henry and fort donelson, tennessee, on the tennessee and cumberland rivers respectively. these vessels, designed specifically to engage land targets, enjoyed complete success at the former and failure at the latter, due largely to river current and the height (or lack of it) of the defending citadels above the water. the first fight between armorclads occurred on March 9, 1862, when ericson’s
Introduction Monitor intercepted the css Virginia and fought her to a standstill in the second day of the battle of hampton roads. It was the naval action of the entire war, the one most reported in journals and histories ever since. It has been credited with ending the reign of the wooden warship and confirming that navies henceforth would feature vessels with the three attributes enumerated by professor hill above. both sides would continue to build as many armorclads as possible as ironclad fever swept the naval establishments. after the Virginia, over 20 more became operational with the csn. With a much larger shipbuilding industry, the north was able to begin 60 monitors (finishing 37) and 39 other armorclads, including Galena, New Ironsides, and some very strange-looking vessels employed on the Mississippi.4 each of these ships, like all other vessels plying the oceans or inland waterways, had a commander. In gershom bradford’s The Mariner’s Dictionary, we find a succinct definition of a captain: “In the navy, the commissioned rank next below that of rear admiral (commodore in certain circumstances); also, by extension, the commander of any naval vessel, irrespective of commissioned rank.”5 When the civil War opened, the commissed pay-grade rank of captain was the highest north or south, although the temporary titles of commodore and flag officer were employed for men commanding fleets, major yards, or districts. although 126 of the 571 federal captains, commanders, and lieutenants, most with over 10 years of experience, resigned and “went south,” neither naval establishment suffered from a lack of officers, though provisions for expansion were put into place within a year. In 1862 both sides started to add new ranks, including first lieutenants (csn), lieutenant commanders (usn) and pay-grade commodores and admirals of various grades. also, the federal navy instituted a system of volunteer officers, the highest rank for those men being acting volunteer lieutenant commander, while the south created
Introduction several “provisional” ranks. competition from the armies for soldiers placed far greater pressure on both sides in the recruitment of deck sailors. prior to the war, the commanders of u.s. naval vessels were all commissioned line officers (as opposed to those from technical fields such as engineers or paymasters or volunteers) and all, aboard frontline and auxiliary ships alike, had significant sea service experience. those ranked as captain skippered the largest vessels, with smaller ships falling under commanders and lieutenants. even as the war began, these men were increasingly and informally divided by education. Many who became available to the competing governments for the command of warships, such as roger stembel and Isaac newton brown, had joined the service before the 1845 founding of what became the u.s. naval academy and were educated on the job. as the war progressed, others with the advantage of an annapolis education also enjoyed important commands, including on the ironclads, officers such as george Mifflin bache II and Jonathan handby carter. Most of the confederate vessels and all but a handful of the union vessels, regardless of type, had more than one captain during the course of their service; some of those officers were quite effective and others were not. Many crews were led in their lifetimes by a mix of commissioned officers of various rank and, in the north, officers of volunteer recruitment, though no commissioned commodores or admirals regularly and physically commanded individual vessels. Most of the commissioned vessel commanders ranked as commanders or lieutenants, although there were a handful of pay-grade captains such as union hero henry Walke. Walke’s first ironclad vessel might serve as an example of this rank diversity. of her seven skippers, there was one captain and two each lieutenant commanders, acting volunteer lieutenants, and acting masters.6 the captains of the civil War ironclads
6 had the same duties and most of the same privileges of all the line officers commanding other naval vessels north and south. some of these requirements were quite ancient and not much changed from those in use during the War of 1812. the number one rule was that, acting under regulations, captains were the sole arbiters of all aspects of their vessels, “both animate and inanimate,” and were to be ready for combat at any moment. officers made captain—by another’s death or by appointment—were all expected to be, or to quickly become, intimately knowledgeable regarding their ships and men. elevated executive officers appointed in their ships might be expected to have great knowledge of their ships and men by having already served aboard. captains named to new ships often had the opportunity to observe or even participate in the construction and rigging of their commands. they certainly had the worries of the outfitting and manning of their craft. part of this was working with their subordinate shipboard officers, who in turn oversaw crew activities. In addition to these duties in common with captains of other naval vessels, those in command of civil War ironclads had a myriad of additional challenges occasioned by the new vessel technologies. In particular, they needed to understand the seaworthiness of their craft, particularly when venturing into blue water, whether alone or under tow. the capabilities of the great guns employed and any special arrangements under which they were operated had to be understood. Warfare from within an armored casemate or turret was unique and different in numerous ways from that experienced on the open decks of a sloop-of-war or gunboat. visibility was far more limited from within an ironclad casemate or pilothouse than it was from an exposed quarterdeck. the armor protecting the ship was also a concern. In some vessels, such as the federals’ city series of Western river ironclads, armor protection over certain quarters was weak; in others, like the
7 union’s Keokuk and Galena, it was poor throughout and failed quickly. engine reliability and the exposed arrangement of steering gear, particularly on confederate ironclads like the Arkansas and the second Tennessee, could be quite problematic. once their vessels were commissioned and ordered underway, captains, when not under specific orders, chose the speed and courses steamed and were the only officers allowed to choose the style of combat, order ships cleared for action, initiate gunnery, and order actions broken off. given their responsibilities, the position of captain aboard a union or confederate man-o’-war was solitary, allowing for equal opportunity to plan and worry and to attend to mountains of paperwork (reports, crew assignments, requisitions, etc.). there were opportunities for glory in triumph, as found by John Worden, John rodgers, Isaac newton brown, and William h. parker, as well as failure, like that experienced by franklin buchanan and William gwin. Indeed, many of those who commanded ironclads on the union side and survived eventually retired as commodores or admirals.
Criteria and Arrangement over the past decade or so, employing resources and contacts developed over 45 years, I have had the opportunity to pen eight books detailing the civil War on Western waters. I began with that most fascinating of gunboatmen, the Indiana sailor cmdr. le roy fitch, following that with titles reviewing the gunboat war from the perspective of the non-ironclad timberclad and tinclad gunboats and the confederates they engaged. those works were followed by two detailed ironclad histories, one each for the uss Carondelet and the css Arkansas, which also served as platforms to report on the larger river war. the books dove into all aspects of the federal campaign to capture or
Introduction defend vicksburg, as seen from its northern flank on the yazoo river, and then offered profiles in a biographical directory of 956 participants in the great rivers conflict. finally, I looked at another little-known participant who, like fitch, played a significant role. Joseph brown, builder of Chillicothe, Indianola, and Tuscumbia, led a fascinating life on the Western waters and in the Midwest public arena for the entire middle of the 19th century. the present work grew out of an interest in civil War ironclads developed primarily as a result of my years of research into the Mississippi valley fight. there were casemate ironclads and monitors employed on the inland rivers and natural curiosity led me to a desire to know more about the warships of these types that operated along the coasts east and south of the alleghenies. In this review, it was discovered that profiles for most of the men who captained those vessels, north and south, were not easily available, save for a few of the more famous such as franklin buchanan. so it was that the decision was taken to attempt a biographical directory for just civil War ironclad captains similar in vein to that offered earlier for the various river-war connected men of the West. these profiles are limited to those who actually commanded the ships and seldom the admirals (e.g., foote, dupont) who sent them into battle. given that the 158 men profiled in this outing were all naval officers, it was expected that locating information concerning their lives might prove somewhat easier than had been the case with Civil War Biographies from the Western Waters. that assumption proved iffy on the northern side and not true for the confederates. yes, the names of many were, to some degree or another, in official reports or dusty texts. Would it be possible to learn more about these men, some of whom gave their all for the cause in which they believed? In addition to archival records maintained by government agencies ranging from the
Introduction national archives, library of congress, and particularly the u.s. navy, as well as repositories within the states and academia, a vast paper trail grew in the decades after the conflict, occasioned by agendas as diverse as southern pride and northern technological satisfaction. federal and state government agencies, historians, and commercial publishers entered the lists, offering dozens of official records or accounts and biographical directories. those latter provided by former gunboatman lewis b. hamersly come most easily to mind. genealogists and newspapermen have sought and publicized family relations or human interest activities and the Internet proved to be a boon, while county and city histories often profile noted members of the community, including those germane to our study. fold3, the membership Internet site, has made available thousands of archival records, particularly pension data. armed with, and having sifted through, a vast amount of information, it was determined that we could again prepare a biographical directory and make an honest effort to profile most of the men who commanded northern and southern ironclads during the civil War. there is not full information on everyone, especially the volunteer officers who commanded armorclads. even for some commissioned officers, the task was virtually impossible. due to the passage of time and, in some cases, paucity of information, we are left with holes in some of our profiles, not knowing when they began or ended or missing important antebellum or postwar career highlights. still, what is offered here is the first work to bring life profiles of the civil War ironclad captains together in one place. though the size of the entries varies, our research allows more individuals to be given public recognition than was the case up until now. every entry has certain standardized features. each begins with the subject’s name, birth and death dates if known, and the pertinent wartime organization—usn or csn.
8 Within each profile, the name of the ironclad(s) commanded appears in bold. documentation follows the biographical summary listed as “sources.” book, periodical article, and scholarly paper citations found in the work’s bibliography are abbreviated; one-off newspaper and Internet references are given in whole. an appendix, “register of Ironclad captains,” is a list of union and confederate warships with the captains of each. the work is illustrated with almost 200 photos and drawings of described individuals or their vessels.
Notes 1. richard J. hill, War at Sea in the Ironclad Age (london: cassell, 2002), 17. 2. James p. baxter, 3rd, Introduction of the Ironclad Warship (cambridge, Ma: harvard university press, 1933; repr., annapolis: u.s. naval Institute, 2000), 222. 3. William n. still, Jr., Iron Afloat: The Story of Confederate Armorclads (nashville: vanderbilt university press, 1971; repr., columbia: university of south carolina press, 1985); still, “the confederate Ironclad navy,” Naval History 28 (february 2014), 30– 37. In May 1861 only the French Gloire, an armored frigate, was operational. It was this vessel or one like her that Mallory initially thought he could purchase; hMs Warrior would not be ready for duty until october (donald l. canney, The Confederate Steam Navy [new york: schiffer, 2016], 107). 4. In addition to hill (pp. 113–140) and other works cited in the footnotes above as well this work’s bibliography, numerous studies over the years have appeared that detail the ironclad acquisition and shipbuilding programs of the north and south. employed here and recommended are the following: frank M. bennett, Steam Navy of the United States: A History of the Growth of the Steam Vessel of War in the U.S. Navy, and of the Naval Engineer Corps (pittsburgh, pa: Warren, 1896); bennett, The Monitor and the Navy Under Steam (boston: houghton Mifflin, 1900); donald l. caney, Lincoln’s Navy: The Ships, Men and Organization, 1861–65 (london: conway Maritime press, 1998); canney, The Old Steam Navy, vol. 2: The Ironclads, 1842–1885 (annapolis, Md: naval Institute press, 1993); canney, The Confederate Steam Navy; William n. still, Jr., Confederate Shipbuilding (athens: university of georgia press, 1969; repr., columbia: university of south carolina press, 1987); still, ed., The Confederate Navy: The Ships, Men, and Organization, 1861– 1865 (annapolis, Md: naval Institute press, 1997). 5. gershom bradford, The Mariner’s Dictionary (new york: Weathervane, 1952), 40; Myron J. smith, Jr., The U.S.S. carondelet: A Civil War Ironclad on
9 Western Waters. (Jefferson, nc: Mcfarland, 2010), passim.; u.s. navy department, Regulations for the Government of the United States Navy (Washington, d.c.: gpo, 1865), 52–84; u.s. navy department, office of naval records and library, naval War records office, Register of Officers of the Confederate States Navy, 1861–1865 (Washington, d.c.: gpo, 1931); canney, The Confederate Steam Navy, 9. 6. uss Constitution Museum, “rank and respon-
Introduction sibilities of captain,” A Sailor’s Life Forum, http:// www.asailorslifeforme.org (accessed January 1, 2017); caney, Lincoln’s Navy: The Ships, Men and Organization, 1861–65, pp. 140–145; u.s. navy department, Regulations for the Government of the United States Navy (Washington, d.c.: gpo, 1865), 52–84.
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abbreviations Organizations, Locations and Entities
usMs = u.s. Mississippi squadron (usn) usn = u.s. navy usna = u.s. naval academy usno = u.s. naval observatory usQM = u.s. Quartermaster department usrcs = u.s. revenue cutter service usWf = u.s. army Western gunboat flotilla Wgbs = West gulf blockading squadron (usn) WIs = West Indies squadron (usn)
acs = confederate army aus = u.s. army crdf = confederate river defense force csMc = confederate states Marine corps csn = confederate states navy csna = confederate states naval academy dc = Washington, district of columbia dept. = department egbs = east gulf blockading squadron (usn) lc = library of congress nabs = north atlantic blockading squadron (usn) nas = north atlantic squadron (usn) noaa = national oceanic and athmospheric administration nps = north pacific station (usn) nWc = naval War college nyc = new york city pf = potomac flotilla (usn) sabs = south atlantic blockading squadron (usn) sas = south atlantic squadron (usn) sps = south pacific station (usn) usaMhI = u.s. army Military history Institute uscs = u.s. coast survey usMa = u.s. Military academy usMc = u.s. Marine corps
Individual Rank or Status brevet = brev. brigadier general = brig. gen. captain (army or navy) = capt. colonel = col. commander = cmdr. commodore = com. general = gen. governor = gov. lieutenant (army or navy) = lt. lieutenant colonel = lcol. lieutenant commander = lcmdr. lieutenant general = lt. gen. Major = Mjr. Major general = Maj. gen. private = pvt rear admiral = radm. sergeant = sgt.
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The Captains A–Z Ammen, Daniel (1820–1898, USN)
the frigate St. Lawrence in the Baltic and then returned to the USCS in January 1851. Sent to California, Ammen chose the Mare Island area in April as the location of the first U.S. naval base on the Pacific coast. From February 1853 to April 1854, he participated in the South American coastal exploring expedition of the newly commissioned paddle-wheel gunboat Water Witch. He thereafter served aboard the Brazil Squadron brig Bainbridge until taking leave in January 1855. Following a lengthy (April 1855–August 1857) tour at the Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C., Ammen served aboard the Pacific Squadron screw sloop-of-war Saranac until June 1858, when he was transferred to the squadron flagship, the steam frigate Merrimac. In March 1860 he was detailed to operate the naval rendezvous (recruiting station) at Baltimore, MD. After the opening of the Civil War on April 12, 1861, Ammen found it impossible to execute his duty in pro–Southern Baltimore. Relocating to Washington, he was assigned temporary duties at the Navy Department before his transfer as executive officer to the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron (NABS) screw sloop-of-war Roanoke, which destroyed the Southern schooner Mary at Lockwood Folly Inlet on July 13. Detached, Ammen completed outfitting of his first command, the new Unadilla class gunboat Seneca, which joined the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron (SABS) in mid–October and participated in the capture of Port Royal, SC, on November 7. After Confederate forces abandoned Hilton Head, Ammen personally led 30 bluejackets ashore and raised the United States flag over Fort Beauregard, holding it until the arrival of Federal soldiers. Following the November 9–12 capture of Beaufort, SC, the Seneca joined in
Having removed to Georgetown, OH, from Virginia in 1810, newspaperman David Ammen (1775–1846) and his wife Sara Houtts Ammen had two sons, Daniel and Jacob (1806–1894), a future Civil War general. Daniel, who had rescued his friend Ulysses S. Grant (1822–1885) from a stream in 1829, was appointed a USN midshipman on July 7, 1836, and sent on leave to West Point for a remedial mathematics course taught by USMA instructor Lt. Jacob Ammen. With his skills improved, Ammen was posted to the supply ship Relief at Norfolk, VA, for participation in the South Seas and Exploring Expedition. In July 1837 he transferred aboard the West Indies Squadron frigate Macedonian and cruised against pirates and slavers. Between March 1838 and November 1839 he served on Levant and Vandalia of the same squadron. In March 1840 he was aboard the sloop-of-war Preble for her inaugural cruise to Labrador and the Mediterranean. Returning to Boston in May 1841 aboard the ship-of-the-line Ohio, Ammen studied at the Philadelphia Naval School and after examination was promoted to the rank of passed midshipman on July 1, 1842. After a year of Delaware Bay survey duty, he became navigator of the Mediterranean Squadron storeship Lexington in October 1843, deployed to the Levant for 18 months. From April 1845 to April 1847 he served off China in the East Indies Squadron sloop-of-war Vincennes. Seconded to the USCS, from May until October 1849 Ammen did not participate in the Mexican War, although he was promoted to the rank of master on March 10 and lieutenant on November 4 of the latter year. From January to November 1850, he was aboard
Ammen operations to isolate Savannah, GA, via Tybee Sound. On January 1, 1862, Ammen led the force that attacked the Port Royal ferry, and in March his ship was part of a SABS task group that entered Florida’s St. Johns River and captured Jacksonville and also engaged in operations against Fernandia. Having been promoted to commander in February, he assumed command in August of the “double-ender” gunboat Sebago, then under repair at New York, but he was immediately ordered to complete the new Passaic class monitor Patapsco, which was christened on January 2, 1863, and assigned to the SABS under RAdm. Samuel F. Dupont (1803–1865). Patapsco arrived on station in time to participate with two sister ships in the heavy but unsuccessful March 3 bombardment of Fort McAllister, GA. Dupont hoped that his nine available ironclads could recapture Charleston Harbor, SC, and on April 7 he launched a massive bombardment of the Fort Sumter facility, which guarded the port entrance. Lying approximately 600 yards from Fort Moultrie and twice that from Sumter, the Patapsco
Lt. Cmdr. Daniel Ammen, USN, was the first captain of the monitor Patapsco and a close friend of President Ulysses S. Grant throughout his life (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
loosed a total of 10 rounds against her targets. She was struck 47 times, and one of her guns failed for mechanical reasons. Southern positions held while five monitors were damaged; the perforated Keokuk sank that night. The SABS did not renew the contest, withdrawing for repairs. An ill Ammen went on sick leave from June until September, when he became aide to the new SABS commander, RAdm. John A. Dahlgren (1809–1870). After leading a September 22 small-boat reconnaissance of obstructions in the harbor and a new, again unsuccessful, monitor attack that hit Fort Sumter in mid–October, he was sent to Washington, D.C., to explain the failure. Navy secretary Gideon Welles (1802–1878) penned a reply, sending it back with Ammen, who remained on duty off Charleston when he returned to sick leave in January 1864. Temporary captain of the NABS screw sloop Shenandoah from March to May, he led a contingent of 220 army transfers of men from New York to Aspinwall, Panama, via the steamer Ocean Queen. Two days out, a number of the men mutinied but were stopped by Ammen, who shot two ringleaders. While undergoing a name-clearing courtmartial for his decisive and long-remembered action, Ammen traveled to the headquarters of the Army of the Potomac at Culpepper, VA, to visit his boyhood friend Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, commander of all Federal armies, whom he had not seen in 21 years. The two rode the countryside, examining the vast Union army camped along the Rapidan River. During the summer, Ammen’s murder case was adjudicated, he was honorably acquitted, and in October he became captain of the NABS sloop-of-war Mohican, which cruised off Wilmington, NC, providing gunfire support during the unsuccessful December 24–25 First Battle of Fort Fisher and the victorious Second Battle of Fort Fisher of January 13–15, 1865. The Mohican blockaded off Warsaw Sound, GA, and Ossabaw Island, SC, from February until April 24, assisting AUS forces in the area. During this time, Ammen designed and rigged up a cask “Balsa,” a lifeboatlanding raft also known as the “Ammen Balsa” that was subsequently carried as a life-saving and general maintenance vehicle aboard all U.S. warships into the early 20th century. During August and September Ammen over-
saw final preparations of the new North Atlantic Squadron (NAS) double-turreted monitor Miantonomah and on July 25, 1866, he was promoted to the rank of captain. In August 1867 he became commander of the Asiatic Station flagship, the screw steamer Pisquataqua, which visited destinations in the Philippines, China, and Japan for over a year, helping to protect U.S. interests during the Japanese civil war. While so deployed, Ammen purchased two sets of Rose Medallion china, one for himself and one for Gen. Grant. Within weeks of his inauguration, President Grant requested Ammen’s rotation home from the Orient. When Ammen reached Washington, the chief executive’s boyhood friend was promoted to commodore and named chief of the Bureau of Yards and Docks, effective May 1, 1869, and served in that capacity until he became chief of the Bureau of Navigation on October 1, 1871. During the Grant administration, Ammen took every Sunday dinner at the Executive Mansion, where it was said that the conversation between the sometimes taciturn president and his favorite seaman was generally quite convivial. Also a confidant of navy secretary George M. Robeson (1829–1897), Ammen engineered numerous reforms, including work on harbor defenses, a reorganization of the Hydrographic Office, oversight of various surveys designed to review possibilities of an Isthmian canal, the service of deep-sea sounding, and day and night signaling at sea. As secretary of the Isthmian Canal Commission, Ammen pushed a route from the Atlantic to the Pacific via Nicaragua rather than Panama. When Robeson was out of town, Ammen served as acting navy secretary, as during the time in August 1875 when he issued orders for USN honors upon the death of ex-president Andrew Johnson (1808–1875). After leaving office on March 4, 1877, President Grant set off, with Com. Ammen, for a trip to Ohio, where the two visited their boyhood home of Georgetown before traveling to St. Louis and then Galena, IL, enjoying the greetings of crowds while en route. Ammen was promoted to the rank of rear admiral on December 11 and retired on June 4, 1878. Not long afterwards, he purchased a farm of several hundred acres on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad line north of Washington below Laurel, MD. Through his generosity, St. Joseph’s Church
Ammen was built at the little nearby settlement, seat of the Normal School of the Brothers of the Christian Schools. The town was later renamed Ammendale in his honor. In May 1879 Ammen became a delegate to the Interoceanic Canal Congress at Paris organized by Ferdinand de Lesseps (1805–1894) to consider an American Isthmian Canal. Simultaneously, Ammen continued to push another old Civil War idea for an unarmed but armored steel harbor defense ram, which was commissioned the Kathadin in February 1897. Beginning with papers for the new U.S. Naval Institute, his writings concerning the Civil War and other subjects appeared before the public frequently during the years after his departure from the Navy Department. Late in 1897 Ammen, by now a widower, became ill and began 10 months of treatment at the Washington, D.C., naval hospital, where he died on July 11, 1898. He was buried in Arlington National Cemetery two days later. Two USN destroyers were named in his honor, DD-35 and DD-527. Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; Reynolds; Cogar; Hamersley, 3rd ed.; Smith, “Daniel Ammen”; Ugaalltheway, pseud., “Daniel Ammen,” FindaGrave, http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg. cgi?page=mr&MRid=46547901 (accessed May 19, 2016); Austin, Related Families of Botetourt County, Virginia; Haitz, Brown County; Thompson, The U.S. Monitor Patapsco; Belknap, “Rear Admiral Daniel Ammen: A Biographical Sketch”; Durham, Guardian of Savannah: Fort McAllister, Georgia, in the Civil War and Beyond; Wise, Gate of Hell: Campaign for Charleston Harbor, 1863; Ammen, “The Attempted Mutiny Onboard the Ocean Queen,” St. Louis Globe-Democrat, December 19, 1885; “Mutiny in the Navy,” Reading Eagle, January 13, 1901; Gibson, Mutiny! Blood Mutiny; New York Daily Tribune, May 6, 1900; Gragg, Confederate Goliath: The Battle of Fort Fisher; Smith, Grant; U.S. State Department, Instructions to Rear Admiral Ammen and Report on the Paris Canal Congress; Preston, The Katahdin; “Catholic Naval Hero,” Irish World and American Industrial Liberator, July 23, 1898; Ammen, The Purpose of a Navy and the Best Methods of Rendering It Efficient; Ammen, The Inter-Oceanic Canal Question; Ammen, American Inter-Oceanic Ship Canal; Ammen, On the Transit Question; Ammen, The Atlantic Coast: The Navy in the Civil War, vol. 2; Ammen, “Marine Rams,” in Hamersly, ed., A Naval Encyclopedia, pp. 480–482; Ammen, “Recollections and Letters of Grant”; Ammen, Country Homes and Their Improvement; Ammen, Errors and Falacies, Inter-Oceanic Transit; Ammen, Nicaragua Canal Contrasted with Ship Railways; Ammen, “Du Pont and the Port Royal Expedition,” in B&L, I, 671–690; Ammen, “A Sketch
Bache of Our Second Bombardment of Fort Fisher: War Paper No. 4,” in District of Columbia Commandery, MOLLUS War Papers 1–88; Ammen, Considerations Relating to the Navy; Ammen, The Old Navy and the New; Feller, “The White House ‘Rose Medallion’: Daniel Ammen and the Ulysses S. Grant Porcelain”; New York Times, July 12, 1898; San Francisco Chronicle, July 12, 1898; Denver Evening Post, July 12, 1898; Baltimore Sun, July 12–13, 1898; New York Tribune, July 17, 1898; Washington Post, July 14, 1898.
Bache, George Mifflin, II (1840–1896, USN) The eldest of two sons of USCS Cmdr. George Mifflin Bache I (1811–1846) and great-greatgrandson of Benjamin Franklin, Bache—who did not use the title junior—was born on November 12, 1840, in Washington, D.C. When Bache was just six years old, his father was lost at sea while in command of the USCS brig Washington. Bache joined the USN in August 1855, serving until May 1857 as the captain’s clerk aboard the sloop-of-war Saratoga. Briefly attached to
Lt. George Mifflin Bache, USN, was captain of the Mississippi Squadron ironclad Cincinnati prior to her sinking before Vicksburg in May 86. He was also nephew to RAdm. David Dixon Porter (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
6 the USCS schooner Nautilus, he was appointed an acting USN midshipman on November 9. He was then posted to the USNA, from which he was detached on April 27, 1861, just after the outbreak of the Civil War, and ordered to the Washington Navy Yard. Having graduated on June 1 as a full midshipman, he was warranted a passed midshipman 30 days later. He then went to sea in the sloop-of-war Jamestown, which was operating along the Confederate Atlantic coast. On June 11, 1862, Bache transferred as acting master to the steam sloop-of-war Powhatan and on July 16 became a lieutenant. On August 12 he was transferred to the casemate ironclad New Ironsides, remaining aboard until October 29, when he was detached and ordered west to join the Mississippi Squadron, then under command of his uncle (RAdm.) David Dixon Porter. Arriving at the Cairo, IL, squadron headquarters on November 8, Bache took command of the Pook turtle Cincinnati and joined in the Yazoo River campaign against Vicksburg, MS, conducted by Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman. On December 27–28, while troops attempted to find a lodgment in the Walnut Hills, the Cincinnati supported the giant ironclad Benton in her attacks against Confederate defenses on Haynes Bluff. A stiff breeze made it impossible to fire effectively and the Benton was unable to complete the mission alone. In March 1863 the Cincinnati participated in an effort to flank Vicksburg from the north via Steele’s Bayou. With Porter embarked, the warship was the second in and next to last out of the stream following several weeks of unsuccessful advance and a retreat made successful only by the timely intervention of Maj. Gen. Sherman’s corps. On May 27, as Union forces worked their way toward Vicksburg from the east and Porter’s gunboat’s bombarded the citadel from the river, the Cincinnati assaulted Vicksburg’s Upper River Battery, which was impeding an advance by Sherman against the city from the right flank. Surprised by unexpected fire from the river bluff, the vessel was mortally wounded and eventually sank in 18 feet of water. Bache, who could not swim, was rescued by a ship’s boat manned by four of his sailors, who were subsequently awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. Bache’s handling of the doomed Cincinnati was praised by Porter, Sherman, and Navy
Bacon
Department commendation. He then assumed command of the timberclad Lexington and led her in a number of engagements with Confederate forces during the remainder of the year and in 1864, including the battle at Blair’s Landing, LA, on April 26, 1864, during the Red River campaign. He then assumed naval command of the White River with the timberclad Tyler and fought a notable June duel with Confederate cavalry under Brig. Gen. Jo Shelby near Clarendon, AR. On July 5 the Tyler hit a snag. Watching the shoreline from the quarter gallery of the Tyler’s roundhouse, Bache was thrown into the White River. Still not having learned to swim, he floundered about trying to tread water. Fortunately, the current was not very swift and the captain was able to grab hold of a piece of wheelhouse wreckage and hang on until, once again, a small boat came alongside and “fished” him out. On October 7 Bache returned east when his uncle took command of the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron (NABS). Now executive officer of his earlier ship, the Powhatan, Bache engaged in both the unsuccessful and successful assaults on Fort Fisher, NC, in December 1864 and January 1865. While participating in the naval landing assaults of the second contest, he was wounded slightly in the right shoulder. Detached from the Powhatan on February 23, on March 30 he joined the Malvern, which transported President Abraham Lincoln up the James River in April to visit Richmond. The Malvern was decommissioned at New York City on October 24 and on November 13 Lt. Bache was sent home on sick leave. He returned to duty on February 28, 1866, was ordered to the new screw frigate Chattanooga, and served aboard her for six months, including her shake-down cruise off the U.S. East Coast. He was promoted to the rank of lieutenant commander on July 25. Named executive officer of the reserve steam sloop-of-war Sacramento on August 29, he participated in her long sea voyage via Liberia and Capetown, South Africa. Although the ship was destroyed on a reef at the mouth of the Godavary River, Madras, India, on June 19, 1867, Bache and the crew were all saved and returned to America on November 19. After serving as equipment officer at the Philadelphia navy yard in 1868, he joined the reactivated
steam sloop-of-war Juniata for a three-year cruise on the European Station. He was ordnance officer at the Philadelphia navy yard from July 1872 to July 1873 and at the Washington Navy Yard until he retired with the rank of commander on April 6, 1875. His final promotion came on the day his service concluded and by Act of Congress he was retired on full service pay. Bache traveled overseas in the early 1880s and was married to Harriet DuBois (1849–1931) in an elaborate ceremony in Susquehanna County, PA, in January 1887. The couple, who resided in Washington, D.C., had three children. Bache died of a heart attack at home on February 11, 1896, and was buried at Oak Hill Cemetery. A 20th century USN destroyer (DD-470) was named in his honor. Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; Daily National Intelligencer, October 5, 1846; Callahan; DANFS; Smith, Civil War Biographies; Smith, The Timberclads in the Civil War; Smith, Tinclads in the Civil War; Smith, Fight for the Yazoo; Hamersley, 3rd ed.; Tucker, “George Mifflin Bache”; “Cmdr. George Mifflin Bache,” FindaGrave, http://www.findagrave. com/ cgi- bin/ fg. cgi?page= gr&GSsr= 521&GSvcid= 266131&GRid=37675051& (accessed July 12, 2012); Kathryn Silberger, ed., “You Affectionate Son: Civil War Letters of Daniel Francis Kemp and Family,” Marist College, http://foxweb.marist.edu/users/jwez/dfk/index. html (accessed March 29, 2011); Daniel F. Kemp, “Civil War Reminiscences,” edited by Barbara Covello, American Civil War Homepage, http://sunsite.utk.edu/ civil-war/warweb.html (accessed March 29, 2011; Porter, Incidents and Anecdotes of the Civil War; Washington Evening Star, February 11, 1896.
Bacon, George Bement (1835–1890, USN) The son of William and Virginia Bacon, George Bement was born in Ogdensburg, NY, on February 26, 1835. After attending local schools, he was appointed an acting USN midshipman from New Jersey on October 1, 1850. Ordered to the USNA, Bacon graduated in 1856 and was advanced to the rank of passed midshipman. He participated in the U.S. paddle wheel frigate Mississippi’s Far Eastern cruise (1857–1858), being appointed a lieutenant in the latter year. Two voyages to the west coast of Africa followed. Late in 1861 upon the formation of the West Gulf Blockading Squadron (WGBS), Bacon was appointed executive officer of the gunboat Itasca.
Bacon
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Executive officer of the gunboat Itasca during the April 862 capture of New Orleans, Lt. Cmdr. George Bacon, USN, commanded the Mississippi Squadron ironclad Louisville (depicted) from late 86 through the end of the war (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
On April 20, 1862, the vessel, with two other gunboats, maneuvered close to Forts Jackson and St. Philip on the Lower Mississippi below New Orleans and broke the boom, which prevented the assembled squadron of Union ships from sailing up the river to attack New Orleans. Four days later the Union squadron dashed through the passage to take the South’s largest and most highly industrialized city. Itasca, in the dangerous rear of the movement, was caught in a hailstorm of cannonballs and disabled. Surviving unhurt, Bacon assisted in his vessel’s work to free the flagship Hartford after she had run aground below Vicksburg on May 14. Having
come down with malaria, the Lieutenant Bacon was ordered north to recover at his Ogdensburg home. During this leave, he married Miss Lavinia Chapin (1840–1918), and eventually the couple had three daughters. On July 16 Bacon was promoted to the rank of lieutenant commander and thereafter outfitted the gunboat Nipsic. Before she could put to sea, he was transferred to command of the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron (SABS) converted ferryboat Commodore McDonough. His gunboat was employed during 1863–1864 in army liaison and shore bombardment work in and around the forts ringing Charleston, SC.
Among her activities were engagements with enemy batteries in January and April 1863 and an expedition on the South Edisto River in May 1864. That October, Bacon was transferred to command of the Mississippi Squadron Pook turtle Louisville, which participated in the routine of late war patrol through May 1865, until her demobilization. He resigned from the service on June 6 and relocated in Kentucky, where he entered the lumber business. The Bacon family moved to NYC in 1869 when the former naval officer was appointed U.S. Weigher at the New York Custom House, a position he lost when the Cleveland administration took office in 1885. During his retirement, Bacon often traveled to his boyhood home at Ogdensburg. It was there, while on an April 1, 1890, visit that he died suddenly, most likely of a heart attack. He was buried in Ogdensburg Cemetery. No USN vessels have been named in his honor. Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; Callahan; “Civil War Correspondence of George B. Bacon, 1855–1936: Finding Aid,” Princeton University, Library, Manuscript Division, http://findingaids.princeton. edu/getEad?eadid=C0383&kw=#bioghist (accessed December 1, 2011); Bacon, “One Night’s Work, April 20, 1862”; Mahon, ed., “The Civil War Letters of Lieutenant Commander George Bacon”; Ann Cady, “George Bement Bacon,” FindaGrave, http://www.findagrave. com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=27384427 (accessed May 31, 2016).
Badger, Oscar Charles (1823–1899, USN) Badger was born in Mansfield, CT, on August 12, 1823. A relative, the 12th navy secretary, George E. Badger, made certain the young Oscar Charles received a USN midshipman’s appointment from Pennsylvania on September 9, 1841, being first posted aboard the Home Squadron razee Independence. Shortly thereafter, in 1842, he transferred to the sloop-of-war Saratoga and served on the antislavery patrol off the west coast of Africa. While aboard her in 1843, Badger participated in his first action, a landing party sent from his ship as part of a punitive expedition that destroyed the Berribee villages. He then attended the Annapolis Naval School, predecessor of the USNA, and was in 1846 assigned to the Gulf Squadron paddlewheel frigate Mis-
Badger
Acting captain of the Mississippi Squadron ironclad Indianola in the fall of 862, Lt. Cmdr. Oscar C. Badger, USN, later served as commander of the monitors Patapsco and Montauk during the 86 campaign against Charleston, SC (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
sissippi. Badger participated in the attack on the coastal Mexican town of Alvarado in the spring of 1847, was warranted a passed midshipman on August 10, 1847, and transferred to the Brazil Squadron frigate Brandywine and, in 1848, the same unit’s brig Perry. She captured the slavers Ann D. Richardson and Independence east of Rio de Janeiro on December 16 and 18 before continuing on antislavery patrol over the next months off the west coast of Africa. During this time, she put into Ambrizette in the Congo, where Badger and several other officers from the ship visited the local queen. In 1850 the midshipman joined the Pacific Squadron storeship Supply but before the year was out he was ordered aboard the frigate Savannah. The year 1851 was only a few months old when Badger became navigator of the sloopof-war Vincenne, which cruised off South America until late fall, closely monitoring the activities of revolutionaries in several nations. The warship visited the Hawaiian Islands at the end of the year and returned to New York in September 1852. Badger married Margaret M. Johnson (1830–1908) of Rockville, MD, in a summer ceremony. The couple had two children, one of whom was RAdm. Charles J. Badger (1853–1932).
Badger Following an 1853–1854 USNO tour, he was promoted to master in August 1855 and became navigator of the Pacific Squadron sloop-of-war John Adams. During her three year commission, the warship visited various islands, including Fiji, although the stops were not always warm. On September 12, 1855, Marines and sailors from the warship landed at Nukulau, Fiji Islands, to seek debt owed to Americans from the King of Fiji, Cakobau. Three days later, during this incident, Badger was promoted to lieutenant. In 1858 he transferred to the sloop-of-war Macedonian for a two-year cruise in the Mediterranean and on the antislavery patrol off the coast of West Africa. At the start of 1861 he served a short tour aboard the steam frigate Minnesota. He was at the Washington Navy Yard when the Civil War erupted in April. In late summer 1861 Badger was given command of the two-gun Potomac Flotilla steamer Anacostia. In addition to yard work and river patrols, the Anacostia participated in several offensive sorties against Confederate positions along the Virginia shore, including Freestone Point on December 8 and Cockpit Point on January 31, 1862. From March on into April, the Anacostia escorted AUS troop transports from Washington down to Fort Monroe in preparation for the Union’s Peninsula Campaign. Thereafter, she conducted reconnaissance missions along the western shore of Chesapeake Bay and into the York River. The Anacostia bombarded the Virginia towns of Gloucester and Yorktown on the night of April 15/16 and four days later joined in capturing the Confederate steamer Eureka in the Rappahannock River. On her own, Anacostia took the Southern sailing ship Monitor as she attempted to exit the Piankatank River in early June. Badger remained in the Rappahannock during the summer, being commissioned a lieutenant commander on July 16. During the first week of September, he arrived at Cincinnati, OH, to serve as assistant ordnance inspector for the Western Flotilla and to assist in delivery of the new ironclads Indianola and Chillicothe. Noting that two 11-inch guns were aboard, Badger was present at the launching of the Indianola on September 4 and began to handle her outfitting. Further, he took it upon himself, working with Capt. John A. Duble (?–1901), to assemble a
2 pick-up crew for the ironclad. Twenty days after Badger wrote to Mississippi Squadron commander David Dixon Porter (1813–1891) on October 1 asking him to “appoint some one to command the vessel and retire me from further responsibility in the matter,” he was dispatched to New Albany, IN, where he took charge of situating the cannon within the casemate of the Tuscumbia and designing the arrangement of her magazine. Badger continued his responsibilities in Porter’s command into 1863, helping to insure the proper arming of the new ironclads and many light-draught gunboats known as “tinclads” then entering service. His last service as that fleet’s ordnance officer occurred in early June when he oversaw transfer to Cincinnati of cannon to outfit the new “super light draughts” Moose and Reindeer. In July he returned to Washington for a short positing in the Bureau of Ordnance before he was sent to command the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron (SABS) Passaic-class monitor Patapsco. Beginning in mid–August, Badger’s ironclad resumed, with others, a program of bombardment against Charleston’s defending fortifications initiated in April. He assumed command of the monitor Montauk on August 18 and led her, together with four other ironclads, in the SABS attacks made the night of August 21/22. Despite poor visibility, the Montauk and her companions dropped 71 shells on Confederate positions. By month’s end, it appeared that Fort Sumter’s offensive capability was diminished. Badger had, by this time, been appointed the squadron’s flag captain, being assigned to the flagship USS Philadelphia, and participated in discussions with AUS leaders regarding a joint attack. Determined to be a part of the September operation, Badger was allowed to observe from inside the turret of the monitor Weehawken. During the night of September 2 six ironclads assaulted the Charleston forts. Unhappily for Badger, a Confederate shot sheered off a piece of iron from the base of the Weehawken’s turret and sent it into the fleet captain’s right leg. With a shattered limb, Badger was forced into an extended period of sick leave. After his convalescence, he served at the Philadelphia navy yard and Pittsburgh ordnance plant (1864–1866). Promoted to the rank of commander on
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July 25, 1866, Badger became captain of the North Atlantic Squadron (NAS) side-wheel steamer USS Peoria, which during her 1867 Caribbean cruise provided assistance to victims and local authorities on July 4 as a great fire destroyed the Leeward Islands city of Basse Terre. Equipment officer at the Portsmouth navy yard from September 1867 through 1870, Badger became a captain in 1871 and captained the South Atlantic Squadron (SAS) steamer Ticonderoga off South America until 1873 when he took over the Boston receiving ship Ohio. At the Washington Navy Yard from 1875 until February 1878, he undertook his last sea duty, as commander of the famous frigate Constitution, “Old Ironsides,” representing the U.S. at the Paris Exposition for a year. On special Washington, D.C., duty in 1880, he assumed command of Philadelphia’s Naval Asylum in 1881 and, as a commodore, became Boston navy yard commandant that November, a post he held until his retirement in August 1885. Living out a quiet retirement in Concord, MA, Badger died at home on June 20, 1899, and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery. Four 20th century USN destroyers were named in honor of Badger or members of his family. Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; Appletons’, I, 133; DAB, I; Smith, Civil War Biographies; Smith, Joseph Brown; DANFS; Hamersly, 3rd ed.; Callahan; Bill Heneage, “Oscar C. Badger,” FindaGrave, http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page = gr&GSsr= 561&GSvcid= 266131&GRid= 6801979& (accessed June 3, 2010); Smith, Le Roy Fitch; Heitzmann, “The Ironclad Weehawken in the Civil War”; Merrill, “USS Weehawken: Gallant Ironship”; Neeser, “Historic Ships of the Navy: Montauk”; Thompson, The U.S. Monitor Patapsco; Porter, “Report Relative to the Tuscumbia,” in U.S. Navy Department, Report of the Secretary of the Navy in Relation to Armored Vessels; Raleigh News and Observer, July 25, 1899; Baltimore Sun, June 22, 1899; Washington Post, June 23, 1899.
Bankhead, John Payne “J.P.” (1821–1867, USN) One of three sons born to the distinguished Mexican War artilleryman, Brev. Brig. Gen. James Monroe Bankhead (1783–1856), and his wife Anne, James was born at Fort Johnson on James Island, SC, on August 3, 1821. A cousin, John Bankhead Magruder (1807–1871), became
Cmdr. John P. Bankhead, USN, was in command of the Monitor when she sank in a storm on December , 862. He served on the North Carolina blockade thereafter (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
a Confederate major general. Bankhead was appointed a USN midshipman in August 1838 and was posted aboard the 36-gun West Indies Squadron frigate Macedonian, which cruised from the Caribbean to the west coast of Africa on anti-pirate and antislavery patrol. Two years later he was transferred to the Brazil Squadron sloop-of-war Concord. That vessel, dispatched to the South Atlantic Island of Tristan da Gunha
Bankhead on June 28, 1842, to protect American whalers, grounded on a sandbar at the mouth of the Loango River in October and could not be saved, although Bankhead and the survivors were rescued. Briefly aboard the Home Squadron flagship Independence in early 1843, he studied at the Philadelphia Naval School, graduated second in his class, and on May 20, 1844, was advanced to the rank of passed midshipman and assigned to the USCS. With the Mexican War on, he requested in December 1846 an assignment to one of the Home Squadron warships then operating in the Gulf of Mexico. Instead, Bankhead received orders to join a naval battery bombarding the city of Vera Cruz in cooperation with the AUS. These guns were assigned to the unit led by Brev. Brig. Gen. James Monroe Bankhead (1783–1856), who warmly praised his son’s activities at war’s end. Following a year’s leave, Bankhead in 1850 reported aboard the Pacific Squadron sloop-ofwar Vandalia, which made several visits to the Hawaiian Islands before October 1852. While aboard, Bankhead became a master, on May 8, 1851, and a lieutenant, on April 7, 1852. Ill during 1853 but recovered in 1854, he then served aboard the Home Squadron flagship, the frigate Columbia. Late in 1855 he deployed aboard the Mediterranean Squadron flagship, the sloop-ofwar Constellation, for a three-year flag-showing cruise. When he returned in 1858, Bankhead was seconded to the USCS and his first command, the schooner Cranfield. When civil war came in April 1861, Bankhead was ordered aboard the side-wheel Atlantic Blockading Squadron steamer Susquehanna, which participated in the joint military-naval offensive against Hatteras Inlet, NC, and captured Fort Clark on August 29. As the probable result of a letter written to his old shipmate Gustavus Vasa Fox (1821–1883), who became USN assistant navy secretary, Bankhead was ordered to the Novelty Iron Works at New York on October 8 to oversee final outfitting of the Pembina, one of numerous so-called “90-Day Gunboats” then entering the fleet. She arrived off the South Carolina coast on November 5, joining the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron’s campaign against Port Royal Sound, which resulted in the capture of that town on November 11. Thereafter, she continued to survey and conduct small
22 runs up St. Helena Sound, the Coosaw River, and the Ashpoo River. At the beginning of December, the Pembina, with two other gunboats, steamed south to Warsaw Sound, GA, on reconnaissance, also visiting Ossabow Sound and the Vernon River during the next two months. On January 27, 1862, Cmdr. John Rodger’s task group, including Bankhead’s ship, engaged a small Confederate squadron in waters southwest of the Savannah River. During February, Bankhead was ordered to use his USCS experience to mark channels and river entrances, and locate underwater mines, then known as “torpedoes.” The Pembina was one of several vessels ordered to participate in the Fernandia, FL, offensive in March. Although she did not make it to the town before its surrender, Bankhead’s craft, with another gunboat, pushed up the St. Johns River to Jacksonville. When the task group withdrew, the Pembina was left at Mayport on blockade. On May 15 Bankhead steamed up to Charleston, SC, to again make use of his survey experience to ascertain the depth of water at the entrance of the Stono River and to participate in the blockade. He became a commander on July 16 and in mid–August received orders from the Navy Department directing that he become captain of the original Monitor, the same craft that had fought the CSS Virginia back in March. The ironclad, arriving under tow at the Washington Navy Yard from New York in October, was extensively refreshed. From late October, the Monitor proved a popular crowd attraction, with hundreds of people lining the dock to see her. In early November, Bankhead held a formal review aboard for the visiting President Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865). Towed to Hampton Roads, the vessel, under tow of the Rhode Island, departed south for waters off Charleston, SC, on December 29. A heavy storm with great waves developed off Cape Hatteras, NC, on December 31 and the little ironclad quickly began to violently roll and pitch and take on water. Despite every effort, Bankhead’s command foundered and sank about 16 miles southeast of Cape Hatteras. A total of 47 officers and men were rescued by boats from the towing warship, but 16 others drowned; Bankhead, the last man off, was saved, suffering badly from exposure. Returning to New York, he sent in his report and went on sick leave, during which the Navy
2 Department did not order a board of inquiry. Eighteen sixty-three was new when the convalesced Bankhead assumed command of the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron (NABS) paddle-wheel steamer Florida on the blockade off Wilmington, NC, at the end of March, remaining on that station for the next five months. He then became violently ill, reportedly suffering an appendicitis attack, and returned to New York to recuperate. Recovering slowly, he was given command of the new NABS double-ender gunboat Otsego in February 1864, and on June 21 was appointed senior officer in command of a five-boat USN task group in the North Carolina Sounds. Four days later, the Otsego weighed anchor and departed for New Bern, with orders to capture or destroy (or at least contain) the Confederate ironclad Albemarle. Bankhead guarded the mouth of the Roanoke into the summer when, once again, he was forced onto sick leave, which kept him out of service until March 1865 when he was ordered to the East Indies Squadron sloop-of-war Wyoming. In late September, Bankhead’s Wyoming arrived at Singapore, from whence she participated in the late stages of the search for the Confederate ocean raider Shenandoah, which was even then en route to Great Britain. For just over a year, Wyoming undertook an anti-piracy patrol along the China coast, during which deployment Bankhead was advanced to captain, on July 25. At the beginning of 1867, however, Bankhead became ill and requested sick leave. While taking passage home aboard the Bengali steamer Simla, he died off Aden on April 27. No USN vessels have been named in his honor. Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; The Monitor’s Crew: Commander John Payne Bankhead, The Monitor Center, http://www.monitorcenter.org/ the-monitors-crew/ (accessed May 1, 2016); Quarstein, The Monitor Boys; Still, Ironclad Captains; Neeser, “Historic Ships of the Navy: Monitor”; New York Times, June 2, 1867; “Rubbings,” pseud., “Captain John Payne Bankhead,” FindaGrave, http://www.findagrave.com/ cgi-bin/ fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=87524974 (accessed May 1, 2016); Warren, “The Bankhead Family”; Daly, ed., Aboard the USS Florida, 1863–1865.
Barbot, Alphonse Pierre (1824–ca. 1884, CSN) A native of Louisiana, born in 1824, Barbot was appointed a USN midshipman in February 1838
Barbot and was promoted to the rank of passed midshipman in May 1844. During the Mexican War in 1847, he was aboard the USS Mississippi and in 1848 he was acting master of the storeship Supply during her expedition to the Dead Sea. Upon the supply vessel’s return from the Mediterranean later in the year, Barbot became acting master of the brig Dolphin. Promoted to the rank of master in June 1852, he and his ship participated on a special year-long cruise as far as the English Channel to test and perfect discoveries made by Lt. Matthew Fontaine Maury (1806–1873) in his investigation of the winds and currents of the ocean. In November 1853 Barbot, advanced to lieutenant in March, became master aboard the paddlewheel East Indies Squadron supply ship Southampton. While in the Pacific, he also served as master aboard the sloop-of-war Vandalia and participated in the opening of Japan. Continuing to participate in the normal routine of ship and shore duties through the antebellum period, he became executive officer of the screw steamer Mohawk in September 1859 and spent the next two years patrolling against pirates and slavers off the U.S. East Coast and in the Caribbean. Beginning on November 15, 1860, the Mohawk and another warship defended Forts Jefferson and Taylor at Key West from actions of “bands of lawless men,” helping to insure its retention during the upcoming rebellion. While off Key West on January 31, 1861, Barbot shot his ship’s gunner’s mate, whom he perceived to be mutinous. The steamer immediately returned to her New York base, where the lieutenant was ordered to stand courtmartial. On March 16, just prior to the outbreak of the Civil War, Barbot, though living in Philadelphia, PA, with his wife Caroline and four children, elected to cast his fortune with the Confederacy and resigned his commission; he was formally dismissed from the USN on June 10. On November 4, 1861, Barbot was appointed a master in the Confederate Navy and was posted to the naval station at New Orleans. There he became acting master of the purchased steamboat CSS Red Rover (later the first USN hospital ship), the barracks ship for the floating battery New Orleans. On March 5, 1862, Barbot was promoted to the rank of lieutenant and guided both vessels up the Mississippi River to Island No. 10. Returning downstream, he served aboard the
Barrett incomplete Confederate ironclad Louisiana until she was lost when the Federal fleet steamed past Fort Jackson and Fort St. Philip below the city in April. Following the capture of the Crescent City, Barbot was assigned to the Jackson, MS, naval station and from there was posted aboard the ironclad ram Arkansas, then being outfitted at Yazoo City under the direction of Lt. Isaac Newton Brown (1817–1889). Barbot was one of the four gunnery officers aboard when she made her breakout into the Mississippi River on July 15, passed through the combined Union fleet, and steamed to the safety of Vicksburg. He escaped the scuttling of the ironclad off Baton Rouge on August 6 and, with other members of the crew, returned to the naval station at Jackson. During the month, he and the other Arkansas crew members were assigned to the new gun batteries at Port Hudson, LA, and on September 7 these fought an inconclusive battle with the U.S. ironclad Essex. During the fall of 1862 Barbot transferred to the Charleston, SC, naval station and early in 1863 became first lieutenant aboard the Confederate ironclad Atlanta at Savannah, GA. On June 17, with the officer serving as commander of the forward battery, the vessel engaged the U.S. monitor Weehawken in Ossabaw Sound, GA, lost the battle, and was captured. Barbot was taken to Fort Lafayette, New York Harbor, then on July 4 to Fort Warren, Boston Harbor. He was exchanged and sent to Richmond from City Point, Virginia, in October 1864, where he was advanced to the rank of first lieutenant, effective that past January. On November 7 the Louisianan became first lieutenant aboard the James River Squadron ironclad CSS Fredericksburg. When that ship’s captain became ill in February 1865, Barbot became the ironclad’s temporary commander. On April 3 he was transferred as a major to the 2nd Regiment of the Naval Brigade led by Adm. Rafael Semmes (1809–1877) and with the unit surrendered at Greensboro on April 26 and was paroled. After the war, according to his Arkansas shipmate George Gift (1833–1879), Barbot moved to New York City, where he died sometime just prior to 1884. Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; DANFS; Booth, I; Callahan; ORN, 2, 1: 318; CSN Register; Smith, CSS Arkansas; Smith, Civil War Biographies from the Western Waters; Sterling, The Sterling Genealogy; Ness,
2 “Louisiana Officers of the Confederate Navy”; New York Times, February 19, 1861; Foenander; Gift, “The Story of the Arkansas”; Coski, Capital Navy.
Barrett, Edward Andre Gabriel (1827–1880, USN) Born into a family of Creole origin, Barrett, the second of six children, came into the world in New Orleans, LA, on February 4, 1827. His father, Thomas, was collector of the Port of New Orleans, a position granted him personally by President Andrew Jackson (1767–1845), while his mother Marie was descended from the commander of the French force to which George Washington (1732–1799) had surrendered in Pennsylvania in 1755. Barrett was appointed a USN midshipman on November 3, 1840, and attached to the new Mediterranean Squadron sloop-of-war Preble. He soon transferred aboard the Brazil Squadron frigate Columbia and sailed in South American waters until February 1844, when she deployed to the Mediterranean for eight months. Barrett did not return home with the ship but remained in Europe until 1845 when ordered to the Annapolis Naval School (forerunner of the USNA) where he completed a brief course of study in February 1846. Promoted to the rank of passed midshipman on July 11, the officer joined the Mexican War aboard the paddle wheel Home Squadron frigate Mississippi. Off besieged Vera Cruz in early 1847, Barrett shuttled between several nearby vessels, including Cumberland, Raritan, and John Adams. Going ashore from the Raritan, he took over command of an ambulance corps working with the naval battery, then cooperating with AUS artillery, and participated in the March battle of Alvarado and surrender of Vera Cruz itself. After the triumph, Barrett successively served as prize master for two vessels captured with contraband and sent to New Orleans for adjudication. Quickly back on the Raritan in the warzone, Barrett went ashore with her naval landing parties at Tuxpan on April 18 and Tabasco, June 15– 16. He was on sick leave from February 1848 until he deployed to Mediterranean waters late in the year aboard the USS Jamestown. There the sloop-of-war helped to protect American interests during the several revolutions shaking the continent. In May 1850 he transferred aboard
2
Barrett
Lt. Cmdr. Edward Barrett, USN, is shown aboard the monitor Catskill, which he commanded before Charleston, SC, in 86 and 86 (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
the sloop-of-war Lexington, then cruising along the East Coast, before returning to Europe on leave. It was during those months that he married Palmira De Ribrocchi, daughter of a minor noble from Tortona, Piedmont, Italy; the couple would have four children. (It was later reported that Barrett entered into a common-law marriage in the U.S. after the Civil War and had two more children by the time of his death.) Barrett was with the Mediterranean Squadron from 1852 on into 1858, serving aboard the frigate Cumberland and the sloop-of-war St. Louis, becoming a lieutenant on September 14, 1855. On New York navy yard duty in 1859, he deployed in July 1860 on a three-year antislavery patrol aboard the Africa Squadron screw frigate San Jacinto, but in the fall was transferred on board the East Indies Squadron steam sloop-of-war Dacotah, which, following the outbreak of the Civil War, returned to the U.S. in December 1861.
Just after stepping off the Dacotah, Barrett was faced with charges of disloyalty, stemming primarily from his Louisiana birth. When the allegations were disproved, he was ordered, on February 11, 1862, to Annapolis and a berth as gunnery instructor on board the USNA training frigate Savannah. While instructing midshipmen on ordnance, he completed four textbooks and was named a lieutenant commander on July 16. From late 1863 until July 1864, Barrett was captain of the never-finished side-wheel gunboat Massasoit, at Boston, MA. Thereafter, he received command of the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron (SABS) Passaic-class monitor Catskill, which had seen much service in 1863 in the contests with Confederate forts at the mouth of Charleston Harbor. With much of the heavy bombardment work there already completed, her mission was now blockade and army support. When Charleston was evacuated on
Beaumont February 18, 1865, Barrett led a party ashore to take possession of two grounded blockade runners. The Catskill returned to Philadelphia for decommissioning in July. Barrett became a commander on December 24, 1865, was captain of the North Atlantic Squadron (NAS) double-ender gunboat Agawam, which spent 1866 on East Coast training exercises and commanded the South Atlantic Squadron (SAS) steam sloops-of-war Quinnebaug and Ticonderoga on multiple cruises between March 1867 and the end of 1871. From 1872 to 1874 Barrett was captain of the NAS steam sloop-of-war Canandaigua in the Caribbean before taking over the screw sloop-of-war Plymouth in the same area. He was at sea in May 1875 when his promotion to the rank of captain was announced. In 1876 the Plymouth represented the U.S. government at the closing of the International Centennial Exposition at Philadelphia. In a personal highlight during the year and with the author’s permission, he organized an anthology from the works of English writer Thomas Carlyle. The Plymouth was chosen to test the jetties constructed by engineer James Buchanan Eads (1820–1887) at South Pass, at the mouth of the Mississippi River, to protect the port of New Orleans. During his successful visit in the spring of 1877, Capt. Barrett contracted malaria and was briefly hospitalized. When labor riots broke out in Washington, D.C., in July the Plymouth was ordered up the Potomac River and, from the Washington Navy Yard, Barrett created a pick-up brigade of sailors and Marines to protect public establishments in the capital city and provide first aid. When the Plymouth was decommissioned in May 1879, her captain went ashore only to fall ill again with the malaria that had attacked him at New Orleans in 1877. Hospitalized, Barrett was confined for months, though he received a few friends on January 13, 1880, when news arrived of his promotion to the rank of commodore. Barrett died on March 31 and was buried on April 3 in Holy Cross Cemetery, Brooklyn, NY. Although no USN vessels have been named in his honor, Barrett is the only Civil War ironclad captain with his own Italian-language Internet home page. Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; Appletons’, XX; Hamersly, 3rd ed.; Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, April 17, 1880; DANFS; Barrett, Gunnery
26 Instructions Simplified for the Volunteer Officers of the U.S. Navy; Barrett, Dead Reckoning; or, A Day’s Work; Barrett, Naval Howitzer: Instructions Condensed for the Volunteer Officers of the U.S. Navy; Barrett, Temporary Fortifications: Prepared for the Naval Service; Barrett, The Carlyle Anthology; New York Tribune (April 2, 1880); New York Times, April 4, 1880; Grand Army of the Republic, “Com. Edward Barrett” FindaGrave, http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi? page=gr&GRid=104392176 (accessed May 2, 2016); “Cmdr. Edward Gabriele Andre Barrett: ‘Sans Peur et Sans Reproche,” CmdrBarrett http://cmdr.barrett, net (accessed May 12, 2016).
Beaumont, John Colt (1821–1882, USN) The son of U.S. congressman Andrew Beaumont and his wife Julia, John Colt Beaumont was born in Wilkes Barre, PA, on August 21, 1821, the fourth of eight children. A product of local education, he was appointed a USN midshipman on March 1, 1838, and detailed to the Atlantic Coast Squadron sloop-of-war Erie for a 28-month cruise along the East Coast and in the Caribbean with the mission of guarding American interests during the French blockade of Mexican ports. Beaumont was ordered aboard the East India Squadron flagship, the frigate Constellation, in October 1840 and participated in an 1841–1844 circumnavigation of the globe under Com. Lawrence Kearny (1789–1868). Upon his return home, Beaumont learned that he had been advanced to the rank of passed midshipman. In November 1844 he joined the new sloopof-war Jamestown, which exercised off the East Coast until June 25, 1845. Thereafter she sailed as Africa Squadron flagship for 14 months off the west coast of the “Dark Continent.” Beaumont subsequently joined the Home Squadron ship-of-the-line Ohio, which arrived off Vera Cruz in March 1847 and remained to supply men and guns for missions ashore during the course of the Mexican War. Between February 1848 and June 1849, Beaumont spent eight months at the USNO and nine seconded to the USCS before transferring to the Mediterranean Squadron flagship, the razee Independence. After a three-year deployment, during which he became a master, on August 30, 1851, he resumed duty at the USNO. Promoted a lieutenant on August 29, he married Fanny Dorrance on October 27; the couple would have three children.
2
Beaumont
Lt. Cmdr. John C. Beaumont, USN, commanded the monitor Nantucket during the Civil War and afterwards the giant monitor Miantonomoh on a voyage to Russia. He is shown here (th from left, 2nd row) with Assistant Navy Secretary Gustavus Vasa Fox (6th from left, 2nd row) and others in 866. Photograph taken at St. Petersburg (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
Beaumont participated in a test of the engines of the screw frigate San Jacinto in a July– September 1854 visit to Southampton, England, after which he cruised along the East Coast on the Home Squadron flagship, the frigate Potomac. Joining the squadron’s new screw frigate Wabash, he participated in her first mission, the transfer of President Franklin Pierce (1804– 1869) from Portsmouth, NH, to Annapolis in late summer 1856. As squadron flagship, she stood south to the waters off Nicaragua in 1857, arrested the American William Walker (1824– 1860), who had attempted to establish a Central American empire, and returned him to New York in February 1858. There Beaumont joined the receiving ship North Carolina, where he remained until April 1859, when he was posted to the screw sloop-of-war Hartford. Following a
shakedown cruise off the East Coast, the new East Indies Squadron flagship steamed to the Orient, arriving in Chinese waters in the fall. During November, she embarked the U.S. minister and carried him on diplomatic visits to a number of Far East cities, including Manila, Canton, Swatow, and Shanghai. This mission was cut short by the eruption of the Civil War and the ship’s return to the U.S. in November. After completing her outfit, Beaumont’s first command, the Unadilla-class gunboat Aroostook, joined the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron (NABS) on February 20, 1862, and initially steamed southeast of Cape Cod to assist the storm-damaged Vermont. Damaged herself but repaired, the Aroostook joined a small squadron in April supporting the Union ironclad Monitor as she stood guard against the Confederate
Belknap ironclad Virginia. It was not known exactly how the little ships would fight the Southern behemoth if she sortied from Norfolk, VA, again. However, Beaumont planned, if opportunity presented itself (it did not), to render her unmaneuverable by running alongside and snaring her propellers with a net his men had made from “rattling stuff.” In early May the Aroostook proceeded up the James River and joined the Monitor and the iron-plated gunboat USS Galen, in unsuccessfully attacking Confederate defenses at Drewry’s Bluff, the last Southern obstacle before Richmond. Exhausted and ill, Beaumont went on sick leave about the time he was promoted to the rank of commander on July 16. Restored to duty in October, he assumed command of the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron steamer Sebago and joined the blockade off Charleston, SC, remaining there until April 1863. On May 3 Beaumont assumed command of the Passaic-class single-turret monitor Nantucket, taking aboard with him a surviving journal he had begun aboard the Sebago and which he would maintain until November. With other SABS ironclads, his ironclad supported AUS operations against Morris Island, on the southern approaches to Charleston, blasting Fort Wagner during July 16–18 and July 24. Morris Island was abandoned by the Confederates on September 6/7. In February 1864 Beaumont took over the NABS doubleender gunboat Mackinaw, commanding her on James River picket duty that continued most of the summer. The ship was transferred to the blockade off Wilmington, NC, in the fall and played a major gunfire support role in the campaign against Fort Fisher, Wilmington’s major defense. On December 24–25, her ordnance covered an unsuccessful naval infantry attack. Beginning on January 12, 1865, the Mackinaw was one of 56 Union vessels that pounded Fort Fisher, prior to a second—and successful— Union effort to take the bastion on January 14– 15. On February 18, she participated in the attack on Fort Anderson up the Cape Fear River. Beaumont fell ill in July and went on sick leave until February 1866. Beaumont was in command of the doubleturreted North Atlantic Squadron (NAS) monitor Miantonomoh when she arrived at St. John’s, Newfoundland, and on May 23, 1866, embarked
28 Navy assistant secretary Gustavus Vasa Fox (1821–1883) and his party en route to Russia and other points in Europe on a special mission for President Andrew Johnson (1808–1875). The first monitor to cross the Atlantic Ocean, she concluded her 17,700-mile voyage and arrived at Philadelphia, PA, on July 22, 1867. Having received no orders, Beaumont was placed on the Navy Department’s retired list in April 1868; however, he was restored to the active list in 1872, becoming executive officer of the Washington Navy Yard in December. He was captain of the NAS flagship, the paddle-wheel frigate Powhatan, from July 1873 to May 1874, cruising the East Coast until his promotion to the rank of commodore in June and assignment to the USN Board of Inspection and Survey. A widower, Beaumont married Fannie King and, from September 1876 to April 1879, was chief signal officer of the navy. Named commandant of the U.S. Navy Yard at Portsmouth, NH, in May, he was promoted to rear admiral on November 25, 1881, and voluntarily retired on February 3, 1882. While visiting with his family at Durham, NH, on August 2 of that year, he died of a heart attack. The admiral was buried at Oak Hill Cemetery in Washington, D.C. No USN vessels have been named in his honor. Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; DANF; Cogar; Hamersly, 3rd ed.; Rodehorst, Guide to the John C. Beaumont Journal, 1862–1863; Russ Dodger, “Adm. John Colt Beaumont,” FindaGrave, http://www. findagrave. com/ cgi- bin/ fg. cgi?page= gr&GRid= 159 43621 (accessed May 3, 2016); Washington Post, August 4, 1882; New York Tribune, August 4, 1882; Chicago Daily Tribune, August 6, 1882; New York Times, August 7, 1882.
Belknap, George Eugene (1832–1903, USN) One of six sons of farmer-manufacturer Sawyer B. Belknap and his wife Martha Mary, George was born at Newport, NH, on January 22, 1832. He appointed a USN acting midshipman on October 7, 1847, and was sent to the USNA. That December he joined the Africa Squadron brig Porpoise on a three-year antislavery patrol. Assigned to the Pacific Squadron frigate Raritan in July 1850, he sailed along the west coast of South America as far west as the International Date Line, until October 1852. As passed mid-
2 shipman as of June 10, 1853, Belknap completed his USNA before he was seconded to the USCS paddle-wheel steamer Corwin in January 1854 until October. The sloop of war Albany had disappeared off the west coast of Venezuela in September with the sons of several notables aboard, and on December 16 the frigate Falmouth, with Belknap aboard as acting master, was one of several warships sent on an unsuccessful ninemonth search to find her. After brief service on the sloop-of-war Saratoga until October and the receiving ship Ohio until March 1856, he shipped on the East Indies Squadron sloop-of-war Portsmouth under Cmdr. Andrew Hull Foote (1806– 1863). In September 1857 she took America’s minister to Japan, Townsend Harris, the first mail he had received from the U.S. in 14 months. In October, Belknap’s ship was dispatched to China to observe British operations during the Second Opium War. Tasked with protecting American lives, Foote ordered Marines and sailors from his ship, and another landed at Can-
Lt. Cmdr. George E. Belknap, USN, photographed in a business suit, was captain of the monitor Canonicus as well as the casemate ironclad New Ironsides. In May 86 his monitor was sent to Havana, Cuba, to take possession of the Confederate ironclad Stonewall. Upon his return, he had the pleasure of knowing that his vessel was the first of its type to reach a foreign port and return (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
Belknap ton (now Guangzhou) in November. On November 15 the withdrawing force was shelled by Chinese forts lining the Pearl River, bringing on a return U.S. bombardment the next day. Four days later, the U.S. warships again fired on the Chinese bastions. Foote led a landing party in small boats, one of which was commanded by Belknap, who had been promoted to the rank of master on September 15 and lieutenant a day later. The party took two of the forts, and two more fell on November 24. After the Portsmouth returned to Virginia in mid-1858, Belknap became an instructor aboard the Ohio until January 1859, when he went aboard the Home Squadron sloop-of-war St. Louis. Two years later, the St. Louis was required to break off her Caribbean deployment and take station at Pensacola, FL, there to guard the base during a time of intense turmoil. In April 1861 Belknap commanded small boats from the St. Louis in the first and second reinforcements of Fort Pickens and in September when a Confederate blockade-runner was captured at the mouth of the Mississippi River. In November he became executive officer of the new Unadilla-class gunboat Huron. On December 8 he married Ellen Deborah Reed, with whom he would have a daughter. Joining the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron in February 1862, the Huron patrolled the coast between Georgia and Florida and also participated in several small raids. April and May brought a time of “happy hunting” for Belknap’s vessel as she caught four blockade-runners. Promoted to lieutenant commander on July 16, he became executive officer of the casemate ironclad New Ironsides, which, following shakedown and modifications, arrived off Charleston, SC, in January 1863. On April 7 she served as flagship during an unsuccessful bombardment of Fort Sumter. As she withdrew, the New Ironsides actually anchored directly over a Confederate underwater mine, or “torpedo,” packed with 3,000 pounds of high explosive—but it failed to explode. When the captain of the giant ironclad was promoted in June, Belknap assumed command and continued to maintain her on station, participating in all of the summer events surrounding the Federal effort to take that city. When the New Ironsides returned to Philadelphia for refit, Belknap was briefly appointed
Belknap commander of a “90-day wonder,” the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron Seneca, another Unadilla-class gunboat. However, in November, he took over the new single-turret monitor Canonicus, the lead ship of her class, and joined two sister ships off City Point in the James River on April 16, 1864. These ironclads supported the AUS in the Bermuda Hundred Campaign in May and June, and on June 21 the trio engaged a Confederate battery at Howlett’s Farm in a spirited duel that lasted several hours. Remaining in the James for the remainder of the summer and fall, the monitor fought a return engagement with the Howlett Battery on December 5–6. With the NABS in need of additional gunfire support vessels for the year-end Fort Fisher campaign, the Canonicu was towed to Beaufort, NC, where on December 24–25 a first unsuccessful attack was made by U.S. forces on the Southern citadel. Between January 13 and 15, 1865, the Union mounted a second successful assault. Towed to Charleston, SC, on January 19, the Canonicus joined in the long-running SABS blockade of that city. Belknap, witness to the enemy evacuation of the city on the night of February 4, sent to, and received from, Fort Moultrie the last rounds exchanged in its defenses. Still off the South Carolina coast in April when the Civil War concluded, Belknap’s ironclad and another were both towed in May to Havana, Cuba, there to take possession of the Confederate oceangoing ironclad Stonewall, which had been turned over to Spanish authorities by her captain. The Canonicus returned to the U.S. on June 6. Sick all summer while he was at the USNA, Belknap’s wife Ellen died in October. The following month, he was appointed executive officer of the screw sloop-of-war Shenandoah, which spent the next year with the East Indies Squadron. Advanced to commander on July 25, 1866, Belknap married, on December 23, Frances Georgiana Prescott (1842–1912), with whom he would have four children, including RAdm. George Rowan Belknap (1871–1959). At year’s end, Belknap became captain of the squadron flagship, the famous sloop-of-war Hartford. Following a native massacre of American survivors from the bark Rover on southern Formosa in March 1867, the Hartford and another vessel
were dispatched to the scene in June on what turned out to be an unsuccessful punitive expedition. Already having been detached, Belknap was back at the USNA that summer. On recruiting duty or unemployed, Belknap was on navigation duty at the Boston navy yard from April 1869 until late April 1872, when his career became centered on exploration, hydrographic scientific research, and experimentation in deep-sea sounding, winning him his greatest recognition. Appointed captain of the screw sloop-of-war Tuscarora in May 1872, he undertook a series of hydrographic voyages in the North Pacific that lasted until late 1874, during which he invented several exploratory tools. For his scientific work, he was elected a fellow of the American Geographic Society and was awarded a silver medal by the Geographical Society of France. Promoted to the rank of captain on January 25, 1875, Belknap commanded the Pensacola navy yard until April 1876, when he was ordered to undertake another six-month hydrographic expedition in the Pacific before resuming his duties at Pensacola, which he performed until March 1881. He became captain of the North Pacific Station screw sloop-of-war Alaska in April 1881, and for the remainder of the year and the first half of 1882 he performed hydrographic soundings in the Alaska Deep (then named for the ship, but now called the Peru-Chile Trench) and Alaska Rise (now the Chile Rise). During late fall, he received special honors from the King of Hawaii and learned that he had been recognized in an anthology of New Hampshire poets. From 1883 to 1885 he was commandant of the Norfolk navy yard and president of several boards, including that which examined the new dispatch vessel Dolphin (PG-24), one of the so-called ABCD ships. Promoted to commodore on June 2, 1885, Belknap served as USNO superintendent for a year and then became commandant of the Mare Island navy yard, overseeing it until March 1889. Having been appointed a rear admiral on February 12, 1889, he was sent to Yokohama, Japan, to assume command of the Asiatic Squadron, which he oversaw until February 1892. For the remainder of the year through 1893, he headed several boards, was a VIP escort at the Chicago World’s Fair, and over-
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saw speed and other trials for the cruisers Detroit, New York, Columbia, and Marblehead. Belknap was placed on the USN retired list on January 22, 1894, but in both his writings (scientific and otherwise) and his activities he was far from inactive. At the beginning of 1903, seeking a different climate, he accepted a Navy Department contract to serve as superintendent of hydrographic work in connection with a naval base at Key West, FL. Belknap died there of a heart attack on April 7 and was buried at Arlington National Cemetery two days later. Two 20th century U.S. warships (DD-251/AVD-8/APD34 and DLG/CG-26) were named in his honor. Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; Hamersly, 3rd ed.; Cogar, I; DANFS; Cowley, “Rear Admiral George Eugene Belknap”; Douglas Niermeyer, “Rear Admiral George Eugene Belknap, USN,” Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States: Loyal Legion Vignettes, 2005, http://suvcw.org/mollus/ art042.htm (accessed May 15, 2016); “Rubbings,” pseud., “Adm. George Eugene Belknap,” FindaGrave, http:// www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid= 35564139 (accessed May 16, 2016); Stewart, Admirals of the World; McClellan, “The Capture of the Barrier Forts in the Canton River, China”; Roberts, USS New Ironsides in the Civil War; Neeser, “Historic Ships of the Navy: New Ironsides”; Nicholson, George E. Belknap Papers: A Finding Aid to the Papers in the Naval Historical Foundation Collection in the Library of Congress; Chapin, comp., The Poets of New Hampshire;
History of Bedford, New Hampshire; Belknap, “Reminiscences of the New Ironsides Off Charleston”; Belknap, “The Home Squadron in the Winter of 1860–61: Paper Read January 5, 1897”; Belknap, “Reminiscences of the Siege of Charleston”; Belknap, “Concerning Deep Sea Soundings with Large Plate”; Belknap, “The Depth of the Pacific Off the East Coast of Japan”; Belknap, ed., The Letters of Capt. George Hamilton Perkins, USN; Belknap, “Rear Admiral Daniel Ammen: A Biographical Sketch”; Belknap, “Some Aspects of Naval Administration, in War, with Its Attendant Belongings of Peace”; New York Times, April 8, 12, 1903; Boston Daily Globe, December 31, 1899; April 8, 1903; Washington Post, April 8, 14, 1903.
Bennett, John William (1822– 1902, CSN) Bennett was born on January 11, 1822, the son of a wealthy Talbot County, MD, family. He was appointed a USN Midshipman on February 10, 1840. Graduating with the first USNA class, he became a passed midshipman on July 11, 1846, and was ordered aboard the paddle-wheel frigate Mississippi when she departed for the Mexican War. Arriving off besieged Vera Cruz in early 1847, Bennett rotated among several nearby vessels, including Cumberland, Raritan, and John Adams, and participated in the March battle of Alvarado and the surrender of Vera Cruz itself.
The second, incomplete, Confederate ironclad Nashville was commanded at Mobile, AL, in 86 and 86 by Lt. John William Bennett, CSN, who surrendered her on May , 86. Prior to that he had commanded the gunboat Gaines (depicted) in the Battle of Mobile Bay (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
Brent After the fall of Vera Cruz, Bennett joined the naval landing parties at Tuxpan on April 18 and Tabasco, June 15–16. Afflicted with a light case of yellow fever and confined aboard the Mississippi, he recovered, becoming acting master of the paddle-wheel gunboat Spitfire and remaining in the Gulf of Mexico protecting AUS supply ships. Bennett was seconded to the USCS during the winter of 1848–49 and was engaged in explorations of the “Outer Diamond Shoal” off Cape Hatteras, NC. A year later he was transferred aboard the frigate Raritan, successively flagship of the West India Squadron and the Home Squadron. In October 1851 Bennett was appointed navigator aboard the paddle-wheel East Indies frigate Susquehanna and participated in the “Opening of Japan” (1853–1855). He was rated a master on March 1, 1855, and lieutenant on September 14. When the Civil War erupted, Bennett was on duty at the USNO and resigned from the Federal navy. Officially dismissed by the USN on April 19, 1861, he traveled to Richmond and entered the CSN as a first lieutenant on June 20. Working with the ACS, the lieutenant was present during the First Battle of Manassas (Bull Run) in July and commanded two of the eight batteries at Manassas until March 1862. Bennett then became executive officer aboard the ocean cruiser Nashville, originally fitted out at Charleston, SC, to transport Confederate commissioners to England. The diplomats went by another vessel and the raider sailed directly for Southampton, capturing the U.S. merchantman Harvey Birch in the North Atlantic while en route. In the fall of 1862 the returned Bennett took over the paddle-wheel gunboat CSS Gaines, which he would command for months. Appointed a first lieutenant, Provisional Navy, to take effect from January 6, 1864, he commanded Battery Buchanan at Choctaw Point on Mobile Bay. He also captained the Gaines in the Battle of Mobile Bay, on August 5, where she left the fight in sinking condition and was grounded. Most of the crew reached Mobile in small boats, and Bennett devoted his energies to Battery Buchanan until November 26. Early in 1865, he became captain of the second Nashville, a casemate ironclad originally launched at Montgomery, AL, but at that time nearly finished at
2 Mobile. On March 27 her guns helped to beat off Federal advances on Spanish Fort, firing until Union guns drove her off. On April 2, she shelled Northern soldiers near Fort Blakely, but 10 days later when the city surrendered she retreated up the Tombigbee River to Demopolis only to formally surrender on May 10. Paroled at Nunna Hubba Bluff that May 10, Bennett returned to Maryland by way of New Orleans and Norfolk and, with his family, settled in the Carroll County community of Sykesville. There he farmed and was active in politics. Upon his death at age 80 on June 29, 1902, the captain was buried in Springfield Cemetery, located at the Springfield Presbyterian Church in Sykesville. Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; Fronander; DANFS; CSN Register; Driver, Confederate Sailors, Marines, and Signalmen from Virginia and Maryland; Fran Midkiff, “John W. Bennett and the Battle of Mobile Bay”; Sykesville Gatehouse Museum ArtiFACTS, http://www.sykesvilleonline.com/johnw-bennett-and-the-battle-of-mobile-bay/ (accessed May 12, 2016); Atlanta Constitution, June 30, 1902; “Seagull,” pseud, “Captain John William Bennett,” FindaGrave, http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg. cgi?page=gr&GRid=37281262 (accessed May 12, 2016); “Capt. John W. Bennett,” Confederate Veteran; Napier, “Montgomery’s Confederate Warship”; Hearn, Mobile Bay and the Mobile Campaign: The Last Great Battles of the Civil War.
Brent, Thomas William (1808– 1875, CSN) The son of militia colonel William Brent and his wife Catherine was born in Washington, D.C., on February 20, 1808. He was appointed a U.S. Navy acting midshipman on March 1, 1825. During the next 20 years, he participated in the normal routine of sea and shore duty common to naval officers of the antebellum period. Brent was promoted regularly: passed midshipman, June 1831; lieutenant, March 1836; and commander, September 1855. He married Merced Gonzalez (1824–1919) at Pensacola, FL, on July 12, 1841; the couple would have 11 children. During the Mexican War of 1847–1848, his vessel, the sloop-of-war USS Falmouth, blockaded Mexican Gulf ports. After serving ashore as an ordnance officer, Brent received his first command in 1857, the 16-gun Africa Squadron sloop of war Marion. She served on antislavery patrol off the west coast of Africa from early 1858 through
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1860 before returning to her home port of Portsmouth, NH. On January 19, 1861, Brent resigned his USN commission. He was appointed a CSN commander on March 26 and assigned to superintend the Pensacola navy yard. He orchestrated the transportation of Confederate soldiers to Santa Rosa Island, FL, on October 8–9. On March 8, 1862, he was ordered to evacuate his facility and torched the navy yard and defending fortifications. He subsequently served as commander of the Georgia and South Carolina naval station at Savannah, GA, until October1863, when he was promoted to commander of naval forces west of the Mississippi. Deployed to that post only briefly, he left the defenses on the Red River to Lt. Jonathan Carter (1822–1884), who was then building the CSS Missouri. Brent was next assigned to the staff of RAdm. Franklin Buchanan (1800–1874) at Mobile and, in June 1864, was given command of the ironclad CSS Savannah, then entering service at her namesake city. A force-in-being, the ship saw no action until the end of the year, when for two days it provided gunfire support as Confederate forces evacuated the city. On December 20 the Savannah became the last CSN vessel to fight in Georgia waters when it engaged Union artillery. The next day, while attempting to escape the advance of Sherman’s army, the ship became entangled in a Southern minefield, requiring its destruction. Traveling by way of Hardeeville, Brent arrived at the Charleston, SC, naval station two days later. Before that command ended, he was sent to participate in the defense of Mobile, AL, where he was captured and then paroled on May 22, 1865. After the war, Brent returned to Pensacola, working in the fire/casualty insurance business until his death on November 10, 1875. Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; DANFS; Callahan; ORN, 2, 1; CSN Register; Foenander; Driver, Confederate Sailors, Marines, and Signalmen from Virginia and Maryland; Larry Grimes, “A Talk on Commander Thomas William Brent: Pensacola Historical Society,” in “Ancestors of LCDR Thomas William Saltmarsh, Jr., USN (Ret.),” Family Origins, http://www. familyorigins.com/users/s/a/l/Thomas-W-Saltmarshjr/FAMO1–0001/d8.htm (accessed April 1, 2012); Hartman, comp., Biographical Rosters of Florida’s Confederate and Union Soldiers, 1861–1865, I; Stephen Huggins, “CSS Savannah,” New Georgia Encyclopedia, http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/history-
The Confederate ironclad Savannah, under Cmdr. Thomas W. Brent, was stationed at her namesake city in 86 and on December 2 became the last CSN vessel to fight in Georgia waters when it engaged Union artillery. This picture of Brent in later life is taken from a photograph of a painting in the possession of Dreda and Larry Grimes of Pensacola, FL, and Huntsville, AL (courtesy Anne Fields). archaeology/css-savannah (accessed May 17, 2016); Smith, Civil War Biographies from the Western Waters; Jean Whelan Booton, “Thomas William Brent,” FindaGrave, http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi? page=gr&GRid=89869379 (accessed May 17, 2016).
Brown, George “Spud” (1835– 1913, USN) The middle of six children of U.S. congressman William John Brown (1805–1857) and his wife Susan (1807–1888), George was born in Milroy, Rush County, IN, on June 19, 1835. A product of local public schools, he was appointed a USN acting midshipman on February 5, 1849, and joined the frigate Cumberland for a twoyear cruise of the Mediterranean and visiting ports in support of American interests. Transferring to the Pacific Squadron frigate St. Lawrence in October 1851, he spent the next three and one-half years sailing along the west coast of South America and occasionally to Hawaii.
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Lt. Cmdr. George Brown, USN, commanded the ill-fated ironclad Indianola when she was lost to Confederate forces below Vicksburg in February 86. He later became a rear admiral (Library of Congress).
Having returned to the USNA in fall 1854, he graduated 6th in a class of 39 on June 12, 1855, and became a passed midshipman. Although he became a master on September 16 and a lieutenant on June 2, 1856, he was unemployed until December. Assigned to the Brazil Squadron sloop-of-war Falmouth, he participated in the October 1858–February 1859 U.S. Paraguay Expedition, a diplomatic mission backed by force. Following leave, Brown reported aboard the
storeship Supply, which deployed to the west coast of Africa in August as part of the Africa Squadron, from whence he transferred to the same squadron’s sloop-of-war Portsmouth in December. On February 6, 1860, a “cutting out” party from the vessel captured the slave ship Virginian off the mouth of the Congo River and Brown, as her prize master, returned to the U.S. in April with his first independent command. In August, Brown joined the Home Squadron paddle-wheel frigate Powhatan and cruised off the coast of Mexico. In April 1861 as civil war erupted, Brown’s vessel was involved in an unsuccessful Federal effort orchestrated by Secretary of State William H. Seward (1801–1872) to relieve Fort Pickens, FL, after which she was shifted to the blockade of Mobile, AL. In November, Brown assumed command of the new paddle-wheel doubleender North Atlantic Blockading Squadron steamer Octarora. After a few weeks off Wilmington, NC, she reported to Ship Island, MS, where she became flagship of Cmdr. David Dixon Porter’s (1813–1891) Mortar Flotilla, a component of the West Gulf Blockading Squadron that captured New Orleans in April 1862. In May, June, and July elements of the WGBS, including Octarora, ascended the Mississippi River past Baton Rouge to attack the Confederate citadel at Vicksburg, MS. In the predawn darkness of June 28, the mortar schooners controlled from Brown’s ship opened fire upon the Southern fortress while heavy squadron elements steamed upriver to a position in the river above the stronghold. During the action, the Octarora was damaged and was subsequently ordered to return east for repairs. Still, while on that Mississippi sojourn, Brown was advanced to the rank of lieutenant commander on July 16. At the beginning of October, RAdm. Porter, new commander of the Mississippi Squadron, appointed his late deputy captain of the ironclad Indianola being completed at Cincinnati, OH. The new vessel went to war on January 24, 1863, and on February 13/14 ran downstream past the Vicksburg batteries to join with another vessel in halting the flow of supplies to the Confederate citadel from the Red River. On February 21 Indianola quit her Red River blockade to return to base but was engaged before she could do so by a small Confederate task group on February
24/25. Rammed several times, the Federal ironclad was forced to run ashore and surrender. Brown and many of his crewmen were held as POWs until they were exchanged at Richmond on May 23. In June Brown was assigned to special duties at Cincinnati and the following month supported the light draught units of the Mississippi Squadron in their successful attempt to corral the rampaging Rebel Brig. Gen. John Hunt Morgan. Brown assumed command of the Unadillaclass gunboat Itasca and arrived off New Orleans on New Year’s Eve. As 1864 began, the Itasca was assigned to the WGBS blockade of Mobile Bay, AL, but saw no significant action for eight months. On August 5 she joined other units of her squadron in the Battle of Mobile Bay, participating in the capture of CSS Selma, the last Confederate ship to surrender during the engagement. After the fight, the Itasca was transferred to the Texas coastal blockade. At year’s end, Brown was ordered back to New Orleans, where in January 1865 he assumed command of the squadron flagship Arizona, which was then completing repairs. While en route from South West Pass to New Orleans on February 27/28, a fire broke out onboard that could not be contained, forcing the Arizona to ground on the west bank of the Mississippi River, where she exploded. At month’s end, Brown assumed command of the Pook turtle Cincinnati, transferred to the WGBS from the Mississippi Squadron, which patrolled in the Mississippi Sounds and off Mobile Bay, and participated in the campaign against Spanish Fort and the defenses of Mobile from March 23 to April 14. Brown later recalled her firing on guerrillas attacking AUS transports at Catawba, 15 miles from Selma, AL, and that this was the navy’s “the last shot of the war.” Following his ship’s withdrawal, he took over the screw gunboat Pocahontas on the Texas blockade. In December, Brown, on New York ordnance duty since July, was given command of the former blockade-runner CSS Lady Stirling, which had been renamed USS Hornet, and sent to Cuba to escort the onetime Confederate ironclad ram CSS Stonewall back to America. Promoted to the rank of commander on July 25, 1866, he was given leave in August 1867 to recruit a small crew and, as the purchaser’s agent
Brown and ship captain, deliver the former Stonewall, now the Kōtetsu, to the government of the Japanese Tokugawa shogunate at Yokahoma. Slowed by ill-functioning machinery in the doldrums of the Pacific, the ship ran out of vegetables and had nothing but salt horse and hardtack. Unable to signal-down an encountered eastward-bound vessel, Brown ordered a shot put across her bow. Once the ship hove to, a cutter from the Kōtetsu went alongside and requested to purchase a quantity of potatoes, which “spuds” were duly delivered. Both ships went their separate ways, with the warship’s captain gaining his nickname. Arriving at their destination in late January 1868, the crew of the Kōtetsu learned that the Boshin War had erupted between the shogunate and the imperial government. With the U.S. pledged to neutrality, the American minister ordered the ironclad to display an American flag and await offshore with the U.S. squadron. The vessel was finally delivered to the new Meigi government in February 1869, allowing Brown to return to his ordnance duties until September 1870, when he became captain of the Great Lakes gunboat Michigan. On October 4, 1871, Brown married Kate Morris; the couple would have two sons, both USN officers. His niece, Ms. Eliza G. Brown, would become Indianapolis city librarian. Brown’s Great Lakes deployment continued until October 1873, after which he returned to ordnance duties, this time at Boston. On April 25, 1877, he became a captain and served and served as inspector of the 10th Lighthouse District at Buffalo, NY, for a year until given command of the North Pacific Station sloop-of-war Alaska. From 1879 through June 1881 Brown cruised the waters off Alaska, the West Coast of the U.S., and along South America as far down as Peru. At the end of August 1881, he completed orders to establish a coaling station at Pago Pago. Following his Pacific sojourn, Brown was inspector of the 3rd Lighthouse District at Tompkinsville, NY, until June 1885, when he was sent to the Norfolk navy yard. Becoming a commodore on September 4, 1887, he took command of the Pacific Squadron onboard the protected cruiser San Francisco (C-5) in January 1890 and once more visited many of the ports he had first seen while aboard the Alaska. Brown was close to the ill Hawaiian King David Kalākaua and was present at his February 1891 burial. In September off
Brown Valparaiso during the Chilean civil war, he ordered a force of sailors and Marines sent ashore from the San Francisco to guard the U.S. consulate. He also controversially took aboard 35 ranking refugees from the conflict’s losing side, sending them to Peru. Although criticized in the press of the U.S. and Chile, his actions were upheld by President Benjamin Harrison (1833– 1901) and the Navy Department. The San Francisco returned to the U.S. East Coast in February 1893 and, in April and May, he served as USN representative during the International Naval Review held at Hampton Roads, VA. On August 1, as a newly created rear admiral and the ranking USN officer in the USN, he became commandant of the Norfolk navy yard. After representing his service at the March 4, 1897, inauguration of President William McKinley (1843–1901), he retired on June 19. After returning to Indianapolis, the admiral took an interest in the Indianapolis Street Railway Company, later becoming its president, a post he held at his death. In August 1898 during the Spanish-American War, he undertook a special duty of inspecting U.S. West Coast navy yards and stations. At the beginning of 1913, doctors found Brown was suffering from a leaking heart valve and attendant complications. Confined to bed in May, he died on June 29 and was laid to rest in Crown Hill Cemetery on July 2. Perhaps due to his loss of the Indianola, no USN warships have been named in his honor. Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; Hamersly, 3rd ed.; Smith, Civil War Biographies from the Western Waters; DANFS; OR, I, 23; Callahan; Cogar, I; Smith, Le Roy Fitch; “JKB,” pseud., “Adm. George Brown,” FindaGrave, http://www.findagrave.com/cgibin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=39920348 (accessed May 18, 2016); Smith, Joseph Brown and His Civil War Ironclads; Tom Huntington, “From Dixie to the Land of the Rising Sun”; “Admiral Brown’s Nickname,” Chicago Daily Inter Ocean, July 17, 22, 1893; New York Times, July 12, 1895; Atlanta Constitution, February 3, 1902; Castle Rock (CO) Journal, January 24, 1902; Washington Post, June 20, 1897; San Francisco Chronicle, August 30, 1898; Indianapolis Star, June 19, 1908; June 30, July 1, 3, 1913.
Brown, George Washington (1835–1915, USN) Brown was born in Newport, NH, on May 10, 1835. Eventually he ran away from home and,
6 without parental consent, shipped aboard the Delhi, a merchant sailing vessel engaged in the West Indian and Mediterranean trade. In 1855 he became master of the brig Marshfield in the West Indies but lost her while crossing a reef two years later. Having settled in Brooklyn, NY, and becoming engaged in the ship brokerage business, he was recruited as a USN acting master on July 18, 1861, and was posted aboard the paddle-wheel gunboat Keystone State the next day. Through October, the Keystone State cruised the West Indies attempting to halt Confederate blockade runners exiting island ports. Brown next became captain of the schooner Dan Smith, converting her into a warship equipped with a pair of 32-pounder smoothbore cannon and a giant 13-inch mortar. Assigned to the Mortar Flotilla, a division of the newly formed West Gulf Blockading Squadron she arrived off the mouth of the Mississippi River on March 11, 1862. Between April 18 and April 24 Brown’s craft participated in the bombardment of Fort Jackson and Fort St. Philip and the capture of New Orleans. In June and July, the Dan Smith joined other elements of her group in ascending the Mississippi and joined in the failed effort to subdue Vicksburg, MS, occasionally shelling the city, together with the Southern ironclad Arkansas, until returning to Baltimore for a refit. In October Brown became captain of the Mississippi Squadron light-draught gunboat Forest Rose (Tinclad No.9), which completed modification and entered service in December. His ship participated in the January 4–11, 1863, campaign that resulted in the reduction and capture of Fort Hindman at Arkansas Post and Brown was that month promoted to the rank of acting volunteer lieutenant. In February he led the first reconnaissance trips into the Delta across the Mississippi from Helena, AR, and, at month’s end, the Forest Rose participated in the unsuccessful advance down the Yazoo Pass, the Coldwater and Tallahatchie rivers, to Greenwood, MS, where the Union plan to reach the upper Yazoo River failed before determined Confederate defense at Fort Pemberton. Brown’s command provided Mississippi River convoy and antipartisan support during the remainder of the Vicksburg campaign and in late May was part of the naval expedition that ascended the Yazoo and Sunflower rivers, taking Yazoo City
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The unique Mississippi Squadron river monitor Ozark (depicted) was commanded on the 86 Red River Expedition and through the remainder of the conflict by Acting Volunteer Lt. George W. Brown, USN (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
in the process. When Vicksburg fell on July 4, Brown’s vessel immediately joined several others in armed reconnaissance missions up the Red, Black, White, and Tensas rivers. The veteran tinclad commander was ordered to outfit the new river monitor Ozark, which he placed into commission on February 18, 1864. In mid–March, the single-turreted warship participated in the joint army-navy expedition up the Red River of Louisiana but saw no significant action save, with other fleet elements, her dramatic May escape from low water via the dam at Alexandria. Brown returned to his inventive ways while maintaining his vessel as a station ship at key locations along the Mississippi River shore for the remainder of the war. After decommissioning his ironclad at Mound City, IL, on July 24, 1865, Brown was honorably discharged on September 3 and returned to Brooklyn where, for the next 15 years, he was employed as a special agent for the Ma-
rine Underwriters insurance firm. As he traveled the world investigating and adjusting claims in shipping losses, his mastery of Spanish frequently took him to the Caribbean and South America. In 1898 he became acting governor of the Sailors’ Snug Harbor and later was its admissions director. An Episcopalian, Brown married Mary E. Stainboon in the 1850s; the couple had three children, one of whom became an Episcopal priest and who was with the seaman when he died at home in 1915. Sources: Callahan; Wheeler, The History of Newport, New Hampshire, from 1766 to 1878; George W. Brown, “Service in the Mississippi Squadron and Its Connection with the Siege and Capture of Vicksburg,” in vol. 1 of James Grant Wilson and Titus Munson Con, eds., Personal Recollections of the War of the Rebellion: Addresses Delivered Before the New York Commandery of the Loyal Legion of the United States, 1883– 1891; OR, I, 26; Smith, Tinclads in the Civil War; Smith, Fight for the Yazoo; Smith, Civil War Biographies from the Western Waters; “Capt. George W. Brown,” FindaGrave. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?
Brown page=gr&GSmcid=46620889&GRid=100856723&df= 7& (accessed March 1, 2013); Ross, A History of Long Island: From Its Earliest Settlement to the Present Time, III.
Brown, Isaac Newton (1817– 1889, CSN) Named for the great philosopher-inventor, Isaac Newton Brown—the fifth of five children—was born to Presbyterian minister Samuel Brown and his wife Susan Miller Brown in Caldwell County, Kentucky, on May 27, 1817. He spent most of his youth in Western Kentucky, near Covington, where he took a childhood interest in architecture and spent many days watching construction of the Tipton County Courthouse, completed in 1832. Shortly after the death of his father, he was appointed a USN midshipmen in March 1834. Brown joined the West Indies Squadron sloop-of-war Vandalia in January 1835, participating in her mission to suppress piracy and the slave trade in the Caribbean for five years as well as supporting AUS forces ashore in Florida during the Second
Cmdr. Isaac Newton Brown, CSN, won glory as commander of the Confederate ironclad Ar kansas on the Mississippi River and afterwards was captain of the ironclad Charleston at her namesake city (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
8 Seminole War, 1836–1839. Promoted to the rank of passed midshipman on July 6, 1840, Brown served aboard the Home Squadron sloop-of-war Falmouth from 1841 to 1843 as she cruised Newfoundland. After two years aboard the sloop-of-war Boston in the West Indies, he was married at Portsmouth, VA, in the spring of 1845 to Mayflower descendant Eliza Ann Read Denison from a plantation near the little town of Como, on a high point in Coahoma County located near Moon Lake in the Mississippi Delta. Brown came to call the farm home; the couple would have three sons. During the fall he returned to the Falmouth, at the time Home Squadron flagship, and operated chiefly in the Gulf of Mexico, carrying messages and U.S. government officials, convoying army transports to Texas, and protecting American interests in Mexico. When the Mexican War erupted in April 1846, the Falmouth blockaded enemy ports then returned for a refit in late fall to Boston, where Brown, who had become a master on August 15, was promoted to the rank of lieutenant on October 31. He was sent aboard the receiving ship North Carolina at New York and served under a future opponent, Lt. Henry Walke (1809–1896), until January 1847 when he returned to the Gulf aboard the refurbished ship-of-the-line Ohio. The giant 64-gun warship arrived off Vera Cruz in late March, just in time to land a number of cannon used in the attack on the city. After participating in the Tuxpan River Expedition of June, the Ohio reinforced the Pacific Squadron, to which she remained attached until 1850. Following two West Indian cruises aboard the sloop-of-war Albany, during which time while home on leave in early 1853, Brown’s only surviving son, Henry Denison Brown (1853–1914), was born, he joined the sloop-of-war Vincennes, flagship of a small task group, the North Pacific Exploring and Surveying Expedition. Completing her survey mission as far as a northern portion of the Bering Strait, the Vincennes completed her circumnavigation in early 1856. Brown became first lieutenant of the Mediterranean Squadron flagship, the paddle-wheel steam frigate Susquehanna. During her two-year deployment, the warship supported the first attempt to lay a transatlantic cable and helped to suppress filibusters, led by William Walker, in
Nicaragua. While in the Caribbean in the weeks before sailing home, many aboard contracted yellow fever. After entering New York Harbor, half the crew, including Brown, found themselves confined to the quarantine hospital. Upon recovery, Brown became executive officer of the U.S. steam frigate Niagara, and from June 1860 to April 23, 1861, he completed his second circumnavigation, returning to Tokyo the members of the first Japanese embassy party to the U.S. Determined to fight for the South, Brown resigned his Federal commission on April 25, 1861, but, upon going ashore, was arrested by order of Massachusetts governor John Albion Andrew (1818–1867) and held in jail at Boston City Hall on charges of refusing to take an oath of allegiance. Through the intercession of Mayor Joseph Milner Wightman (1812–1885), Brown was permitted to escape, via Vermont, to Canada, where in civilian clothes he purchased a ticket across Lake Erie and hence, via Ohio and Indiana, to Louisville, KY, and Memphis, TN, traveling to Como aboard a river steamer. A commission having been offered, Brown became a CSN lieutenant on June 6 and took a billet at the Richmond naval station. During this initial deployment he became interested in and supportive of the construction and use of underwater mines, then known as “torpedoes.” In August, Brown was sent west to assist Maj. Gen. Leonidas Polk with naval defenses on the Mississippi River in the vicinity of Columbus, KY, and Fort Pillow, TN, and arranged for heavy cannon from the captured Federal base at Norfolk, VA, to defend those points and Fort Randolph while simultaneously meeting with Dr. A.L. Saunders of Memphis regarding the placement of torpedoes offshore of those posts. In the fall Brown traveled to Nashville, TN, to acquire steamers suitable for conversion into gunboats and was then charged with turning the steamboat Eastport into an ironclad at Cerro Gordo. Federal naval forces under Flag Officer Andrew Hull Foote (1806–1863) captured Fort Henry in February 1862 and three timberclad gunboats, sent on a sweep up the Tennessee River, captured the Eastport. Brown escaped to New Orleans with orders to finish four ironclads under early construction at Algiers, LA, but in late April he had to flee once again when a Federal fleet captured nearby New Orleans. Having
Brown evacuated to Vicksburg, MS, he was ordered by the Confederate Navy Department on May 26 to command and complete the ironclad Arkansas, then outfitting at Greenwood, MS. Traveling up the Yazoo, he found no activity and chose to have the vessel towed to Yazoo City, MS. The task finished, Brown took her downstream on a dramatic July 15 breakout onto the Mississippi River and through the Federal fleet to Vicksburg, in the process defeating the USS Carondelet, captained by prewar messmate Cmdr. Henry Walke. Sick and exhausted, Brown was not in charge of the Arkansas when, in early August, she was ordered to Baton Rouge, LA, where her engines failed and she was scuttled. Brown, though still ill, was able to locate the survivors of his crew and lead them back to Jackson, MS, where, in recognition of his gallant actions aboard the Arkansas, he was promoted to the rank of commander and honored by the Confederate congress. During the fall, Brown and numerous exArkansas crewmen assisted in developing the river defenses at Port Hudson, LA, before returning up the Yazoo River to help develop the defenses at Snyder’s Bluff. Simultaneously at Yazoo City, he undertook to construct several gunboats and ironclads, being frustrated by his inability to obtain sufficient manpower, armor plate, and working engines. Once more he oversaw the development and use of underwater mines (“torpedoes”) as river defense, one of which claimed the USS Cairo on December 3, the first warship ever sunk by such a weapon of war. In early 1863 Brown, now tacit head of CSN operations on the Western Rivers, provided aid and support to Maj. Gen. William W. Loring (1818–1886) in the defense of Fort Pemberton, at Greenwood, MS, during the U.S. Yazoo Pass Expedition. Several steamers were fitted up as cottonclad gunboats and operated under his direction, though none were in actual combat. Following the conclusion of the Greenwood enterprise, Brown, having now abandoned his shipbuilding activities, turned his attention to the defense of Yazoo City. On June 1 he was given authority for heavy artillery at that town, but, even so, he was unable to prevent its Federal capture in late July following the surrender of Vicksburg. Escaping east, Brown became captain of the six-gun ironclad CSS Charleston,
Brown which was completed at Charleston, SC, in September. Larger and more powerful than the other two ironclads available (Palmetto State and Chicora), though underpowered and with unreliable engines, she carried a spar torpedo and became flagship of the CSN Charleston Squadron. In November, Brown was sent to Savannah, GA, to participate in its defense; his orders are unknown but undoubtedly had to do with planting a torpedo defense of the Savannah River. After the city fell to the Union on December 20, Brown returned aboard the Charleston. Unlike the two other ironclads defending the city, his never saw any action against Federal forces. When the decision was taken to evacuate the city, word came to the Cooper City docks that all three vessels were to be destroyed. Ten tons of gunpowder was placed aboard and the fuses lit on the night of February 17/18, 1865. After Charleston fell, Brown received orders to assume command of all CSN forces in the TransMississippi Department. He never got farther west than Montgomery, AL, where he was paroled on May 22. His parole papers provide his personal details: 5 feet-10 inches tall, grey eyes, light hair, and fair complexion. At the end of hostilities, Brown returned to his very dilapidated home in Coahoma County, MS, to farm, taking his mail at Helena, AR. During the summer of 1865, he took the oath of amnesty and applied for a presidential pardon, his plea being supported by several of his former USN colleagues, including Capt. Napoleon Collins. On September 5 he wrote a personal letter to President Andrew Johnson (1808–1875) requesting restoration of his citizenship, following it up with a renewed but unanswered plea on September 25, 1866. Brown’s first wife, Eliza, a refugee at Grenada, MS, from 1862 to 1865, died in 1872. As he declined to participate in civic or political affairs after 1875, little was heard of the famous Confederate sailor in the postwar years. He did grant a rare interview in Helena on February 23, 1880, all of which centered upon the losses suffered by Jonestown and Clarksdale, MS, residents in current Mississippi River flooding. They were, he asserted, no longer protected by the Yazoo Pass levee blown by the Federals in February 1863. Com. Brown, as he was known to the public, married Jeanie Valliant Autry Brown (1835–1912) in 1883. The couple finding
it impossible to make a living, in 1883 they moved to Corsicana, Navarro County, TX, to join the family of his son Henry, who had arrived earlier and opened a dry goods store, and to try agriculture once more. Cmdr. Brown, arguably the most important CSN figure to serve on the Western waters, was not restored to full citizenship for almost 20 years after the end of the war. Having maintained an extremely low profile, he did, however, agree, to author a history of the Arkansas and of his role in the torpedo defense of the Yazoo River for Century Illustrated magazine in the 1880s. Brown died at his Lone Star home on September 1, 1889, a respected citizen of his community, and was buried at Oakwood Cemetery. On July 14, 2012, members of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, the Order of Confederate Grays, and United Daughters of the Confederacy marked his grave in commemoration of the 150th anniversary of his passage through the Union fleet at Vicksburg. Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; Callahan; DANFS; Foenander; Beasley, True Tales of Tipton, County, Tennessee; ORN, 2, 1; Smith, Civil War Biographies from the Western Waters; Spencer C. Tucker, “Isaac Newton Brown,” in Tucker, I; CSN Register; Scharf; Isaac Newton Brown, “Memoranda of the Civil War, n.d.,” University of Texas at San Antonio Library, Special Collections, Brown and Lane Family Papers, (MS 421, Box 10), http://digital.utsa.edu/cdm/compound object/collection/p15 (accessed May 12, 2016); Jay Slagle, Ironclad Captain: Seth Ledyard Phelps and the U. S. Navy; Maccoun communicated by W. Whalen, “Account of Yellow Fever, as It Occurred On Board the U.S. Frigate Susquehanna in March and April 1858,”; “Championhitz,” pseud., “A Refusal to Serve Against Liberty: Lt. Isaac N. Brown Quits the Union Navy,” Mississippians in the Confederate Army, https://mississippiconfederates. wordpress. com/ 2014/ 07/ 06/ arefusal-to-serve-against-liberty-isaac-n-brown-quitsthe-u-s-navy/ (accessed May 12, 2016); Boston Courier, April 27, 1861; Memphis Daily Appeal, May 5, 1861; Charleston Courier, May 7, 1861; Macon Daily Telegraph, May 11, 1861; Smith, CSS Arkansas; Smith, “Running the Gauntlet: CSS Arkansas vs. the Federal Combined Fleets, July 15, 1862,” North and South; Chicago Daily Times, August 14, 1862; Saturday Evening Post, September 6, 1862; Smith, Fight for the Yazoo; Getchell, Defender of Inland Waters: The Military Career of Isaac Newton Brown, Commander, Confederate States Navy, 1861–1865; Getchell, “Isaac Newton Brown of Navarro County, Texas.” Texas Geanological Web, http: // www. txgenweb6. org/ txnavarro/ biographies/ b/ brown_isaac_newton.htm, accessed July 13, 2009; Isaac Newton Brown, “The Confederate Gun-Boat Arkansas” and “Confederate Torpedoes in the Yazoo,”
B&L, III; St. Louis Globe-Democrat, February 25, 1880; “Isaac N. Brown,” FindaGrave, http://www.findagrave. com/ cgi- bin/ fg. cgi?page= gr&GSsr= 1041&GSvcid= 266131&GRid=18082&> (accessed July 13, 2009); Dallas Morning News, September 3, 1889; Corsicana Daily Sun, July 13, 2012.
Bryant, Nathaniel Cushing (1823–1874, USN) A native of Noblesborough, ME, where he was born on March 27, 1823, Bryant was the first of five children of Maj. Cushing Bryant and his wife Arlitta. After studying mathematics and other disciplines at Lincoln Academy in Augusta, ME, which was operated by an uncle, and naval topics from another uncle, Capt. Joseph Smith (1790–1877), at Boston, he was appointed a USN midshipman on December 23, 1837. Joining the West Indies Squadron sloop-of-war Erie, he cruised along the East Coast and in the Caribbean until the spring of 1840. After two years at sea with the Mediterranean Squadron sloop-of-war Preble, he was enrolled with the 1842 class at the Philadelphia naval school, graduated, and, on June 29, 1843, became a passed
Bryant midshipman with duty at the Bureau of Construction and Repair. Attached as acting master to the new Mediterranean Squadron sloop-ofwar Plymouth, he cruised to Europe from April l, 1843, to October 1846, when he transferred in the same capacity aboard the Pacific Squadron sloop-of-war Dale for service off the West Coast during the Mexican War. From September to November 1847, the ship participated in the campaign for Mulege, CA, with Bryant himself assisting in the landing operations at Cochori and Bocochivampo. The Dale continued to patrol off the California coast for a year-and-a-half after the end of the conflict in February 1848, and in August 1849 he became acting master of the Boston receiving ship Ohio. Promoted to master in June 1850 and lieutenant on August 7, Bryant served in South American waters aboard the Brazil Squadron flagship, the frigate Congress, until July 1853. Returned to the Ohio, he had the opportunity, at some point during the next two years, to visit Cedar Falls, IA, where he purchased property with the idea of making it his home. Bryant had a billet aboard the East India Squadron flagship, the steam frigate San Jacinto,
Cmdr. Nathaniel C. Bryant, USN, was captain of the Western Flotilla ironclad Cairo (depicted) from February to September 862, when he was forced to go on extended sick leave. He was unable to return to duty (National Archives).
Bryant from late summer 1855 to August 1858, during which deployment he was present in late April 1856 for ceremonies at Bangkok, Siam. These celebrated the conclusion of a treaty executed by diplomat Townsend Harris (1804–1878) and King Mongkut (1894–1868) (who was later celebrated in the musical The King and I) and Harris’s delivery to Shimoda, Japan, where he established the first foreign consulate in that closed country. Bryant, suffering an illness upon his return that necessitated sick leave and shore duty, wed Mary Eliza Southall (1847–1899), late of Ashtonunder-Lyne, England, at a Cedar Falls ceremony on September 19, 1860; the couple would have two sons. Just after Christmas, the lieutenant of the Home Squadron sloop-of-war Brooklyn— which was dispatched to Charleston, SC, in January 1861 in an unsuccessful effort to deliver messages to the steamer Star of the West—was sent to relieve Fort Sumter. After helping to relieve and secure the Federal post at Pensacola, FL, and following the April eruption of civil war, the Brooklyn began an initially unsuccessful blockade of the Mississippi Passes below New Orleans, LA. On June 30, the CSS Sumter, the first of several notorious Confederate ocean cruisers, raced by Bryant’s warship, which was too slow to catch her. Detached in late summer, Bryant was sent to the Western waters, in January 1862, where he joined the Western gunboat flotilla at Cairo, IL, as its senior lieutenant and captain of the Pook turtle Cairo. Engine problems kept his ironclad from participating in what was the first successful squadron attack, that of February 6 against Fort Henry on the Tennessee River. Repaired and on duty off Fort Holt, the gunboat’s crew learned that their vessel had also missed the less successful February 13–14 fight at Fort Donelson on the Cumberland River above Nashville. Still, the Cairo was ordered to that post. On February 19, with Flag Officer Andrew Hull Foote (1806– 1863) embarked, she made a reconnaissance to Clarksburg, TN, and was ordered to Fort Donelson. On February 19 the Cairo moved down the Cumberland only to find white flags at her target community; there was no battle, as the city had surrendered. Keeping the town under the Cairo’s guns for several days, Bryant’s command convoyed seven steam transports, with troops under
2 Brig. Gen. William Nelson (1824–1862), to Nashville on February 25. The soldiers were landed and occupied the Tennessee capital without opposition. In March plans were made to detail the Cairo, along with the timberclads Lexington and Tyler, to Pittsburg Landing. The water level of the Tennessee River would not permit deployment of Bryant’s vessel and thus she was not able to bring her cannon to bear during the Battle of Shiloh. Joining the rest of the Western Flotilla at Island No. 10 on April 11, several days after its surrender, she convoyed downstream a number of mortar boats to a point above Fort Pillow, TN, and over the next week alternated guard duty with other flotilla warships while the mortars bombarded the Confederate bastion. On May 10 Southern rams attacked the flotilla vessels, badly damaging two Pook turtles. The Cairo, having gotten underway without alacrity, moved to guard one of these, the Mound City, and escorted her out of action, though she later sank on a riverbank. Bryant was later criticized by other “Old Navy” men as having “the slows.” The bombardment at Fort Pillow continued during the remainder of the month. On June 3 the repaired Mound City, together with the Cairo, were again on mortar boat guard duty when CRDF rams approached. This time, Bryant’s guns spoke early and although their shot was inaccurate the Confederates retreated. After abandoning Fort Pillow, the Dixie gunboats retreated to Memphis, where they were engaged in a general fleet action on June 6. All of the Union ironclads played a minor part as AUS rams obtained a Federal victory. The Cairo was then assigned to patrol the Mississippi above and below Fort Pillow. While on this duty, an ill Bryant was advanced to the rank of commander on July 16. The Cairo put into the new advanced base at Helena, AR, on September 9 in order that Bryant could receive medical attention. When he failed to quickly respond, a medical survey found him too sick for duty and recommended an extended period of leave. On September 12, the thin and pale captain bade his crew farewell and returned to his Iowa home. The Cairo was sunk by a Confederate torpedo in the Yazoo River in December 1862 and when Bryant returned to duty in 1863 her former captain was ordered to special
duty as an assistant to RAdm. Francis H Gregory (1789–1866), the construction superintendent over all naval ships abuilding in private shipyards. In March 1864, Bryant was ordered to the Pensacola Navy Yard; however, he became ill again and officially retired on September 26, 1864, although he continued to serve in an administrative capacity at the Mound City, IL, navy yard’s ordnance depot until April 1865. Thereafter Bryant lived on half pay at Cedar Falls, delighting in his children and community. He died at home on September 17, 1874, and was buried in the town cemetery. Not long thereafter a memorial window was dedicated in his memory at the town’s Episcopal Church, St. Luke’s, where he had been a member of the congregation. No USN ships have been named in his honor. Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; Merrick, Genealogy of the Merrick-Merick-Myrick Family of Massachusetts, 1636–1902; Callahan; Hamersly; DANFS; Smith, The Timberclads in the Civil War; Smith, Civil War Biographies from the Western Waters; Cedar Falls Gazette, September 19, 1874; The National Cyclopedia of American Biography, III, 166–167; Bearss, Hardluck Ironclad: The Sinking and Salvage of the Cairo.
Bryson terranean. Promoted to master in January 1851, Bryson joined the storeship Relief, then transporting supplies to warships of the Brazil Squadron. He was advanced to lieutenant on August 30 and the next day was transferred aboard the squadron’s brig Bainbridge for a two-year antislavery deployment off the west coast of Africa. He was ordnance officer aboard the receiving ship Ohio at Boston from August 1853 until he joined the Home Squadron sloop-of-war Saratoga at Norfolk, VA, in December 1856. After two years back on the Ohio, he became executive officer of the Brazil Squadron sloop-of-war Preble in October 1858 and participated in the Paraguay Expedition that December. After leave and a period of unemployment, he was given a New York navy yard billet in January 1861 and remained on shore duty as the Civil War began. In October 1861 Bryson became captain of the Unadilla-class gunboat Chippewa, which joined the Atlantic blockade between Fort Monroe, VA, and Cape Hatteras, NC, at Christmas. Under various sea conditions, the little gunboat undertook
Bryson, Andrew (1837–1892, USN) The son of Irish immigrant David Bryson, Andrew was born in New York City on July 22, 1822. Little is known of him prior to his appointment as a USN midshipman on December 1, 1837, and his four-year cruise of the Caribbean (1838–1842), aboard the West Indies Squadron sloop-of-war Levant. After graduating from the Philadelphia naval school and his promotion to passed midshipman in June 1843, he served on antislavery patrols with the Africa Squadron frigate Macedonian and the sloop-of-war Decatur until January 1845. Two months after his February 11 marriage to Charlotte M. Arnold at Norwalk, CT (the couple would have three children), Bryson went aboard the Erie, PA-based steam gunboat Michigan, the first USN ironhulled warship and the only American naval vessel on the Great Lakes. Following four years of peacekeeping and coast guard work, he went on furlough until January 1850, when he assumed duties as executive officer of the armed storeship Erie, which made a cruise to the Medi-
Cmdr. Andrew Bryson was captain of the monitor Lehigh during the fall 86 fighting at Charleston, SC. In October 86 he was transferred to command of the Mississippi Squadron ironclad Essex. He later became a rear admiral (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
Buchanan her duty until August 10, 1862, as Bryson, who was promoted to the rank of commander on July 16, oversaw her participation in bombardments of sundry Confederate gun emplacements and the capture of a blockade runner. Assigned to the USN Special Service Squadron, the Chippewa unsuccessfully pursued the CSS Florida until the end of May 1863, touching points in Spain, Africa, the Cape Verde Islands, and various Caribbean islands. He then took command of the Passaic-class monitor Lehigh, which joined the heavy units of the South Atlantic Blockading squadron (SAB) in their continuing campaign to subdue Charleston, SC. In September the Lehigh heavily engaged Fort Sumter, Battery Wagner on Morris Island, and Fort Moultrie and thereafter continued to fight the harbor forts for the next two months, firing on Fort Sumter almost daily between October 27 and November 20. Badly damaged, she underwent repairs that kept her out of action until January 1864. From April to October, Bryson was posted ashore at the New York navy yard and then, with no Western waters experience, joined the Mississippi Squadron at Cairo, IL, as commander of that flotilla’s Seventh Division and the ironclad gunboat Essex. Bryson shifted over to the Eighth District in April and May 1865 and in May became squadron flag captain, an administrative post he held until the squadron was demobilized in August. Unemployed until March 1866, Bryson resumed command of the Michigan at Erie, PA, in April 1866 and not long afterward intercepted and interned a body of Republican Irishmen, the Fenian Brotherhood, as they returned near Buffalo from their so-called invasion of Canada. On July 25 Bryson was elevated to the rank of captain. Commander of the receiving ship Ohio from August 1868 to October 1871, he was then given the European Station sloop-of-war Brooklyn, which spent most of the next three years on an extended cruise, much of it in the Mediterranean. Bryson was promoted to the rank of commodore on February 14, 1873, and, from September 1874 to July 1876 was commandant of the Portsmouth, NH, navy yard. Board duty followed until April 1879, when he became commander of the South Atlantic Station, flying his flag on the sloop-of-war Shenandoah. While patrolling the South Atlantic between Rio de
Janeiro, Brazil, and Buenos Aires, Argentina, on what proved to be his last sea service, the onetime ironclad captain became a rear admiral on March 25, 1880. Recalled in February 1882, he spent a year on board duty before retiring on January 30, 1883. “A man of retiring disposition” who was “excessively modest,” the admiral lived quietly in retirement. He became ill in September 1891 and took to his bed in late January 1892, diagnosed with “ulceration of the stomach.” Bryson died at his Washington, D.C., home on February 7, and his casket was taken by train to New York for interment in his family’s vault at Greenwood Cemetery, Brooklyn, NY. No USN ships have been named in his honor. Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; Cogar, I; Hamersly, 3rd ed.; DANFS; Smith, Civil War Biographies from the Western Waters; United States Nautical Magazine 1 (March 1845), 63; American Ancestry 11 (1898), 123–124; Dan Silva, “Adm. Andrew Bryson,” FindaGrave, http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg. cgi?page=gr&GSln=Bryson&GSfn=Andrew&GSby= 1822&GSbyrel=in&GSdy=1892&GSdyrel=in&GScntry=4&GSob=n&GRid=60434683&df=all& (accessed May 15, 2016); New York Times, February 10, 1892; Washington Post, February 8, 11, 1892.
Buchanan, Franklin “Old Buck” (1800–1874, CSN) The fifth child (third son) of Baltimore, MD, physician George Buchanan, one of the founders of the medical department of what became the University of Maryland, and his wife Laetitia McKean, Franklin was born at their home, “Auchentorle,” on September 13, 1800. Franklin was appointed a USN midshipman on January 28, 1815, and went aboard the frigate Java for a two-year Mediterranean cruise before transferring to the new ship-of-the-line Franklin, flagship of the Mediterranean Squadron, which delivered the U.S. ambassador, Richard Rush (1780–1850), to London. Granted a five-year leave to serve as a mate aboard a China voyage of a Baltimore merchant ship, Buchanan returned to the USN as a lieutenant on January 13, 1825. From July through November 1828, he served aboard the West Indies Squadron sloopof-war Natchez on anti-piracy patrols until she was forced back to New York due to a shipboard outbreak of yellow fever. From summer 1829 to
November 1831, Buchanan participated in the Mediterranean cruise of the frigate Constellation, protecting American ships and interests while transporting ministers to their French and British posts. Unemployed for almost two years, he became first lieutenant of the ship-of-the-line Delaware in July 1833 and met his first U.S. president on July 29 as he helped welcome aboard Andrew Jackson for an inspection. Detached from the 74’s European duties in late 1834, he tested cannon for two years as head of the ordnance department of the Philadelphia navy yard. Also, in a February 19, 1835, Annapolis, MD, ceremony, he married Anne Catherine Lloyd (1808–1892); the couple would have nine children. Having commanded the Baltimore receiving ship from 1837, Buchanan became flag lieutenant to Com. Alexander Claxton (1792– 1841), commander of the Pacific Squadron, in April 1839, serving aboard “Old Ironsides,” the frigate Constitution. Before he could visit all of the ports on her scheduled cruise of the west coast of South America, he was transferred to the sloop-of-war Falmouth, accompanying her
Franklin Buchanan was the Confederacy’s only full admiral and its most famous seaman, serving as captain of its two most noted ironclads, the Virginia (ex–USS Merrimack) and the Tennessee (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
Buchanan back to the U.S. in June 1840. Promoted to the rank of commander on September 8, 1841, he became captain of the paddle-wheel frigate Mississippi the following year but did not have time to enjoy his new ship before being ordered to assume charge of the Home Squadron sloop-ofwar Vincennes. From 1842 to 1844 Vincennes served on anti-pirate and antislavery patrol in the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico and was also assigned to help keep Texan forces from invading any coastal portion of Mexico. In August 1844, Secretary of the Navy George Bancroft (1800–1891) ordered Buchanan, a strong advocate for midshipman education, to submit a plan for organizing a new naval school at Annapolis, MD. His ideas were accepted and, on August, 14 1845, he became the first superintendent of what was eventually the USNA, serving in that post until March 2, 1847. His standards were high and won praise as he oversaw curriculum and facilities and appointed instructors, but he also yearned for a return to sea duty as the Mexican War erupted.Buchanan’s wish was granted and on April 1 he arrived off Alvarado as captain of the new Home Squadron sloop-of-war Germantown, securing the town’s surrender the next day without a shot being fired. Joining other squadron vessels, the Germantown contributed detachments to the joint landing forces that assaulted and captured Tuxpan on April 18–19 and Tabasco on June 15–17 and patrolled between Tuxpan and Vera Cruz until early January 1848. Buchanan then performed Baltimore shore duties until June 1851, when he became captain of the steam frigate Susquehanna, which departed New York for the Pacific with Com. John H. Aulick (1791–1873) embarked as new commander of the East Indies Squadron and orders to visit Japan to obtain a diplomatic pact. En route, severe misunderstandings occurred between Aulick, Buchanan, and a visiting Brazilian diplomat and when the expedition reached base at Canton, China, Aulick was required to surrender his mission to Com. Matthew C. Perry (1794–1858). With the Susquehanna as his flagship, Perry entered Edo Bay in July 1853. There Buchanan became the first U.S. officer to step ashore in Japan when he gave American demands and a letter from the U.S. president to representatives of the Japanese government. Returning to China for six months, Susque-
Bunce hanna and her consorts went back to Japan in February 1854, obtaining the desired treaty in March. After renewed patrols in Chinese waters, the frigate returned in March 1855 to the U.S., where Buchanan was promoted to captain on September 14 while serving on the Board of Officers to Promote Efficiency in the Navy. From 1859 to 1861 he served as commandant of the Washington Navy Yard. When, on April 12, 1861, the Confederacy opened the Civil War by firing upon Fort Sumter, Buchanan was under the impression that his native Maryland would join the Southern union, so he resigned from the USN on April 22. When Maryland stayed loyal, he requested that his resignation be withdrawn, but the Navy Department instead formally dismissed him on May 14. Buchanan next offered his services to the CSN and was appointed a captain on September 5. A strong advocate for the construction of ironclads, he was initially ordered to command the important Bureau of Orders and Detail, a personnel-assignment post he held until February 24, 1862, when he was named commander of the Chesapeake Bay Squadron and participated in the outfitting of his flagship, the revolutionary ironclad CSS Virginia (ex–Merrimack). On March 8 the Virginia boldly steamed against Union vessels in Hampton Roads, destroying the Congress, Cumberland, and three smaller steamers. Making the mistake in the heat of battle of going topside, Buchanan’s left thigh was smashed by a Union rifle shot. He was consequently unable to exercise command the next day when his ship fought the Union Monitor to a standstill. During his slow convalescence, Buchanan was advanced to the rank of admiral by order of the Confederate congress on August 26, becoming the ranking officer of the Confederate navy. Continuing to recover, he was ordered in September to assume command of the naval defenses of Mobile, AL. There he oversaw the outfitting of the ocean raider Florida and assisted the builders of the submarine H.L. Hunley, which was later shipped by rail to Charleston, SC. He directed the arming of the flagship of the Mobile Squadron, the powerful ironclad CSS Tennessee (II), which he commissioned on February 16, 1864. On August 5 Federal warships under RAdm. David G. Farragut (1801–1870) entered Mobile Bay and en-
6 gaged the Tennessee and three wooden ships. After a heroic battle against overwhelming odds, all were captured or driven away. Buchanan suffered a broken leg during the fight and surrendered with his vessel when, after an hour-long combat, further resistance became impossible. Sent to the Union prison hospital facilities at Pensacola, FL, and then the POW camp at Fort Lafayette, NY, he remained a prisoner of war until exchanged on February 19, 1865. Although the Civil War still had a few months to run, Buchanan was reassigned to Mobile and surrendered on May 8. Buchanan retired to his home, “The Rest,” Miles River, Talbot County, MD. Long devoted to education, the extremely lame ex-sailor became president of the Maryland Agricultural College in September 1868. In June 1869 he agreed to become secretary of the Alabama branch of the Life Insurance Company of America at Mobile, AL. On June 27, 1871, preparatory to his return to Maryland, Buchanan was given a large silver service at a dinner sponsored by the directors of the Alabama Department of the Life Insurance Association of America. He then lived quietly at The Rest, where he died on May 11, 1874 and was buried in Talbot County’s Wye House Cemetery. Three 20th century USN warships were named for Buchanan, none of which are currently in commission: DD-14, DD484, and DDG-14. Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; CSN Register; Reynolds; DANFS; Symonds, Confederate Admiral: The Life and Wars of Franklin Buchanan; Lewis, Admiral Franklin Buchanan, Fearless Man of Action; Doran, “Franklin Buchanan”; Fore-Top-Man, pseud., Life in “Old Ironsides” During Her Cruise to the Pacific; Swartz, “Franklin Buchanan: A Study in Divided Loyalties”; Foenander; Driver, Confederate Sailors, Marines, and Signalmen from Virginia and Maryland; Atlanta Daily Sun, June 27, 1871; New York Times, May 14, 1874, April 29, 1894, August 19, 1894; Baltimore Sun, May 14, 1874, February 6, 1899; Muir, “Franklin Buchanan,” in Tucker, I; Friend, Jack West Wind, Flood Tide: The Battle of Mobile Bay; Still, Iron Afloat: Buchanan and the Mobile Squadron; Thomas, “Old Buck”: Admiral Franklin Buchanan; Conrad, Capture of the C.S. Ram Tennessee.
Bunce, Francis Marvin (1836–1901, USN) One of ten children born to Phoenix National Bank clerk-turned-businessman James M.
Bunce (1806–1858) and his two wives, Bunce was born at Hartford, CT, on Christmas Day of 1836. Having received a good education, he was appointed an acting USN midshipman on May 28, 1852, was sent to the USNA at Annapolis, MD, and graduated on June 10, 1857, being simultaneously commissioned a midshipman. Bunce joined the East Indies Squadron sloop-of-war Germantown for a three-year cruise to the Orient. Becoming a passed midshipman on June 25, he was posted to the sloop-of-war Brooklyn, which arrived off Chiriqui, Panama, on August 24 to support an expedition seeking a passage across the Isthmus of Chiriqui. On October 24 Bunce was promoted to the rank of master and his ship returned to Hampton Roads, VA, just after the November election of President Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865). In February 1861 the Brooklyn reinforced Fort Pickens, at Pensacola, FL, with troops and supplies. When that mission was completed, the warship proceeded along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico toward New Orleans. Bunce, having become a lieutenant on April 11, the day before the Civil War began, was aboard when she initiated a blockade of the Mississippi Passes. Off Pass a l’Outre on June 30, Brooklyn was unable to prevent the escape of the speedy Confederate ocean raider CSS Sumter. In January 1862 Bunce became executive officer of the Unadilla-class North Atlantic Blockading Squadron steam gunboat Penobscot, which undertook a support role during the April-May 1862 Yorktown offensive. He was then seconded to the Army of the Potomac to supervise the disembarkation from support vessels of the heavy AUS artillery and mortars employed during the Peninsula Campaign. At the beginning of June, Bunce rejoined the Penobscot, which joined the blockade off Wilmington, NC, where he led several small boat shore raids. On October 22, the British brig Robert Bruce was captured off Cape Fear. Named her prizemaster, Bunce sailed her to New York, where he became executive officer of the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron sloop-of-war Pawnee as her executive officer and was advanced to lieutenant commander on January 10, 1863. Pawnee returned to her old station off the Stono River, near Charleston, SC, in mid–February. There her second-in-command was ordered to conduct surveys of the interior chan-
Bunce
Lt. Cmdr. Francis M. Bunce, USN, was briefly captain of the monitor Weehawken in January 86 before he became commander of the monitor Lehigh off Charleston. In spring 866 he completed the first extended sea voyage by a monitor when he guided the Monadnock from Philadelphia to San Francisco (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
nels between the Stono River and Morris Island, Charleston Harbor, and to remove obstructions while also setting buoys. In June he became naval aide to Federal Maj. Gen Quincy A. Gillmore (1825–1888) and, as such, directed the landing of five army regiments through the channels he had cleared. He commanded the run to the beach and landing of an amphibious force onto Morris Island on July 10, taking all of it save for Fort Wagner. Bunce became executive officer of the monitor Patapsco shortly thereafter as she continued to participate in the gunfire assault by SABS ironclads upon the Charleston fortifications begun in the spring. On November 2, the 8-inch Parrott rifle suffered a premature cartridge explosion that killed two men and wounded four others in the turret, including the executive officer. Bunce was evacuated from the monitor to the sick bay of the steam frigate Wabash, based in Port Royal, for treatment and recovery. On December 8 he was sent to the monitor Catskill for temporary duty but was back aboard the
Caldwell Wabash by January 7, 1864. Later in the month, he briefly commanded the monitor Weehawken before taking an assignment as “Chief of Scouts” on the staff of SABS commander RAdm. John A. Dahlgren (1809–1870). As such, he led the line of small picket boats off Charleston until April 6, when he became captain of the monitor Lehigh. Detached from that billet on May 14, he was assigned to light duty at the New York navy yard where, in September, he became executive officer of the new NABS monitor Dictator. He remained aboard as she cruised the East Coast from December 11 until September 5, 1865, when he took over the twin-turret monitor Monadnock and with several other ships steamed via the Strait of Magellan with numerous stops to San Francisco. Her June 2, 1866, arrival marked the first extended sea voyage completed by a monitor and won Bunce considerable praise from his naval colleagues and the Navy Department. Resuming his command of the Dictator between April and October 4, 1869, Bunce then captained the new North Atlantic Squadron (NAS) screw steamer Nantasket, in which he served at Samana Bay, Santo Domingo, until July 20, 1870. After three years ordnance duty at Pittsburgh, PA, where he became commander on November 7, 1871, Bunce commanded the Asiatic double-ender gunboat Ashuelot in Chinese waters from 1873 to 1875. Following four years of ordnance work at the Washington Navy Yard, he headed the Newport, RI, torpedo school until July 29, 1881, when he became captain of the South Atlantic Squadron sloop-ofwar Marion. He was made captain on January 11, 1883, while in command of the Boston receiving ship and on June 1, 1886, became the first captain of the protected cruiser Atlanta, one of the first steel USN ships. During summer 1887, the Atlanta undertook cruises off the East Coast, in the West Indies, and in the Gulf of Mexico. Detached on December 1, 1889, he commanded the New London, CT, naval station from February 12 to June 30, 1890, and then took over the Newport training station and command of its training ship, the sloop-of-war Richmond. Bunce became a commodore on March 1, 1895, and on June 27 assumed command of the NAS, with his flag in the cruiser New York. His tenure would be marked by an intensification of training, par-
8 ticularly in squadron evolution and tactical formations, including a “mock” blockade of Charleston, SC. He stood down on May 1, 1897, becoming commandant of the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Bunce, the ranking officer in the navy, was promoted to rear admiral on February 19, 1898, and remained at the yard through the SpanishAmerican War, being placed on the retired list on December 25, 1898, his birthday. After returning from a Maine fishing trip, the admiral was diagnosed with tongue cancer in May 1901 and despite surgery died at home on October 19. Bunce was buried in Hartford’s Cedar Hill Cemetery two days later. No USN warships have been christened in his honor. Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; DANFS; Commemorative Biographical Record of Hartford County, Connecticut, Illustrated; Burpee, First Century of the Phoenix National Bank of Hartford, 1814–1914; Alden, “Monitors ’Round Cape Horn,”; Neeser, “Historic Ships of the Navy: Monadnock”; Heitzmann, “The Ironclad Weehawken in the Civil War”; Loring, “The Monitor Weehawken in the Civil War”; Merrill, “USS Weehawken: Gallant Ironship”; Thompson, The U.S. Monitor Patapsco; Rentfrow, Home Squadron: The U.S. Navy on the North Atlantic Station; New York Times, June 18, August 2, 1896, October 20, 1901; Washington Post, December 21, 25, 1898; Milwaukee Journal, December 28, 1898; Spokane Daily Chronicle, October 19, 1901; Detroit Free Press, October 20, 1901; Baltimore Sun, October 20, 1901; Boston Daily Globe, October 20, 1901; Hartford Courant, October 21, 1901; “Saratoga,” pseud., “Francis Marvin Bunce,” FindaGrave, http://www.findagrave. com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=71022824 (accessed May 19, 2016).
Caldwell, Charles Henry Bromedge (1823–1877, USN) The son of Charles Head and Susan Blagg Caldwell was born at Hingham, MA, on June 11, 1823, and appointed a USN midshipman from Connecticut on February 27, 1838. After serving in the Mediterranean Squadron until 1840 as well as a tour ashore, he was promoted to the rank of passed midshipman on May 20, 1844. Caldwell joined the Pacific Squadron sloop-ofwar Portsmouth for an 1845 cruise via Cape Horn to the coast of California and later participation in the early months of the Mexican War, including the capture of San Francisco on July 9, 1846. He then served aboard the Mediterranean Squadron frigate United States until the spring
Caldwell
Promoted to the rank of Commander on July 6, Charles H.B. Caldwell, USN, relieved Cmdr. William D. “Dirty Bill” Porter as commander of the large river ironclad Essex in September 86. He departed the Mississippi River in July 86 after the fall of Port Hudson, LA. His command is shown moored at Memphis, TN, with her awnings deployed (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
of 1848, when he moved on to the Africa Squadron schooner Boxer and the sloop of war Yorktown. On September 6, 1850, the latter hit an uncharted reef off the northern coast of Maio Island, one of the Cape Verde group, and broke up, without loss of life. Stranded for a month, Caldwell and the other survivors of their squadron’s only loss were rescued on October 8. While serving at the Boston navy yard in 1852, he became a lieutenant on September 4 and, at the beginning of 1853, joined the East Indies Squadron sloop-of-war Vandalia and was present in Japan a year later when a treaty was signed opening Rising Sun ports to American shipping. Returning home, Caldwell served an 1855–1857 tour as a lighthouse inspector before rejoining
the Vandalia in January 1858 for a two-year Pacific deployment. Putting into Oneo Island, one of the Pitcairn group, on August 3, Caldwell’s landing party discovered and rescued the survivors of the American clipper ship Wild Wave, which had crashed on the outlying reef back in March. Later in the fall, while cruising in the Fiji Islands, it was learned that two American citizens had been killed by natives at Waya. On October 11, the lieutenant led a 50-man punitive expedition ashore at that location, engaging some 300 “cannibals” and burning their village. Caldwell was aboard the chartered steamer Keystone State on special duty in 1861 when the Civil War began. His ship shared in the capture of the Confederate Hiawatha at Hampton
Carpenter Roads, VA, on May 10. When the vessel’s charter expired at the end of the month, she was purchased into the USN, outfitted for war, and, beginning in late July, detailed to seek Southern ocean raiders thought to be in the Caribbean. Caldwell assumed command of the West Gulf Blockading Squadron Unadilla-class gunboat Itasca and joined the blockade off Florida in January 1862. On April 19 Caldwell was tasked with helping to prepare the way for the fleet to thread its way past the Confederate fortifications guarding the Mississippi River approaches to New Orleans, LA, joining other vessels below Forts Jackson and St. Philip. Leading small boats from his vessel, Caldwell, under cover of darkness the next day, cut the chains the Southerners had strung across the river. On the night of April 24 the squadron advanced; the Itasca, steaming at the rear of the armada, was hit 14 times and, with her boiler disabled, had to drift out of action. Repaired, she traveled up the Mississippi River with other elements of the squadron in May and participated in the capture of Grand Gulf, MS, on June 10. Having become a commander on July 16, Caldwell relieved Cmdr. William D. “Dirty Bill” Porter (1813–1864) as commander of the large river ironclad Essex in September. Between March and July 9, 1863, Caldwell, from aboard the gunboat, commanded the WGBS mortar boats deployed against the Confederate citadel at Port Hudson, LA, maintaining a heavy bombardment until the fortress surrendered. Caldwell was transferred before the end of that month to the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron and command of the steamer Glaucus, which joined the NABS blockade off Beaufort, NC, on May 3. While chasing a runner off Cape Fear River, the Glaucus caught fire and, as she needed extensive repair, Caldwell took over the steamer R.R. Cuyler. His ship formed part of its reserve force during the December 24–25 first Battle of Fort Fisher, NC. During January 13–15, 1865, Caldwell’s craft was part of the third division in the second Battle of Fort Fisher and he witnessed the surrender of the city of Wilmington, NC. From July 1865 until 1869, Caldwell served at the Boston naval rendezvous (recruiting station), becoming a captain on December 12, 1867. In 1870, he was North Atlantic Station chief of
staff and became a commodore in June 1874. A year later he assumed command of the South Atlantic Station. The bachelor Caldwell died at his wooded Waltham, MA, residence on November 30, 1877. No USN warships have been christened in his honor. Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; Appletons’, I; Callahan; Hamersley, 3rd ed.; DANFS; Canney, Africa Squadron; New York Times, December 2, 1877; Jerry Gagnon, “More Information on the Caldwells,” Caldwell Genealogy Discussion Forum (accessed May 29, 2012); New York Times, December 2, 1877; “Former Home of Commodore Caldwell,” Boston Daily Globe, December 8, 1912.
Carpenter, Charles Carroll (1834–1899, USN) The brother of two daughters of David N. and Phebe Maria Newcastle Carpenter was born in Greenfield, MA, on February 27, 1834. He attended Norwich University from 1858 to June 1850 before winning appointment as an acting USNA midshipman on October 1 of the latter year. From November 1851 until April 1855, he was assigned to the Pacific Squadron sloop-ofwar Portsmouth, and on June 20, 1856, he graduated from the USNA, being simultaneously warranted a passed midshipman. From August through April 1857, Carpenter visited Europe with the Home Squadron steam frigate Merrimack, after which he joined the squadron flagship, the steam frigate Roanoke, just before her departure for Aspinwall, Colombia (present day Colon, Panama), where, on August 4, she embarked for the return of the American filibuster and former Nicaraguan president William Walker. After duty aboard the Boston-based receiving ship Ohio, the officer, promoted to the rank of master on January 22, 1858, and to lieutenant the next day, joined the crew of the new steam frigate Colorado during her January–April cruise in Cuban waters. From June until September, Carpenter joined the antislavery cruise of the West Indies Squadron brig Dolphin and following six additional months on the Ohio was posted to the Home Squadron steamer Mohawk in June 1859, which remained off Key West, FL, until the end of January 1861 guarding the local forts from “bands of lawless men” in the months prior to the Civil War.
Following the outbreak of the Great Rebellion in April 1861, the Mohawk joined the East Gulf Blockading Squadron and patrolled off St. Marks, FL. In April 1862 Carpenter was transferred aboard the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron screw steamer Flag off the Carolina coast. During his time aboard, Carpenter, who was promoted to the rank of lieutenant commander on July 16, 1862, participated in the capture of the two blockade runners. Rotated to Portsmouth navy yard in November, he became executive officer of the Passaic-class SABS monitor Catskill, but before joining his new ship he married Anna Brown on December 15 (the couple would have seven children). The Catskill was one of several ironclads assigned to neutralize the Confederate forts in the harbor of Charleston, SC. In the largest deployment of monitors to that time, the SABS vessels unsuccessfully assaulted Fort Sumter on April 7, 1863; most, including Catskill, were damaged. The Federal ironclads maintained a constant bombardment of the harbor defenses through the rest of the summer, including a heavy shelling on July 16. Three days afterwards, when the Catskill’s captain was temporarily attached to the staff of the SABS commander, Carpenter was elevated to temporary command of the ship. The AUS siege machinery approached Fort Sumter in mid–August causing the monitors to intensify their efforts. The Catskill was damaged by 13 hits during the bombardment of August 17 and her captain, who had returned aboard for the attack, was killed, requiring Carpenter to once more assume command. He was detached on September 13 and from October through June 1865 was a USNA instructor. From July 1865 through February 1868, Carpenter served aboard the Pacific Squadron sloops-of-war Hartford and Wyoming on antipiracy patrol along the China coast. When the captain of the Wyoming became ill and was detached in April 1867, Carpenter became his replacement. Following a native massacre of American survivors from the bark Rover on southern Formosa in March, the two warships Hartford and Wyoming undertook an unsuccessful June punitive expedition. Serving at the Portsmouth, NH, navy yard until February 1871, Carpenter became a commander on February 10, 1869, and in March captain of the North
Carpenter
Lt. Commander Charles C. Carpenter, USN, served as acting captain of the monitor Catskill off Charleston, SC, twice in July–September 86. He retired a rear admiral (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
Atlantic Squadron steam gunboat Nantasket, which was stationed at Samana Bay, Santo Domingo, transporting dispatches and passengers to other Caribbean islands during the ensuing 18 months. Reemployed at the Portsmouth yard, he took over the iron-hulled NAS steam gunboat Huron for a year’s Caribbean cruise in November 1875. Unemployed until May 1878, he served as instructor of torpedo warfare at Newport, RI, until September and then returned home, being promoted to the rank of captain on March 25, 1880. At the Portsmouth navy yard from April until June 1882, he became captain of the NAS flagship Hartford, which during her two-year cruise carried a team of U.S. and British scientists from Callao, Peru, to the Caroline Islands in the Pacific to observe the May 6, 1883, total eclipse of the sun. Back at Portsmouth until July
Carter 1894, Carpenter undertook various duties, including captain of the receiving ship Wabash, captain of the yard, and, finally, yard commandant. Having been promoted to the ranks of commodore (May 15, 1893), acting RAdm. (July 12, 1894), and RAdm. (November 11, 1894), he became commander of the Asiatic Squadron, wearing his flag in the double-ender gunboat Monocacy and then the protected cruiser Baltimore. In early November 1895, Carpenter, whose wife was ill, requested relief and was placed on the USN Retired List on February 27, 1896. Although briefly called back to duty to command the Portsmouth yard from April to August 1898 during the Spanish-American War, he paid special attention to the facility’s brig, where Spanish POWs were kept, including Adm. Pascual Cervera y Topete (1839–1909). Carpenter, suffering mental problems, spent most of his retirement confined to the Adams Nervine Asylum at Jamaica Plain, MA. There, on April 1, 1899, he committed suicide. Largely unknown and unremembered, he was buried at Proprietors Burying Ground, Portsmouth, NH. No USN ships have been named in his honor. Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; DANFS; Cogar; Hamersly, 3rded; ORN, I, 13; ORN, I, 14; “Bev,” pseud., “Charles Carroll Carpenter,” FindaGrave, http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi? page=gr&GScid=641070&GRid=11717688& (accessed July 1, 2016); Kramer, Portsmouth Naval Prison; Cooling, USS Olympia: Herald of Empire; New York Times, November 11, 1895, April 3, 1899; New York Tribune, April 3, 1899; Washington Post, April 3, 1899; Morning Oregonian, April 3, 1899; Milwaukee Sentinel, April 3, 1899; Baltimore Sun, April 3, 1899; Nashville American, April 3, 1899; Hartford Courant, April 3, 1899.
Carter, Jonathan Hanby (1822–1884, CSN) The eldest of five brothers and a sister in the family of William Carter, Jr. (1796–1870), and his wife Elizabeth Moore Carter, Jonathan Hanby Carter was born on January 1, 1822, in Stokes County, NC. Appointed a USN midshipman in March 1840, he numbered among the first class of graduates from the USNA in 1846 and was immediately advanced to the rank of passed midshipman. He then undertook the usual ship and shore duties of naval officers in the antebellum period. Among the vessels in
2 which he served were the USS Powhatan, John Adams, Perry, St. Lawrence, and Savannah. A highlight of those years was his participation in the North Sea Exploring Expedition of 1853– 1856, during which (1855) he was promoted to the ranks of master and lieutenant. Upon the outbreak of the Civil War, Carter chose to side with the South and resigned on April 25, 1861. Two days later he entered the Confederate navy as a lieutenant and shortly thereafter was assigned to serve at the Savannah and New Orleans naval stations. In September he was sent as a naval assistant to Columbus, KY, and shortly thereafter was dispatched to New Orleans to command and convert the sidewheel steamer Ed Howard into a gunboat, which was duly christened CSS General Polk. After the craft participated in the March–May evacuation of New Madrid, MO, the actions at Tiptonville, TN, and the loss of Fort Pillow, Carter took her up the Yazoo River, where, in accordance with orders from a superior, she was scuttled on June 26. Afterwards, Carpenter was dispatched to Shreveport, LA, to command and outfit the paddle wheel ironclad CSS Missouri. The final Confederate ironclad finished in the Western Hemisphere, she was launched on April 14, 1863. That fall, Carter, with his flag on the Missouri, was placed in charge of the naval defenses of western Louisiana, but low water prevented him from engaging the U.S. Mississippi Squadron when it ascended the Red River in April 1864. During late summer, Carter became involved in a plot under which the captain of the Federal light-draught Rattler (Tinclad No.1), which was then patrolling the Mississippi River near Rodney, MS, would be sold to the CSN. Following a September 4 altercation onshore between men from the tinclad and a party of CSN sailors under Lt. Carter, the gambit failed. By March 1865 the Red River had risen sufficiently for the Missouri to move down to Alexandria, in the central part of the state. There she was surrendered to Federal forces along with her crew on May 26, 1865; the vessel was the last coastal or inland Confederate ironclad acquired by the Union. Carter was paroled at Shreveport on June 7 and ran a cotton plantation in Bossier Parish, across the Red River from Shreveport, which financial trouble forced him to abandon in 1870.
Chandler
While in command of the paddle-wheel ironclad Missouri, based at Shreveport, LA, Lt. Jonathan Handby Carter, CSN, in late summer 86 became involved in a plot under which the captain of the depicted Federal light draught Rattler (Tinclad No. ), then patrolling the Mississippi River near Rodney, MS, would be sold to the CSN. Following a September altercation on shore between men from the USN light draught and a party of CSN sailors under Lt. Carter, the gambit failed (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
On November 22 of the same year, he married Henrietta Giroud Tompkins from South Carolina and moved to her hometown of Edgefield, where he died on March 7, 1884. Carter was buried in the First Baptist Church cemetery at Edgefield. Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; CSN Register; Jeter, A Man and His Boat: The Civil War Career and Correspondence of Lieutenant Jonathan H. Carter, CSN; Jeter, “Against All Odds: Lt. Jonathan H. Carter, CSN, and His Ironclad”; Still, “The Confederate Ironclad Missouri”; Tucker, “Jonathan H. Carter,” in Tucker, I; Callahan; ORN, 2, 1; Smith, CSS Arkan sas; Smith, Civil War Biographies from the Western Waters; Smith, Tinclads in the Civil War; Smith, Fight for the Yazoo; “Jonathan Hanby Carter, Surry County’s Civil War Sailor,” Free State of Patrick: Surry County North Carolina History, http://www.freestateofpatrick. com/sccwr.htm (accessed October 4, 2009); Meg Carter, “Re: Jonathan H. Carter 1822 NC,” GenForum, http://genforum.genealogy.com/carter/messages/14618. html (accessed November 12, 2012).
Chandler, Ralph (1829–1889, USN) Oldest of the two sons and one daughter of lawyer Daniel Hicks (1792–1864) and Mary W. Stark Chandler (1791–1873), Ralph was born at Batavia, NY, on August 3, 1829. He was appointed a USN midshipman on September 27, 1845, and was immediately sent to the naval school at Annapolis, where he studied until July 1846. He was then ordered aboard the Pacific Squadron flagship, the razee Independence, for an almost-three year cruise during the Mexican War. Blockading the West Coast as far south as lower Mexico, his cut-down ship-of-the-line supported the capture of Guaymas on October 19, 1847, and Mazatlan on November 11. After an 1848 visit to Hawaii, Chandler transferred to the Pacific Squadron sloop-of-war Vincennes in December 1849. On July 2, 1850, while lying off Guayaquil, Ecuador, the ship briefly
Chandler
After the capture of Fort Fisher in January 86, Lt. Cmdr. Ralph Chandler, USN, assumed command of the monitor Sangamon, then in the James River. This photograph of his ship depicts her officers and numerous other highlights including an anchor chain on deck, ventilators erected over deck fittings, a thin white band painted around the turret top, uneven height of the turret gunports, and a Dahlgren howitzer on a field carriage (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
hosted the Ecuadorian revolutionary Gen. Jorge A. Elizalde (1795–1862) during a period of civil unrest. When the ship reached San Francisco, three dozen of her crew deserted to the gold fields. Becoming a passed midshipman on October 6, 1851, Chandler returned to the USNA in November, graduating the following June. Ordered aboard the Mediterranean Squadron sloop-of-war St. Louis, he cruised in European waters until May 1855. Granted leave, Chandler married Cornelia Refield (1829–1889); the couple would have two sons and three daughters. On September 15, he became a master and the next day a lieutenant. From July to August 1860 Chandler was seconded to the USCS and participated in surveys of the South American coast. In November 1860 he departed for the Orient aboard the East Indies Squadron sloopof-war Vandalia. Upon the outbreak of the Civil War in April 1861, the Vandalia joined the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron (SABS) off such hightraffic areas as Charleston and Bull’s Bay, SC,
and was present during the Union’s capture of Roanoke Island, NC, on November 7–8. Sent to the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron (NABS) steam frigate San Jacinto in January 1862, he participated in the May 8 bombardment of Sewell’s Point and the May 11 capture of Norfolk, VA, before his ship became flagship of the East Gulf Blockading Squadron (EGBS), based at Key West, FL, on June 4. Chandler was promoted to the rank of lieutenant commander on July 16 as his ship, seconded to the NAS, departed for an unsuccessful five-month chase of the Confederate ocean raider Alabama. The San Jacinto returned to Key West and the EGBS in late January 1863, and during the spring he helped to outfit the monitor Roanoke at New York. Chandler obtained his first command in May when he took over the EGBS steam gunboat Huntsville, and, during the remainder of the year, captured five runners on his own and aided in the seizure of several others. Between January and mid–May 1864, the Huntsville operated off
Cilley
the coast of Florida but was out of service due to Yellow Fever thereafter until September. Given command of the newly-converted NABS steam gunboat Maumee, he unsuccessfully, in October-November, pursued the Confederate ocean raider CSS Tallahassee, then attacking Northern ships off the coast of Massachusetts. Detailed south, Chandler participated in the failed Christmas Eve attack on Fort Fisher, near Wilmington, NC. Regrouped, the Maumee and other NABS ships returned to the attack on January 13, 1865, and, at the end of a two-day campaign, the citadel was taken. Detached, Chandler next took command of the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron (SABS) Passaic-class monitor Sangamon, then in the James River. While supporting the Army of the Potomac’s drive on Richmond, the ironclad spent the next several months on patrol duty, providing protection against the CSN James River Squadron and clearing underwater mines, known as torpedoes. His monitor was decommissioned at Philadelphia in summer 1865, leaving Chandler unemployed until January 1866 when he assumed command of the supply ship Don in January 1866, taking her on a 29-month deployment on the East Coast and in the Caribbean. The Cultivator Shoal, some 50 miles east of Cape Cod, was discovered during this cruise and extensively reviewed. Six months into the Don’s deployment, her captain was notified on July 25 that he had become a commander. From August until February 1869, Chandler was the New York navy yard ordnance officer, after which he became captain of the double-ender dispatch gunboat Tallapoosa, which operated up and down the East Coast. In January 1870 Chandler welcomed VAdm. David G. Farragut (1801–1870) aboard and transported him to Portland, ME, to meet HMS Monarch, a British battleship arriving from England with the remains of the late philanthropist George Peabody (1795–1869) aboard. Chandler was at the New York navy yard from May until April 1874, sailed in command of the rebuilt sloop-of-war Swatara during May, and became a captain on June 4. His year-long mission was the transport of five groups of scientists to different points in the South Pacific for observations of the transit of Venus. After commanding the Boston-area receiving ships
Ohio and Wabash, he was given the North Atlantic Station (NAS) sloop-of-war Lackawanna in September 1878 and, following her 18-month deployment to European waters, served on a Philadelphia board and at the Boston navy yard until June 1884, being advanced to the rank of commodore during March 1884. Prior to his elevation to rear admiral on October 1, 1886, Chandler was commandant of the New York navy yard. That November he became commander of the Asiatic Squadron, wearing his flag in the sloop-of-war Marion. While paying a courtesy call upon the governor of Hong Kong on the morning of February 11, 1889, the admiral suffered a stroke. He was returned to a rented room at the Hong Kong Hotel, lost consciousness, and died. His body was held at the British Naval Hospital for two days until burial at the Hong Kong Cemetery. Chandler was remembered as a tall and gracious gentleman and decidedly literary in his tastes. No USN ships have been named in his honor. Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; Hamersly; The National Cyclopedia of American Biography, IV; Cogar; DANFS; Chris Nelson, “Ralph Chandler,” FindaGrave, http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg. cgi?page=gr&GRid=152557427 (accessed July 12, 2016); Chandler, “Rigging and Equipment of Vessels of War”; Baltimore Sun, February 12, 1889; New Orleans Daily Picayune, February 14, 1889; Boston Daily Advertiser, February 13, 1889; Milwaukee Daily Journal, February 21, 1889; New York Times, March 17, 1889.
Cilley, Greenleaf (1829–1899, USN) The eldest of two surviving sons and a daughter of U.S. Congressman Jonathan Longfellow Cilley (1802–1838) and his wife Deborah (1808– 1844), Greenleaf was born at Thomaston, ME, on October 27, 1829. Following the February 28, 1838, death of his father in a duel with a Kentucky congressman, Greenleaf was sent to boarding school at Standish, ME. On February 26, 1841, he was warranted a USN midshipman from Maine and sent aboard the frigate Constellation, then at Annapolis, MD. From 1843 to 1845, Cilley served aboard the Mediterranean Squadron flagship, the frigate Cumberland, where he learned of the death of his mother in September 1844. Shifted to the sloop-of-war
Cilley Plymouth in late 1845, he participated in her continuing European cruise until he returned to the USNA in November 1846. Having requested sea duty for the Mexican War, Cilley joined the ship-of-the line Ohio and arrived off Vera Cruz on March 22, 1847. Found to be too large to engage in coastal operations, the Ohio sent ten of her cannon, together with a number of seamen including Cilley, ashore and participated in the bombardment of the city, which surrendered soon thereafter. Cilley assisted the AUS to cross the Medlin River during its march to Alvarado and was closely engaged with its batteries during the attacks upon the town. In April a fleet amphibious force that included Cilley captured the Tuxpan forts, and the midshipman was slightly wounded while storming a battery near the town. Becoming a passed midshipman on August 10, Cilley returned to the USNA in January 1848 and graduated in June 1849, at which time he received three months’ leave. Appointed into the Home Squadron frigate Raritan, Cilley served in the
From October to December 86 the monitor Catskill was commanded off Charleston, SC, by Lt. Cmdr. Greenleaf Cilley, USN. Later, on April , 86, he was at Ford’s Theater, Washington, D.C., when President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated (courtesy Eve Anderson).
6 Caribbean until April 1850, when he was seconded to the USCS for a year. Joining the storeship Fredonia as acting master in the fall of 1851, Cilley arrived at Benica, CA, on June 19, 1852, from whence his ship sailed south to Valparaiso, Chile. Transferred to the Pacific Squadron frigate St. Lawrence, he returned to Norfolk, VA, in late April 1853 and joined the storeship Lexington on a run to La Spezia, Italy. After being seconded to the USCS steamer Jefferson and sailing for California in February 1854, the ship ran into a severe storm off Penguin Island, Patagonia, on May 25 and was fatally damaged. Able to reach land at Patagonia, the ship was condemned and Cilley and the crew sailed to Montevideo, Uruguay, where he met Malvina Vermet (1830–1924), daughter of a governor of the Falkland Islands. The two would correspond for a decade before they were wed. The stranded navy men were sent to New York aboard the returning storeship Relief, and Cilley served off Florida aboard the USCS steamer Legare. Having been ordered into the Home Squadron sloop-of-war Saratoga in August, he became a master on September 14 and lieutenant next day. His vessel spent her entire deployment in the Caribbean and participated in the capture of filibusterer William Walker at Greytown (now San Juan de Nicaragua) in November 1857. In early 1858 Cilley was seconded to the USCS steamer Hetzel, then engaged in surveys in the North Carolina sounds and Chesapeake Bay. In the spring of 1859 he became executive officer of the Brazil Squadron brig Dolphin, serving in the same billet aboard the squadron’s brig Bainbridge in 1860 and 1861. At Montevideo, Cilley married Malvina Vermet on May 16, 1861, a month after the outbreak of the Civil War (the couple would have five children) and became a lieutenant commander on July 16, 1862. His ship’s South American deployment having ended in December, the Cilleys returned to New York in June and took leave, visiting Niagara Falls. From there, Cilley took command of the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron (SABS) steam gunboat Unadilla and joined the blockade line off Tybee Island, GA. From there, she conducted numerous reconnaissance surveys and monitored construction of the Confederate ram CSS Savannah. In October Cilley received command of the
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monitor Catskill, which, with other SABS ironclads, regularly undertook picket duty and bombardments of Fort Sumter and other Charleston, SC, targets through December. His daughter having died just before Christmas, Cilley was allowed to return to New York. In March 1864 he joined the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron steamer Fort Jackson, then blockading Wilmington, DE. In August he became executive officer of the NABS steam frigate Colorado, which cruised off the North Carolina coast and participated in the December 1 Battle of Fort Fisher and the victorious campaign against that citadel (January 13–15, 1865). With the Civil War nearing an end and wishing to spend time with his family, Cilley was placed on the USN Retired List on March 18, 1865. In Washington, D.C., on April 15, he was at Ford’s Theater when President Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) was assassinated. Cilley and his family returned to Montevideo, Uruguay, in May 1866, where he raised sheep on the Estancia Esmeralda, near Mercedes. Promoted to the rank of USN commander on May 12, 1867, he spent most of the next decade exploring and surveying the remote areas of Uruguay, Argentina, Brazil, and Bolivia, including determining a possible railroad route in the latter nation. With his eldest son, he returned to the U.S. in March 1876. Cilley traveled back and forth between the homes of his North American and South American relatives and arranged to visit the Columbian World’s Fair Exposition at Chicago, IL, in 1893. He died at San Isidro, Buenos Aires, Argentina, on February 5, 1899. His remains are buried at Elm Grove Cemetery, Thomaston, ME. No USN warships have been named in his honor. Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; DANFS; Hamersly; Thomaston Public Library, “Greenleaf Cilley,” in Thomaston: The Town That Went to Sea,” http://thomaston.mainememory.net/ page/878/display.html (accessed April 3, 2016); “Commander Greenleaf Ciley,” Thomaston Historical Society, http://www.thomastonhistoricalsociety.com/Green. html (accessed April 3, 2016); Hawthorne, Biographical Sketch of Jonathan Cilley; Mark Cilley, “Commander Greenleaf Cilley,” The Cilley Pages, http://cilley. net/thecilleypages/cilley-en-o/e90.htm (accessed April 3, 2016); ORN, I, 15; “Marge,” pseud., “Greenleaf Cilley,” FindaGrave, http://www.findagrave.com/cgibin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=25415604 (accessed April 3, 2016).
Clark, Charles Peter (1836–1901, USN) Clark was born in Nashua, NH, August 11, 1836, the scion of two prominent New England families, the Clarks, and the Lords of Kennebunkport, Maine. As a result of a lengthy ocean voyage from 1852 to 1853, undertaken to improve his health, he acquired a liking for the sea and soon thereafter purchased a small vessel and embarked in the West African trade from Boston, employing a captain while accompanying the vessel as its supercargo. In 1857 Charles P. Clark & Co., a shipping enterprise that operated vessels in the West African trade, was formed but was dissolved in January 1860. For the next 2½ years Clark, evidently in partnership with Theodore E. Goodhue, operated three sailing ships on the Boston-West Africa route to Liberia. In February 1862 he sold his brig to William Ropes & Co. but acted as their agent for the vessel until he entered the Union navy as an acting ensign on October 3. In June 1863 he was made captain of the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron (SABS) sloop Rosalie, armed with a single 12-pounder boat howitzer, on the Union blockade off Florida. On July 8 the vessel participated in her first capture and, not wholly as a result of this, Clark was promoted to the rank of acting master 10 days later. In early August he was transferred to command of the howitzer-equipped schooner USS Sea Bird, under jurisdiction of the West Gulf Blockading Squadron (WGBS) on the western coast of Florida. In July 1864, Sea Bird and three other small sailing ships carried Union troops and landed them for a raid on Brookville, FL. After disembarking the soldiers, Sea Bird and a consort proceeded to Bayport, FL, where a landing party captured a quantity of cotton and burned the customs house before returning to Anclote Keys. For the highly meritorious services he demonstrated, Clark was advanced to the rank of acting volunteer lieutenant on August 9. On October 21, Sea Bird captured the British schooner Lucy off Anclote Keys with an assorted cargo in Clark’s last ocean action of the war. In November 1864, the New Englander received orders to report to Cairo, IL. There, three days before Christmas, he became captain of the Pook turtle Carondelet, one of the most famous of all Civil
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8
Acting Volunteer Lt. Charles P. Clark, USN, took over command of the Pook turtle Carondelet, one of the most famous of all Civil War river ironclads, in late December 86. He remained in command only a short time, although he was able to participate in the riverine pursuit of Confederate forces evacuating the area south of Nashville in January 86. The drawings are by Samuel Ward Stanton (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
War river ironclads. He remained in command only a short time, although he was able to participate in the riverine pursuit of Confederate forces evacuating the area south of Nashville in January 1865. On February 1 Clark joined the ironclad Benton, which he captained for the remainder of the war. He was honorably discharged from the USN on November 20, 1865. After the war, Clark remained in St. Louis for a brief period as a merchant before returning to Boston to become a partner in a shipping firm. He was then employed as a clerk on the Boston, Hartford & Erie Railroad, beginning a career that would, by March 1887, bring him to the presidency of the New York, New Haven &
Hartford Railroad Company. He retired in 1899 and died on March 20, 1901, while vacationing in Nice, France. No USN warships have been named in his honor. Sources: Callahan; DANFS; Neeser, “Historic Ships of the Navy: Benton”; “Register of the Charles Peter Clark Papers,” Mystic Seaport G.W. Blunt White Library, http://library.mysticseaport.org/manuscripts/ coll/coll135.cfm (accessed November 18, 2011); New York Times, March 22, 1901; Smith, USS Carondelet.
Coleman, Silas Bunker (1843–1908, USN) The son of a wealthy family and brother of Ferdinand Timothy Coleman, Coleman was
born in NYC on July 29, 1843, and spent his prewar years studying finance at leading eastern institutions. Following the outbreak of the Civil War, he enlisted in the AUS with his brother in July 1861 and was initially assigned to quartermaster duties. The Colemans were among a group of soldiers transferred to the Western Flotilla during the summer, being assigned to the timberclad Tyler, where he was also known as William. Rated as a master’s mate, he participated in the November Battle of Belmont, as well as in numerous forays in the Mississippi River between Cairo, IL, and Columbus, KY. Coleman was also on board the Tyler during the Fort Henry campaign, the dash up the Tennessee River, the Battle of Shiloh, and, in July, the famous encounter with the Confederate ram Arkansas. Following that encounter, the timberclad’s crew was transferred to the ironclad Mound City, herself only just completing repair from her June White River disaster. Coleman was appointed an acting ensign on October 1 and was present during the December
Coleman combined arms operation in the Yazoo River designed to reach Vicksburg, MS, via Chickasaw Bayou. During March 1863 his ship participated in the Steele’s Bayou Expedition and was among the ironclads that ran down the Mississippi River past the Vicksburg batteries on April 16 and fought the Battle of Grand Gulf on April 29. Thereafter, from time to time, the Mound City participated in the bombardment of the citadel, which finally surrendered on July 4. Miscellaneous patrol and partisan suppression missions occupied the vessel during the remainder of the year. At one point the Coleman brothers were simultaneously brought up on charges of dereliction of duty for turning their gunboat into an “ instrument of tyranny” they employed to loot private homes visited on shore. Both men were ordered to stand court-martial in late January 1864; however, there is no evidence that a court was held or, if it were, that they were found guilty. Both men were on board the Mound City as she participated in the March–May Red River Expedition. Coleman was promoted to the rank
Aboard the Mound City as she participated in the March–May 86 Red River Expedition. Silas B. Coleman, USN, was promoted to the rank of acting master on June , and from December through January 86 he was acting commander of the ironclad (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
Colhoun of acting master on June 15. From December through January 1865, he was acting commander of the Mound City. Thereafter he was sent aboard the Pittsburg as her executive officer for a short period, followed by a tour as the last commander of the light-draught Naumkeag (Tinclad No. 37). Discharged on December 15, 1865, Coleman engaged in NYC banking business from 1866 to 1869 but moved to Detroit in 1870 to become cashier of the People’s Savings Bank, a post he held for 20 years. In the years after 1890 he was treasurer then president of the National Loan & Investment Company. Still active in his profession and in veteran’s affairs, he died at home on January 10, 1908. No USN warships have been named in his honor. Sources: Callahan; ORN, I, 25; ORN, I, 27; Compendium of History and Biography of the City of Detroit and Wayne County, Michigan; Smith, The Timberclads in the Civil War; Coleman, A July Morning with the Rebel Ram Arkansas; Coleman and Stevens. “A July Morning with the Rebel Ram Arkansas”; Coleman, The Coleman Family; Smith, CSS Arkansas.
Colhoun, Edmund Ross (1821–1897, USN) Edmund Colhoun was born in Chambersburg, PA, on May 6, 1821, the son of Alexander and Margaretta A. Colhoun. Appointed a USN midshipman on April 1, 1839, he joined the Brazil Squadron sloop of war Marion for a twoyear cruise of South American waters and in 1842–1844 served in the frigate Congress during her service with the Mediterranean and Brazil squadrons. During January–June 1845, Colhoun attended the Philadelphia Naval School and upon his July 2 graduation became a passed midshipman. After leave, during which he married Mary Ann Reed on July 31 (the couple would have six children), he went on board the Home Squadron flagship, the frigate Cumberland, which oversaw the blockade of the Mexican east coast early in the Mexican War. During this deployment, Colhoun participated in the March 1 attack on Alvarado, near Vera Cruz, and then saw action at Tabasco in October. Having transferred to the Home Squadron frigate Raritan, he was present during the capture of Tabasco in June 1847, having been seconded to the armed schooner Nonata. Colhoun was aboard
6 the Philadelphia receiving ship Experiment from January 1848 through June 1849 and served until September 1850 as acting master in the Caribbean of the Home Squadron sloop-of-war Albany. He was then on the receiving ship Union at Philadelphia from November until October 1851, followed by the Pacific Squadron frigate St. Lawrence during a lengthy cruise up the Pacific coast of South America from Cape Horn to Puget Sound. Advanced to master on January 26, 1853, he resigned from the service on June 27 when a business opportunity presented itself. When the Civil War began, Colhoun was commissioned an acting volunteer lieutenant on September 24, 1861, and became captain of the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron gunboat Hunchback, a former NYC ferryboat aboard which he participated in the February 7–8, 1862, Battle of Roanoke Island, the March 14 capture of Newbern, NC, and the October engagements on Virginia’s Blackwater River. On November 17, he was advanced to the rank of commander and early in January 1863 was transferred to the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron monitor Weehawken, being aboard when she led the way during the first USN attack on Charleston Harbor on April 7. Later, on June 17, Weehawken engaged the Confederate ironclad Atlanta in Wassaw Sound, GA, capturing her in
Cmdr. Edmund Ross Colhoun, USN, was captain of the monitor Weehawken off Charleston, SC, from June to September 86 and the monitor Saugus in the James River from April 86 into the fall. He died a rear admiral (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
Cooke
6 just 15 minutes. When the monitor’s commander was relieved to a hero’s refrain, Colhoun succeeded him as captain. On July 10, Colhoun’s Weekhawken resumed operations against Charleston-area targets with a bombardment of Fort Wagner on Morris Island. This shoot was followed by others, equally ineffective, on July 18 and 24. Wagner was finally reduced during a massive squadron attack on August 17, which also punished Forts Gregg, Sumter, and Moultrie. Fort Sumter was the principal target during attacks on August 23, September 1, and September 7. During a December 6 storm, the anchored ironclad sank off Morris Island, losing four officers and 27 ratings. Colhoun was on sick leave until February 1864. Given command of the new monitor Saugus, which was towed to the James River in April, Colhoun supported Federal operations designed to capture Richmond. While helping to guard against a sortee by rams of the Confederate James River Squadron, the ironclad also engaged the Southerners’ Howlett’s Farm battery on June 21. Colhoun went back on sick leave in late fall and thereafter awaited orders until March 1865, when he was sent to New York to assist gunboat construction czar RAdm. Francis H. Gregory (1789–1866). Colhoun became South Pacific Station (SAS) fleet captain in December 1866, serving aboard the steam frigate Powhatan until August 1867. Unemployed for two years, he became a captain on March 2, 1869, and in April took over the North Atlantic Station monitor Dictator until July 1870. After 1871 service as Philadelphia navy yard ordnance officer, Colhoun was the Boston navy yard executive officer until June 1873. From July to April 1874, he commanded the Asiatic Squadron flagship Hartford and served as acting squadron commander from April to August. He became captain of the new flagship, Richmond, holding that post until April 1875, when he completed his final sea duty. Becoming a commodore on April 26, 1876, Colhoun represented the USN at the Philadelphia centennial celebrations from July to October. On board duty until March 1877, he commanded the Mare Island Navy Yard from April to January 1881 and was inspector of naval vessels thereafter. Advanced to rear admiral on December 3, he was placed on the retired list on May 6, 1883.
At the time of his death from a heart attack at his Washington, D.C., home on February 17, 1897, Colhoun was an elder in the Church of the Covenant. He was buried at Arlington National Cemetery, and two 20th century USN destroyers were named in his honor: DD-85 and DD-801. Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; DANFS; Cogar; The National Cyclopedia of American Biography, X; Butler and Brooks, Edmund Ross Colhoun Papers: A Finding Aid to the Papers in the Naval Historical Foundation Collection in the Library of Congress; Heitzmann, “The Ironclad Weehawken in the Civil War”; Merrill, “USS Weehawken: Gallant Ironship”; Loretta Castaldi, “Edmund Ross Colhoun,” FindaGrave, http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg. cgi?page=gr&GRid=73292475 (accessed May 3, 2016); Washington Post, February 18, 1897; New York Times, February 18–19, 1897.
Cooke, James Wallace (1812–1869, CSN) Cooke was born to merchant Thomas Cooke (1787–1815) and his wife Esther (1795–1816) in Beaufort, NC, on August 23, 1812. Following the loss of his father in an 1815 Atlantic hurricane and his mother to consumption, Cooke, together with his sister, moved in with their uncle, Beaufort customs collector Henry Marchant Cooke (1778–1835). After private schooling, James became a USN midshipman on April 1, 1828, and immediately joined the frigate Guerriere, later being transferred to the Natchez and John Adams. He was aboard the frigate Constitution on June 14, 1834, when he was advanced to the rank of passed midshipman. Cooke’s antebellum naval service was similar to that of other officers, and during those years he also held billets aboard the USS Macedonian, Ontario, Germantown, and Decatur. He saw shore duty at the Pensacola navy yard, on the Norfolk navy yard receiving ship, and at the USNO. Promoted to lieutenant on February 25, 1841, Cooke contracted yellow fever while on an 1848 second cruise aboard the John Adams. He was sent to the Norfolk Naval Hospital to recover and, on July 5, married Mary E.A. Watts (1825–1889); the couple would have three sons. In 1856 Cooke became captain of the storeship Relief, which made several trips to South American waters to resupply ships of the Brazil Squadron. The navy’s senior lieutenant was detached from his
Cooper first command in late 1860 and returned home to await orders. When North Carolina seceded from the Union in May 1861, Cooke resigned to become a Virginia navy lieutenant the same month. On June 11, he was commissioned a CSN lieutenant and was transferred from duty on the James River to the Potomac River in Virginia, there to help erect batteries at Aquia Creek. On July 18 he became captain of the Confederate “mosquito fleet” steamer Weldon N. Edwards on the North Carolina coast. Later, in October, he assumed command of the steamer Ellis at New Bern, NC; she was lost and he was wounded in the right arm and captured during an engagement with USN forces near Cobb’s Point Battery, Roanoke Island, on February 10, 1862. Paroled two days later and promoted to the rank of commander on August 25, to date from May 17, he was exchanged in September and ordered to assist Gilbert Elliott with building an ironclad ram at Edward’s Ferry on the Roanoke River. The ship was named the Albemarle, and construction continued through 1863 and into 1864. Nearly
62 complete, she participated in an April 19 joint arms attack on Plymouth, NC. Two Federal gunboats attempted to intercept her, but one was sunk and the other forced to flee. As she sortied with two consorts into Albemarle Sound on May 5 to assist with the Southern attack on New Bern, NC, the Albemarle was attacked by seven Federal gunboats; the engagement between the two sides continued for several hours until the Confederate ram withdrew. Becoming a captain on June 10, the ill Cooke was a week later detached from the Albemarle. But some weeks later Cooke assumed command of all CSN forces in North Carolina waters, a post he held until the end of the war when he evacuated the Halifax, NC, navy yard. Paroled at Raleigh, NC, on May 12, 1865, Cooke lived quietly in Portsmouth, VA, until he died of “softening of the brain” on June 21, 1869. He was buried at Cedar Grove Cemetery in Portsmouth. Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; Duppstadt, “James Wallace Cooke,” in Tucker, I; Driver, Confederate Sailors, Marines, and Signalmen from Virginia and Maryland; CSN Register; Foenander; John D. Davis, “James Wallace Cooke Biographical Sketch, 1898 (collection no. 00176-z),” The Southern Historical Collection, Louis Round Wilson Special Collections Library. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, http://www2.lib.unc.edu/mss/inv/c/Cooke, James_Wallace.html#folder_1#1 (accessed May 3, 2016); Elliott, Ironclad of the Roanoke; Diane, pseud., “Capt. James Wallace Cooke,” FindaGrave, http:// www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln= cooke&GSfn=james&GSmn=w&GSbyrel=all&GSdy= 1869&GSdyrel= in&GSob= n&GRid= 35207060&df= all& (accessed May 3, 2016); Bennett, “The Albemarle in Albemarle Sound”; Butler, Pirates, Privateers, and Rebel Raiders of the Carolina Coast; Lindley S. Butler, “James W. Cooke,” NCpedia http://ncpedia.org/ biography/cooke-james-wallace (accessed May 3, 2016).
Cooper, George Henry (1822–1891, USN)
First captain of the famous Confederate ironclad Albemarle, Cmdr. James W. Cooke, CSN, participated in the May , 86, Battle of Albemarle Sound, NC, before becoming commander of CSN forces in North Carolina waters in June (Scharf, History of the Confederate States Navy).
Cooper was born at Fort Diamond, in New York Harbor, on July 27, 1822. He was appointed an acting USN midshipman in January 1836 and immediately joined the West Indies Squadron sloop-of-war Concord. Thrust into the Second Seminole War on August 4, 1837, he regularly participated in small joint arms boat expeditions against the Seminoles, becoming a regular midshipman on August 14, 1837. From November
6
Cooper
From February to June 86 Cmdr. George H. Cooper, USN, was captain of the monitor Sangamon on the Charleston, SC, blockade. As captain of the Asiatic Squadron flagship Colorado in 8 off Korea, he is shown here seated third from the right (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
1838 to September 1842, he served successively in the Pacific Squadron’s frigate Constitution, the schooner Shark, and the sloop-of-war St. Louis. Graduating from the Philadelphia Naval School on June 29, 1843, and becoming a passed midshipman, Cooper was acting master aboard the Africa Squadron flagship, the frigate Macedonian, and also the same unit’s sloop-of-war Saratoga until December 1844. After duty at the New York and Norfolk, VA, navy yards, Cooper served two tours aboard the Home Squadron dispatch schooner Flirt (June 1845–February 1846 and March 1846–January 1847), carrying messages for the Pacific Squadron to Panama for transshipment overland and participation in the Mexican War. During the conflict, Cooper commanded a detachment ashore during the May 1846 Siege of Fort Texas, and was aboard as his ship participated in the capture of Monterrey, Mexico, in September and the First Battle of Tabasco in October. On the frigate Raritan
during the landings at Tabasco in June 1847, he spent 1848 training recruits at Norfolk. From that December through early September 1849, he was acting master during the Mediterranean cruise of the storeship Supply, before returning to a Norfolk billet, during which he became a master on October 11. Joining the East Indies Squadron flagship, the steam frigate Susquehanna, in December 1850 and advanced to lieutenant on May 8, 1851, Cooper was aboard when in 1853 and 1854 Com. Matthew C. Perry (1794–1858) “opened” Japan. He served at the Norfolk navy yard from March 1855 until May 1857 and was aboard the USNA practice ship Preble until February 1858 and the Home Squadron flagship Roanoke from August 1858 though May 1860, before returning to shore duty at the Portsmouth navy yard until September 1861. Promoted to commander on July 16, 1862, Cooper was captain of the Atlantic coastal
Cornwell supply ship Massachusetts, from March until December, after which he served as temporary commander of the converted steamer Connecticut, a convoy and tow ship off Aspinwall, Panama. In July 1863, he took over the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron (SABS) double-ender gunboat Sonoma, which patrolled off the South Carolina and Georgia coasts. In January 1864 he became captain of the Passaic-class monitor Sangamon, which joined the blockade line off Charleston, SC, in March. When the ironclad was transferred to the James River in June, Cooper became captain of the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron (NABS) converted gunboat Glaucus, which broke down on August 22 and was under repair when the conflict finally ended April-May 1865. After Atlantic coastal and Caribbean service as captain of the double-ender gunboat Winooski until June 1867, Cooper became a captain on December 12 and thereafter was on Norfolk navy yard ordnance duty until December 1869. Commander of the Asiatic Station flagship, the frigate Colorado, which transported the U.S. minister to China and Korea on a diplomatic mission in April 1871, he participated in the June 10–11, Korean Punitive Expedition, which captured several forts in response to attacks on American shipping. At Norfolk duty until November 1873, he commanded the ironclad Roanoke until December 1874, becoming a commodore that June 5. Commandant of the Pensacola navy yard from January 1875 until April 1876, Cooper was president of several naval boards between October 1876 and April 1880, interrupting that service to be 13th Lighthouse District commander at Portland, OR, from January to March 1877. Commandant of the New York navy yard for two years after May 1880, he became a rear admiral on November 15, 1881, and from May 1882 to June 1884 undertook his final sea duty in command of the North Atlantic Station (NAS), wearing his flag in the frigate Tennessee. Cooper was placed on the retired list on July 27, 1884. He died of heart failure at his Brooklyn, NY, home on November 17, 1891, and was buried at that city’s Green-Wood Cemetery. He left a wife, a daughter, and three sons. No USN vessels have been named in his honor. Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; Hamersly, 3rded; Cogar; Alden, “Born 40 Years Too Soon
6 (Ironclad Roanoke)”; Russ Dodge, “Adm. George H. Cooper,” FindaGrave, http://www.findagrave.com/cgibin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=95596476 (accessed June 22, 2016); DANFS; New York Tribune, November 18, 1891; Washington Post, November 18, 1891.
Cornwell, John Jacob (1834–1867, USN) The son, with three daughters, of Peter (1805– 1852) and Mary Hayes Hillis (1798–1879) Cornwell, John was born at New Lisbon, OH, on June 6, 1834. He was appointed a USN midshipman on February 1, 1847, and was at the USNA, from which he graduated on June 10, 1853, becoming a passed midshipman. During the time of his studies, he spent from February 13, 1848, to January 29, 1851, aboard the East Indies Squadron sloop-of-war Plymouth. That September he returned to the Pacific Squadron for a six-year cruise of the southern and eastern ocean aboard the sloop-of-war St. Mary’s. During that deployment, Cornwell became a lieutenant on September 16, 1855, participated in the February 6, 1857, negotiations that ended a conflict between Nicaragua and American filibusterers led by William Walker (1824–1860), and collected geologic and hydrographic data before being stranded at San Francisco from March to August 1858, when many from her crew deserted to the gold fields. Relieved in February 1859, Cornwell transferred aboard the brig Perry and was a participant in the Paraguayan punitive expedition, remaining aboard off the South American east coast until June 1860. Following the outbreak of the Civil War in April 1861, the Perry joined the Atlantic blockade off the east coast of Florida until July, when she was reassigned to the Potomac Flotilla just after the Battle of Bull Run. She served on both interdiction and Washington, D.C., defense duty for the remainder of the year and into 1862. Promoted a lieutenant commander on July 16, 1862, Cornwell was assigned to the new South Atlantic Blockading Squadron steam sloop-of-war Canandaigua off Charleston, SC, working on the interdiction service and providing support to AUS forces raiding Confederate positions around the harbor. When the previous commander of the SABS monitor Nahant was forced onto medical leave, Cornwell became her cap-
Couthouy
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Cmdr. John J. Cornwell, USN, commanded the monitor Nahant off Charleston, SC, from August 86 until April 86. Thereafter, he was captain of the Mississippi Squadron ironclad Choctaw (depicted) and commander of that fleet’s 2nd Division through May 86. He died of a heart attack while serving as executive officer of the monitor Miantonomoh on her European visit in 86 (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
tain on August 29. For the next eight months, the Nahant joined several other monitors in combined attacks on the Charleston Harbor defenses, including Fort Sumter, Fort Moultrie, and Fort Wagner, with particularly hard fighting during September–November. In April 1864 Cornwell was transferred to the Mississippi Squadron, where, through May 1865, he commanded the giant river ironclad Choctaw, overseeing her deployment as a station-keeping vessel, largely between Bayou Sara and Morganza, LA, as commander of the 2nd Division. In April 1866 Cornwell became executive officer of the giant double-turreted North Atlantic Station monitor Miantonomoh, which, when it transported navy assistant secretary Gustavus Vasa Fox (1821–1883) and his party to Russia and Europe on a special mission for President Andrew Johnson (1808–1875), was the first monitor to cross the Atlantic Ocean. While anchored at Toulon, France, on February 12, 1867, Cornwell
suffered a stroke and died. He was buried at Toulon. A monument was raised in his memory at the Lisbon Cemetery at New Lisbon, OH. No USN vessels have been named in his honor. Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; Callahan; Benjamin, The United States Naval Academy: Being the Yarn of the American Midshipman; DANFS; Smith, Civil War Biographies from the Western Waters; DeVries, “The Union Ironclad Ram Choctaw”; Brooks, “Saltwater Buckeye: Lt. Cmdr. John J. Cornwell, USN”; ORN, I, 15; ORN, I, 27; Dave and Joyce Humphrey, “Cdr. John Jacob Cornwell,” FindaGrave, http://www. findagrave. com/ cgi- bin/ fg. cgi?page= gr&GRid= 70304508 (accessed May 4, 2016).
Couthouy, Joseph Pitty (1808–1864, USN) As famous a scientist as he was a naval officer, Couthouy was born in Boston, MA, on January 6, 1808, and studied at the Boston Latin School beginning in 1820. In the years thereafter,
Couthouy
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First captain of the depicted river monitor Osage, Acting Volunteer Lt. Joseph P. Couthouy, USN, joined in the pursuit of Brig. Gen. John Hunt Morgan in July86 and thereafter participated in the Federal armed reconnaissance of the Red River and patrols in the Mississippi River off Adams County, MS. He was transferred to command of the ironclad Chillicothe in early 86, aboard which he was killed during the Red River Expedition in April (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
he became a master mariner and amateur explorer and an expert in conchology and invertebrate paleontology. With intercession from President Andrew Jackson, this member of the Boston Society of Natural History joined the scientists assigned to the 1838 Exploring Expedition, under the command of Lt. Charles Wilkes. After gathering a large collection of shells, he became ill (goes one account) or mishandled specimens and was fired (goes another). In any event, he was forced to return to the U.S. from Hawaii in November 1840. He thereafter worked on a part of the collection and published in the professional literature over the next five years. He then returned to nautical commerce, commanding sailing ships on the routes to South American and the Pacific and, between 1854 and 1857, leading an unsuccessful expedition to Ecuador’s Bay of Cumana seeking the wreck of the Spanish treasure ship San Pedro. Following the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, Couthouy became a USN acting volunteer lieutenant on August 26 and took command of
the four-gun Kingfisher, joining the Atlantic blockade off Pensacola, FL. In January and February 1862, he captured four runners in just over a month. Courtney was detached from the bark in November and became captain of the newly converted South Atlantic Blockading Squadron (SABS) steamer Columbia, which was wrecked in a severe gale off Masonboro Inlet, NC, on January 14, 1863, and the crew captured. Couthouy was exchanged in May and posted to the Mississippi Squadron base at Cairo, IL, where he became the first captain of the new river monitor Osage. During July she was dispatched to the Ohio River to support several tinclads blocking a recrossing by Brig. Gen. John Hunt Morgan, who was then raiding in Indiana and Ohio. In August, Osage participated in the Federal armed reconnaissance of the Red River and thereafter patrolled in the Mississippi River off Adams County, MS. During the first month of 1864, Couthouy took command of the ironclad Chillicothe, then on patrol of Mississippi below Vicksburg. In March his craft joined the large
6
Craven
joint army-navy expedition up the Red River into Louisiana, proceeding with the squadron to Alexandria and then farther on. By the evening of April 3 the Chillicothe was about 100 miles above that town near Grand Ecore, LA, when Couthouy was mortally wounded by a Confederate sniper. He died the next morning. Sources: Callahan; Joiner and Sandefur, eds., “Joseph Pitty Couthouy: The Death of a SailorScientist,” in Joiner, ed., Little to Eat and Thin Mud to Drink: Letters, Diaries, and Memoirs from the Red River Campaigns, 1863–1864; DANFS; Dall, “Some American Conchologists”; Smith, Civil War Biographies from the Western Waters.
Craven, Tunis Augustus Macdonough “Tam,” “Mac” (1813–1864, USN) The brother of RAdm. Thomas Tingey Craven (1808–1887) was born to Portsmouth navy yard storekeeper Tunis Quick Craven (1781–1866) and his wife Hannah Tingey (1783–1835) at Kittery, York, ME, on January 11, 1813. Having attended the Columbia Grammar School, as well as Norwich Academy (1827–1829) and already nicknamed “Mac,” Craven became an acting USN midshipman on February 2, 1829. Eventually assigned to the Mediterranean Squadron sloop-of-war Boston, in 1831, his warrant as midshipman was granted on November 11, 1831, and in October 1832 he joined the West Indies Squadron flagship, sloop-of-war St. Louis. Advanced to passed midshipman on July 3, 1835, Craven, after a two-year leave, was at his request seconded to the USCS until 1840, becoming expert in surveying and hydrography. In 1838 he married Mary Carter (1816–1843); the couple would have three children before her untimely death. Becoming a lieutenant in September 1841 and sent to the Home Squadron sloop-of-war Falmouth, Craven carried dispatches and patrolled from Newfoundland to the Caribbean. While aboard the New York receiving ship in 1843–1846, he married Marie L. Stevenson (?–1905) of Baltimore and changed his address from Brooklyn to Bound Brook, NJ; the couple would have three children. Craven served aboard the Pacific Squadron sloop-of-war Dale, which cruised off the West Coast until August 1849, capturing a number of
Cmdr. Tunis Augustus Macdonough Craven, USN, commissioned the monitor Tecumseh in April 86 and initially served with her in the James River. While participating in the August Battle of Mobile Bay, the ironclad struck a “torpedo” and capsized. As the monitor rolled, Craven and the crew attempted to escape. Arriving at a ladder at the same time as John Collins, Craven stepped back and said, “After you, pilot.” The subordinate escaped; the captain and 2 others perished (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
Mexican vessels during the Mexican War and raising the flag over the mainland town of Guaymas, Mexico, and Mulege on the Baja California peninsula. He was employed on the USCS for a decade, save for 1850, which he spent at the USNO, and commanded the survey vessel Corwin until October 1857, when he was given command of the Varina and undertook the Atrato Expedition, a survey across the Isthmus of Darien via the Atrato and Turando rivers. In late 1859, Craven’s first USN command, the steam gunboat Mohawk, began a two-year patrol
Crosby against pirates and slavers off the East Coast and in the Caribbean. During the summer of 1860, the Mohawk saved the foundering Spanish merchantman Bella; the captain later received a gold medal from Queen Isabella II. At home, Mrs. Craven received on behalf of her husband a silver service from the grateful New York Board of Underwriters. Beginning on November 15, the Mohawk and another warship defended Forts Jefferson and Taylor at Key West from actions of “bands of lawless men,” helping to keep the forts out of rebellious hands. Craven assumed command of the steam gunboat Crusader, which patrolled in the Gulf of Mexico from March 16 to August 28, 1861. During this deployment, war erupted and his ship captured two vessels slated for sale as Confederate privateers. Craven became captain of the sloop-of-war Tuscarora, which departed at year’s end in pursuit of Southern ocean raiders, specifically the CSS Nashville, then in English waters. Unable due to neutrality rules to pursue her when she departed Southampton, Craven steamed instead to Gibraltar, in mid–February 1862, where he found the CSS Sumter in port. When the Confederate crew abandoned their ship in April, the Tuscarora moved to Cadiz, Spain, where in late June she received orders to steam back to British waters to intercept CSS Alabama. Remaining in European waters for the rest of the year and beyond, Craven protected Federal merchantmen and vainly sought the enemy. Following a spring 1863 refit, the Tuscarora returned to sea again in June to search off Bermuda and north as far as Nova Scotia for the CSS Tacony. In September, Craven was detached and ordered to Jersey City, NJ, to complete the outfitting of, and assume command of, the Canonicus-class monitor Tecumseh, which joined the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron (NABS) in April 1864. At the beginning of the Bermuda Hundred Campaign in May, the monitor steamed into the James River to support the Federal army. On June 21 Tecumseh expended 46 of her 15-inch shells on the Confederate fourgun battery at Howlett’s Farm, claiming one emplacement destroyed. Towed to Pensacola, Craven’s ironclad joined the West Gulf Blockading Squadron (WGBS) in late July. When the Battle of Mobile Bay began on August 5, the Tecumseh began to lead three other monitors
68 past Fort Morgan, with the mission of fending off the ram CSS Tennessee and protecting an outboard line of wooden warships also skirting the citadel. Choosing to proceed through an unprotected channel to safeguard the rapidly closing flagship Hartford from the Tennessee, Craven ran into a minefield. One hundred yards from the Southern ironclad, the Tecumseh struck a “torpedo” and capsized. As the monitor rolled, Craven and the crew attempted to escape. Arriving at a ladder at the same time as John Collins, Craven stepped back and said “After you, pilot.” The subordinate escaped; the captain and 92 others perished during those terrible thirty seconds. Craven’s body remains in Mobile Bay with the wreck of his ship, which is recognized as a war grave and may not be disturbed. The English poet Henry John Newbolt memorialized him in his poem “Craven,” comparing him to the British naval hero Sir Philip Sydney. Three 20th century USN ships were named in his honor: TB-10, DD-70, and DD-382. Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; Appletons’, II; Tucker, “Tunis Augustus Macdonough Craven,” in Tucker, I; Wright; Ellis, ed., “Commander Tunis Augustus Macdonough Craven,” in Norwich University, 1819–1911: Her History, Her Graduates, Her Roll of Honor; DANFS; Star, pseud., “Tunis Augustus Macdonough ‘TAM’ Craven,” FindaGrave, http:// www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid= 77749957 (accessed April 12, 2016); “Notes from the Journal of Lieutenant T.A.M. Craven, USN: U.S.S. Dale, Pacific Squadron, 1846–1849”; Kembel, ed., A Naval Campaign in the Californias, 1846–1849: The Journal of Lieutenant Tunis Augustus Macdonough Craven, USN, United States Sloop-of-War Dale; New York Herald, June 21, 1858; Gatwick, Mainers in the Civil War; Kirk, “T.A.M. Craven at Mobile Bay”; Newbolt, Collected Poems, 1897–1907; Browning, “‘Damn the Torpedoes’”; New York Daily Tribune, August 18, 1864; Richard Spillane, “Tunis Mcdonough Craven: The ‘Sydney’ of the Navy,” Detroit Free Press (September 11, 1910).
Crosby, Peirce (1824–1899, USN) The son of English immigrant quarry operator John Peirce (1789–1832) and Catharine Beale Crosby, Peirce was born January 16, 1824, in Delaware County, PA. Appointed a USN midshipman on June 5, 1838, he served aboard the Mediterranean Squadron ship-of-the-line Ohio from September through July 1841, after which
6 he was on the Philadelphia receiving ship until February 1842. After service aboard the Home Squadron steam frigate Mississippi in the spring, he was posted aboard first the Mediterranean Squadron frigate Congress and then the sloopof-war Preble. Crosby graduated from the Philadelphia naval school in July 1844, three months after his promotion to passed midshipman on May 20, and was seconded to the USCS. Posted to the Home Squadron sloop-of-war Decatur in February 1847 for service in the Mexican War, he participated with 13 officers and 118 men from the ship in the capture of Tuxpan. Crosby and another landing party were engaged in the June 14–16 attack upon and capture of Tabasco. From November to August 1848, he served on the dispatch schooner Petrel and thereafter in various capacities at the Philadelphia navy yard until March 1853, during which time he became a master, on November 4, 1852. Promoted to lieutenant on September 3, 1853, he joined the Brazil Squadron sloop-of-war Germantown and
Newly appointed a commander in September 862, Peirce Crosby, USN, served as captain of the monitor Sangamon in the James River until January 86. He later became a rear admiral (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
Crosby cruised off the east coast of South America from 1854 to 1857. Stationed aboard the Philadelphia receiving ship until June 1858, he sailed aboard the Home Squadron sloop-of-war Saratoga on a two-year deployment to the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico. The high point of the cruise was her invited participation in the naval battle of Anton Lizardo, Vera Cruz, Mexico, on March 6, 1860. During the engagement, two rebel Mexican ships were defeated helping to close the socalled Reform War. Crosby was at the Philadelphia navy yard when the Civil War erupted in April 1861. Aboard the Congress from April to August 1861, Crosby became ill. Just after New Year’s 1862, he became captain of the Unadilla-class vessel steam gunboat Pinola, which departed for the Gulf of Mexico and duty with the West Gulf Blockading Squadron (WGBS). Crosby’s gunboat, assisted by Itaska, broke the chain barrier across the Mississippi to make possible the late April WGBS passage upriver past Forts Jackson and St. Philip and the capture of New Orleans. Advanced to the rank of lieutenant commander on July 16, Crosby was subsequently with elements of the squadron at Vicksburg, where his gunboat was the first to be attacked by the CSS Arkansas as she passed the Federal fleet on the morning of July 15 and, having steamed down that night, among the vessels sent to attack the Confederate ram on July 22. At month’s end, his vessel joined the blockade off Mobile, AL. Promoted to commander on September 22, he was sent to the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron (NABS) and became commander of the ironclad Sangamon. This Passaic-class monitor was on patrol in the James River when, in January 1863, he was tapped to become NABS Flag Captain. From November to January 1864, he was captain of the side-wheel gunboat Florida off North Carolina, and in February 1864 he took over the side-wheel gunboat Keystone State, keeping her on the blockade off St. Simons Sound, GA, as well as the NC coast until October. Becoming captain of the WGBS side-wheel gunboat Metacomet, he was on the Texas blockade until early 1865 when she was summoned to Mobile Bay. There her captain took charge of torpedo removal in the channels of the bay and in the Blakely River, allowing WGBS units to move upstream in April.
Cushman From September 1865 to June 3, 1868, Crosby was captain of the South Atlantic Station (SAS) double-ender gunboat Shamokin off the coast of Brazil. Becoming a captain on May 27, he was ordnance officer at the Norfolk (1870) and Philadelphia (1870–1872) navy yards. He was captain of the North Atlantic Station (NAS) steam frigate Powhatan from February 1872 until August 1873 when he became executive officer of the Washington navy yard and in October 187r a commodore. Unemployed until October 1877, Crosby was commandant of the League Island, PA, navy yard from November until January 1882. A rear admiral beginning March 10, he was SAS commander from June until February 1883, wearing his flag in the steam sloop-of-war Brooklyn. In April 1883 he moved to the sloopof-war Richmond, where he was commander of the Asiatic Squadron until placed on the retired list by his own request on October 29. Crosby was married four times: Matilda Bowyer (1829–1853), Julia Wells (1838–1866), Miriam Gratz (1844–1878), Louise A. Audenreid (1848– 1918) and had three daughters and two sons. In March 1899 he became ill with what was called an acute form of diabetes. Failing to respond to treatment, he died at home in Washington, D.C., on June 15, 1899, and was buried at Arlington National Cemetery. One USN destroyer, DD164, was named in his honor. Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; Appletons’, II; Callahan; Cogar, I; DANFS; Hamersly, 3rd ed.; Stewart; Powell and Shippen; Ashmead, History of the Delaware County National Bank: With Biographical Notes; New York Times, June 16, 1899; Smith, CSS Arkansas; Douglas King, “Adm. Peirce Crosby,” FindaGrave, http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg. cgi?page=gr&GRid=35833817 (accessed July 1, 2016); Washington Post, June 16–17, 1899; New York Times, June 16, 18, 1899; Denver Evening Post, June 16, 1899.
Cushman, Charles Haddock (1832–1883) The son of Gustavus Grout and Mary Elizabeth Haddock Cushman was born at Dexter, ME, on December 6, 1832. He was appointed a USN midshipman on March 24, 1849, and was attached to the Pacific Squadron sloop-of-war Vandalia, making two trips to Hawaii in 1851. He was transferred to the Africa Squadron frigate Constitution off Liberia (1853–1854),
studied at the USNA, graduating second in his class in June 1855, and became a passed midshipman then a master on September 16. Becoming a lieutenant on February 8, 1856, he was seconded to the USCS for a year and served at a USNA instructor in 1857 and 1858. Ordered to the Brazil Squadron converted steam gunboat Western Port in late fall, he participated in the December-January 1859 Paraguay Expedition, a punitive mission sent to the waters of Asunción to obtain redress for an attack upon American interests. Cushman transferred to the Home Squadron gunboat Water Witch in 1860. In May 1861, following the onset of the Civil War, Cushman joined the Gulf Blockading Squadron screw gunboat Massachusetts off Pensacola, FL, remaining aboard until September when he transferred to the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron (SABS) Unadilla-class gunboat Pembina and served with her in the campaign that resulted in capture of Port Royal, SC, in November. Thereafter the Pembina patrolled off the coast of Georgia and northern Florida and, when the new Passaic-class monitor Montauk arrived at Port Royal on January 19, 1863, Cushman was transferred to her. On two occasions through February 1, the Montauk bombarded Fort McAllister, GA, and in an unusual feat, destroyed the blockade runner Rattlesnake in the Ogeechee River on February 28. On April 7, in company with other SABS, the Montauk launched a furious but unsuccessful attack on the fortifications in Charleston Harbor. From July 10 to its evacuation on September 6, Fort Wagner on Morris Island felt the wrath of the SABS ironclads, including Montauk. Thereafter, the defiant Charleston citadels were frequently struck and were reduced largely to rubble. On July 16 Cushman became a lieutenant commander and, in late winter 1863–1864, became executive officer of the double-turreted monitor Onondaga, which was assigned to the James River to support of the Federal army drive on Richmond. Less than a month later, he assumed command of the giant vessel, which attacked suspected Confederate positions near Trent’s Reach. Responding to Southern artillery from Howlett’s Farm on June 21, Cushman bombarded the enemy there and near Cox’s Landing. On picket duty in the James through the summer and into the fall, the Onondaga returned to
Cushman
Lt. Cmdr. Charles H. Cushman, USN, was elevated to the captaincy of the monitor Onondaga in April 86 and while in command in the James River supported Union army troops ashore and thrice engaged Confederate artillery at Howlett’s Farm, VA. This Brady photograph shows members of the crew going ashore (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
action against the Howlett Farm batteries on November 24 and December 5–6. Cushman became executive officer to the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron (NABS) screw frigate Wabash in time to participate in the unsuccessful December 24 attack on Fort Fisher, NC. The fleet, together with AUS elements, returned to that objective in January and, while leading the 1st Division of the Naval Landing Party in the successful combined arms assault of January 15, Cushman was wounded in his left thigh and his wartime service was over. Cushman became a commander on July 25, 1866, and captain of the double-ender gunboat Mahaska, which patrolled the Gulf of Mexico until relieved in 1867. At the New York navy yard until 1869, Cushman followed with a two-year tour at the Navy Department’s Bureau of Equip-
ment. From late 1871 to December 1874, he served was captain of the sloop-of-war Wachusett, cruising to the Mediterranean and along the East Coast of the United States. After commanding the Norfolk receiving ship, he undertook his last deployment, as commander of the Great Lakes gunboat Michigan. An ill Cushman retired at his own request to his Buffalo, NY, home in December 1876 and died of consumption caused by diabetes on November 11, 1883. He was buried in Forest Lawn Cemetery in Buffalo. No USN vessels have been named in his honor. Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; Hamersly, 3rd ed.; DANF; “Charles Haddock Cushman,” Cushmansite, http://cushmansite.com/Cush man_Gen_site/Descendants/fh01/fh01_072.htm (accessed April 8, 2015); Jay Boone, “Cdr. Charles H. Cushman,” FindaGrave, http://www.findagrave.com/
Davis cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=78172295 (accessed April 8, 2015); New York Times, November 12, 1883; Trudeau, “Life on an Ironclad (Onondaga)”; Browne, The First Cruise of the Montauk; T. J. Clemente, “The Story of the Ironclad USS Montauk in the Civil War,” Southampton (NY) Star Patcher, July 17, 2012; Neeser, “Historic Ships of the Navy: Montauk”; ORN, I, 10; ORN, I, 11; New York Times, November 12, 1883; Galveston Daily News, November 16, 1883; U.S. Congress, Senate, Committee on Pensions, Petition of Mrs. Nannie Cushman: Report.
Davis, John Lee (1825–1889, USN) One of seven children, Davis was born to Hoosier physician/politician John Wesley Davis (1799–1859) and his wife Ann Hoover Davis (1801–1859) at Carlisle, IN, on September 3, 1825. Appointed an acting midshipman on January 9, 1841, Davis joined the Mediterranean Squadron flagship, the sloop-of-war Fairfield, for a threeyear cruise, after which he served successively on the Home Squadron vessels Lexington, Potomac, and Porpoise. From October 1846 through August 1847, he studied at the USNA, became a passed midshipman on August 10, and was posted aboard the Home Squadron frigate Cum-
Appointed captain of the monitor Montauk in March 86, Lt. Cmdr. John Lee Davis, USN, participated in the battles at and blockade of Charleston, SC, until relieved in May 86. He retired a rear admiral in 88 (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
2 berland in September, toward the end of the Mexican War, remaining with her until February 1848. From March until February 1851, Davis was aboard successively the East Indies Squadron sloops-of-war Plymouth and Preble, and the brig Porpoise. As acting lieutenant aboard the latter, he commanded one of several boats from the ship that boarded and captured a piratical Chinese junk off Macao in November 1849. Seconded to the USCS until March 1842, he joined the Africa Squadron brig Perry and served until July 1854, when he returned to the USCS. He was promoted to master on September 14, 1855, and lieutenant a day later. On December 2 he married Frances Latta Robinson (1836–1920) at Carlisle, IN; the couple would have one daughter. In November 1857, the lieutenant was assigned to the Pacific Squadron sloop-of-war Vandalia. Putting into Oneo Island, one of the Pitcairn group, on August 3, 1859, the ship’s landing party discovered and rescued the survivors of the American clipper ship Wild Wave, which had wrecked on the outlying reef back in March. While cruising in the Fiji Islands, it was learned that two American citizens had been killed by natives at Waya, and on October 11 a 50-man punitive expedition from the ship went ashore at that location, engaging some 300 of the “cannibals” and burning their village. Davis was on leave or waiting orders from January 1860 until April 10, 1861, when he became executive officer of the Gulf Squadron side-wheel steam gunboat Water Witch. Until November, when he was detached, the lieutenant was part of her blockade and dispatch service based at Pensacola, FL. On October 12 the ship participated in the Battle of Head of Passes, during which the Federals were attacked by the Confederate gunboat Ivy and the ram Manassas. Davis’s ship engaged the former while the steam sloop-of-war Richmond battled the latter. Following a short tour as executive officer aboard the squadron storeship Potomac, on December 25 he took the same billet aboard the steam frigate Colorado, which lay outside the bars at the mouth of the Mississippi River until June 1862. Davis was promoted to the rank of lieutenant commander on July 16 and given command of the Unadilla-class South Atlantic Blockading Squadron (SAS) gunboat Wissahickon, which in October joined the blockade
of the South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida coasts, being particularly active through February 1863 in missions against Fort McAllister, GA. At the end of March, Davis became captain of the SABS Passaic-class monitor Montauk and on April 7, in company with other SABS ironclads, he participated in a furious but unsuccessful attack on the fortifications in Charleston Harbor. Davis’s monitor engaged the Charleston sentinels often during the remainder of the year, including furious shoots in August, September, and November. Detached in May 1864, he took over the repairing North Atlantic Blockading Squadron (NABS) gunboat Sassacus in July 1864, which, during November–January 1865, participated in preparations for and engagement during the campaign to capture Fort Fisher, near Wilmington, NC. In February 1865 Sassacus was transferred to the James River to assist in the final Union push towards Richmond. Davis was at the Philadelphia navy yard from May 1865 to August 1866, advanced to commander in July, on undisclosed special duty until July 1868, and at the Washington navy yard until July 1871, when he took command of the North Atlantic Station (NAS) screw sloop-of-war Wyoming until October 1872. After brief duty at the USNA duty and on the Light House Board until January 1877, becoming a captain on February 14, 1873, Davis was captain of the European Squadron flagship Trenton for a year. In 1878 he commanded the historic corvette Constellation, which transported exhibits to the Paris Exposition Universelle and relief stores to Ireland during the 1879 famine. Unemployed in 1880, he had board duty until December 19, 1883, becoming a commodore on February 4, 1882. Advanced to acting rear admiral, he returned to command of the Trenton at Hong Kong in May 1884, this time as commander of the Asiatic Squadron, and cruised the waters of the Orient for 28 months. His rank as a permanent rear admiral having been confirmed on October 30, 1885, he served as president of the Naval Retiring Board from December 1886 until he himself was placed on the retired list on September 3, 1887. After contracting pneumonia just after Christmas 1888, Davis died at home on March 12, 1889, and was buried at Rock Creek Cemetery, Washington, D.C. No USN ships have been named in his honor.
Dove Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; Appletons’, II; DANFS; Cogar; Hamersley, 3rd ed.; Neeser, “Historic Ships of the Navy: Montauk”; Jay Kelly, “RAdm. John Lee Davis,” FindaGrave, http://www. findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=38919 597 (accessed July 1, 2016); Washington Post, January 20, March 13, 15, 1899.
Donaldson, Oliver (?–1866, USN) A native of Iowa, NH, Donaldson moved to Wisconsin sometime late in the antebellum period and was recruited there for the U.S. Western Flotilla. Appointed ships carpenter for the new Pook turtle Carondelet on November 7, 1861, he spent the entire war on the ironclad, proudly participating in her early successes from Fort Henry in February 1862 to Memphis in June. Following his vessel’s pounding by the CSS Arkansas on the Yazoo River on July 15, Donaldson dived in to retrieve her colors, shot away by the Confederate ironclad. Advanced to acting ensign on October 1, he became the boat’s executive officer during February 1863, a post he would hold off and on during the remainder of the conflict. On June 16, 1865, Donaldson, the last man aboard from the Carondelet’s original crew, was named captain. His tenure lasted four days. He was honorably discharged on January 1, 1866, but, suffering the effects of a disease with which he was stricken during his time in the service, Donaldson died at Brookfield Bluffs, TX, on December 15. Sources: Callahan; Michael, “Iowa and the Navy During the War of the Rebellion”; Smith, USS Carondelet; Smith, Fight for the Yazoo; Smith, CSS Arkansas; Smith, Civil War Biographies from the Western Waters.
Dove, Benjamin M. (?–1868, USN) Born in Virginia just after the War of 1812, Dove became a USN midshipman on December 1, 1826, and a lieutenant in 1839. He enjoyed the dubious prewar record of having been twice court-martialed, being dismissed in 1841 only to be returned to duty by direct order of President John Tyler and then later being subjected to a court of inquiry. He was first lieutenant aboard the famous U.S. frigate Constitution in 1853 and was promoted to the rank of commander in September 1855.
Downes
In January 862, Cmdr. Benjamin M. Dove, USN, assumed command of the new Western Flotilla ironclad USS Louisville (depicted), remaining in charge of the fleet base at Cairo, IL, during the Fort Henry advance in February. Upon the formation of the Mississippi Squadron in October, he was relieved and rotated to shore duty. His vessel is depicted in this wash drawing by F. Muller, circa (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
In the months following the outbreak of the Civil War in April 1861, Dove commanded the Potomac Flotilla sloop Pocahontas and, frustrated in waterborne reconnaissance scouts, commended the balloons of Prof. Thaddeus Lowe to his superiors as a way to find Confederate batteries. That fall Dove was sent to St. Louis, MO, to command the receiving ship Maria Deming and in January 1862 assumed command of the new Pook ironclad USS Louisville. But during the advance by other units of the Western Flotilla against Fort Henry in February, he remained in command of the naval base at Cairo, IL. Sent to Dover, TN, to secure the surrender of Fort Donelson after the mid–February battle, Dove was prevented from doing so when he was outmaneuvered by AUS officers, enraging his superiors and colleagues. He was assigned to shore duty in October and from November 1863 to December 1864 commanded the naval station at Beaufort, NC. Although passed over for promotion and retired in October 1864, he became a captain—on the retired list—in April 1867. Dove was then permitted to serve as an inspector for the Seventh District of the U.S. Lighthouse Board and died at his post of yellow fever on November 19, 1868. Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; Calla-
han; DANFS; Smith, The Timberclads in the Civil War; Thomas G. Hilts, “Notes for Naval Aeronautics in the Civil War”; United States, Light House Board, Annual Report to the Secretary of the Treasury, 1883.
Downes, John Albert, Jr. (1822–1865, USN) The son of Com. John Downes (1784–1854) was born in Cambridge, MA, on August 25, 1822. After attending Boston’s Chauncy-Hall School, he was appointed a USN midshipman on September 4, 1837. Attached to the Mediterranean Squadron sloop-of-war Cyane, he deployed with her from mid–1838 through mid– May 1841. Downes attended the Philadelphia Naval School in 1842 and 1843, became a passed midshipman, and in 1844 joined the iron-hulled Great Lakes gunboat Michigan at her Erie, PA, base. Promoted to lieutenant on August 30, 1851, he was often on shore duty or unemployed during the last decade of the antebellum period. Late in 1860 he became executive officer of the Gulf Squadron storeship Supply off Pensacola, FL. With secession brewing, the vessel, without orders, took off the officers, men, and families stationed at the Pensacola navy yard and delivered them to New York on February 4, 1861. She then reinforced Fort Pickens with troops, who
Dozier
were put ashore on April 11/12, the night before the Civil War erupted. Following his Pensacola deployment, Downes served on the frigate St. Lawrence and joined the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron (SABS) in February 1862 off the coasts of South Carolina and Georgia as captain of the Unadilla-class gunboat Huron, leading his men on numerous penetrations ashore, beginning on March 15. Becoming a commander on July 16, Downes, from September to December, became captain of, and outfitted, the Passaic-class monitor Nahant. His first ironclad action occurred on March 3 when his craft joined two others in an eight-hour bombardment of Fort McAllister, GA. Moving back up the coast to Charleston, SC, the SABS ironclads unsuccessfully attacked the harbor fortifications of that city on April 7. During the shoot, Downes was hit in the foot. Nahant supported the monitor Weehawken in taking the
Confederate ironclad ram Atlanta at Warsaw Sound, GA, on June 20. Detached to leave and shore duty, Downes became captain of the converted North Atlantic Blockading Squadron (NABS) steam gunboat R.R. Cuyler on April 26, 1864. Posted to the waters off Wilmington, NC, he served as acting senior officer of the Federal blockade in that quarter. At the end of the year, the R.R. Cuyler participated in the NABS campaign to capture Fort Fisher and was engaged in the bombardment of the fortress on December 24–25 and January 15–16, 1865. The gunboat remained on the blockade until July 1865, when her captain became the senior USN officer at New Orleans. Hardly had he arrived at his new post than he contracted yellow fever and died on September 21, leaving a widow and six children. Downes was buried in Mount Auburn Cemetery. No USN ships have been named in his honor. Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; Appletons’, II; DANFS; Kristen Jones, “John A. Downes,” FindaGrave, http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg. cgi?page=gr&GRid=83501922 (April 3, 2016); Hunter, edited by Symonds, A Year on a Monitor and the Destruction of Fort Sumter; Cushing, Historical Sketch of Chauncy-Hall School; San Francisco Bulletin, October 24, 1865; New Orleans Times, October 31, 1865.
Dozier, William Gaillard, Sr. (1833–1908, CSN)
Cmdr. John A. Downes, Jr. , USN, placed the monitor Nahant into commission in February 86 and fought her during the April campaign against the fortifications in Charleston Harbor, SC. In June she joined the monitor Weehawken in securing the surrender of the Confederate ironclad Atlanta in Warsaw Sound, GA. Downes died of yellow fever at New Orleans in September 86 (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
Second oldest of the 13 children of Anthony White Dozier (1801–1870) and Mary Catherine Cuttino (1811–1873), William was born at Georgetown, SC, on May 5, 1833. He was appointed an acting USN midshipman on April 1, 1850, being assigned to the USNA, from which he graduated in 1856. After serving in sundry billets afloat and ashore, he became a lieutenant on July 19, 1859, and joined the sloop-of-war Richmond. Upon the secession of South Carolina, he resigned his Federal commission, on December 21, 1860, and joined the SC coast guard. His letter to the U.S. Navy Department was stamped one day before he married Mary Blake Atkinson (1835–1868) of Georgetown, VA; the couple would have three children. Becoming a CSN lieutenant on March 26, 1861, he took command of the gunboat Pamlico at New Orleans on September 2. Unhappy in his billet, his December transfer request was denied
Drayton
6
In January 86 st Lt. William G. Dozier, Sr., CSN, became acting commander of the Confederate ironclad Chicora at Charleston, SC. He was relieved in August after eight months of harbor defense work to become executive officer of the ocean raider Chickamauga. The Chicora is depicted in the center in this contemporary sketch (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
and in January 1862 he moved up to the Jackson, MS, naval station, from which he sent in a letter of resignation in March, which was also rejected. Instead, in May he was placed in charge of a Charleston, SC, naval station torpedo boat unit known as a “special boat expedition” and also, in June, the gunboat CSS Huntress, then being employed as a harbor transport. He was captain of the receiving ship Indian Chief from October to April 1863, when he was ordered to command of the gunboat Stono, which while under Federal pursuit ran aground near Fort Moultrie on June 5. Becoming a 1st lieutenant, Provisional Navy, in July, Dozier took temporary command of the steamer Juno before returning to the Indian Chief in August. On January 27, 1864, he became acting captain of the ironclad ram Chicora and, after returning the Indian Chief, led a naval battalion that was seconded to the James River in August. Thereafter he was posted to Wilmington, NC, where he became executive officer of the ocean raider Chickamauga. She cruised off the East Coast to Long Island and south to Bermuda before returning to port in November. During the Federal campaign against Fort Fisher, Dozier and a number of his crewmen helped serve the citadel’s guns during the attacks on December 24–25 and January 15, 1865. Later serving at Drewry’s Bluff, VA, he surrendered
in April 1865 and was paroled at Appomattox Court House. After the death of his wife in 1868, Dozier continued to live at Charleston with his children. On June 10, 1875, he married Louise Williams and then moved his new family to Rio Vista, CA, where he became a merchant and the postmaster before removing, as a bookkeeper, to Redding, CA, late in the century. He died at home on November 9, 1908, and was buried at Cypress Lawn Memorial Park in Colma, CA. Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; MacDowell, comp., Gaillard Genealogy: Descendants of Joachim Gaillard and Ester Paperel; CSN Register; Larry White, “William Gaillard Dozier,” FindaGrave, http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi/www.linked in. com/ in/ johnmacomber/ fg. cgi?page= gr&GRid= 70726728 (accessed July 1, 2016); Foenander.
Drayton, Percival (1812–1866, USN) Born in Charleston, SC, on August 25, 1812, Percival was the second of four children of U.S. congressman William Drayton (1776–1846) and his wife Anna Gadsden (1780–1814). Having received an excellent education with emphasis on language skills, he was appointed a USN midshipman on December 1, 1827, and was aboard
the Brazil Squadron frigate Hudson from September 1828 to August 1831. After studying at the Philadelphia naval school, he served aboard the Mediterranean Squadron flagship, the famous frigate Constitution, from March 1835 to July 1838, exercising his language skills during her frequent port calls. Becoming a lieutenant on February 28, 1838, he was captain of the West Indies Squadron schooner Enterprise on a twoyear cruise and served on the sloop-of-war Yorktown in 1843 and 1844 and then the East Indies Squadron flagship, the ship-of-the-line Columbus, which was recalled to the West Coast in March 1847 to participate in the Mexican War. When the Columbus departed the theater, Drayton was transferred to the razee Independence, then blockading the Pacific coast, and participated in the October capture of Guaymas, Mexico, as well as the occupation of Mazatlan in November. Following a voyage to Hawaii, he cruised the Mediterranean in 1849 and 1850 aboard the steam frigate Mississippi, before an 1851 USNO assignment. In 1852, Drayton was sent to Fort Monroe, VA, to assist Cmdr. David G. Farragut (1809–1870) with a year of ordnance experiments designed to test the strength of naval cannon. While so engaged the two men became close friends. While on New York navy yard ordnance duty, Drayton became a commander on September 14, 1855, later serving as a staff officer during the 1858–1859 Paraguay Expedition and as Philadelphia navy yard ordnance officer in 1860. When the Civil War erupted in April 1861, he resisted inquiries from Charleston friends (his family had relocated to Philadelphia in 1833) to “go South” and remained loyal. In late summer 1861 Drayton became captain of the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron (SABS) screw gunboat Pocahontas and participated in the October capture of Port Royal, SC, on November 7, an engagement during which Drayton’s brother Thomas (1809–1891), later a Confederate general, commanded the Southern artillery at Hilton Head. Once that prime base was secured, Pocahontas served on the coastal blockade of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, helping to tow the “Stone Fleet” to a point off Charleston, SC, where it was sunk in late January 1862. Promoted to captain on July 16, he took over the SABS sloop-of-war Pawnee, remaining on the SABS blockade of South Car-
Drayton
Capt. Percival Drayton, USN, commanded the monitor Passaic in the March 86 Federal attack on Fort McAllister, GA, and against the Charleston, SC, defenses in April, where she was badly damaged. Drayton later became West Gulf Blockading Squadron fleet captain under RAdm. David G. Farragut (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
olina until September, when he outfitted the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron (NABS) monitor Passaic, which was visited at the Washington navy yard by President Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) and his cabinet on December 6. On March 3, 1863, Drayton led three monitors in an assault on Fort McAllister, GA, designed to test their fighting abilities, and on April 7 the Passaic was badly damaged when she joined the other SABS ironclads in an intense, if unsuccessful, attack on the fortifications in Charleston Harbor. The battering Drayton’s ship took caused him to develop strong opinions concerning the limitations of the monitor type when fighting against well-defended fortifications. Detached at his own request, Drayton was chosen by RAdm. David G. Farragut, commander of the West Gulf Blockading Squadron (WGBS), in December to become his fleet captain, a position that also entailed the duties of commander, USS Hartford. While in command of that sloop-of-
Duble war, he participated in the August 5, 1864, Battle of Mobile Bay. When Farragut climbed into the Harford’s rigging to better observe the fight, it was Drayton who personally made certain his friend was properly secured. Drayton was relieved of his duties with the WGBS in December 1864 and was appointed chief of the Bureau of Detail and later the Ordnance Bureau. In April 1866 Drayton became chief of the Bureau of Navigation but became ill and died on August 4. He was buried in Laurel Hill Cemetery, Philadelphia, next to his father. A marble tablet was placed in his honor inside toward the back of Trinity Church, Manhattan, New York. Two 20th century USN destroyers were named in his honor: DD-23 and DD-366 Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; Appletons’, II; Callahan; ANB, VI; DANFS; Drayton, Naval Letters from Percival Drayton, 1861–1865: Printed From the Original Manuscripts; Drayton, edited by Halsey, “What Its Captain Thought of the Monitor Passaic: ‘I Rue the Day I Got into the Ironclad Business’”; Holden, “The First Cruise of the Monitor Passaic”; Heim, “Percival Drayton,” in Tucker, I; Miller, “The Monitor’s Lucky Sister (Passaic)”; Russ Dodge, “Percival Drayton,” FindaGrave, http://www.findagrave. com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=21785 (accessed July 12, 2016); Sarah Heim, Drayton Family Papers, Collection 1584: Calendar, The Historical Society of Pennsylvania, http://hsp.org/sites/default/files/legacy_ files/migrated/findingaid1584drayton.pdf (accessed July 12, 2016); U.S. Navy, Bureau of Ordnance and Hydrography, Experiments to Ascertain the Strength and Endurance of Navy Guns; New York Times, May 17, 1863, August 7, 1865, July 9, 1893; North American and United States Gazette, August 7, 1865; Daily National Intelligencer, August 11, 1865.
Duble, John A. (?–1901, USN) A well-known steamboat captain, Duble had commanded the steamer Nick Thomas for the Cincinnati-New Orleans Express Line beginning in 1858 and resided on Sycamore Street in Cincinnati when the Civil War erupted. By late May 1861 the riverman was assisting Daniel Morton and Cmdr. John Rodgers (1812–1882) with their project to convert three commercial steamers into Civil War gunboats, serving as construction superintendent and acting captain of the Conestoga. Named her first master (at a salary of $100 per month), Duble helped guide her to the advanced naval base at Cairo, IL, arriving in early August and remaining aboard the
8 timberclad to participate in her reconnaissance missions up the Tennessee River toward the new Fort Henry. After that citadel was captured in early February 1862, the Western Flotilla timberclads raided up the Tennessee, seeking to capture or destroy escaping Southern steamboats. During this voyage, the vessels occasionally halted to reconnoiter and destroy easily accessible supplies onshore above Pittsburg Landing. From March to early June, the Conestoga participated in the Mississippi River campaign from Island No. 10 down to Memphis. During the White River expedition of June to St. Charles, LA, Duble became acting commander of the badly damaged ironclad Mound City and guided the stricken steamer back to Memphis for repair. At this point, Duble left the gunboat service to resume his civilian career as a steamboat captain. In September, he honored a department to lead the USQM riverboat defense service then being organized at Cincinnati in anticipation of a Confederate assault on the Queen City at the time of the Perryville campaign. The former gunboatman, from the steamer Emma Duncan, commanded 16 steamers, all armed with field pieces as ersatz warships. Also, during the first week of September, Lt. Cmdr. Oscar C. Badger (1823–1899) requested that Duble assist him in identifying officers and recruiting a pickup crew for the ironclad Indianola, then under construction. Though none of his flotilla ever saw any action, they did serve as convoy escorts when Federal troops were sent from Cincinnati to Louisville later in the month. Duble received an official letter of thanks from the Ohio Department commander on December 24. Duble continued in his command of commercial steamboats during and after the war, later recalling that he had captained some of the largest vessels on the Mississippi, including the Ruth, Mollie Able, W.R. Arthur, Constitution, and City of Memphis. When, in the company of President Andrew Johnson, Ulysses S. Grant visited west in 1866, the Ruth was chosen by the city of St. Louis to convey the VIP party to the Gateway city from Alton, IL. Duble, a resident of New Orleans after 1870, travelled to Washington, D.C., to testify before the Commerce Committee of the U.S. Senate in 1882 looking at waterway improvements.
Dunnington
A veteran riverboatman and gunboat officer, Acting Master John A. Duble, USN, found himself in command of the ironclad Mound City when she was badly damaged by Confederate gunfire at St. Charles, AR, in June 862, as depicted in this Harper’s Weekly sketch by Alexander Simplot. After guiding his stricken vessel back to Memphis for repair, he left the Western Flotilla but later commanded an ersatz gunboat flotilla during the Confederate demonstration against Cincinnati, OH, in September (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command). Sources: Smith, Civil War Biographies from the Western Waters; Smith, The Timberclads in the Civil War; Smith; Smith, Joseph Brown and His Civil War Ironclads; OR, I, 16; OR, I, 52; Cincinnati Daily Commercial, February 18, 1862; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, October 17, 1912; U.S. Congress, Senate, Committee on Commerce, Subcommittee on Levees and Improvements of the Mississippi River, Report; “The Kissance Romance: Capt. John A. Duble, an Old Ohio River Man, Tells His Story,” Columbus Daily Enquirer (April 12, 1887).
Dunnington, John William (1833–1882, CSN/ACS) Born in Christian County, KY, on May 18, 1833, Dunnington was the son of Francis (1798– 1835) and Elizabeth Cobey (1799–1848) Dunnington. He was appointed an acting USN midshipman on April 10, 1849, and was briefly assigned to the USNA before his transfer to the Pacific Squadron flagship, the frigate St. Lawrence. A June 1855 USNA graduate, he was simultaneously promoted to passed midshipman; that September, he became master and the following October lieutenant. Dunnington served
in a number of billets afloat and ashore during the remainder of the antebellum period, including service aboard the USS Mohican, which captured the notorious slave ship Erie off the Congo River on August 8, 1860, carrying 897 Africans. Following the attack upon Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861, Dunnington resigned from the USN on April 25 and became a CSN lieutenant on May 2. At New Orleans in August, he assumed command of the side-wheel gunboat CSS Tuscarora, which saw service on the Mississippi River until accidentally lost by fire on November 23. Afterwards, attached to the CSS McRae on the New Orleans station, in March 1862 Dunnington became captain of the converted gunboat CSS Pontchartrain, which formed a part of the Confederate fleet sent upstream to join the battle for New Madrid, MO, and Island No. 10. After New Madrid was evacuated on April 7, Pontchartrain steamed up the Arkansas River to Little Rock after assisting with the evacuation of Fort Randolph, TN. Two of her 32-pounders were sent to St. Charles in June and employed to resist the Federal White River Expedition on June 17, during which the USS Mound City was
Erben badly damaged. That fall, many of the Pontchartrain’s other cannon and the vessel’s gunners were sent to arm Fort Hindman at Arkansas Post, with Dunnington appointed a provisional army colonel with orders to cooperate in the defense of the post. Captured when Fort Hindman fell to the Union on January 12, 1863, he was sent to the POW facility at Camp Johnson until exchanged on May 5. It has been reported that after his release he undertook a confidential mission to Canada, Nassau, and France on behalf of the Confederate government attempting to obtain military supplies. Appointed a CSN 1st lieutenant on January 6, 1864, Dunnington operated the blockade runner Owl before he was given command of the ironclad Virginia II on the James River. Her most significant combat occurred on January 23–25, 1865, when she joined three other Southern ironclads in the Bat-
8 tle of Trent’s Reach, an unsuccessful effort to attack the Union base at City Point, VA. In April 1865 Dunnington was attached as a colonel to the James River Naval Brigade of Adm. Rafael Semmes (1809–1877) and surrendered at Greensboro, NC, on April 26. Following his parole, Dunnington moved to Columbia, TN, to farm. There he married Susan Gray Booker on June 8, 1869; the couple had no children. He died at home on March 10, 1882, and was buried in Columbia’s Rose Hill Cemetery. Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; Smith, Civil War Biographies from the Western Waters; CSN Register; JCC, IV; Coski, Capital Navy; Callahan; “Capt. John W. Dunnington,” Confederate Veteran 4; Spear, Sketches of Prominent Tennesseans; Smith, Le Roy Fitch; Smith, The Timberclads in the Civil War; CSS Pontchartrain; Colin Edward Woodward, “John W. Dunnington (1833–1882),” Encyclopedia of Arkansas http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclo pe dia/ entr y- detail. aspx?entr yID= 8555&type= Race+&item=White&parent=&grandparent= (accessed July 12, 2016).
Erben, Henry “Bully,” Jr. (1832–1909, USN)
Following numerous adventures on the Western waters, including engagements on the White River in June 862 and at Arkansas Post in January 86, st Lt. John W. Dunnington, CSN, assumed command of the Confederate ironclad Virginia II on the James River, VA, in late 86. Her most significant combat occurred during January 2-2, 86, when she joined in the Battle of Trent’s Reach, an unsuccessful effort to attack the Union base at City Point, VA (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
Son of Henry Erben, Sr., Erben Jr., nicknamed “Bully” for a lifelong abrupt manner, was born at NYC on September 6, 1832. He was appointed a USN midshipman on June 17, 1848, and between August and 1851 was aboard the new frigate St. Lawrence, in European waters and thereafter with the Pacific Squadron until late 1853, when ordered to the USNA. He was dismissed in October for misconduct and was seconded to the USCS schooner Crawford for a year. Allowed to return to Annapolis, he graduated in June 1855 as a passed midshipman, being advanced to the rank of master on September 16. During 1856 and 1857, Erben served aboard the storeship Supply as she participated in the AUS experiment to introduce Egyptian camels into Texas. Having become a lieutenant on December 27, 1856, he joined the paddlewheel East Indies Squadron frigate Mississippi at New York in July 1857, serving in the Orient until late 1859. Upon his return to the East Coast, Erben was transferred once more to the storeship Supply. From March to September 1861, Erben was
8 aboard the storeship Release, which provided supplies for the Gulf and Atlantic blockading squadrons, and in October he was detailed to the Gulf Blockading Squadron screw gunboat Huntsville, which fought a running gun duel with the blockade runner Florida (not to be confused with the ocean raider of the same name) off Mobile Bay, AL, on December 24. Following the hour-long combat, the Southern ship put back into Mobile. In April 1862 Erben assumed command of the Pook turtle St. Louis (later Baron de Kalb) during the bombardment of Fort Pillow, TN, and following the Battle of Memphis in June he took over the captured Confederate gunboat Sumter. In early July Erben’s vessel, with other units of the Upper Mississippi fleet, hove to above Vicksburg and on July 15 participated with units of the West Gulf Blockading Squadron (WGBS) anchored nearby in passing below Vicksburg, in the process attacking the Confederate ironclad Arkansas. Once below, she could not return; next day Erben became lieutenant commander and on July 22 participated in another unsuccessful attack on the Rebel ram. He participated in the Battle of Baton Rouge and was present on August 6 when the Arkansas was scuttled. Posted to the East, Erben, in September, reportedly commanded a naval howitzer battery at Indian River, MD, during the Battle of Antietam. In October he became executive officer of the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron (SABS) Passaic-class monitor Patapsco and, with two other monitors, participated in the March 3, 1863, bombardment of Fort McAllister, GA, followed by the unsuccessful April 7 assault on Fort Sumter. Afterwards detached and awaiting orders, Erben married Caroline Augusta Vulte (1840-?) at New York on July 23; the couple would have two children. He served on the steam frigate Niagara from November to May 1864, hunting Confederate ocean raiders off the Atlantic coast. In June, Erben became captain of the new Casco-class monitor Tunix. However, due to severe leaking she was unable to commence her maiden voyage on September 21 and was decommissioned at month’s end. Erben commanded the WGBS Unadilla-class gunboat Pinola on the Gulf blockade from October until July 1865, when he was transferred to the New York navy yard. Erben sailed on the South Atlantic Station
Erben
Although executive officer of the monitor Patapsco during the intense April 86 assault on the defenses of Charleston, SC, the only attempt by Lt. Cmdr. Henry Erben, USN, to command an ironclad failed in September when his newly commissioned Tunix was unable to enter service due to severe leaking. A postwar founding father of the New York Nautical School (now the SUNY Maritime College), he commanded, as a rear admiral, the U.S. Patrol Fleet, comprising eight upgraded Civil War monitors based in East Coast ports, during the 88 Spanish American War (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
(SAS), commanding consecutively the Huron (1867–1868) and Kansas (1868–1869) until December 1869 and becoming a commander on May 6, 1868. After serving on ordnance, navigation, and recruiting duty at New York until September 1874, he took over the North Pacific Station (NPS) screw sloop-of-war Tuscarora, continuing previously begun hydrographic surveys until August 1875. After three years at the Portsmouth navy yard, he became captain of the nautical schoolship St. Mary’s, the former sailing sloop-of-war transferred in 1875 to the New York Nautical School (now the SUNY Maritime College) until December 1882, becoming a captain on November 1, 1879. Captain of the sloop-
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of-war Pensacola until May 4, 1884, he was Portsmouth navy yard captain-of-the-yard until September 1886 and then served on several boards until March 1891, when he became governor of the Philadelphia Naval Home. During his two-year tour as commander of the New York navy yard (May 1891–May 1893), Erben was promoted to commodore, on April 3, 1892. His last regular service was at sea as commander of the European Squadron from June 1893 to August 1894, wearing his flag in the Chicago (CA-14). Elevated to rear admiral on July 31, 1894, he was placed on the retired list on September 6. During the Spanish-American War of 1898, Erben was called back into service to command the U.S. Patrol Fleet, charged with guarding the country’s coastline from Bar Harbor, ME, to Galveston, TX, from April to July. From a base at New York, he commanded eight upgraded Civil War monitors based in East Coast ports. Erben died at home in New York City on October 23, 1909, and was buried in Philadelphia’s Laurel Hill Cemetery. One USN destroyer (DD631) was later named in his honor.
ing Squadron (SABS) off South Carolina in April 1862, the Shepherd Knapp returned to the West Indies Squadron in January 1863, once more on anti-commerce raider patrol, but she was wrecked on a coral reef off Haiti on May 23 and lost. In August, Eytinge was posted to the Mississippi Squadron and placed in command of the ironclad Chillicothe, then under repairs at Cairo, IL, after being damaged during the Yazoo Pass Expedition in March and April. Although ordered to the mouth of the Red River to become station vessel of the fleet’s Third District, low water forced the Chillicothe to ground twice before she could reach Memphis in mid– September. Still, by October 26 she had reached her position off Ellis Cliffs. There Eytinge was ordered to turn his craft over to her executive officer and return north. Eytinge, having grounded two vessels, was dismissed from the service and his appointment was revoked on December 1, 1863.
Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; Hammersly, 3rd. ed.; Cogar, I; DANFS; Smith, Civil War Biographies from the Western Waters; Smith, Le Roy Fitch; Smith, CSS Arkansas; Saratoga, pseud., “Adm. Henry Erben,” FindaGrave, http://www.findagrave. com/ cgi- bin/ fg. cgi?page= gr&GSsr= 2001&GSvcid= 266131&GRid=86495796& (accessed October 3, 2011); Elicott, “With Erben and Mahan on the Chicago”; Thompson, “The U.S. Monitor Patapsco”; New York Tribune, August 19, 1886, April 28, 1889, September 7, 1894, October 24, 1909; New York Times, October 25– 26, 1909; London Times, October 25, 1909.
Fairfax, Donald MacNeill
Eytinge, Henry St. Clair (In USN Service, 1861–1863) Eytinge, about whom we know little, was apparently a former merchant seaman approved for duty by the New York Naval Examining Board. Not without his critics for his sometime work as a theater stage manager, he became a USN acting volunteer lieutenant on August 26, 1861, and in November sailed in command of the four-gun, ship-rigged sailing vessel Shepherd Knapp to the West Indies to seek out and destroy the CSS Sumter, commanded by Rafael Semmes (1809–1877). Joining the South Atlantic Blockad-
Sources: Callahan, p. 187; Smith, Civil War Biographies from the Western Waters; DANFS; ORN, I, 2; ORN, I, 25; Gerelman, “Acting Masters of Disaster.”
(1821–1894, USN) The only member of his well-known family to remain loyal to the Union during the Civil War, Fairfax was born to George William and Isabella MacNeill Fairfax at Mt. Eagle, VA, on March 10, 1821. Appointed a USN midshipman on August 12, 1837, he joined the East Indies Squadron frigate John Adams, which made a two-year world cruise that included 1839 attacks on Sumatra pirate bases. After a year’s deployment aboard the Mediterranean Squadron sloops-of-war Fairfield and Brandywine, he graduated from the Philadelphia naval school in July 1843, became a passed midshipman, and was sent to the new Mediterranean Squadron paddle-wheel frigate Missouri. After she was lost to fire at Gibraltar on August 27, he was reassigned to the USNO and on February 28, 1844, was aboard the corvette Princeton when it suffered a noteworthy ordnance failure that killed several VIPs. Seconded to the USCS in June, Fairfax transferred to the Pacific Squadron in April 1845 and during the next several two years made a second circumnavigation, touching at
8 many of the ports visited during 1838–1840, adding Japan. During the 1846–1847 Mexican War, Fairfax participated in the capture of Mazatlan and Lower California. After duty at the New York naval rendezvous (recruiting station) from October 1848 to April 1850, he served on the Brazil Squadron frigate Congress during her three-year cruise off the east coast of South America, during which time he became a master (August 4, 1850) and a lieutenant (February 26, 1851). Unemployed from February 1854 to January 1855, he married Virginia Cary Ragland (1822–1878) in Prince George’s County, MD, on June 5, 1854. Deployed aboard the Home Squadron flagships Potomac (1855–1856) and Wabash (1856–February 1858), Fairfax, while off Greytown, Nicaragua, in 1858, personally went ashore and obtained the surrender of American filibusterer William Walker. Following brief New York navy yard ordnance duty, he joined the Africa Squadron as an executive officer, first on the corvette Constellation and then the screw frigate San Jacinto.
In January 86, Lt. Cmdr. Donald M. Fairfax, USN, became captain of the monitor Nantucket and commanded her though April, participating in the attacks on the defenses of Charleston. His work against the South Carolina fortifications continued after May when he commanded the monitor Montauk. Detached to the U.S. Naval Academy in August, he retired as a rear admiral in 88 (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
Fairfax Fairfax remained on the San Jacinto when Capt. Charles Wilkes (1798–1877) assumed command in August 1861. While on West Indies antiraider patrol on November 8 San Jacinto halted the British mail packet Trent, en route to England with two Confederate diplomats, and Fairfax led the boarding party sent over to remove the pair. The incident nearly brought war between the U.S. and the UK, but Fairfax was not found culpable for this performance of duty, executed in accordance with written orders. In May 1862 he assumed command of the West Gulf Blockading Squadron (WGBS) Unadillaclass gunboat Cayuga, which was active on the Gulf Coast blockade and in the Lower Mississippi River, where she participated in the August 8 bombardment of Donaldsonville, LA, half a month after her captain became a lieutenant commander. Detached in December, Fairfax became captain of the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron (SABS) Passaic-class monitor Nantucket, which participated in the unsuccessful April 7, 1863, ironclad attack on the harbor fortifications of Charleston, SC. Afterwards, he took over was the monitor Montauk, which joined in the continued SABS assault on the Charleston defenses, including gunfire support for AUS operations on Morris Island on July 16– 18 and 24. Detached in August, Fairfax was USNA commandant of midshipmen until December 1865, commanding the practice squadron during the summers of 1864 and 1865. Advanced to captain on July 25, 1866, Fairfax commanded the North Atlantic Station (NAS) flagships Rhode Island and Susquehanna until April 1868. On ordnance duty in New England until the fall of 1874, he became commodore on August 24, 1873, and was commander of the New London, CT, naval station from that December through October 1878. Upon the death of his wife Virginia during the latter year, he married Josephine Foote (1837–1918), daughter of RAdm. Andrew Hull Foote (1806–1863); the couple had one daughter. He became governor of the Philadelphia Naval Asylum in October 1879, was advanced to rear admiral on July 11, 1880, and was placed on the retired list on September 30, 1881. Fairfax retired to his Hagerstown, MD, home, where he died from pneumonia on January 10, 1894, and was buried at Rose Hill Cemetery,
Febiger Hagerstown. One USN destroyer, DD-93, was named in his honor. Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; Cogar; Hammersly, 3rd ed.; DANFS; The National Cyclopedia of American Biography, IV; Murrell, Cruise of the Frigate Columbia Around the World Under the Command of Commodore George C. Read; Fairfax, “ Captain Wilkes’ Seizure of Mason and Slidell,” B&L, II; Neeser, “Historic Ships of the Navy: Montauk”; U.S. Congress, House, Committee on Invalid Pensions, Josephine Foote Fairfax: Report; B.J. Shields, “Josephine Foote Fairfax,” FindaGrave, http://www.finda grave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=106256416 (accessed August 1, 2016); Saratoga, pseud., “Adm. Donald MacNeil Fairfax,” FindaGrave, http://www. findagrave. com/ cgi- bin/ fg. cgi?page= gr&GRid= 82374838 (accessed August 1, 2016); New York Times, January 11, 1894; Washington Post, January 11, 1894.
8 hanna northwest of Madagascar. Attached to the USCS from 1852 to 1857 and advanced to lieutenant on April 30, 1853, Febiger joined the East Indies Squadron sloop-of-war Germantown for an 1858–1860 Oriental cruise, including visits to ports in China and Japan. Once more seconded to the USCS, in May 1861 following the outbreak of the Civil War, he was ordered aboard the Atlantic Blockading Squadron frigate Savannah, which blockaded off the Georgia coast until November. Febiger’s first command was the Unadillaclass gunboat Kanawha, which joined the West Gulf Blockading Squadron (WGBS), taking
Febiger, John Carson (1821–1898, USN) The son of Christian Febiger Carson (1787– 1829) was born at Pittsburgh, PA, on February 14, 1821, his father having been adopted by Revolutionary War hero Col. Christian Febiger (1749–1796). John Febiger was appointed a USN midshipman on September 14, 1838. After a twoyear initial tour aboard the West Indies Squadron frigate Macedonian, he joined the Brazil Squadron Concord and was aboard when she was wrecked on a sandbar at the mouth of the Ligonha River in Mozambique on November 2, 1842. Becoming a passed midshipman on May 20, 1844, he served on two-year deployments with the frigate Potomac of the Home Squadron (1844–1845) and the sloop-of-war Dale of the Pacific Squadron (1846–1847). Febiger participated in the Mexican War off the coast of California and Baja California, including the occupation of the towns of Guaymas and Mulege and in 1848 transferred aboard the ship-of-the-line Columbus at Norfolk, VA. After marrying Anna “Annie” Catherine Ryan (1824–1881) on May 3, 1849 (the couple would have two children), he returned to the Dale in August 1850. In October, while assigned to antislavery patrol off the west coast of Africa, Columbus rescued the survivors of the Africa Squadron sloop-of-war Yorktown, wrecked on Maio Island in the Cape Verde Islands, and took them to Porto Praya before assuming her duty station and, in August 1851, shelling the Comoro Islands kingdom of Jo-
Cmdr. John C. Febiger, USN, joined the Mississippi Squadron in April 86 as commander of the paddle-wheel monitor Neosho. Assigned to command the squadron’s 2nd Division below Port Hudson, LA, following the capture of Vicksburg, he protected Union shipping on the Mississippi from Confederate flying batteries and also briefly captained the ironclad Osage in August. In October and November 86 he served as captain of the former Confederate ocean ironclad Stonewall during her transfer from Havana, Cuba, to Washington, D.C. (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
Fillebrown
8 station off Mobile, AL, in February 1862. On April 10, the ship captured four Confederate schooners in one day, taking two more before the month was finished. Commissioned a commander on August 11, Febiger was detached in February 1863 and in April was detailed to the Mississippi Squadron, where he assumed command, and completed the outfitting, of the paddle-wheel monitor Neosho, which arrived off Vicksburg, MS, on August 6, a month after its surrender. Assigned to command the squadron’s 2nd Division below Port Hudson, LA, Febiger protected Union shipping on the Mississippi from Confederate flying batteries and also briefly captained the ironclad Osage in August. Detached in early September, he became captain, and completed the outfitting, of the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron (NABS) double-ender gunboat Mattabesett, which participated with others in the May 5, 1864, engagement with the CSS Albemarle in Albemarle Sound, NC. Febiger’s vessel remained in North Carolina waters until May 1865. That October, Febiger was sent to Havana, Cuba, to take command of the former Confederate ironclad Stonewall, sailing her to the Washington Navy Yard in November. Febiger placed the double-ender gunboat Ashelout into commission on April 4, 1866, becoming a captain on May 6, five days before she embarked navy Assistant Secretary Gustavus Vasa Fox (1821–1883) at Boston for a voyage to Halifax, NS. There the official went aboard the double-turreted monitor Miantonomoh, which Ashelout escorted to Queensland, Ireland, before detaching and continuing on to the Asiatic Squadron. Transferred to command of the screw sloop-of-war Shenandoah on February 22, 1868, Febiger was detached in April 1869, became inspector of Naval Reserve Lands, and in late fall 1872 became captain of the South Atlantic Station screw sloop-of-war Omaha for a twoyear cruise. Commissioned a commodore on August 9, 1874, he had board duty until October 1876, when he became commandant of the local navy yard until 1880. Again on board duty, he became a rear admiral on February 4, 1882. Following the death of his first wife, he married Ellen T. Roche (1834–1889) on June 2, happily going ashore for the last time of his own volition and being placed on the retired list on July 1.
Having moved from Washington, D.C., to an estate in Londonderry, MD, he suffered a stroke on October 1, 1898, while in a carriage en route to nearby Easton. He died at home eight days later and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery on October 11. No USN ships have been named in his honor. Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; Appletons’, II; Cogar; Callahan; Hamersley, 3rd ed.; Herringshaw; Hartford Courant, October 11, 1898; ORN, I, 25: 143, 185; SLGMSD, pseud., “Adm. John Carson Febriger,” FindaGrave, http://www.findagrave.com/ cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSsr=2041&GSvcid=266131 &GRid=42172965& (accessed October 17, 2012); “John Carson Febiger, Rear Admiral, U.S. Navy,” Arlington National Cemetery, http://www.arlingtoncemetery. net/jcfebiger.htm (accessed August 13, 2016); Baltimore Sun, February 16, 1897; October 4, 1898; New York Tribune, October 11, 1898; Washington Post, October 11, 1898; Boston Daily Globe, October 11, 1898; Chicago Daily Tribune, October 11, 1898.
Fillebrown, Thomas Scott, Jr. (1824–1884, USN) The son of Thomas Fillebrown, chief clerk of the USN Bureau of Provisions and Clothing, and his wife Mary Sumner Fillebrown, Thomas, Jr., was born at Georgetown, Washington, District of Columbia, on August 13, 1824. Appointed an acting midshipman on October 19, 1841, He joined the Mediterranean Squadron frigate Congress for a two-year European cruise, then spent time with the ship until March 14, 1845—the day he was warranted midshipman—off the east coast of South America as part of the Brazil Squadron. On May 22 he joined the Home Squadron paddle-wheel frigate Mississippi as aide to Com. Matthew C. Perry (1794–1858) and during the Mexican War was present at numerous actions, including the Vera Cruz landings and the captures of Tuxpan and Tabasco, before transfer to the sloop-of-war Germantown and the steamship Fredonia. Fillebrown studied at the USNA from November 13, 1847, until his July 27, 1848, graduation and posting to the Mediterranean Squadron frigate St. Lawrence, aboard which he became a passed midshipman on August 10 and participated in her 28-month cruise. Assigned to the USNO in November 1850, he became an acting master on December 18, 1852, and joined the sloop-of-war Vincennes, which soon thereafter participated in the
Fillebrown North Pacific and Bering Sea Exploring Expedition. Detached on July 14, 1856, Fillebrown returned to the USNO, where he was promoted to the ranks of master and lieutenant on October 23 and October 25 respectively. On November 5, he married Mary Eliza Potts (1826–1887); the couple would have two children. On January 11, 1858, Fillebrown joined the storeship Release, which took supplies to the squadrons operating in the Mediterranean, off the west coast of Africa, and as part of the Paraguay Expedition. He was given his first command on June 22, 1859: the tugboat Anacostia, stationed at the Washington Navy Yard. In response to potential mob violence surrounding the inauguration of President Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) in March 1861, Fillebrown’s craft, now armed and her crew augmented by the addition of 20 U.S. Marines, was given responsibility for the defense of the lower part of the yard. Following the attack on Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861, the Anacostia patrolled the Potomac River. On May 20 Fillebrown was transferred aboard the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron (NABS) screw frigate Roanoke, sent to blockade the coast of North Carolina. Although present, the Roanoke did not participate in the defense of Hampton Roads, VA, when it was attacked by the CSS Virginia on March 8, 1862. Given shore duty at the New York navy yard at month’s end, Fillebrown was promoted to the rank of lieutenant commander on July 16. On November 13, 1863, he became captain and completed outfitting of the paddle-wheel gunboat Chenango. While exiting New York Harbor to the open sea on April 15 to join the blockade, the vessel’s port boiler exploded, killing 34 men and setting the ship ablaze. After she was towed back to New York for repair, Fillebrown took over the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron (SABS) Passaic-class monitor Passaic on the blockade off Charleston, undertaking uneventful routine work that included periodic bombardments of Fort Sumter. In July, he assumed temporary command of the monitor Montauk, which shot it out with Battery Pringle on the Stone River, SC, as well as the fall command of the monitor Sangamon. In December he transferred to the double-ender gunboat Sonoma and on February 5, 1865, joined with two other Union vessels in battling a Confederate battery
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During 1864 Lt. Cmdr. Thomas S. Fillebrown, Jr., USN, was captain of three monitors off the coast of South Carolina: the Passaic from April to July; the Montauk in August; and the Sangamon in the fall. Promoted to commodore in 1883, he died of a heart attack a year later (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
on Togodo Creek, near South Carolina’s North Edisto River. Fillebrown was at the USNO from June 22, 1865, until July 25, 1866, when he became a commander and was put in charge of the Hydrographic Office. He cruised off Florida and Cuba as captain of the North Atlantic Squadron (NAS) screw sloop-of-war Narragansett, from December 19, 1868, until spring 1869 when yellow fever broke out aboard and she was sent into quarantine. From September 8, 1870, to September 5, 1872, Fillebrown was acting head of the Bureau of Equipment, thereafter spending a year in Europe as captain of the Mediterranean Squadron screw sloop-of-war Wachusett. Elevated to captain on January 1, 1874, he was executive officer of the Norfolk navy yard from April 28 until March 1, 1876, after which, for three months, he commanded the steam frigate Powhatan on a Cuban cruise before returning to his previous Norfolk assignment. He took another cruise to Cuba aboard the Powhatan between Septem-
Fitzpatrick
87 ber 10, 1879, and January 5, 1880, when he was ordered to the Navy Department to assist with assembling and compiling the records necessary to produce The Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion. Becoming a commodore on May 11, 1883, Fillebrown quit board duty in March 1884 to become commandant of the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Having suffered from heart disease for some time, he suffered two heart attacks on September 26/27 and died at his navy yard residence. His body was transported on September 29 by steamer to Georgetown, where he was buried in Oak Hill Cemetery. No USN ships have been named in his honor. Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; Appletons’, II; Hammersly, 3rd ed.; Charles Jerry Fillebrown, “Commodore Thomas Scott Fillebrown, Jr.,” Fillebrown, http://www.fillebrown.com/d1/i0000864.htm (accessed August 5, 2016); Fillebrown, Genealogy of the Fillebrown Family, with Biographical Sketches; SLGMSD, pseud., “Com. Thomas Scott Fillebrown,” FindaGrave, http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg. cgi?page= gr&GRid=37259880 (accessed August 5, 2016); Miller, “The Monitor’s Lucky Sister (Passaic)”; Robert W. Neeser, “Historic Ships of the Navy: Montauk”; DANFS; New York Times, September 28, 30, 1884; Boston Daily Advertiser, September 29, 1884; Washington Post, September 30, 1884.
Fitzpatrick, James W. (1832–1893, USN) Born in Nova Scotia in 1832, merchant mariner Fitzpatrick was, as of February 1862, the third master of the U.S. timberclad Lexington. In June 1862 following the Battle of Memphis, he was made acting captain of the supply steamer Clara Dolson. Elevated to the rank of acting master, he became the executive officer of the Lexington in April 1863, during which month he led the shore party that burned the Cumberland River community of Palmyra in retaliation for a particularly grievous attack by Rebels on Union shipping. Following a short tour aboard the Mississippi Squadron flagboat Black Hawk, he became acting captain of the new Milwaukee-class monitor Chickasaw at Mound City, where he helped to finish her outfitting and placed her into commission on May 14, 1864. Ordered to test her by patrolling the Mississippi River, Fitzpatrick steadily moved her farther downstream while guarding river steamers from attack by Confederate “flying artillery.” Upon her arrival at New Orleans on July 9, the monitor was turned over to the West Gulf Blockading Squadron (WGBS) and Fitzpatrick was detached. Going on to command the light draughts Signal (Tinclad No. 8), and Siren (Tinclad No. 56), Fitzpatrick, valued by his
Ordered to Mound City, IL, in fall 1863, Acting Master James W. Fitzpatrick, USN, helped to finish the Milwaukee-class monitor Chickasaw (depicted) and became her acting captain. Ordered to New Orleans in May 1864, the monitor-depicted in this half-tone drawing-was broken in by guarding river steamers from attack by Confederate “flying artillery.” Upon her arrival, Fitzpatrick was detached and became captain of a tinclad (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
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superiors as a “hard worker,” was honorably discharged on December 30, 1865. Nothing further is known of his life or civilian career thereafter, save that he died at Pomeroy, OH, in 1893. No USN vessels have been named in his honor. Sources: Callahan; DANFS; John Fitzpatrick, “Re: James Fitzpatrick, Civil War Officer” Fitzpatrick Family Genealogy Forum, http://genforum.genealogy. com/fitzpatrick/messages/1254.html (accessed December 3, 2011); Smith, Civil War Biographies from the Western Waters; Smith, Le Roy Fitch; ORN, I, 27; Smith, The Timberclads in the Civil War; Smith, Tinclads in the Civil War.
Foster, James Peter (1827–1869, USN) Foster, born in Bullitt County, KY, on June 8, 1827, was appointed a USN Midshipman in May 1846, and was aboard the ship-of-the-line Ohio during the Mexican War, participating in the 1847 Vera Cruz and Tuxpan River expeditions before transferring to the Pacific, where the Ohio remained off the California coast until 1850. Late that year, Foster attended the USNA, graduating in June 1853; promoted to passed midshipman, he sailed for three years aboard the Brazil Squadron sloop-of-war Germantown. Because of the political and revolutionary difficulties in Uruguay in 1855, the warship spent much of the year off Montevideo, and in August a landing party was sent ashore to protect American interests during disturbances. Advanced to the ranks of master and lieutenant in September, Foster participated in another Montevideo landing in November to protect foreign consulates and the customs house from insurgents. After a year of shore duty, he joined the Africa Squadron sloop-of-war Constellation in December 1858 and on August 13, 1860 transferred to the steam frigate San Jacinto, a week after her capture of the brig Storm King, with 616 slaves, off the mouth of the Congo River. The prize had been sent to Monrovia (where the slaves were freed) and he was needed to replace the prize captain. Ill much of 1861 and 1862, Foster recovered and was promoted to the rank of lieutenant commander on July 16, 1862. In October 1862 Foster was ordered to Jeffersonville, IN, where on November 14 he became captain of the ironclad Chillicothe, then being completed. Shallow Ohio River conditions pre-
Lt. Cmdr. James P. Foster, USN, assumed command of the Mississippi Squadron ironclad Chillicothe in November 862, guiding her during the unsuccessful Yazoo Pass Expedition of March-April 86. That September he became captain of the river ironclad Lafayvette, a billet he would fill for the remainder of the war. He died of a fever in June 86 (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
vented her reaching the Mississippi Squadron base at Cairo, IL, before January 7, 1863, just missing participation in the Arkansas Post expedition. She was as the principal, if unsuccessful, big gun vessel in the Federal Yazoo Pass expedition of February-March 1863. The Chillicothe being badly damaged and unable to subdue the Confederate defense at Fort Pemberton, Foster was forced to take over naval command of the expedition when its previous commander became ill and it fell to him, working in coordination with army commanders, to order the mission withdrawn. While the Chillicothe was being repaired, Foster, in September, became
Gamble
8 captain of the giant river ironclad Lafayette, which he commanded through May 1865. Almost immediately, on September 29, the Lafayette, together with a tinclad, arrived at Morganza, LA, in time to deter a second Confederate attack on a much smaller Union outpost. In March 1864 Foster’s vessel was one of several Mississippi Squadron heavy units to ascend the Red River in support of an overland attack by AUS troops. After securing Alexandria, LA, the naval units pushed upstream; however, Lafayette, left at Grand Encore, received orders to return to the Mississippi River. Accompanied by tinclads and the ram Avenger, she took station at the mouth of the Black River on April 4 and three days later steamed up the Ouachita River to Ouachita City, confiscating some 3,000 bales of cotton and liberating 800 African-Americans, and then assaulted Monroe, LA, burning its the courthouse, the railroad depot, and a bridge over the river. On 16 May the Lafayette, with the side-wheeler gunboat General Sterling Price, neutralized a Confederate battery firing on a transport steamer near Ratliff ’s Landing, MS.
In October 1865 Foster took charge of the USNA flotilla of training ships and became a commander on July 22, 1866. Given command of the Osceola, he joined the Brazil Squadron, where he contracted the disease from which he died at Indianapolis on June 2, 1869. No USN vessels have been named in his honor. Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; Appletons’, II; Callahan; “James P. Foster,” in American Annual Cyclopedia and Register of Important Events, IX (1869); DANFS; Gilliland, comp., USS Constellation on the Dismal Coast: Willie Leonard’s Journal, 1859– 1861; New York Times, December 15, 1865; Smith, Civil War Biographies from the Western Waters; Smith, Fight for the Yazoo; Smith, Joseph Brown and His Civil War Ironclads; Smith, Tinclads in the Civil War; New York Herald, June 3, 1869.
Gamble, William Marshall (1826–1896, USN) The son of USMC colonel John Marshall Gamble was born in Philadelphia, PA, on March 22, 1826, the seventh of ten siblings. He was appointed a USN midshipman on March 1, 1841,
A successful blockader, Lt. Cmdr. William M. Gamble, USN, joined the Mississippi Squadron in late 86 as captain of the river monitor Osage (depicted), part of an ironclad squadron sent to the waters off Mobile, AL. On March 2, 86, the vessel, shown in this contemporary sketch, struck a torpedo in the Blakely River and sank, with her captain among the wounded. Unable to return to duty, he retired in 866 (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
Gansevoort was attached to the Home Squadron frigate Missouri for the next four years. This was followed by two years aboard the Pacific Squadron frigate Savannah, which captured the California town of Monterey on July 7, 1846, during the early stages of the Mexican War. Gamble was sent to the Philadelphia naval school in September, graduated in July 1848, and became a passed midshipman on August 10. He deployed to European waters for an 18-month cruise on the frigate St. Lawrence, visiting ports in England, Spain, Portugal, Sweden, Denmark, and the Mediterranean before taking a USNO tour in 1851. Returning to the St. Lawrence late in the year, he sailed for the West Coast, remaining aboard until transferred to the Pacific Squadron sloop-of-war Portsmouth in 1853 and continuing his cruise for two more years. Gamble became a lieutenant on September 15, 1855, was seconded to the USCS in 1856–1857, and sailed the Caribbean and off the Mexican Coast aboard the Home Squadron sloop-of-war Saratoga in 1858. While on leave on June 8, 1859, he married Eliza Wood Canfield (1829–?) in a Morristown, NJ, ceremony; the couple would have four children. Returning to the Saratoga prior to the June 1860 completion of her deployment, Gamble was aboard when she was invited to participate in the March 6 naval battle of Anton Lizardo, Vera Cruz, Mexico, during which two rebel Mexican ships were defeated helping to close the so-called Reform War. At year’s end, he was transferred to the paddle-wheel frigate Powhatan. Gamble’s vessel was involved in the unsuccessful April 1861 Federal effort, engineered by Secretary of State William H. Seward (1801– 1872), to relieve Fort Pickens, FL, and, on May 26 was assigned to the Gulf blockade, being stationed off the Southwest Pass of the Mississippi River below New Orleans in July and August. In September Powhatan was sent to the West Indies in an unsuccessful mission to run down the Confederate ocean cruiser CSS Sumter. Refitted in October, the warship joined the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron’s (SABS) embargo off Charleston, SC, early in 1862. Gamble became lieutenant commander on July 16 and took command of the steam gunboat Pocahontas off the city, which was transferred to the West Gulf Blockading Squadron (WGBS) in October and
assigned to the blockade of Mobile, AL. On January 6, 1863, Gamble captured the richly laden Confederate British runner Antona off Cape San Blas, FL; he would employ his share of the prize money to purchase a fine Morristown, NJ, home. Late in the year, he assumed command of the veteran Unadilla-class gunboat Wissahicken, returning with her to the Charleston blockade. On April 26, 1864, he took over the paddle-wheel SABS gunboat Sonoma and patrolled off the Georgia coast. On July 8 he took his second major prize, the side-wheel steamer Ida, bound from Sapelo Sound, GA, for the Bahamas with a cargo of cotton. Gamble was subsequently transferred to the Mississippi Squadron as captain of the river monitor Osage, which was assigned to participate as part of the ironclad squadron investing the city of Mobile, AL. On March 29, 1865, the Osage struck a torpedo in the Blakely River and sank, with her captain among the wounded. Later in the year, Gamble was assigned to the Pacific Squadron but was incapacitated by sunstroke on April 26, 1866. Unable to return to duty, Gamble was placed on the retired list as a commander on April 4, 1867. Splitting his time between Morristown, NJ, and Saratoga, NY, thereafter, he died at the former on October 19, 1896. No USN vessels were named in his honor. Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; Hamersly, 3rd ed.; Callahan; DANFS; Smith, Tinclads in the Civil War; Radford de Meissne, Old Naval Days: Sketches from the Life of Rear Admiral William Radford, U.S.N.; Canfield, comp., A History of Thomas Canfield and of Matthew Camfield, with a Genealogy of Their Descendents in New Jersey; Pat Wardell, “John Marshall Gamble,” in Early Bergen County Families http://njgsbc.org/files/BCFamilies/BCFam-Gamble. pdf (accessed August 2, 2016); New York Tribune, October 20, 1896.
Gansevoort, Guert (1812–1868, USN) A cousin of Herman Melville and the son of Leonard H. (1749–1812) and Mary Ann (1752– 1830) Gansevoort, Guert was born at Gansevoort, NY, on June 7, 1812, and was warranted a USN midshipman on March 4, 1823. Sent to sea in 1824, he served with the Mediterranean Squadron aboard the frigate Constitution and the ship-of-the-line North Carolina. Following
Gipson
A cousin of Herman Melville and a lieutenant aboard the Somers during the infamous 82 mutiny, Capt. Guert Gansevoort was captain of the depicted revolutionary three-turret monitor Roanoke, a harbor-defense ship at Hampton Roads, VA, in 86 and 86. He retired as a commodore in 86 (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
duty at the New York navy yard, he returned to sea in 1829 for a three-year cruise aboard the Pacific Squadron sloop-of-war St. Louis. Becoming a passed midshipman on April 28, 1832, Gansevoort was sailing master of the West Indies Squadron sloop-of-war Boston during 1835 and 1836 and a lieutenant on March 8, 1837. He was aboard the Mediterranean Squadron ship-ofthe-line Ohio until 1840. He found himself 1st lieutenant of the brig Somers, under Cmdr. Alexander Slidell McKenzie in 1842 and, the vessel’s commander having determined that a mutiny had occurred, was ordered to preside over a court-martial, which found the accused guilty and resulted in execution. The lieutenant would remain remorseful over his participation in the affair for the rest of his life and Melville’s Billy Bud was based on the incident. Gansevoort participated in the Mexican War in 1846 and 1847, especially the fighting at Vera Cruz, Tuxpan, and Tabasco. Becoming a commander on September 14, 1855, Gansevoort led seamen and marines ashore from the sloop-of-war Decatur in January 1856 to augment the defenses of Seattle, Washington Territory, against attacks by Native Americans during the Puget Sound War. At San Francisco in August, he was found drunk on duty and relieved of his post. Gansevoort was on ordnance duty at the Brooklyn Navy Yard upon the outbreak of the
Civil War in April 1861 and, after outfitting the sloop-of-war Adirondack, which was commissioned on June 30, 1862, served as her captain during Caribbean patrol duty. She ran aground at Little Bahamas in August, a month after Gansevoort was promoted to the rank of captain. Gansevoort was acquitted by court-martial that took place in October and November. Late in 1863 he became captain of the ironclad Roanoke, the harbor defense monitor at Hampton Roads, VA. In the spring of 1864 he was reassigned to ordnance duties at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Gansevoort retired on January 28, 1867, having been commissioned a commodore on the retired list. He died at Schenectady, NY, on July 15, 1868, and was buried at Greenwood Cemetery, Brooklyn, NY. One 20th century USN destroyer (DD-608) was named in his honor. Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; New York Times, November 16, 1862; Gale, A Herman Melville Encyclopedia; Heflin, Herman Melville’s Whaling Years; DANFS; Athanatos, “Guert Gansevoort,” FindaGrave, https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg. cgi?page=gr&GRid=102623181 (accessed May 3, 2017).
Gipson, James C. (1838–1920, USN) Second of six offspring of butcher James Herrick (1812–1894) and Theodotia Little Gipson
Gipson
2
Having joined the crew of the famous river ironclad Carondelet as a seaman in January 862, James C. Gipson, USN, promoted to the rank of acting master, served as her captain from November 86 to February 86. His ship is presented here in a pen-and-ink drawing by Samuel War Stanton (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
(1820–1876), James was born on January 27, 1838, in Salisbury, VT, just before his family moved to Rochester, WI. He went to sea at an early age as a commercial seamen. At the outbreak of the Civil War, Gipson found himself in New Orleans and, making his way up the Mississippi River to escape joining the CSN, he was able to find refuge in Union territory where he joined the AUS. On October 24, 1861, he enlisted in the Western Flotilla as an ordinary seaman and joined the timberclad Tyler. In January 1862 he transferred to the Pook turtle Carondelet, where he was an acting master’s mate during the famed ironclad’s momentous participation in the actions at Forts Henry, Donelson, and Pillow, the passage by Island No. 10, and the July battle with the CSS Arkansas. Gipson was appointed an acting ensign in October 1862 and in March 1863 transferred to the new ironclad Lafayette, aboard which he served during the passage past Vicksburg’s batteries and the battle of Grand Gulf in April. He became an acting master on October 24, 1863, and was in November sent back to the Carondelet, his former ship, as her temporary captain. Gipson was very popular with the ironclad’s officers, often spending social time with them in the wardroom. In February 1864 he was appointed executive officer of the new light draught Exchange (Tinclad No. 38), becoming captain on April 13
following the resignation of her original commander. On 1 June, during a 45-minute engagement with a masked battery under CSA Col. Colton Greene at Columbia, AK, the gunboat was struck 35 times, 8 shot piercing her hull before she could escape. One man was killed and Gipson was wounded by a shell fragment that impacted the left side of his head. The Mississippi Squadron commander, impressed with the defense led by the vessel’s captain, arranged his promotion to acting volunteer lieutenant on July 9, 1864. Gipson was honorably discharged on November 14, 1865. It was later claimed that, during the conflict, he was wounded 17 times. On the other hand, an August 1865 report found him to have “no force, not intelligent, and not overfond of work.” He returned to Rochester, WI, where he worked until 1866 when he moved to Racine. On February 25, 1868, he married Emily A. Godfrey (1846–1918) of Rochester, WI; the couple would have four children. In 1882 the Gipsons relocated to Pierre, SD, and between 1904 and 1907 they resided at Caldwell, ID, before moving to Roseburg, near Portland, OR. When Gipson died at the Oregon Old Soldier’s Home on July 31, 1920, he was buried next to his wife in Roseburg National Cemetery. No USN vessels have been named in his honor. Sources: ORN, I, 27: 320; Commemorative Biog-
raphical Record of Prominent and Representative Men of Racine and Kenosha Counties, Wisconsin; Callahan; Smith, Civil War Biographies from the Western Waters; Smith, Tinclads in the Civil War; Smith, USS Carondelet; “Vermonters Who Served as Officers of the U.S. Navy,” Vermont in the Civil War, http://vermontcivil war.org/units/navy/officers.php (accessed November 21, 2011); Phyllis (Porter) Zegers, “James C. Gipson,” FindaGrave, http://www.findagrave.com/cgibin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=3886326 (accessed August 1, 2016).
Glassell, William Thornton (1831–1879, CSN) Glassell, the great grandfather of Lt. Gen. George S. Patton (1885–1945), was born to Andrew Glassell (1793–1873) and Susan Thornton at Richland Plantation, Culpepper County, VA, on January 15, 1831. Well educated, he was appointed a USN midshipman on March 15, 1848, became a passed midshipman in 1850, and was aboard the frigate St. Lawrence when she delivered U.S. exhibits for the Great Exhibition at London in March 1851. There the frigate was visited by Baroness Byron, widow of the poet, who invited the midshipman to dine with her. Ordered to the USNA in 1852, he graduated in June 1855, was seconded to the USCS, and became a lieutenant on September 16. In July 1857 Glassell joined the Pacific Squadron sloop-of-war Vandalia for a two-year cruise. In January 1860 he was transferred to the squadron’s sloop-of-war John Adams, which continued to protect America’s interests in the Far East. A year later he joined the screw sloop of war Hartford, returning to Civil War–torn American in November 1861. Refusing to swear allegiance to the Federal government, Glassell was dismissed from the USN on December 6, 1861, and imprisoned at Boston’s Fort Warren until exchanged in July 1862. Appointed a CSN lieutenant on August 5, 1862, he joined the ironclad Chicora, which, together with CSS Palmetto State, was assigned to the defense of Charleston Harbor. On January 31, 1863, the two ironclads attacked the unarmored vessels of the offshore Union blockade, capturing one and disabling another, and on April 7 participated in the defense of the harbor when a number of Union ironclads made a concentrated but unsuccessful assault upon its for-
Glassell tifications. Thereafter named acting executive officer of the CSS North Carolina at Wilmington, NC, Glassell returned to Charleston in September and took command of the torpedo boat CSS David. When that experimental craft attacked and damaged the Northern ironclad New Ironsides on October 5, he was captured and held until exchanged on October 1, 1864. During his imprisonment, he was advanced for meritorious service to the rank of commander, effective October 5, 1863. Briefly returned to the CSS North Carolina, he went back to Charleston in November for special torpedo boat service. When the city fell in late February 1865, Glassell was transferred to command of the James River ironclad CSS Fredericksburg, part of a small fleet attempting to defend the Confederate capital. Following Richmond’s evacuation on April 3, orders were given to destroy the warship. Her
After the fall of Charleston, SC, in February 86, Cmdr. William T. Glassell, CSN, was given command of the ironclad Fredericksburg, part of a small Confederate fleet defending the James River. The vessel was destroyed in April a day after the evacuation of Richmond. Glassell became a California land agent after the war (Horace Edwin Hayden, Genealogy of the Glassell Family of Scotland and Virginia, 8).
Goudy captain then became a lieutenant colonel attached to the 2nd Regiment of the CSN Naval Brigade organized by RAdm. Rafael Semmes (1809–1877) and surrendered to the Union Army at Greensboro, NC, on April 26. Bachelor Glassell traveled west to Los Angeles, CA, to work in his brother’s law firm. In 1869 a large parcel of land was turned over to him by the lawyer allowing him to lay out a town initially known as Richland. When that name was found to be owned by another Golden State town, an 1873 poker game organized by tract agent Glassell determined the winning name to be Orange. On January 28, 1879, the tuberculosis he had contracted in Union prisons took his life and he was buried in Angeles-Rosedale Memorial Park, Los Angeles. Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; DANFS; Foenander; Driver, Confederate Sailors, Marines, and Signalmen from Virginia and Maryland; CSN Register; Hayden, Genealogy of the Glassell Family of Scotland and Virginia; “William T. Glassell,” The City of Orange, CA, http://www.cityoforange.org/ localhistory/plaza/people.htm#wtg (accessed August 3, 2016); Paul S., pseud., “William Thornton Glassell,” FindaGrave, https://www.findagrave.com/cgibin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=3704 (accessed August 3, 2016); Richmond Daily Dispatch, October 20, 1864; Westfall, Prisoners of the Civil War: The Story of Two
Americans; Brigandi, A Brief History of Orange, California, the Plaza City; Robert M. Gettemys, “A Town Named in Poker Game,” Los Angeles Times, July 17, 1972.
Goudy, Jason (1824–1865, USN) Goudy was born at Price Hill, Cincinnati, OH, in 1824 and began to follow the river within two decades. In February 1862 he was second master of the U.S. timberclad gunboat Tyler and participated with his vessel in the Battle of Fort Henry and the great raid down the Tennessee River. In April he fought at the Battle of Shiloh. He was chosen as prize master (May 1862) and later in June as the inaugural captain of the first Union light-draught gunboat, the Alfred Robb (Tinclad No. 21). Named an acting volunteer lieutenant on October 1, 1862, Goudy participated in the defense of Fort Donelson on February 3, 1863. Becoming the first captain of the Tennessee River light draught Queen City (Tinclad No. 26) on April 1, 1863, Goudy assumed command of the Tawah (Tinclad No. 29) on June 30. In October Tawah supported the AUS campaign at Chattanooga, TN, and, in April 1864, she became part of a three-ship task group
Beginning in the spring of 862 Acting Volunteer Lt. Jason Goudy made his mark as a tinclad commander on the Western waters. In November 86, after escaping from the Federal disaster at Johnsonville, TN, he became captain of the ironclad Cincinnati, which was transferred under his command to New Orleans for service in the Gulf of Mexico. This contemporary sketch was made late in the war (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
Grafton
employed to protect transports using the new depot at Johnsonville, TN. On November 2 Tawah and a consort encountered a Southern transport and a captured U.S. tinclad taken three days earlier. After a running battle, the transport was retaken, though the warship escaped and was later scuttled. On November 4 the task group was caught at Johnsonville when the depot was bombarded; following several hours of fierce fighting, the Federal trio were damaged, requiring that they be abandoned to prevent them from falling into Confederate hands. In November, after escaping the Tennessee River, Goudy took command of the ironclad U.S.S. Cincinnati, which after upgrading was transferred to the West Gulf Blockading Squadron (WGBS) in February 1865. Upon his return to Cairo, IL, from New Orleans on March 17, Goudy took leave to visit his Paducah, KY, home, where he became ill from acute diarrhea. He died on March 28 and was buried with full honors at Cincinnati several
days later. He left a wife, Sarah, and several children. No USN vessels have been named in his honor. Sources: Callahan; DANFS; Smith, Civil War Biographies from the Western Waters; Smith, Le Roy Fitch; Smith, Tinclads in the Civil War; Smith, The Timberclads in the Civil War.
Grafton, Edward Charles (1826–1876, USN) Born in Boston in 1826, Grafton was appointed a USN Midshipman on October 5, 1841, and joined the Mediterranean Squadron flagship, the ship-of-the-line Columbus, on her 1842–1844 cruise. After two years at the Annapolis naval school, he was aboard the Pacific Squadron sloop-of-war Levant off California as relations with Mexico worsened. Grafton’s warship arrived off Monterey on July 1, 1846, and a week later he was part of a landing party that secured possession of the new Republic of Cali-
Coming off minesweeping duties in Mobile Bay, Lt. Cmdr. Edward C. Grafton, USN, assumed command of the monitor Manhattan at New Orleans in November 86 and blockaded the mouth of the Red River until the end of the Civil War. Grafton died in New York City in 86 but his ironclad, photographed during the 88s, survived until 2 (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
Greene fornia. Becoming a passed midshipman on August 10 while on the West Coast blockade of Mexico, he participated in landing parties that captured Guaymas on October 19 and occupied Mazatlan on November 11. Grafton served at the Boston naval facilities (yard and rendezvous) from April 1847 through 1851 and was then unemployed until advanced to lieutenant on September 18, 1855, and assigned to the East Indies Squadron sloop-of-war Portsmouth for a twoyear cruise to the Orient, during which she joined in the November 16–22, 1856 USN confrontation with the Canton, China, barrier forts. Transferred in mid–1858 for a two-year cruise with the Brazil Squadron brig Perry, Grafton participated in the October–February 1859 U.S. Paraguay Expedition, a diplomatic mission backed by force. Coming off shore duty at the outbreak of the Civil War in April 1861, Graham became executive officer and flag lieutenant aboard the Atlantic (later North Atlantic) Blockading Squadron (NABS) screw frigate Minnesota, which led the way during the August bombardments of Forts Hatteras and Clarke, NC. While on blockade duty at Hampton Roads on March 8, 1862, the frigate attempted to engage the CSS Virginia but grounded, being saved the next day by the intervening Federal Monitor. Promoted to lieutenant commander on July 16, Grafton remained aboard the NABS flagship until the beginning of 1864 when he became captain of the West Gulf Blockading Squadron (WGBS) steam gunboat Genesee, then on the blockade of Mobile, AL. The gunboat did not participate in the initial passage into Mobile Bay on August 5 but afterwards lent her guns to the bombardment of Fort Morgan. Grafton’s gunboat was soon converted into a storeship, which replenished the fleet from its base at Pensacola, FL, and was also employed as an ersatz minesweeper, clearing Confederate “torpedo” fields. At New Orleans in November, Grafton assumed command of the Canonicus-class single-turret monitor Manhattan, a veteran of the August engagement. Early in 1865 she steamed up the Mississippi River to the mouth of the Red River, which she blockaded until August, when she was decommissioned. Grafton was given command of the paddlewheel North Atlantic Squadron gunboat Gettys-
6 burg in November 1866, became a commander on December 29, and completed a short cruise to the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico in March 1867. He was captain of the Portsmouth navy yard receiving ship from 1868 until his retirement on January 18, 1871. A bachelor, Grafton resided in New York City, where he died on June 24, 1876. No USN vessels have been named in his honor. Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; DANFS; Hamersly, 3rd ed.; Appletons’ Annual Cyclopaedia and Register of Important Events, I.
Greene, Samuel Dana (1839–1884, USN) The eldest of four sons of U.S. Civil War general George Sears “Pappy” Greene (1801–1899) and his second wife, Martha Dana Greene (1809–1883), Samuel was born at Cumberland, MD, on February 11, 1840. He was appointed an acting USN midshipman on September 21, 1855, and was sent to the USNA, from which he graduated in June 1859, his commission confirmed. He joined the East Indies Squadron flagship, sloop-of-war Hartford, for an 18-month cruise, during which he became a lieutenant, on August 31, 1861. When news arrived that civil war had broken out in the United States, his warship departed her Oriental station, returning to Philadelphia, PA, in December 1861. After a short leave, Greene volunteered for duty aboard the revolutionary ironclad monitor, then being completed at New York, and became executive officer, the only one in her history. On March 8–9, 1862, Greene was in the turret when his craft engaged the CSS Virginia in the historic Battle of Hampton Roads, and he personally aimed and fired the giant Dahlgren cannon. On the second day, following the wounding of the captain, he assumed command of the Monitor, and when the Virginia retreated he ordered several parting shots. Then, in a move deemed controversial in some quarters thereafter, he followed the letter of his orders by withdrawing to protect the frigate Minnesota. Although he would be criticized for allowing the Southern ironclad to escape, he was also commended for his “great courage, coolness, and skill.” Greene was superseded in command on March 12 but remained as executive officer, participating in
Greer
both of the ironclad’s actions with Fort Darling on the James River in May and her loss in a storm off Cape Hatteras on December 30–31. Saved from the foundered monitor, Greene married Mary Willis Dearth (1839–1874) of Bristol, RI, while on leave in early 1863; the couple would have three children. He became executive officer of the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron (NABS) paddle-wheel gunboat Florida, which joined the blockade off North Carolina in March 1863 and over the next year captured or destroyed a number of runners, including several attempting to enter Wilmington. In March 1864 he became executive officer of the sloop-of-war Iroquois, which steamed in the North Atlantic, Mediterranean, and Pacific seeking the CSS Shenandoah. Failing to apprehend the Confederate ocean raider, the warship returned to New York six months after the end of the war. Greene was a USNA instructor from January 1866 to 1868, after which he was posted to the Pacific Squadron to serve aboard, respectively, the sloops-of-war Ossipee and Saranac and the
The only executive officer of the famous Union warship Monitor, Lt. Samuel Dana Greene assumed her command on March , 862, following the wounding of her captain during the second day of the Battle of Hampton Roads against the CSS Virginia. Superseded in command on March 2, he remained first lieutenant of the ship until her loss in a storm off Cape Hatteras on December / (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
screw steamer Pensacola. In 1871 he returned to the USNA and from 1871 to 1875 during tenure advanced to commander, on December 12, 1872. Greene was captain of the European Squadron sloop-of-war Juniata until February 1876, when (after his marriage to a Bristol lady, Mary Abby Babbitt Greene (1839–1926)) he was given command of the sloop-of-war Monongahela and ordered to undertake USNA cadet training cruises on the Atlantic coast. Late in 1878 he was appointed USNA assistant superintendent and in 1883 and 1884 commanded the special duty steamer Despatch on the Potomac River and in Chesapeake Bay. In the fall of the latter year, Greene became executive officer of the Portsmouth, NH, navy yard. For some time, he had continued to face critics regarding his March 9, 1862, decision to break off action with the Virginia. He became anxious over the reception of an article in the “Battles and Leaders” series he had completed for Century magazine as well as another for The United Service. Before their publication, he committed suicide at the yard’s Franklin shiphouse on December 11. He was later reported to have been acting “strangely” for some time. He was buried at Juniper Hill Cemetery, Bristol, RI, on December 16. One 20th century USN destroyer (DD-226) was named in his honor. Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; Still, Ironclad Captains; Hamersley, 3rd ed.; “Samuel Dana Greene,” FindaGrave, http://www.findagrave.com/cgibin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=6017440 (accessed December 3, 2016); Chittenden, comp., The Monitor and the Merrimac; DANFS; Douglas Niermeyer, “Loyal Legion Vignettes: Commander Samuel Dana Greene, USN,” Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, http://suvcw.org/mollus/art055.htm (accessed December 3, 2016); Quarstein, The Monitor Boys; Wright; Greene, “The Fight Between the Monitor and the Merrimac”; Greene, “‘I Fired the First Gun and Thus Commenced the Great Battle’”; Greene, “In the Monitor’s Turret,” B&L, I; Greene, “The Monitor at Sea and in Battle”; Greene, “The Monitor Repels the Merrimac,” in Post, ed., Soldier’s Letters From Camp, Battlefield, and Prison; Neeser, “Historic Ships of the Navy: Monitor”; Concord Evening Monitor, December 12, 1884; New York Times, December 14, 1884.
Greer, James Augustin (1833–1904, USN) The oldest of two children of James Greer (1807–1874) and Caroline Elizabeth King Greer
Greer (1812–1876), James Augustin was born at Cincinnati, OH, on February 28, 1833. Appointed an acting midshipman on January 10, 1848, he spent much of 1849 aboard the Home Squadron sloopof-war Saratoga. On the Home Squadron paddlewheel sloop-of-war Saranac during 1850 off the East Coast, he went on Pacific Squadron sloopof-war St. Mary’s until late 1852. After nine months on the Home Squadron flagship, the frigate Columbia, in 1853, he returned to the USNA that October and graduated on June 15, 1854, the day he became passed midshipman. From August to October 1857, Greer served on
A participant in the Trent affair in November 86, Lt. Cmdr. James A. Greer, USN, was transferred in January 86 to the Mississippi Squadron, where he briefly commanded the ironclad Carondelet until March when he became captain of the Benton. Following a long postwar campaign, he retired as the navy’s senior rear admiral in February 8 (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
8 the Pacific Squadron ship-of-the-line Independence, becoming a master (September 15, 1855) and a lieutenant (September 16, 1855). He married Mary Randolph Webb (1835–1900) at Norfolk, VA, on November 26—the couple would have four children—and he was employed at the navy yard from December to October 1858. Assigned to the chartered steam gunboat Southern Star (later USS Crusader), he participated in the October–February 1859 U.S. Paraguay Expedition, a diplomatic mission backed by force. From August into 1860, Greer was aboard the Africa Squadron screw frigate San Jacinto on antislavery patrol on the west coast of the “Dark Continent.” The San Jacinto continued her patrols in 1861 without much success, during which the Civil War erupted in the U.S. Assigned to hunt the Confederate ocean raider Sumter, the cruiser instead encountered the British mail steamer Trent north of Havana, Cuba, on November 8. The neutral vessel was transporting two Confederate diplomats, Mason and Slidell, and Greer was ordered to take a cutter and support the one sent to remove them. The action, which did not reflect upon the boarding officers, caused a significant international incident. He joined the sloop-of-war St. Louis, in December. From January to October 1862 the St. Louis patrolled the Central Atlantic area, protecting Union commerce and seeking Confederate ocean cruisers. During his time aboard, Greer became a lieutenant commander on July 16. After brief Navy Department service from October through December, he was transferred to the Mississippi Squadron in January 1863 and briefly served as commander of the Pook turtle Carondelet. In March, Greer took over became captain of the great ironclad Benton, running past Vicksburg’s batteries, fighting in the Battle of Grand Gulf in April 1863, and participating in the bombardment of the Vicksburg in its May–July surrender. Greer served during the Red River campaign in the spring of 1864; detached, he was posted in August and September on special duty at Cincinnati correcting abuses at the local USN recruiting station. He then commanded the Mound City naval station for two months. In November, Greer led a team on a confidential mission to Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, and other riverfront towns to acquire ten light-draft
steamers for conversion into tinclads. At month’s end, he became captain of the squadron flagboat Black Hawk. He left the Western waters during the holidays and at the beginning of 1865 began a 21-month tour at the USNA, where he became a commander on July 25, 1866. Greer was assigned to the North Pacific Station (NPS) in September 1866 and served as commander of two vessels through December 1867: the paddle-wheel gunboat Mohongo and the sloop-of-war Tuscarora. At the Philadelphia navy yard from July 1868 through March 1869, he returned to the USNA, through July 1873, where for five months he commanded the chartered steamer Tigeress on an expedition that found wreckage but no survivors from the missing Arctic exploration vessel Polaris. Following board duty, he was captain of the NPS screw sloop-of-war Lackawanna in the Far East from November 1875 to March 1877, being advanced to captain on April 26, 1876. He returned to board duty until April–July 1878, when he commanded the historic corvette Constellation on a round trip to Le Harve, France, delivering American exhibits to the Exposition Universelle. Unemployed until April 1879, Greer commanded the South Atlantic Station (SAS) screw sloop-of-war Hartford on a nine-month cruise. After two more years of board work, he became yard captain at the Washington navy yard from April 1882 to August 1884. Returning to board duty from April 1885 through June 1887, he became a commodore on May 19, 1886. His final sea service occurred between August 1887 and June 1889, when he took a break from board activities to command the European Station, wearing his flag on the screw sloop-of-war Lancaster. Advanced to rear admiral on April 3, 1892, he was kept busy by administration until he was placed on the retired list on February 28, 1895. In retirement, Greer privately published small naval history books in 1898 and 1899. In poor health after December 1903, he was confined to his bed for the last three months of his life and died on June 17, 1904. He was buried in ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery the next day. A World War I USN destroyer (DD-145) was named in his honor. Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; Appletons’, II; DANFS; DAB, VII; Cogar, I; DANFS; Smith, Civil War Biographies from the Western Waters; Smith,
Guest Le Roy Fitch; Smith, Tinclads in the Civil War; Hope, pseud., “Adm. James Augustin Greer,” FindaGrave, http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr& GRid=15158524 (accessed July 12, 2014); Neeser, “Historic Ships of the Navy: Benton”; Greer, The Navy in the War of the American Revolution; Greer, Our Minor Naval Wars; New York Times, February 28, 1895; Washington Post, February 28, 1895; New York Tribune, March 1, 1895; Macon Telegraph, March 13, 1895; Baltimore Sun, June 18, 1904; Army and Navy Journal, June 25, 1904; “James Augustin Greer,” Arlington National Cemetery, http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/ jagreer.htm (accessed July 12, 2014).
Guest, John (1822–1879, USN) Born in Missouri of unknown parentage on March 7, 1822, Guest was appointed a USN midshipman on December 16, 1837, was attached to
At the beginning of July 86 Lt. Cmdr. John Guest, USN, became captain of monitor Lehigh, which was sent to the James River in conjunction with the overall Federal alarm occasioned by the Battle of Gettysburg. A month later he assumed command of the James River monitor Sangamon, and during the fall his ship became the first outfitted with a spar torpedo in a rig the captain had invented (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
Guest the West Indies Squadron sloop-of-war Warren until late 1842, and graduated from the Philadelphia naval school, becoming a passed midshipman on June 29, 1843. Posted aboard the chartered War Department gunboat Pointsett, which surveyed Tampa Bay, FL, in 1844 and 1845, he joined the Pacific Squadron frigate Congress in September of the latter year, which before deploying off Monterey, CA, in July 1846 transported the American minister to Hawaii. During the Mexican War, Guest participated in the occupation of Los Angeles, the capture of Guaymas in October 1847, the occupation of Mazatlain in November, and the Battle of Niess on January 9, 1848. After the warship returned to Norfolk, VA, in January 1849, Guest was on leave or unemployed until he was commissioned a lieutenant on December 24, 1851, and joined the East Indies Squadron sloop-of-war Plymouth. Part of a small task group under Com. Matthew C. Perry (1794–1858), Guest became executive officer of his vessel as she participated in the successful 1853–1854 American effort to “Open Japan.” When at Shanghai during February– April 1854, Guest thrice led landing parties to handle Chinese militant unrest, joining Royal Navy personnel in halting shore depredations on April 4. Having returned from the Orient in January 1855 and following duty at Washington, D.C., in 1856–1858 and the Philadelphia naval rendezvous (recruiting station) in 1859, Guest was assigned to the steam frigate Niagara, which joined the Atlantic blockade off Charleston, SC, on May 10, 1861, less than a month after the beginning of the Civil War. In late fall 1861 Guest became captain and completed outfitting the Unadilla-class gunboat Owasco, which joined the Union Mortar Flotilla, a division of the West Gulf Blockading Squadron (WGBS), as a support and tow vessel in late February 1862. In mid–April, she helped to position the mortar schooners that bombarded Forts Jackson and St. Philip below New Orleans and, after the fall of the city, helped tow schooners up the Mississippi to Vicksburg, MS, in May, where they pounded that fortress city until late July. Becoming a lieutenant commander on July 16, his ship participated in the October 3 bombardment and capture of Galveston, TX, but while blockading that port on January 1, 1863, she and several other ships were engaged by
Confederate cottonclad gunboats and driven away. Early in July Guest became captain of the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron (NABS) monitor Lehigh, which was dispatched to the James River in conjunction with the overall Federal alarm occasioned by the Battle of Gettysburg. When, at the end of the month, his command underwent New York repair, he was moved across the James River to take over f the Passaic-class monitor Sangamon. During the fall, the Sangamon became the first ironclad outfitted with a spar torpedo in a rig of Guest’s invention. Detached, Guest competed outfitting the NABS double-ender gunboat Iosco, which spent the summer of 1864 on protection and coast guard duties in the Gulf of St. Lawrence region before she was sent to the North Carolina coast to join the blockade and participate in the unsuccessful Federal Christmas attack on Fort Fisher. During the successful January 13–15, 1865, assault, Guest sent 44 of his men to form part of the naval force that stormed the citadel. The Iosco remained engaged in the North Carolina sounds through the end of the war and also participated in a May expedition on the Roanoke River. Guest became a captain on July 25, 1866, was captain-of-the-yard at the Portsmouth navy yard in 1867–1868, commanded the Philadelphia naval rendezvous until July 1870, and that August undertook a year-long cruise to Europe as captain of the sloop-of-war Brooklyn. New York navy yard captain-of-the-yard until December 12, 1872, he became a commodore and undertook board duty until late 1876, when he was named Portsmouth navy yard commandant. Guest died of “gastric fever and heart disease, combined with a kidney problem” on January 12, 1879, while on duty. His wife Anna J. (1859–1909), a daughter and four sons were present when he was buried in Philadelphia, PA. A World War II USN destroyer (DD-472) was named in his honor. Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; Hamersly, 3rd ed.; Appletons, III; Powell and Shippen; DANFS; Johnson, Far China Station: The U.S. Navy in Asian Waters, 1800–1898; New York Times, January 12, 1879; Army and Navy Journal, January 12, 18, 1879.
Gwathmey, Washington (1817–1880, CSN) Gwathmey was born in Liverpool, England, on May 30, 1817, immigrated to Virginia with his father, Robert, and others of his family, and was appointed a USN Midshipman on July 21, 1832. As with most junior sea service officers, he rotated his antebellum career between various squadrons and ashore, winning promotion slowly: passed midshipman, June 23, 1838, and lieutenant, June 28, 1843. In the weeks before the outbreak of the Civil War, Gwathmey found himself in service onboard the sailing frigate Sabine, off Fort Pickens at Pensacola, FL. When the squadron commander chose not to land forces, he dispatched his lieutenant to Washington, D.C., with secret documents for new the navy secretary, Gideon Welles (1802–1878), explaining his situation. Despite secessionist leanings, Gwathmey felt honor bound to complete his assignment and neither opened the communications nor resigned until after delivering his package to the cabinet officer on April 6. He was officially dismissed from the Federal service on April 17. Gwathmey became a CSN 1st lieutenant on April 20 and shortly thereafter became captain
Gwathmey of the CSS Carondelet at New Orleans. In June, he was given command of the CSS Jackson (formerly the Yankee), which he guided up the Mississippi in July, reporting her ready to assist the Confederate forces of Maj. Gen. Gideon J. Pillow (1806–1878). At the beginning of September, his vessel, together with the CSS Grampus, escorted the eight Southern transports that landed Southern forces at Columbus, KY, and on September 10 engaged the U.S. timberclads Lexington and Conestoga in the Battle of Lucas Bend, MO, being hit, damaged, and forced to withdraw. Repaired and returned to New Orleans, the Jackson participated in the October 12 engagement off Head of Passes. Forced to scuttle his craft following the April 1862 capture of the Crescent City, Gwathmey evacuated to Jackson, MS, briefly serving there prior to his return to Richmond. That fall he was seconded to the ACS and commanded the heavy guns at Fort Caswell, Wilmington, NC, into early 1863. During a part of 1863 he was captain of the CSS Arctic of the Wilmington Squadron before he was ordered to Savannah, GA, and command of the CSS Resolute, Savannah and, after July 1864, the floating battery Georgia. In December following the capture of the city and the scuttling of the Georgia, he returned to the Wilmington naval
A veteran of fighting on the Western waters and at Wilmington, NC, st Lieutenant Washington Gwathmey, CSN, was captain of the ironclad Georgia at Savannah, GA, from July to December 86. Despite the caption included in the original image, this vessel was not a ram. Following the capture of the city and the scuttling of the Georgia, Gwathmey returned to the Wilmington naval station and served out the remainder of the war (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
Gwin station, where he was stationed for the remainder of the war, surrendering and being paroled at Appomattox Court House, VA, on April 9, 1865. Although his postwar career is uncertain, it is known that Gwathmey died in Marengo County, AL, on July 8, 1880, and was buried there in the cemetery of St. Michael’s Episcopal Church. Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; Foenander; Driver, Confederate Sailors, Marines, and Signalmen from Virginia and Maryland; CSN Register; ORN, 2, 1; Callahan; Nelson, Reign of Iron; Smith, Civil War Biographies from the Western Waters; Smith, The Timberclads in the Civil War; Smith, CSS Arkansas.
2 Gwin became executive officer of the Mediterranean Squadron paddle-wheel frigate Susquehanna, which visited the Holy Land, several Middle East ports, and European locations between September 1860 and June 1861. The Civil War having begun, Gwin found himself acting captain of the Susquehanna upon her return when her captain resigned and “went South.” In September 1861 Gwin became executive officer of the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron (NABS) armed steamer Cambridge on the North Carolina coast in September 1861, but within the month he became captain of the brig Perry, then
Gwin, William (1832–1863, USN) The son of Irish immigrant John M. Gwin (?– 1866) and Mary Ann (Scott) Gwin (1812–1861), William was born December 6, 1832, in Columbus, IN. In 1841 he was enrolled in St. Xavier Academy at Cincinnati, OH, and, three years later transferred to St. Xavier College in Vincennes, IN. He was appointed a USN midshipman on April 7, 1847, and that August undertook a three-year cruise aboard the Brazil Squadron frigate Brandywine. In July 1851 he was deployed in the same unit’s sloop-of-war Germantown for a short cruise off the east coast of South America; between January and June 1852 he completed his USNA studies and became a passed midshipman. Aboard the screw steamer Princeton from July through October on patrol of the Newfoundland fisheries, Gwin served aboard the Brazil Squadron brig Bainbridge from January 1853 through September 1856, becoming a master on September 15, 1855, and lieutenant a day later. Assigned to the Pacific Squadron paddle-wheel sloop-of-war Saranac, he transferred, in late spring 1858, to that flotilla’s sloop-of-war Vandalia, which on August 3 rescued the survivors of the American clipper ship Wild Wave, which had crashed on the outlying reef of Oneo Island, one of the Pitcairn group, back in March. On October 11 he participated in a punitive expedition sent ashore at Waya, Fiji Islands, that engaged some 300 of the “cannibals.” Their village was burned in response to the murder of two American citizens. Detached from the Vandalia in November 1859 on leave,
Noted for his captaincy of the Western Flotilla timberclad Tyler at Shiloh in April 862 and against the CSS Arkansas in July, Lt. Cmdr. William Gwin, USN, assumed command of the ironclad Mound City in July and the giant Benton two months later. He was mortally wounded in the Yazoo River on December 2 (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
Hall
lying in the Potomac River off Alexandria, VA. In early January 1862 he volunteered for reassignment to the U.S. Western Gunboat Flotilla and upon his arrival at the Cairo, IL, fleet base assumed command of the timberclad gunboat Tyler. After the fall of Fort Henry, TN, he swept with two other wooden gunboats up the Tennessee River all the way to regions of Alabama, spreading destruction and terror. This action was a major factor in the collapse of the Confederate lines far behind him in Kentucky. Fire support from Gwin’s gunboat and the timberclad Lexington helped save Union troops from disaster in the Battle of Shiloh, bringing high praise from Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant (1822– 1885). Gwin would, as captain of the Tyler, always be remembered for her running July 15 fight in the Yazoo River, north of Vicksburg, MS, with the ironclad CSS Arkansas. By the time of his promotion to the rank of lieutenant commander on July 16, Gwin had gained a reputation as one of the most promising officers in the nation. He took command of the ironclad Mound City in July and in mid–September was named captain of the big ironclad Benton. On leave, he married Mary Frances Hutchinson (1837–?), daughter of prominent New Yorker Hiram Hutchinson (1808–1869), on November 11. After a three-week honeymoon in the city, Gwin returned to his command, now part of a large Mississippi Squadron advance downstream to the Yazoo River. On December 27, 1862, the Benton was ordered to lead several boats up that stream to bombard the Confederate batteries on the 90-foot high Haynes’ Bluff as a diversion in favor of the Union soldiers then engaged in the Battle of Chickasaw Bayou. The Benton opening the engagement about 4:00 p.m., it was soon apparent that the ironclad would need to be moved to avoid deadly Confederate plunging fire. Gwin, anxious to see if his guns were causing any damage, left the Benton’s armored pilothouse and went out onto deck armed only with a spyglass. Impeccably uniformed as usual, the Tyler’s former skipper exposed himself to enemy fire, aptly demonstrating his motto that “the quarterdeck was the place for a commander to be in time of action.” While “braving fearlessly their balls” as he had during the heated battle with the Arkansas back in July, Gwin was mortally wounded by a rifled
Confederate shell that took off most of his right breast. As he fell, according to the Chicago Daily Tribune, he knew his wound was life-threatening and supposedly screamed his final words: “My love to my wife—my wishes to my country.” The Benton was quickly withdrawn from action and, despite the fact that her captain received the best of the primitive care available, he died aboard on January 3, 1863. Gwin was buried in the Hutchinson family vault at Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Newark, NJ, 24 days later. He was remembered in the 20th century when no less than four USN warships (TB-16, DD-71, DD-433, DM-33) were named in his honor. Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; Biographical Record of Prominent and Representative Men of Indianapolis and Vicinity; D. Stevenson, Indiana’s Roll of Honor; Appletons’, III; DANFS; Callahan; E. Whyte, “William Gwin,” in Tucker, I; Smith, Civil War Biographies from the Western Waters; Smith, The Timberclads in the Civil War; Neeser, “Historic Ships of the Navy: Benton”; Smith, CSS Arkansas; Smith, Tinclads in the Civil War; Chicago Daily Tribune, January 5–6, 11, February 19, 1863; Smith, Fight for the Yazoo; “Lt. Cmdr. William Gwin,” FindaGrave, http:// www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSsr= 2441&GSvcid=266131&GRid=94924030& (accessed December 12, 2012); New York Times, January 28, 1863, August 16, 1864; Newark Daily Advertiser, January 26, 28, 1863; Cincinnati Daily Commercial, February 18, 1863; Indianapolis Journal, February 19, 1863; Chicago Daily Tribune, February 19, 1863.
Hall, John P. (?–1862, USN) A native of Illinois about whom little is known, Hall was appointed a USN midshipman from Ohio on December 29, 1840, studied at the naval school attached to the Philadelphia Naval Asylum, from which he graduated in June 1842, and went to sea, serving in both the Atlantic and Caribbean for the next decade and becoming a passed midshipman on July 11, 1846. In July 1850 he joined the storeship Relief for two years, delivering supplies to ships of the Brazil Squadron, after which he was transferred to the Brazil Squadron sloop-of-war Jamestown. He joined the Pacific Squadron sloop-of-war John Adams in May 1854 and, although scheduled for promotion to lieutenant in September 1855, was one of the many officers discharged from the USN before the end of the year by authority of the Naval Retiring Board, established by act of
Harrison
Congress that February 28. Hall’s activities between the time of his dismissal and the outbreak of the Civil War in April 1861 are unknown, although it is probable that he remained in the maritime industry. When the U.S. Western Gunboat Flotilla opened its base at Cairo, IL, in the fall of 1861, Hall was part of the staff, and in late April 1862 he was sent with messages to Flag Officer Andrew Hull Foote (1806–1863), below Island No. 10, being then assigned to the ironclad Cincinnati. When the vessel’s acting captain, William Rion Hoel (1825–1879), was detached following the June 6 Battle of Memphis, TN, Hall, an acting volunteer lieutenant, was made the gunboat’s acting captain and took the vessel back upstream to Cairo for repairs. Just after her arrival on July 14, Hall was detached and ordered to St. Louis to assist Cmdr. William D. “Dirty Bill” Porter (1813–1864) with construction of the giant ironclads Choctaw and Fort Henry. It was at St. Louis that he became ill and died, on September 8. Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; Callahan; DANFS; ORN, I, 23; Paullin, History of Naval Administration, 1775–1911.
Harrison, Napoleon Boneparte (1823–1870, USN) The eldest son of Dr. John Stewart Harrison, Sr. (1760–1838), Napoleon was born at Martinsburg, VA (now WV), on February 19, 1823. Appointed a USN midshipman on February 27, 1833, he joined the sloop-of-war Erie and subsequently the sloop-of-war Boston, cruising the West Indies until 1838, when he was transferred to the Brazil Squadron schooner Enterprise. From 1841 to 1842, he was aboard the Brazil Squadron frigate Potomac and the steamship Norfolk before returning to the Erie, which had become an armed storeship and delivered supplies to Brazil Squadron, Africa Squadron, and Pacific Squadron vessels from early February 1843 to August 1846, during which deployment Harrison became a passed midshipman on May 20, 1844. Off California, Harrison transferred to the sloop-of-war Portsmouth, participated in the capture of San Francisco, and afterwards sailed his ship’s launch in five days with news of the victory down the coast to Monterey.
A loyal Virginian, Cmdr. Napoleon Boneparte Harrison, USN, became captain of the monitor Catskill off Charleston, SC, in February 86. For the next six months, his ship performed blockade duty off the Southern citadel, destroying the British blockade runner Prince Albert, which had grounded off Fort Moultrie during the night of August (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
Following 1851 USNO duty, he was seconded to the USCS, where he became a master on April 2, 1852. Appointed lieutenant on January 6, 1853, Harrison was East India Squadron storekeeper and participated through 1856 in the expedition under Com. Matthew C. Perry (1794–1858) that opened Japan. Following an 1857 tour aboard the Boston receiving ship, he joined the Africa Squadron flagship, the frigate Cumberland, being placed in charge of the details of the flotilla’s logistics during its two-year service. He was aboard the sloop-of-war Jamestown when the Civil War began on April 12, 1861. Resisting the appeals of his Virginia family and friends to join the Confederacy, Harrison remained loyal and aboard the Jamestown during her South Atlantic Blockading Squadron (SABS) deployment in the last half of 1861 off
Hoel
the east coast of Florida. In January 1862, he became captain of the Unadilla-class gunboat Cayuga, which joined the West Gulf Blockading Squadron (WGBS) in late March. In April the Cayuga led assigned elements of the WGBS past the lower Mississippi River Forts Jackson and St. Philip, winning her commander praise for his actions in the capture of New Orleans. Within weeks, Harrison was transferred to the James River and command of the double-ender gunboat Mahaska, then supporting the AUS advance toward Richmond. On June 20 his new ship engaged Confederate batteries along the Appomattox River and on July 1 blasted those at Harrison’s Landing. In recognition of his New Orleans gallantry, Harrison was promoted to the rank of commander on July 16, and when later in the year the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron (NABS) flagship Minnesota required a new captain he was tapped to fill the billet. The Passaic-class monitor Catskill had seen much service in 1863 in the contests with Confederate forts at the mouth of Charleston Harbor. With much of the heavy bombardment work already completed, the Catskill’s mission when Harrison became her captain in February 1864 was blockade and AUS support. On August 9 his ship shelled and destroyed the British blockade runner Prince Albert, which had grounded off Fort Moultrie during the night. When Cmdr. Edward Barrett (1827–1880) assumed command of the Catskill, Harrison undertook special ordnance duty at the Philadelphia navy yard until July 27, 1865, when he became commandant of the Portsmouth navy yard. Harrison was commissioned a captain on April 23, 1868, becoming USNA Commandant of Midshipmen. In late 1869 he assumed command of the new South Atlantic Squadron (SAS) screw sloop-of-war Congress, but during her initial cruise as SAS flagship in the summer of 1870 she encountered numerous Caribbean storms and Harrison contracted pneumonia. He was taken ashore at Key West, FL, where he died on October 20. Harrison was buried at Oak Hill Cemetery, leaving a wife, Maria Plater Wellford Harrison (1824–1897), whom he married before the war, and three children. One 20th century USN warship (DD-573) was named in his honor. Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; Apple-
tons’, III; DANFS; ORN, I, 15; SLGMSD, pseud., “Capt. Napoleon Boneparte Harrison,” FindaGrave, http:// www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid= 37191041 (accessed March 12, 2016); United Service 4 (September 1865), 273; Philadelphia Inquirer, November 2, 1870; New York Herald, November 2, 1870; Baltimore Sun, November 3, 1870.
Hoel, William Rion (1825–1879, USN) Born on March 7,1825 in Sharon, Hamilton County, OH, Hoel, the son of a well-known steamboat pilot, Edmund Hoel, spent a short time at Cincinnati’s Xavier College before turning to the river. He began service as a cub pilot on the steamer Samson on October 15, 1840, becoming a full-fledged pilot in June 1843 and one of the earliest licensed pilots in January 1853. He piloted steamers on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers during the late 1840s and early 1850s, including the Valley Forge, Ohio, R.H. Winslow, Norma, and South America. Hoel, a passenger, was injured on October 1, 1855, when the balloon America crashed in a rainstorm near Waynesville, OH. He had recovered by December 8 and resumed work, as pilot of the Monongahela. In April 1856 He became pilot of the steamer Argyle, service aboard which boat was followed by stints on board at least 16 other steamboats Hoel became a civilian pilot on the U.S. timberclad Lexington on October 19, 1861, and guided the vessel during the November 7 battle of Belmont, MO. By February 1, 1862, he was first master of the Pook turtle Cincinnati and was wounded during the Battle of Fort Henry, on the Tennessee River, five days later. He remained onboard the Cincinnati as she participated in the capture of Columbus, KY, on March 4 and, on April 4 he volunteered to pilot gunboat Carondelet in her famous run past the Rebel batteries at Island Number 10. Hoel’s courageous and skillful service on this occasion won the praise of RAdm. Andrew H. Foote (1806–1863), thanks from navy secretary Gideon Welles (1802–1878), and promotion to the rank of acting volunteer lieutenant effective April 29. On May 10 Hoel assumed command of the Cincinnati when her captain was incapacitated during the Battle of Plum Point Bend near Fort
Hoel Pillow, TN. Hoel was present at the June 6 Battle of Memphis, after which he was detached to command of the captured Confederate gunboat Little Rebel (later Tinclad No. 16). On October 29 (after overseeing from that vessel the Cincinnati’s salvage, move to Cairo, IL, and restoration) he became captain of the Pook ironclad Pittsburg and during November participated in minesweeping operations up the Yazoo River below Vicksburg, MS. On December 12 He sent a damage control party to the stricken ironclad Cairo, which could not prevent her loss to a Confederate “torpedo.” Following her par-
A noted prewar Western waters steamboat captain who would become an acting volunteer lt. cmdr., William R. Hoel, USN, piloted the ironclad Carondelet past Island No. on April , 862, and commanded the ironclad Pittsburg during the Vicksburg campaign, playing a vital role in the April 86 Battle of Grand Gulf (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
6 ticipation in the March 1863 Steele’s Bayou Expedition, the Pittsburg, on the night of April 16, was one of several USN vessels to steam down the Mississippi past the guns of Fortress Vicksburg. On April 29, as RAdm. David Dixon Porter’s (1813–1891) flotilla was bombarding the Confederate batteries at Grand Gulf, his flagship, USS Benton, became unmanageable and was caught under heavy fire in a position where she could neither steer nor reply to the enemy guns. Upon seeing Porter’s predicament, Hoel slipped the Pittsburg in between Benton and the flaming Rebel batteries to protect her by taking the fire himself. The bombardment allowed AUS troops to cross the Mississippi and launch a final campaign that led to the capture of Vicksburg on July 4. Following leave, Hoel returned to the Pittsburg off Grand Gulf and participated in anti-contraband patrols. From early March to May 1864 Hoel’s vessel joined the AUS-USN Red River Expedition; returning to Grand Gulf, she resumed anti-contraband activities. On October 19 and again on November 7 Hoel wrote letters of resignation, wishing to return to Cincinnati and his stressed business affairs. Both applications were denied, and he was instead promoted to acting volunteer lieutenant commander on November 10. Detached from the Pittsburg, Hoel took over the ram Vindicator on March 1, 1865, maintaining that vessel in the vicinity of Red River until July 7, 1865. Hoel returned to Waynesville, OH, on October 17, 1865, was honorably discharged on December 30, and, returning to the steamboat trade, became pilot of the transport Robert Burns in January 1866. Married to Elizabeth Hunt (1840–1904) on February 11, 1869, Hoel built a model farm named Kildere, located east of Corwin, OH. He and his wife, the parents of two children, were also participants with Mark Twain on the 1867 European tour that formed the basis for Innocents Abroad. On December 1, 1875, Hoel was appointed captain of the lighthouse tender Lily, which operated on the Upper Ohio in the 14th Lighthouse District until she was laid up at Cincinnati in early May 1879. Often bad-tempered and jealous, Hoel incorrectly thought he caught his wife in a tryst on May 29 and was accidentally killed in a struggle with the man he believed was her lover. Hoel was buried in Spring Hill Cemetery and a
stained-glass window was later installed in his memory in Waynesville’s St. Mary’s Episcopal Church. Three 20th century USN destroyers (DD-533, DD-768 and DDG-13) were named in his honor. His personal diary survived in the Inland River Collection of the Cincinnati Public Library. Sources: DANFS; Callahan; Miami (OH) Gazette, December 1, 1869; Karen Campbell, “Another Murder in Waynesville?: Captain William Rion Hoel”; Waynesville, Ohio: Connections with the Past, http:// waynesgenhis. blogspot. com/ 2005/ 08/ another- mur der-in-waynesville-captain.html (accessed March 16, 2008); Hoel, “The Brown Water Navy: The Ironclads of the Mississippi River Squadron and the Exploits of Acting Volunteer Lieutenant Commander William Rion Hoel”; Rutter, “Capt. William Rion Hoel: The Life of a 19th Century Riverman”; Smith, Civil War Biographies from the Western Waters; Smith, The Timberclads in the Civil War; Smith, USS Carondelet; Smith, Fight for the Yazoo; Dallas Bogan, “Captain William Rion Hoel,” Warren County Ohio Gen Web, http:// www. rootsweb. ancestry. com/~ohwarren/ Bo gan/bogan130.htm (accessed March 1, 2010); Western Star, May 29, 1879; Cincinnati Daily Commercial, May 30, 1879; Paul S., pseud., “Capt. William Rion Hoel,” FindaGrave, http://www.findagrave.com/cgibin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=13036107 (accessed March 16, 2008).
Howard Amanda was dispatched to a position near the lightship, located at the mouth of Chesapeake Bay, to await the monitor. When the Northern ironclad arrived, officers from the bark briefed her commander, Lt. John Worden (1818–1897), but as they approached Fortress Monroe it was discovered that the little warship’s previous pilot, a man with Southern sympathies, was refusing to take her out to do battle with the Virginia. Howard volunteered to remain aboard and pilot the monitor to a position near the just-freed Minnesota and do wherever else might be re-
Howard, Samuel (1821–1900, USN) Born near Dublin, Ireland, in 1821, Howard ran away to sea in 1837 on a merchant ship bound to the Mediterranean. Early in the 1840s, he immigrated to Newport, RI, where he eventually became a naturalized U.S. citizen and was a prewar captain of numerous trading vessels operating out of Chesapeake Bay. During these years, he married Mary Dugan and fathered four children. When the Civil War began, he was captain of a bark trading with Cuba and in the West Indies. In August, he became an acting master and joined the crew of the wooden-hulled North Atlantic Blockading Squadron (NABS) bark Amanda on blockade south of Norfolk, VA, the bark at the end of November being transferred to the sector off Wilmington, NC. The Amanda was under repair at Hampton Roads, VA, when on March 8 the Southern ironclad CSS Virginia sallied forth and sank the frigates Cumberland and Congress and caused the Minnesota and St. Lawrence to run aground. After the fight, the
Pilot of the Monitor during the March 862 Battle of Hampton Roads, Acting Volunteer Lt. Samuel Howard, USN, became captain of the Mississippi Squadron monitor Neosho in July 86, remaining in command of the ironclad for the rest of the war. In the spring of 86 she was part of the Federal armada that participated in the Red River Expedition and in December aided in the defense of Nashville, TN (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
Howell quired. The famous battle between the two metal behemoths occurred next day, with Howard in the pilothouse of the Union vessel. Returning to the Amanda a few days later, he became an acting volunteer lieutenant on June 5 and remained with her until transferred west to the Mississippi Squadron on July 9, 1863. He assumed command of the river monitor Neosho on July 16 and on December 8 defended the disabled merchant steamer Henry Von Phul from a Confederate shore battery near Morganza, LA. From March 12 to May 22, 1864, Neosho participated in the unsuccessful Red River Campaign. During the concluding downstream retreat, Neosho joined several other ironclads in escaping low water by maneuvering, via AUS dams, over the falls at Alexandria. In the Battle of Nashville, Neosho, accompanied by the casemate ironclad Carondelet, bombarded Confederate batteries on the Cumberland River, near Bell’s Mills, TN, on December 6 and pounded the Confederate right wing on December 15–16. After the Neosho was laid up, in May 1865, Howard, following leave, was given a billet aboard the receiving ship Vermont. In 1867 and 1868 he served aboard the USS Pensacola, being reunited once more with her commander, Capt. Worden, prior to Howard’s honorable discharge of November 4. Howard became a USRCS third lieutenant on February 20, 1869, and a second lieutenant on July 20, 1870. He would spend his career with the Treasury Department service stationed at Savannah, GA, Baltimore, MD, Cedar Keys, FL, and Mobile, AL. A practical navigator innocent of scientific training, Howard now encountered advancement difficulties. Having failed his first lieutenant’s exam, he was dismissed from the USRS on March 28, 1876, but was reinstated, at the bottom of the grade of third lieutenants, two months later. By October 1883 he had climbed back up the ladder to second lieutenant once more, but by 1889 he was reportedly in ill health. According to New York Times, he spent “most of his days on his orange farm in Georgia.” In 1891 he again failed the promotion exam and was placed at the foot of his current grade, out of line for promotion. While he awaited orders at Washington, D.C., a bill was introduced in Congress to advance him to the rank of first lieutenant; when this failed in 1895 he retired.
8 Active in Washington veterans’ organizations, his church, and the Masons, Howard slipped and fell on ice while walking home on January 13, 1900, and suffered a concussion from which he did not awaken. The last Monitor officer from the famous duel with the CSS Merrimac died the next day and two days later was buried in Arlington National Cemetery. No U.S. vessels have been named in his honor. Sources: DANFS; Callahan; New York Times, March 13, 1889; January 1, 1893; U.S. Treasury Department, Revenue Cutter Service, Register of the Officers and Vessels of the Revenue Cutter Service of the United States; Quarstein, Monitor Boys; Smith, Civil War Biographies from the Western Waters; Smith, Le Roy Fitch; Carpenter, “The Monitor and the Merrimac”; Noble, comp., Historical Register: U.S. Revenue Cutter Service Officers, 1794–1914; Neeser, “Historic Ships of the Navy: Monitor”; Washington Post, January 15, 1900.
Howell, John Cumming (1819–1892, USN) The son of War of 1812 and Battle of Lake Erie volunteer Maj. Richard Lewis Howell (1794– 1847) and his wife Rebecca Augusta (Stockton) Howell (1798–1877), John Cumming was born in Philadelphia, PA, on November 24, 1819. Educated at Crawford’s Classical School and Washington College, he was appointed a USN midshipman on June 9, 1836, and cruised the Caribbean for three years aboard the West Indies Squadron sloop-of-war Boston. Following a leave, he spent another year aboard that squadron’s sloop-of-war Levant and the frigate Macedonian between October 1839 and October 1840, being seconded to the War Department gunboat Poinsett as she was prepared for duty in the Second Seminole War. Howell attended the Philadelphia Naval Asylum school in 1841, graduated in June 1842, became a passed midshipman on July 1, and, after serving on three different ships between July and December 1845, was the naval storekeeper at Macao, China, until detached in September 1848. On the Philadelphia receiving ship for a year, he became a master on February 21, 1849, and lieutenant on August 2 and, from September through April 1850, was on the Home Squadron flagship, the frigate Raritan. Thereafter, he joined the East Indies Squadron sloop- of-war Saratoga for a three-year cruise of the western Pacific and par-
ticipated in the first phase of the Opening of Japan in July 1853. Howell became ill in November and returned to Philadelphia, where he recovered and engaged in light duties aboard the receiving ship. During that time, he married Mary Stockton (1830–1889) on June 22, 1854; the couple would have a daughter. In April 1856 the lieutenant joined the Mediterranean Squadron paddle-wheel frigate Susquehanna for a twoyear voyage. Upon her return, he was at the Philadelphia naval rendezvous (recruiting station) from June 1858 through February 1860, when he was transferred to the new Brazil Squadron steam sloop-of-war Seminole on her voyage to Rio de Janeiro. After the outbreak of the Civil War in April 1861, the warship was returned to Philadelphia on July 6. Aboard the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron (NABS) flagship, the steam frigate Minnesota, for two months, Howell became captain of the East Gulf Blockading Squadron (EGBS) Unadilla-class gunboat Tahoma, which joined the Florida blockade at the beginning of 1862. An effective blockader, Howell took several runners and operated several shore raids, becoming a commander on July 16. During November–April 1863 Howell assumed command, and completed the outfitting, of the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron (NABS) Passaic-class monitor Lehigh. From a Newport News, VA, base, she participated in the blockade of the Virginia Capes and, in June, joined a flotilla expedition up the James River. In November, Howell became captain of the NABS screw gunboat Nereus and was stationed off the New Inlet station near Wilmington, NC, from April 28 through mid–August. Under repair until November, the Nereus towed NABS monitors in November and December and provided gunfire support during the unsuccessful Christmas assault on Fort Fisher. She again provided cannon fire and also contributed men to the landing parties that were sent ashore on January 15, 1865, in the attack that captured the NC citadel. She towed a monitor to Charleston in February and then joined the hunt for the Confederate ocean raider Shenandoah. Aboard the NABS flagship Minnesota from May to October 1865, Howell commanded the Philadelphia naval rendezvous until June 1868, being promoted to the rank of captain on July 25,
Howell
An effective blockader, Lt. Cmdr. John C. Howell, USN, outfitted and then commanded the monitor Lehigh from November 862 to June 86. After this brief service off the Virginia Capes and in the James River, he was ordered back onto blockade duty (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
1866. European Squadron flag captain aboard the flagship Franklin from December to November 1871, he was League Island, PA, navy yard commandant until October 1872, being meanwhile advanced to the rank of commodore on January 29 of that year. Commandant of the Portsmouth navy yard until September 1874, he then became chief of the USN Bureau of Yards and Docks in Washington, D.C. During his bureau tenure, Howell occasionally filled in as acting assistant secretary of the navy and became a rear admiral on April 25, 1877. In September 1878 He became commander of the North Atlantic Squadron (NAS) and flew his flag in the paddle-wheel frigate Powhatan until December 10, when he shifted it to the screw gunboat Trenton. His sea service continued until October 1881 as he visited ports in Europe, the Mediterranean, and the Adriatic. Upon his return, Howell was placed on the
Hunter retired list on November 24. Following the death of his wife, he became a traveler. He died on September 12, 1892, at Folkestone, England, and was buried in that city’s Cheriton Road Cemetery. No USN warships have been named in his honor. Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; Cogar; Hamesly, 3rd ed.; DANFS; History of the Upper Ohio Valley, with Family History and Biographical Sketches, I; Katherine Kerr, “Howell Lineage,” RootsWeb, http:// archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/HOWELL/ 2001–03/0985714625 (accessed August 5, 2016); “Rubbings,” pseudo., “Adm. John C. Howell,” FindaGrave, http:// www. findagrave. com/ cgi- bin/ fg. cgi?page= gr&GRid=83694861 (accessed August 5, 2016); Daily Iner-Ocean, September 14, 1892; Milwaukee Sentinel, September 14, 1892; Boston Daily Advertiser, September 14, 1892.
Hunter, Thomas Triplett (1813–1872, CSN) One of two sons and a daughter of Gen. John Chapman Hunter (1762–1849) and Sara Dade Hunter (1768–1845), Thomas Triplett was born
in Fairfax County, VA, on May 23, 1813. He was appointed a USN midshipman on July 1, 1828, and was for four years aboard the Pacific Squadron schooner Dolphin. He became a passed midshipman on June 14, 1834, and was on leave or engaged in shore duty for the remainder of the decade. On May 2, 1836, he married Mary Virginia Herbert (1816–1857) at Beltsville, MD; the couple would have nine children. From September 1841 until October 1843 Hunter patrolled the Atlantic coast and in the West Indies aboard the Home Squadron brig Dolphin, becoming a lieutenant on February 25, 1841. After shore duty and a tour off the Dark Continent with the Africa Squadron schooner Boxer, he joined the Brazil Squadron frigate Brandywine in summer 1847 on a three-year cruise off the eastern coast of South America. In April 1849 the lieutenant was transferred, via Panama, to the East Indies Squadron sloop-of-war Plymouth, which returned from the Far East in January 1851, only to return again in August 1852 for another three years, during which Japan was “opened” in 1854. Unemployed for 18 months, Hunter joined the
Cmdr. Thomas T. Hunter, CSN, commanded the paddle-wheel gunboat CSS Gaines and Confederate Navy Forces at Fort Morgan, Mobile, AL, from spring 862 until the fall of 86, when he assumed command of the ironclad Chicora (shown on the left in this photo of a Conrad Wise Chapman painting) at Charleston, SC. During the remainder of the year and all of 86 until January 86 when she was destroyed, Hunter’s vessel held Federal ironclads close, making it possible for numerous blockaderunners to get through (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
Jeffers
Mediterranean Squadron flagship, aboard the paddle-wheel frigate Susquehanna, in May 1856 and became a lieutenant on December 23. When she returned in April 1858, he was sent to Wilmington, NC, as Sixth District lighthouse inspector. At some point during the last two years of peace, he married Anne Anthony Pope (?– 1867) but had no children. On April 23, 1861, six days after Virginia seceded from the Union, Hunter resigned his commission; on May 14, the U.S. Navy Department officially struck him from its rolls. Having offered his services to the new Confederacy, he was ordered to the Norfolk navy yard two days later to protect the military property gained there when Union forces evacuated on April 20. Four days later he sailed the flag-of-truce steamer Empire into Federal waters to return the Northern personnel captured during the occupation. Hunter became a CSN commander on June 10 and in August became captain of the paddle-wheel gunboat CSS Curlew, which patrolled the waters of Pamlico Sound, NC, and harassed Federal shipping near Hatteras Inlet. On February 7, 1862, the Curlew was one of nine Confederate warships that unsuccessfully attempted to beat off the Northern invasion of Roanoke Island. Following her loss the next day, Hunter assumed command of the paddle-wheel gunboat Gaines at Mobile, AL. He remained captain of that vessel and commander of CSN forces at Fort Morgan until late fall 1863 when he succeeded Lt. Alexander Fraser Warley (1823– 1895) as commander of the ironclad Chicora at Charleston, SC. During the remainder of 1863 and all of 1864 and early 1865, Hunter’s ironclad, with its two consorts, served as a fleet-in-being, holding Federal ironclads close and making it possible for numerous blockade-runners to get through. When it became certain that the city would fall to approaching Federal columns and evacuation was necessary, word came to the Cooper City docks that all three ironclads were to be destroyed. Ten tons of gunpowder was placed aboard and the fuses lit on the night of February 17/18, 1865. Hunter soon thereafter found himself attached to the Confederate Marine Corps continent assigned to the army corps of Lt. Gen. Richard S. Ewell (1817–1872). On April 6 Hunter led his men in fighting in the Battle of Sailor’s Creek, near Burkesville, VA,
and was forced to surrender. After taking the prescribed oath of allegiance to the U.S., Hunter was released from Fort Warren, MA, on July 24. Returning to Wilkes County, VA, Hunter became a farmer. Following the death of his second wife in 1867, he moved to Washington, GA, where he married Harriet Frances DuBose (1842– 1898), sister of U.S. congressman Dudley M. Dubose (1834–1883). The couple built a large house they called “The Anchorage,” where Hunter died on July 10, 1872. He was buried in Washington’s Rest Haven Cemetery. Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; CSN Register; DANFS; Foenander; David Woody, “Com. Thomas Triplett Hunter,” FindaGrave, http://www. findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=4537 1330 (accessed August 16, 2016); New York Herald, April 9, 1865; “Willingham Will Tell Lincoln History Buffs About Hunter,” Wilkes County News-Reporter, September 24, 2015.
Jeffers, William Nicholson, III (1824–1883, USN) The son of lawyer John Ellis Jeffers (c. 1793– c. 1838) and Ruth Westcott Jeffers, William was born in Swedesboro, NJ, on October 16, 1824. He became a USN midshipman on September 25, 1840, and participated in a three-year cruise aboard the Pacific Squadron frigate United States that included the capture of Upper California in 1841. In 1844 until October 1845, he was on the Brazil Squadron frigate Congress and, following study, graduated from the Philadelphia naval school in June 1846. On July 9 Jeffers reported to the Home Squadron steamer Vixen, being promoted to a passed midshipman two days later. During the Mexican War, he participated in attacks on Alvarado and San Juan d’Ulloa and in the captures of Vera Cruz, Tuxpan, and Tampico. On leave from November 1847 to April 1848, Jeffers served as a USNA instructor, becoming an acting master on May 17. He was seconded to the USCS from December 1849 to October 1850. On September 23 he married Lucy Le Grand Smith (1828–?); the couple would have two children. While on leave, he was captain of the American Line mail steamer Falcon on her voyages between New York and several Mexican ports but was then selected by Com. Matthew C. Perry (1794–1858) to participate in the opening of Japan as acting master on
Jeffers the screw frigate Princeton. When use of that vessel was cancelled in December 1853, Jeffers again received leave and took the opportunity to join the Honduran expedition of Ephraim George Squier (1821–1888), which sought a route for an interoceanic railway. Jeffers became a master on June 12, 1854, and returned to duty, this time on the Brazil Squadron sloop-of-war Germantown, aboard which he was advanced to lieutenant on January 30, 1855. Given his exploratory bent, he became captain of the paddlewheel gunboat/survey steamer Water Witch, with which he explored the Rio de la Plata. In February his ship was fired upon by a Paraguayan battery and ran aground, killing one crewmember, before Jeffers could extricate her. Praised for his actions in the unprovoked fight (which would lead to a U.S. Paraguayan punitive expedition), he was detached from the Water Witch in May for Washington, D.C., duty. In March 1857 Jeffers was granted a year-long furlough to visit Europe, after which he became a gunnery officer aboard the experimental ordnance sloop-of-war Plymouth. In January 1859 he transferred to the steam sloop-of-war Brook-
Shown seated before the turret of the USS Monitor, Lt. William N. Jeffers, USN, served as the second captain of the revolutionary ironclad, from March to July 862. He was a shore-based ordnance officer for the remainder of the Civil War and became a commodore in 88 (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
2 lyn with the same assignment and then, arriving off Chiriqui, Panama, on August 24, his ship supported an expedition to find a passage across the Isthmus of Chiriqui with him serving as hydrographer on the trek. During the adventure, he became ill with rheumatism and was sent on sick leave. On May 23, 1861, following the outbreak of Civil War a month earlier, Jeffers joined the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron (NABS) steam frigate Roanoke, where he remained until November when he became captain of the little NABS steam gunboat Underwriter, which remained active off the North Carolina coast and its tributaries for the next six months, participating in numerous raids. On March 12 Jeffers replaced the Monitor’s acting captain, Lt. Samuel Dana Greene (1840–1884), who in turn had superseded her original captain during the fight with the CSS Virginia. On April 11 the Southern ram challenged the Monitor to fight off Sewell’s Point in Hampton Roads, but Jeffers remained near Fort Monroe protecting the fleet anchorage. A second lost opportunity occurred in the same area on May 8. Three days later, when Norfolk was abandoned by the South, the Virginia was destroyed. The next day, in support of the Federal’s Peninsula Campaign, the Monitor and several other warships unsuccessfully bombarded Drewry’s Bluff on the James River. After the shoot, the ironclad remained in the river, where Jeffers was promoted to the rank of lieutenant commander on July 16. Detached from the warship the same day, he was ordnance officer at the Philadelphia navy yard until October 1863, when he became inspector of ordnance at the Washington Navy Yard, where he helped to create bombs employed at Fort Fisher, NC, at the end 1864. Becoming a commander on March 3, 1865, Jeffers was captain of the European Squadron steam sloop-of-war Swatara, from June 1866 to February 1867, and returned to Washington, D.C., the fugitive John Surratt, wanted in connection with the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865). In 1868 and 1869, Jeffers served a USNO tour and suffered great difficulty in passing the physical examination and surviving initial rejection for his promotion to captain on July 13, 1870. He was assistant to the chief of the Bureau of Ordnance from Sep-
tember until October 1871, when he became commander of the USNA practice frigate Constellation. In April 1873 Jeffers became chief of the Bureau of Ordnance and began a significant program to upgrade USN armament. Becoming a commodore on February 26, 1878, his resignation from the bureau was accepted on June 30, 1881, and he was ordered to Europe to observe and report on foreign naval developments. Offered command of the Asiatic Squadron in early 1883, Jeffers was forced to decline, as his health was failing due to what the newspapers called “Brights Disease of the Kidneys.” He died at Washington, D.C., on July 23, 1883, and was buried at Laurel Hill Cemetery, Philadelphia, PA, two days later. The respected author of several naval manuals, Jeffers had one 20th century USN destroyer (DD-621) named in his honor. Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; Hamersly; DANFS; Quarstein, Monitor Boys; Still, Ironclad Captains; Wright, John “J-Cat” Griffith, “Com. William Nicholson Jeffers,” FindaGrave, http:// www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid= 14010823 (accessed May 3, 2016); Hannan, New Jersey Biographical Dictionary (2 vols.; Hamburg, MI: State History Publications, 2008), I; Oliver, “William Nicholson Jeffers,” in U.S. Naval Academy Alumni Association, Third Annual Reunion, June 7, 1888; Jeffers, A Concise Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Naval Gunnery; Jeffers, Ordnance Instructions for the U.S. Navy; Jeffers, Inspection and Proof of Cannon; Jeffers, Nautical Surveying; Jeffers with Murphy, Nautical Routine and Stowage, with Short Rules in Navigation; Neeser, “Historic Ships of the Navy: Monitor”; Washington Post, July 24, 1883; North American, July 25, 1883; Boston Daily Advertiser, July 26, 1883; New York Tribune, July 26, 1883; San Francisco Daily Evening Bulletin, July 27, 1883.
Johnston he married Martha E. Parker (1816–1885); the couple would have five children. From December 1840 to October 1843, he was aboard Pacific Squadron sloop-of-war Dale off the west coast of South America; during this deployment, Johnston became a lieutenant on June 24, 1843. Following shore duty, he joined the Brazil Squadron flagship, the frigate Columbia, for two years in November 1845 and after leave returned to the Dale off the Africa Squadron, on which he served in 1850 and 1851. From 1852 until June 1854 he put in a USNO tour, after which he commanded the USN storeship at Valparaiso, Chile. In early 1857, Johnston became executive officer of the East Indies Squadron paddle-wheel frigate Powhatan, witnessing the signing of the U.S.Japan Treaty of Amity and Commerce on her deck on July 29, 1858. In February 1860 the Powhatan departed Yokohama for San Francisco as escort to a Japanese ship transporting the first official Japanese Empire embassy to San
Johnston, James Douglas (1817–1896, CSN) The second of five children of Kentucky lawyer Gabriel J. Johnston (1794–1867) and his wife, James was born at Louisville on September 15, 1817. Appointed a USN midshipman on June 30, 1832, for five years he cruised the Caribbean aboard the West Indies Squadron sloop-of-war Vandalia and then the squadron flagship, sloop-of-war St. Louis. At the Norfolk naval school from late 1837, he graduated and became a passed midshipman on June 23, 1838. Johnston was on leave in 1839, and early in 1840
Cmdr. James D. Johnston, CSN, commissioned the ironclad Baltic at Mobile, AL, in May 862 and remained her captain until February 86. He assumed command of the ironclad Tennessee in May 86, serving both as captain and as fleet captain during the Battle of Mobile Bay in August (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
Jones Francisco, CA. Thereafter, Johnston was detailed to prepare a history of his ship’s cruise for commercial publication. On April 10, 1861, Johnston resigned his Federal commission and three days later was appointed a CSN 1st lieutenant. He completed outfitting and assumed command at Mobile, AL, of the ironclad ram Baltic, which he employed in the city’s defense from May 1862 until February 1863, when she was declared unfit for frontline service, being employed thereafter as a minelayer, placing “torpedoes” near the bay’s entrance. Johnston became a CS Provisional Navy commander in October 1863 and, following commissioning of the ironclad ram Tennessee at Selma, AL, on February 16, 1864, towed her with the Baltic to Mobile for outfitting. He was transferred as flag and vessel captain to the powerful armored vessel as Adm. Franklin Buchanan (1800–1874) raised his flag aboard on May 18. The Tennessee, situated just north of Fort Morgan, engaged the vessels of the West Gulf Blockading Squadron (WGBS) when they moved past the citadel deeper into Mobile Bay on August 5. With the vessel surrounded by Union craft on all sides and Buchanan wounded, Captain Johnston took command but could not escape defeat. He soon surrendered, both his ship and his sword, to the victorious Northerners, who sent him as a POW first to Pensacola and then to Fort Warren, MA. Johnston took the oath of allegiance to the United States on June 24 and became a Mobile insurance agent and then proprietor of the Mobile Tribune. From 1866 to 1872 he was Mobile representative for a pair of distant insurance concerns and. In 1873 the former sailor moved to Savannah, GA, to become general agent of the Alabama Gold Life Insurance Company. In February 1886, the son of Admiral David G. Farragut (1801–1870) wrote to Johnston, offering the return of the sword surrendered to his father in 1864. A vice president of the Confederate Veterans’ Association, Johnston spent most of his summers at Asheville, NC, but returned ill from there in the fall of 1895 and was hospitalized. In and out of hospital in the months afterwards, he died at his Savannah home on May 9, 1896, and was buried at Cedar Grove Cemetery, Norfolk, on May 13, next to his wife.
Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; Callahan; CSN Register; Foenander; Biographical Souvenir of the States of Georgia and Florida; Driver, Confederate Sailors, Marines, and Signalmen from Virginia and Maryland; Tucker, “James D. Johnston,” in Tucker, I; Conrad, “of the C.S. Ram Tennessee; SWF, pseud., “James Douglas Johnston,” FindaGrave, http://finda grave. com/ cgi- bin/ fg. cgi/ http=:// www,finda grave. com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=97655372 (accessed August 1, 2016); DANFS; ORN I, 23; Johnston, China and Japan: Being a Narrative of the Voyage of the U.S. Steam Frigate Powhatan in the Years 1857, ’58, ’59, and 1860; Johnston, “The Ram Tennessee at Mobile Bay,” B&L, IV; Johnston, “The Battle of Mobile Bay”; Johnston, “Admiral Buchanan and the Confederate States Ram Tennessee”; Johnston, “The Battle of Mobile Bay”; Jack Friend, West Wind, Flood Tide: The Battle of Mobile Bay; Savannah Morning News, May 10, 1896; Norfolk Virginian, May 12, 1896.
Jones, Catesby ap Roger (1821–1877, CSN) The eldest son and one of 13 children of Maj. Gen. Roger ap (Welsh for “son of ”) Catesby Jones (1789–1852) and his wife Mary Anne Mason Jones (1800–1872), Catesby was born in Fairfield, Clark County, VA, on April 15, 1821. His mother was a cousin of Gen. Robert E. Lee (1807–1870) and his father’s brother was Com. Thomas ap Catesby Jones, USN (1790–1858). With a strong local education, Jones was appointed an acting midshipman on June 18, 1836, and in 1837 was aboard the frigate Macedonian. During 1838 to October 1841, he served on the East Indies Squadron frigate Columbia, the Pacific Squadron schooner Shark, and “Old Ironsides,” the frigate Constitution. Warranted a passed midshipman on July 1, 1842, Jones undertook a three-month tour as depot of charts under oceanographer Lt. Matthew Fontaine Maury (1806–1873) and returned the next fall. Meanwhile, from September through July 1843, he participated in the survey of Tampa Bay, FL, conducted by the schooner Flirt. From October 1845 he was aboard the Pacific Squadron brig Perry and the frigate Brandywine. After a brief tour with the USCS, he became acting master aboard the Home Squadron ship-of-the-line Ohio, which was refurbished in 1846 for participation in the Mexican War. Under the command of Com. Thomas ap Catesby Jones, she did not arrive off Mazatlan until the fighting
there was over. She was sent to reinforce the Pacific Squadron, visiting Monterey, CA, in October and Sausalito in November. During this deployment, Jones became a master, on September 14, 1848. In the spring of 1849 he joined the sloop-of-war St. Mary’s and engaged in a survey of the San Francisco Bay area, becoming a lieutenant on June 5. In April 1851 the lieutenant was granted leave to visit Europe and was in Paris in December when revolution erupted. Losing the forefinger of his left hand to gunfire from French troops, he recovered locally, after which he was ordered by the Navy Department to gather information on France’s steam navy. From February 1853 until January 1856 Jones was an assistant to cannon designer Lt. John A. Dahlgren (1809–1870) at the Washington Navy Yard and
In November 86 Lt. Thomas ap Catesby Jones, CSN, became executive and ordnance officer of the CSS Virginia, the former USS Merrimac. When Capt. Franklin Buchanan was wounded during the March 8, 862, Battle of Hampton Roads against the USS Monitor, Jones became acting captain. From August to February 86, Jones commanded the CSS Chattahoochee, after which he held major shore-based commands (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
Jones in February 1856 oversaw installation of three Dahlgrens aboard the new steam frigate Merrimac. In April 1857, Jones was executive officer aboard Dahlgren’s ordnance test vessel, the sloop-of-war Plymouth. From September to February 1859 he was ordnance officer for the U.S. Paraguay punitive expedition. That November he installed the ordnance suite of the Home Squadron steam sloop-of-war Pawnee, oversaw its introduction during her shakedown, and joined in her October–December 1860 Mexican cruise. Jones was at the Washington Navy Yard from January to April 12, when the Civil War began, and resigned his commission on April 17, when Virginia seceded from the Union. He became a Virginia navy captain the next day. He transferred from the state fleet to the CSN as a lieutenant on June 11, at which time he was commandant of fortifications on Jamestown Island on the James River. In November Jones became executive and ordnance officer of the CSS Virginia, the former USS Merrimac, being converted into an ironclad at Norfolk. Over the next months, he participated in the installation of her cannon and recruited and trained the ship’s crew. All was in readiness when the Battle of Hampton Roads began on March 8, 1862. Early in the fight with the Union fleet, Capt. Franklin Buchanan (1800–1874) was wounded and command of the ironclad passed to Jones, who completed destruction of the USS Congress and Cumberland and decided to finish off the remaining USN vessels the next day. When the Virginia returned on March 9 and headed for the frigate Minnesota, she was met by the USS Monitor, the North’s ironclad, which fought her to a standstill. Reluctantly withdrawing upon the advice of his pilots, Jones took his armorclad back to base late in the day. During April the Virginia sortied several times but was unable to draw the Monitor or other Union vessels into combat. When Confederate forces abandoned Norfolk, Jones oversaw the removal of ordnance and other stores and, acting on orders, became the last man ashore on May 11 after setting the charges that blew up the Virginia. He was at Drewry’s Bluff until July; on May 15 he participated in the Battle of Fort Darling against the Monitor and several other Union warships attempting to reach Richmond by water. From
Jones August to February 1863, Jones commanded the CSS Chattahoochee, abuilding in Georgia. On March 15 he was ordered to assume command of the Navy Works at Charlotte, NC, and became a commander on May 6, the same day he took charge of the Naval Foundry and Ordnance Works at Selma, AL, which now supplied most of the naval armor and armaments of the Confederacy. On March 23, 1865, he married Gertrude Thomas Tartt (1842–1926) at the Mabry home in Selma; the couple would have three children. A few days later, he evacuated the armaments factory, taking his family and several others, plus machinery and records, to the Tartt plantation, “Bodka,” above Gainesville, escaping before Selma’s April 2 surrender. Later in the month Jones surrendered to the Federals at Mobile, AL, and his parole was granted on May 9. Jones and his family returned to Selma after the war to farm. When the former CSN officer had words with his neighbor, Jared Alphonzo Harral (1842–1933), on June 19, 1877, regarding a fight between their sons, Harral shot Jones, who died the next day. The sailor was buried at the city’s Live Oak Cemetery. Harral, found not guilty of murder on May 28, 1878, relocated to New Orleans. Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; Callahan; CSN Register; Foenander; Driver, Confederate Sailors, Marines, and Signalmen from Virginia and Maryland; Reynolds; Gene Allen Smith, “Catesby ap Roger Jones,” in Tucker, I; Smith, Thomas ap Catesby Jones: Commodore of Manifest Destiny; Starbuck, “Frock Coat of Commander Catesby ap R. Jones, CSN”; Mabry Tyson, Career of Catesby ap Roger Jones, CSS Virginia.Org, http://cssvirginia.org/tyson/ jones/carjcar.htm (accessed March 29, 2016); “Catesby ap Roger Jones,” FindaGrave, http://www.findagrave. com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=8763 (accessed March 29, 2016); Jones, Captain Roger Jones of London and Virginia: Some of His Antecedents and Descendants; W.S. Mabry, Brief Sketch of the Career of Captain Catesby ap R. Jones; Benedict Davenport, “Catesby ap Roger Jones,” in Naval Officers: Their Heredity and Development; Jones, “The First Confederate Iron-Clad: The Virginia”; Jones, “Services of the Virginia (Merrimac)”; Ryan, “The Hardship of a Confederate Industry: Catesby Jones and the Selma Naval Ordnance Works”; Boston Daily Advertiser, July 3, 1877; St. Louis Globe-Democrat, July 5, 1877; Birmingham Iron Age, July 4, 1877, May 29, 1878; Kendall, History of New Orleans, iii.
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Jones, John Pembroke “Paul Jones” (1825–1910, CSN) The eldest of six children of John Jones (1800– 1867) and Mary Slacter Booker Jones (1806– 1880), John Pembroke was born at Pembroke Farm, near Hampton, VA, on February 28, 1825. He was appointed an acting USN midshipman on October 19, 1841, and became a member of the first USNA class. In December 1844 Jones went aboard the Home Squadron frigate Potomac for a year’s cruise in the Caribbean, after which he returned to the ship, serving in the Mexican War until July 20, 1847. During this deployment, he was involved with others from his class in the Port Isabel, TX, landing in May 1846 and the March 1847 siege of Buena Vista. Upon his graduation (second in his class and first in mathematics), he became a passed midshipman on August 10, 1847. Jones was wounded in a duel with future poet James Barron Hope (1829–1887) in April 1849 and in November joined the sloopof-war Marion, participating in her two-year cruise of the East Indies. In June 1852 Jones was seconded to the USCS schooner Gallatin and, while surveying the mouth of the Cape Fear River, met and married Jane Vance London (1831–1859); the couple would have a son. He commanded the USCS schooner Crawford from early 1853 until the spring of 1855, when he was transferred to the Mediterranean Squadron flagship, the frigate Congress, for a 29-month European visit, during which time he was advanced to master (March 1, 1855) and lieutenant (September 14, 1855). In June 1858 he joined and oversaw outfitting of the Africa Squadron steam sloop-of-war Mohican, active off the Dark Continent from January 1860. Early in 1861 Jones, having taken ill with a severe case of “African Fever,” was furloughed, but when his ship arrived at New Orleans in mid– April he learned that the Civil War had begun and telegraphed his resignation to the Navy Department. His name was stricken from its rolls on April 29. Jones became a CSN 1st lieutenant on May 2 and was sent to the Savannah, GA, station, where he assumed command of the tugboat CSS Resolute, which in November harassed the large Port Royal, SC, Union invasion fleet and attacked Northern ships off the mouth of the Savannah River. In late February 1862 Jones
was assigned to the ironclad Virginia as flag lieutenant to Capt. Franklin Buchanan (1800–1874) and participated in the March 8–9 Battle of Hampton Roads against the Northern fleet and USS Monitor, serving as executive officer after Buchanan was wounded. He held the same positions after Flag Officer Josiah Tattnall (1795– 1871) assumed the Virginia’s command on March 29. After the ironclad’s May 11 destruction, Jones returned to the Savannah Station, where he participated in the construction of the ironclad Georgia and her initial trials in the fall of the year while also serving as captain of the gunboat Savannah, which was by then a receiving ship at her namesake city. In April 1863 her name was changed to Oconee and she was con-
st Lt. John Pembroke Jones, CSN, was named flag lieutenant aboard the CSS Virginia in February 862. When her captain was wounded during the March 8, 862, Battle of Hampton Roads against the USS Monitor, Jones became acting executive officer, a post he held until the ship was destroyed in May. From January to May 86 he commanded the ironclad Raleigh at Wilmington, NC, after which he was captain of the ironclad North Carolina until she foundered in September. His postwar life was long and well-traveled (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
Jones verted into a blockade-runner. She ran aground in August during her first attempt to visit England. During his deployment at Savannah, Jones married Mary Willis (1838–1883); the couple would have two children. Jones was next sent to Wilmington, NC, to assist in the construction of the Richmond-class ironclad ram CSS Raleigh, then under the command of CSN Lt. John Wilkinson (1821–1891). Becoming a 1st lieutenant, Provisional Navy, effective January 6, 1864, Jones took command of the new ironclad when he placed her into commission on April 30. On May 6/7, the Raleigh stood out over the bar at the mouth of the Cape Fear River and steamed to engage the Union blockade fleet off New Inlet. Her slow speed prevented her from closing with any USN vessels and at daylight she withdrew back into the river. Just inside the mouth, the ram ran aground on a bar and became, after only a week, a total loss. Following a court of inquiry that absolved him of blame, Jones took over command of the Richmond-class ironclad North Carolina, a poorly-built ram that leaked so badly she had to be used as a receiving ship at Southport, near which she foundered in late September. At month’s end, Jones took command of the torpedo fields at Chaffins Bluff on the James River and also the small wooden gunboat/torpedo boat Torpedo, with which he participated in the January 1865 Battle of Trent’s Reach. At war’s end in April 1865, Jones and his family removed to Halifax, NS, until 1870, returning to Warwick County, VA, to settle at Airlie Farm in what is now Hilton Village. From 1872 to 1877 he held a commission in the Argentine navy and surveyed the mouth of the Rio de la Plata. Jones married Georgia Newton (1837–1929) at Norfolk, VA, on October 15, 1892, and the couple moved to Europe, where he sought to improve his health. Upon his return, they settled in 1904 at Pasadena, CA, where Jones, then the oldest USNA graduate, died on May 25, 1910. His remains were returned to Hampton, VA, for burial in St. John’s Episcopal Church Cemetery. Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; Callahan; Driver, Confederate Sailors, Marines, and Signalmen from Virginia and Maryland; CSN Register; Foenander; DANFS; “Capt. John Pembroke Jones”; McCabe, “Dueling in the Old Navy”; Dawn Stewart, “Capt. John Pembroke Jones,” FindaGrave, http://
Kell www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid= 22446539 (accessed April 10, 2016); Pecquet de Beller, Some Prominent Virginia Families, I; Murray, “The Condemnation of the CSS Georgia”; Atlanta Constitution, January 16, 1898; Newport News Daily Press, April 15, 2011; Charlotte Daily Observer, May 26, 1910; New York Times, May 26, 1910; Meriden Morning Record, May 26, 1910.
Kell, John McIntosh (1823–1900, CSN) The eldest son of attorney John Kell (1784– 1827) and Margery Spalding Baillie Kell (1794– 1870), John McIntosh was born at Darien, McIntosh County, GA, on January 23, 1823, and spent his youth at Laurel Grove Plantation and with his great uncle U.S. congressman Thomas Spalding (1774–1851), who owned most of Sapelo Island. Having observed the USN brig Consort conducting a nearby coastal survey in December 1840, McIntosh decided to enter the navy. He was appointed a midshipman on September 9,
More famous for his service aboard the Confederate ocean cruisers Sumter and Alabama, st Lt. John McIntosh Kell, CSN, was captain of the James River ironclad CSS Richmond from the fall of 86 until he went on sick leave in March 86. He was Georgia’s Adjutant General from 88 to (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
8 1841, and served aboard the Home Squadron sloop-of-war Falmouth until 1843. Later that year he was transferred to the Pacific Squadron flagship, the frigate Savannah, which participated in the capture of Monterey on July 7, 1846. Kell graduated from the Annapolis naval school in June 1848, became a passed midshipman on August 10, and in September joined the West Indies Squadron sloop-of-war Albany. In 1849, he ran afoul of naval etiquette (“declining to light the lieutenants to or from the Albany’s ward room”) and that November was court-martialed and dismissed from the service. Restored to duty in November 1850 with the loss of a year’s pay, he was assigned to the East Indies Squadron flagship, the paddle-wheel frigate Susquehanna, which, with Com. Matthew C. Perry (1794–1858) embarked, entered Edo Bay in July 1853 on a mission to “open” Japan. Kell, who had transferred as acting master to Perry’s flagship, the paddle-wheel frigate Mississippi, in February 1854, guided the vessel back to the U.S. in April 1855. On September 14 he became a master and a day later a lieutenant. In December he was seconded to the USCS schooner Argo for a sixmonth survey cruise off the Texas coast. In October 1856 he married Julia Blanche Munroe (1836–1917) at Macon, GA; the couple would have six children. Aboard the Norfolk, VA, receiving ship from spring until late fall of 1857, Kell then joined the storeship Supply for a pair of Brazil Squadron replenishment cruises and in July 1859 was stationed at the Pensacola navy yard on his only major antebellum shore duty. Kell was granted leave to Macon on December 20, 1860, and resigned his USN commission on January 23, 1861, becoming the first naval officer to offer his services to the new Confederacy. He became a CSN 1st lieutenant on March 26 and, arriving at New Orleans, became executive officer of Rafael Semmes’ (1809–1877) ocean raider Sumter. After destroying 18 merchantmen, the vessel was abandoned at Gibraltar in December 1862, her crew transferring to the new cruiser Alabama, which went on to sink 65 vessels before being sunk herself by the USS Kearsarge in June 1864. During this deployment, Kell was promoted to the rank of commander on October 4, 1863. Having been rescued by a neutral yacht, he returned to the Confederacy from England in the fall and was sent to Rich-
mond, where he assumed his first command, that of the James River Squadron ironclad Richmond. Her most significant combat under Kell occurred on January 23–25, 1865, when she joined three other Southern ironclads in the Battle of Trent’s Reach, an unsuccessful effort to attack the Union base at City Point, VA. Ill from exposure, Kell was granted leave on March 24 and returned to his “Sunny Side,” home near Griffin in Spalding County to recover and engage in agriculture. Kell signed his parole papers on May 16. Pursuing “profitless farming,” he accepted the position of Georgia adjutant general in 1887, being continuously reappointed. After a lengthy illness caused by an 1895 stroke, Kell died at home on October 5, 1900, and was buried in Griffin’s Oak Hill Cemetery two days later.
Kilty Grampus for a year. On the Philadelphia, PA, receiving ship from August 1834 until March 1837, Kilty became a lieutenant on September 6 and joined the frigate John Adams, which accompanied the East Indies Squadron flagship Columbia on a four-year around-the-world cruise. During their passage, the two bombarded the forts at Kuala Batee on January 1, 1839, hoping to persuade the Sumatra rajahs to henceforth protect American shipping. Kilty was sent to the frigate Columbus in January 1842, participating in her April-May 1844 sojourns with the Mediterranean and Brazil squadrons. Unemployed until May 1846, he was aboard the Africa Squadron frigate United States until February 1849, when
Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; Callahan; CSN Register; Fronander; Kell, Recollections of a Naval Life; Tucker, “John McIntosh Kell,” in Tucker, I; “John McIntosh Kell,” FindaGrave, http://www.finda grave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=10869542 (accessed July 13, 2016); Coski, Capital Navy: Guide to the John McIntosh Kell Papers, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University, http:// library. duke. edu/ rubenstein/ findingaids/ kell johnmcintosh (accessed July 13, 1016); Delaney, John McIntosh Kell of the Raider Alabama; Delaney, “John McIntosh Kell: A Confederate Veteran in Politics”; Atlanta Constitution, December 6, 1897, October 6–7, 1900; Savannah Tribune, October 13, 1900.
Kilty, Augustus Henry (1807–1879, USN) The youngest son of the third adjutant general of Maryland, John Kilty (1756–1811), Augustus was born on November 25, 1807, at Annapolis, MD. He was appointed a USN midshipman on July 4, 1821, and served aboard the Pacific Squadron flagship, the ship-of-the-line Franklin, until December 1824, when he transferred to the West Indies Squadron frigate Constitution for a three-year voyage. Following a year of unemployment, he joined the Brazil Squadron frigate Hudson in 1828 and 1829 and was seconded in June 1830–March 1831 to the USCS schooner Florida for a Louisiana coast survey. Completing study at the Norfolk naval school in March 1832, he became a passed midshipman on April 28 but was unemployed until February 1833, when he deployed on the West Indies Squadron schooner
Captain of the Western Flotilla ironclad Mound City from January to June 862, Cmdr. Augustus H. Kilty, USN, was seriously injured while commanding an expedition up the White River of Arkansas and forced to relinquish command. Returning to duty in April 86, Kilty’s last wartime command was of the triple-turret monitor Roanoke, the harbor-defense ship at Hampton Roads, VA. He retired as a rear admiral in 8 (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
Kirkland he began a 28-month tour as executive officer of the Baltimore naval rendezvous (recruiting station). Aboard the New York receiving ship from October 1851 until September 1, 1855, he became a commander on September 14 and the next day his name was placed on the reserve list. Kilty was reinstated in June 1859 and became commander of the Baltimore naval rendezvous. When mobs threatened harm to his facility in April 1861 unless he lowered the U.S. flag, Kilty claimed he would fire on the first man touching the ensign. Violence was averted when the new navy secretary, Gideon Welles (1802– 1878), ordered the station closed. In September Kilty was ordered to St. Louis, MO, to serve with the AUS gunboat flotilla, then being formed under the command of Flag Officer Andrew Hull Foote (1806–1863). Upon her completion, Kilty was given command of the Pook ironclad Mound City. During a May 10, 1862, engagement with the Confederate River Defense Force at Plum Point Bend, above Fort Pillow, TN, the Mound City was sunk but then was raised, repaired, and redeployed. Following the triumphant June 6 Battle of Memphis, Kilty commanded an expedition to White River, AR. Approaching St. Charles on June 17, his task group was taken under fire by Confederate masked batteries and one round entered his ship, causing immense damage and heavy loss of life. Kilty was severely wounded, suffering the loss of his left arm, and was hospitalized in Memphis, where he converted to Roman Catholicism. Promoted to the rank of captain on July 16, he remained on sick leave until April 1863, when he became Baltimore ordnance officer. In August 1864 Kilty assumed command of the triple-turret North Atlantic Blockading Squadron (NABS) monitor Roanoke, the harbor defense ship at Hampton Roads, VA. When the Roanoke was laid up in June 1865, Kilty became captain of the New York receiving ship, being advanced to the rank of commodore on July 25, 1866. Although he was placed on the retired list on November 25, 1868, he finished his last assignment as commandant of the Norfolk navy yard and was commissioned a rear admiral on July 13, 1870. During his Washington, D.C., retirement, the cultured bachelor particularly enjoyed a daily walk to the Blind Asylum, where he offered
2 small presents to the patients. Following a sixweek illness, Kilty died at home on November 10, 1879, and was buried in Baltimore’s New Cathedral Cemetery. One 20th century USN destroyer (DD-137) was named in his honor. Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; Cogar, I; DANFS; Hamersly, 3rd ed.; Joiner, “Augustus H. Kilty,” in Tucker, I; “Adm. Augustus Henry Kilty,” FindaGrave, http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg. cgi?page= gr&GSsr= 3081&GSvcid= 266131&GRid= 70823801& (accessed March 12, 2012); McSherry, “Rear Admiral Augustus H. Kilty,” in The National Medals of the United States and Essays and Addresses; Smith, The Timberclads in the Civil War; Smith, Le Roy Fitch; Smith, Civil War Biographies from the Western Waters; O’Neil, “Convert Sons of the Navy”; Barnhart, “The Deadliest Shot”; New York Tribune, November 12, 1879; Washington Post, November 14, 1879; Baltimore Sun, November 14, 1879.
Kirkland, William Alexander “Ashe,” “Red Bill,” “El Rubio” (1836–1898, USN) The eldest of two sons of merchant Alexander McKenzie Kirkland (1828–1842) and Anna McKenzie Cameron Kirkland (1817–1890), William Alexander (or Ashe in some records) was born at Hillsborough, NC, on July 3, 1836. He was appointed a USN midshipman on July 2, 1850. Until November 1851 he attended the USNA, where, because of his red hair and volatile temperament, he was nicknamed “Red Bill.” He spent the next four years aboard the Pacific Squadron sloop-of-war Portsmouth and the frigate St. Lawrence, returning in October 1855 to the USNA, where he graduated on June 20, 1856, and became a passed midshipman. From September to May 1857 he was aboard the Brazil Squadron flagship St. Lawrence, transferring to the same unit’s sloop-of-war Falmouth. On January 22, 1858, he became a master and a lieutenant on March 18. Kirkland’s ship participated in the Paraguay Expedition late that year and thereafter cruised in the Rio de la Plata and Parana River until May 1859. Following a fall supply trip to the Brazil Station aboard the storeship Release, Kirkland joined the squadron flagship, the frigate Congress, where he remained until joining the sloop-of-war Jamestown in August 1861. While attached to the Congress, he married Dona Consolación Victoria Gowland
2 (1833–1909) at Montevideo, Uruguay, on May 15, 1861; the couple would have five children. Between late 1861 and the end of 1862, Kirkland served aboard the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron (NABS), the Jamestown, was promoted to the rank of lieutenant commander on July 16, and was transferred in January 1863 to the East Indies Squadron steam sloop-of-war Wyoming, which was then seeking Southern raiders. In response to an unprovoked Japanese attack on an American merchantman in the Shimonoseki Straits, off Himeshima Island, Kirkland’s ship was sent from Yokohama to obtain redress. On July 16, having been fired upon, the Wyoming blasted the land forts along the strait and sank two Japanese combatants. She was the first foreign warship to take offensive action in defense of treaty rights with Japan. Without success in her hunt for Rebel vessels, the Wyoming returned to Philadelphia in July 1864. At that point, Kirkland received his first command, the Unadilla-class West Gulf Blockading Squadron (WGBS) Owasco, then on blockade duty off the coast of Texas. On November 27 he replaced the ill captain of the West Gulf Blockading Squadron (WGBS) monitor Winnebago, supporting Union operations against the city of Mobile, AL. On March 27–28, 1865, the ironclad bombarded Confederate defenses around Spanish Fort and in late April protected a large Federal troop convoy to Selma and Montgomery. Kirkland’s command also blockaded the Confederate ironclad Nashville and a gunboat far up the Tombigbee River. Kirkland was detached from the Winnebago in June 1865 and in August was sent to the South Atlantic Squadron (SAS) paddle-wheel gunboat Wasp for two cruises totaling four years, most of which time was spent off the coast of Paraguay protecting American interests during the War of the Triple Alliance. In 1868 the Spanishspeaking captain bluffed the rescue of the U.S. minister to Paraguay, thus earning his second nickname. Becoming a commander on March 2, 1869, and following leave, Kirkland commanded the storeship Supply on her December–February 1873 voyage to Austria-Hungary transporting American exhibits for the Vienna Exposition and then, while in command of the gunboat Guard, returning them. Following a Bureau of Ordnance tour in mid–1874, he returned to the
Kirkland
Remembered for his effective participation in a naval response to an incident in the Shimonoseki Straits of Japan in January 86, Lt. Cmdr. William A. Kirkland, USN, became captain of the monitor Winnebago in November 86 and participated in the final spring 86 campaign against Mobile, AL. While serving in command of the European Squadron in 8, he became involved in controversies that led to his ordered relief by President Grover Cleveland (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
SAS Wasp from November to May 1877. Briefly in charge of the Washington, D.C., receiving ship, he rejoined the Supply, which transported American exhibits to France for the Paris Exposition in January 1878. Kirkland became a captain on April 1, 1880, and a year later to the day assumed command of the SAS steam sloop-ofwar Shenandoah. On shore duty at Norfolk and New York from July 1882 to February 1894, he was advanced to commodore on June 27, 1893, and appointed SAS commander. However, at his own request he received, in April 1894, the European Squadron with his flag in the Chicago (CA-14). Promoted to rear admiral on March 1,
Langthorne 1895, his European deployment ran into several political controversies that led to his October relief at the direct order of President Grover Cleveland (1837–1908). The senior officer in the USN commanded Mare Island navy yard from June 1896 until placed on the retired list on July 3, 1898. Expecting to remain on duty “for the duration” of the Spanish-American War, Kirkland instead died at San Francisco, CA, on August 12 due to complications from an August 9 stomach operation. He was buried in Brooklyn, NY. No USN ships have been named in his honor. Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; Hamersley, 3rd ed.; Cogar; DANFS; Still, “William Alexander Kirkland,” in William S. Powell, ed., Dictionary of North Carolina Biography, III; New York Times, September 29–30, 1895, October 22, 1895, July 3, 1898, August 18, 1898; Washington Post, July 10, 1895, July 3, 1898; Milwaukee Sentinel, October 11, 1895, August 13, 1898; New York Tribune, August 13, 1898; Chicago Daily Tribune, August 13, 1898; Boston Daily Globe, August 13, 1898.
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Langthorne, Amos R. (1832–1877, USN) One of three sons of William Langthorne (1802–1877) and Mary Randall (1802–1884), Amos was born in Nova Scotia, Canada, in 1832. In the 1850s he moved to Eastport, Washington County, ME, with his wife Hannah Wood Lanthorne (1837–1873), to become an American shipwright and commercial mariner. Eight months after the Confederate attack upon Fort Sumter, he volunteered to join the USN and was appointed an acting master on December 16, 1861. Having outfitted the NYC schooner C.P. Williams for service with the mortar division of the new West Gulf Blockading Squadron (WGBS), he became her first captain on January 21, 1862, and participated in the April attack upon Confederate defenses in the Mississippi River below New Orleans. In May, following the Federal capture of the Crescent City, the schooner accompanied WGBS elements up the Big Muddy to Vicksburg, MS, placing it under mortar fire until mid–July. In October, after his
A veteran Mississippi Squadron tinclad commander, Acting Volunteer Lt. Amos R. Langthorne, USN, assumed charge of the depicted ironclad Mound City in February 86. His vessel participated in the Red River campaign of March–May and was thereafter off Natchez, MS, until the fall when he was transferred East (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
Lewis
2 schooner went under repair, Langthorne relocated to Cairo, IL, to command and outfit the new Mississippi Squadron light-draught gunboat Cricket (Tinclad No. 6). Langthorne became an acting volunteer lieutenant on January 29, 1863. Stationed at Memphis and engaged in anti-contraband patrols and port security, he came upon the steamers Delta and Forest Queen on April 14 taking aboard cotton from a prohibited location. Langthorne ordered it turned over to the USN at Memphis to await a decision on the legality of its acquisition. On May 4, while anchored off Argyle Landing north of Milliken’s Bend, LA, the Cricket responded to an attack upon the troop steamer Golden Era by horse artillery under Brig. Gen. Samuel W. Ferguson, CSA, and after a successful defense, escorted her and three other boats safely upriver to Island No. 82. While thus away, the steamer Minnesota put into Argyle Landing and was promptly destroyed by Ferguson. The loss was blamed on Langthorne, who was reported to be engaged in an unauthorized convoy. In August the Cricket joined the White River patrol and was damaged by Confederate horsemen near Devall’s Bluff on August 13. At the end of the month the Cricket participated in a raid up the Little Red River, during which she captured the steamers Kaskaskia and Thomas Sugg near Searcy, AR. Langthorne remained in the vicinity of the White River until October before moving to participate in the Chattanooga reinforcement. In February 1864 he took over the ironclad Mound City, which he would command for the next nine months. The Mound City’s most notable service during this period was in the March–May joint service Red River Expedition. There, until freed by an ingenious wing dam, she and other vessels were trapped by low water at Alexandria, LA. Langthorne was lauded for his work on the dam with a detail from the Mound City. Thereafter, until fall, his ironclad kept station in the 4th District near Natchez, MS, or New Carthage. Transferred to the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron (NABS), Langthorne captained the reserve fleet vessel Alabama during the second Fort Fisher Expedition in January 1865. The 10-gun steamer remained off Wilmington, NC, in February and then, during March and April, operated in the vicinity of Hampton Roads and on the James River, VA.
Langthorne was honorably discharged on March 6, 1866, and thereafter returned to Maine, where he died in 1877 and was buried at Hillside Cemetery in Eastport. No U.S. vessels have been named in his honor. Sources: Callahan; DANFS; ORN, I, 11; ORN, I, 18; ORN, I, 25; Kilby, comp., Eastport and Passamaquoddy: A Collection of Historical and Biographical Sketches; Smith, Civil War Biographies from the Western Waters; Smith, The Timberclads in the Civil War; Smith, Tinclads in the Civil War; Smith, Fight for the Yazoo; “Washington County, ME, Lines,” Roots Web, http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~mnichols/ misc.htm (accessed June 4, 2012); Border Historical Society, “Cemeteries,” http://www.borderhistorical society.com/cemeteries.html (accessed June 4, 2012); “Capt. Amos H. Langthorne,” FindaGrave, http:// www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid= 94344062 (accessed June 4, 2012).
Lewis, Robert F.R. (1826–1881, USN) Born in Washington, D.C., on January 30, 1826, Lewis was warranted a USN midshipman on October 19, 1841, and in early 1842 joined the Home Squadron sloop-of-war Vandalia. He was aboard the Pacific Squadron sloop-of-war Cyane from 1845 to 1848 and during the Mexican War participated in the capture of San Diego and the seizure of La Paz and Mazatlan. Lewis was detailed to the USNA that fall, from which he graduated in June 1849, becoming a passed midshipman. At the USNO in 1850, he was seconded to the Collins Line in 1851 to gain experience in the operation of transatlantic commercial steamers. In 1852 and 1853, Lewis served aboard a USNA training ship, the sloop-of-war Preble, then transferred to the storeship Supply. Becoming a master on September 14, 1855, and a lieutenant a day later, he took leave to marry Henrietta A. Lewis (1815–1830); the couple would have five children. He served on the Baltimore receiving ship in 1856 and 1857 before joining the Brazil Squadron frigate Sabine for three years. During her deployment, the Sabine served in the 1858–1859 Paraguay Expedition and also operated in the West Indies. Following the outbreak of the Civil War in April 1861, the Sabine joined the blockade off Pensacola, FL, and Lewis, after leading the small boats transporting reinforcements to Fort Pickens, became her executive officer. He became
Lewis
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After months off Charleston, SC, Lt. Cmdr. Robert F.R. Lewis, USN, assumed command of the monitor Nantucket in January 86, continuing his blockade of the port until its surrender. In March the warship was shifted to Port Royal, SC, to guard the USN receiving ship there against any possible threat from the Confederate ocean ironclad Stonewall, then at sea (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
executive officer in October of the Gulf (later West Gulf ) Blockading Squadron (WGBS) steamer De Soto, which during the campaign against New Orleans in the spring of 1862 remained off the Louisiana coast. In early July she steamed up the Mississippi with communications for Union vessels participating in the siege of Vicksburg, MS, and during that voyage, Lewis became a lieutenant commander on July 16. In early August he became captain of the Unadillaclass gunboat Itasca and was sent to blockade the Texas coast, remaining so engaged until late 1863. Following a three-month leave at year’s end, Lewis in early 1864 took over the armed bark Ethan Allen and operated a patrol off the New England coast before transferring to the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron (SABS) steam gunboat Nipsic on the blockade off Charleston. In August he was transferred to the paddle-wheel gunboat Mahaska, which remained off Charleston until early winter. Lewis took over the SABS monitor Nantucket in January 1865 off Charleston, where she helped to destroy a stranded blockade runner and occasionally exchanged shells with Confederate gunners on Sullivan’s Island. In March the warship was shifted to Port Royal, SC, to guard the USN receiving ship there against any possible threat
from the Confederate ocean ironclad Stonewall, then at sea. Following the war, Lewis spent four years as a USNA instructor and then buildings and grounds supervisor, being advanced to Commander on January 29, 1867. He commanded the Pacific Squadron steamer Resaca from 1869 to 1871, undertaking a flag-showing voyage to New Zealand. After three years of naval board duty, he assumed command of the Pacific Squadron gunboat Yantic in 1874. From June 24 to August 16, 1875, he served as temporary commander of the entire squadron while captain of the steam sloop-of-war Kearsarge. Detached that November, he became Norfolk navy yard ordnance inspector in March 1876 and a captain on February 26, 1878. Lewis held command of the South Atlantic Squadron (SAS) flagship, the screw sloop-of-war Shenandoah, after September 6, 1879, but while she was on patrol off the Argentina in late 1880 he became ill. Ordered home, he died at sea off Martinique on February 23, 1881, and was subsequently buried at the USNA cemetery on March 8, 1882. No USN vessels have been named in his honor. Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; Hamersly, 3rd ed.; DANFS; “Shawna,” pseud. “Robert F.R. Lewis,” FindaGrave, https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-
2 bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=58092621 (accessed May 3, 2017); Baltimore Sun, March 8, 1881.
Lord, George Peter (1842–1866, USN) Born in Camden, DE, in 1842, merchant mariner Lord married Mary Eltinge (1842–1931) of New Paltz, NY, in 1860 and joined the USN in May 1861, being sent to the AUS Western flotilla at Cairo, IL, with the rank of master’s mate. Advanced to acting volunteer lieutenant on October 1, 1862, he became executive officer of the huge ironclad Benton under Lt. Cmdr. William Gwin (1832–1863). Within a few days Lord was temporarily transferred to command
Lord of the auxiliary General Lyon, which conducted a sweep for contraband-trading steamers operating on the Mississippi River near Helena, AR. Returning aboard the Benton, he participated in the joint army-navy Yazoo River campaign of December, during which Federal troops assaulted the enemy in the Chickasaw Bayou area. After the unsuccessful action in support of the soldiers conducted against with Confederate gunners at Snyder’s Bluff on December 27 (in which Gwin was killed) it was Lord, himself wounded, who withdrew the ironclad to safety. Following his recuperation, Lord assumed command of the light draught Covington (Tinclad No. 25), which served initially on the Tennessee River. Moving on to the Mississippi in June, the
Acting Volunteer Lt. George P. Lord, USN, was executive officer of the ironclad Benton from October to December 862, after which he commanded Tinclad No. 2, the Covington (shown here), which was lost in the Red River on April 2, 86, following a five-hour battle with Confederate artillery. In July Lord became the last captain of the ironclad Chillicothe, a command he held until the end of the war (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
Loyall Covington continued the anti-smuggling and anti-contraband patrols her captain had initiated six months earlier. In the spring of 1864 the vessel was ordered to Alexandria, LA, to aid the Federal effort on the Red River and, about 25 miles below Alexandria on April 27 while protecting the transport John Warner, the vessel and her consort were attacked by Confederate infantry in force. After five hours of bitter fighting, the transport was captured and the two escorts were so badly damaged that they had to be abandoned. Lord and 32 of his crewmembers escaped to Alexandria and he was exonerated for the loss. Lord became captain of the ironclad Chillicothe in July, serving as her commander until she was laid up in May 1865. After he helped demobilize the Mississippi Squadron during that fall, Lord was honorably discharged on February 22, 1866. He joined his merchant brother-in-law, Peter Eltinge (1841– 1877), in operating a Memphis, TN, grocery business, but died on August 16. No U.S. vessels have been named in his honor. Sources: Callahan; Jackie Myers, “Lieut. George P. Lord,” FindaGrave, http://www.findagrave.com/cgibin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=97664134 (accessed July 12, 2014); Smith, Civil War Biographies from the Western Waters; Smith, The Timberclads in the Civil War; Smith, Tinclads in the Civil War; Smith, Fight for the Yazoo; Milligan, ed., From the Fresh Water Navy, 1861– 1864: The Letters of Acting Master’s Mate Henry R. Browne and Acting Ensign Symmes E. Brown; David M. Rubenstein, “Guide to the Eltinge-Lord Family Papers, 1856–1871,” Duke University Libraries, http:// library. duke. edu/ digitalcollections/ rbmscl/ eltinge/ inv/ (accessed November 18, 2011); Memphis Daily Post, August 17, 1866; New Paltz Times, August 31, 1866.
Loyall, Benjamin Pollard (1832–1923, CSN) The last of four children of the naval agent at Norfolk, VA, George Loyall (1789–1866), a former U.S. congressman, and his wife Margaret Mason Pollard Loyall (1793–1855), Benjamin was born at Norfolk, VA, on February 11, 1832. An 1847 University of Virginia matriculant, he was appointed a USN midshipman on March 5, 1849, and joined the Brazil Squadron frigate Raritan for an 18-month cruise. Detached in November 1845, he went aboard the Home Squadron sloop-of-war St. Mary’s, on which he served
26 until late 1852, including deployment off Tampico and Vera Cruz during the Mexican War. Aboard the squadron flagship, the frigate Columbia, until March 1855, he was ordered for examination, graduated from the USNA as a passed midshipman on July 11 and became a master on September 16 and a lieutenant on January 28, 1856. Loyall sailed to Europe in June aboard the Mediterranean Squadron flagship, the frigate Congress and in January 1858 joined the Africa Squadron corvette Constellation. During his deployment, the vessel captured three slave ships (in 1859, 1860, and 1861), one of which, the Cora, carried 705 captives who were released at Monrovia, Liberia. Upon his return, Loyall attempted to resign on October 2, 1861, in order to “go South,” but his letter was not accepted and he was dismissed instead, being placed under arrest at Fort Lafayette, NY. Commissioned a CSN 1st lieutenant on November 26, Loyall was transferred to Norfolk and released at year’s end. On January 9, 1862, he was ordered, as an ACS captain, to assume command of Fort Bartow on Roanoke Island. When the fort fell to Union troops on February 8, 1862, he became a POW again. Paroled and exchanged on February 21, he joined the ironclad ram Richmond. In late September Loyall was selected to participate in a covert operation to capture the Federal Great Lakes guardship USS Michigan and, on October 10, 1863, embarked aboard a blockade runner to make the trip, via Bermuda, to Halifax, NS. Alerted by an informant, the U.S. War Department notified Canadian officials, who were planning to intervene when the Confederate secret mission was cancelled. Loyall returned to his previous ironclad billet and was appointed a Provisional Navy 1st lieutenant on January 6, 1864, with orders to participate in the CSA effort to capture New Bern, NC. On February 2 he was executive officer of a small force that successfully cut out, captured, and destroyed the USS Underwriter in the Neuse River near that town, being the first man to board the enemy vessel. Ordered to assume command of the ironclad ram Neuse, then completing her outfit at Whitehall, NC, Loyall commissioned the vessel in April, but within days she grounded off Kinston. Refloated within a month, but without military support, the vessel became a floating battery,
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Coming off a failed secret mission in fall 86 and the successful capture of the USS Underwriter, st Lt. Benjamin P. Loyall, CSN, was given command of the ironclad Neuse abuilding at Whitehall, NC. The vessel was commissioned in April 86 but within days she grounded off Kinston. Refloated within a month, she became a floating battery, from which Loyall was detached in August, prior to her loss. The hull of Loyall’s ironclad command is shown under restoration at Kinston, NC (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
from which Loyall was detached in August. In November he became commandant of midshipmen aboard the CSNA school ship Patrick Henry in the James River and, in honor of his capture of the Underwriter, a commander on February 10, 1865. In early April he was attached to the Semmes Naval Brigade and surrendered on April 26 at Greensboro, NC, where he was paroled. Loyall returned to Norfolk, VA, after the war and, with his wife Imogen Thompson Loyall (1835–1879) became a grocer and had two sons. Following the death of his spouse, he married Cornelia Wickham Taylor (1846–1932) in 1882. He died at home on January 24, 1923, and was buried at Cedar Grove Cemetery, Norfolk. Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; CSN Register; Foenander; Driver, Confederate Sailors, Marines, and Signalmen from Virginia and Maryland; Duppstadt, “Benjamin Pollard Lloyall,” in Tucker, I;
Martin, “North Carolina’s Ironclad (Neuse),” Naval History; “Benjamin Pollard Loyall,” FindaGrave, http:// www. findagrave. com/ cgi- bin/ fg. cgi?page= gr&GRid=80180863 (accessed July 19, 2016); DANFS; “Benjamin Pollard Loyall,” Cedar Grove Cemetery, http://historicforrest.com/HSites/NorfolkVA/cedar Grove/benjaminPollardLoyall.html (accessed July 19, 2016); Loyall, “Capture of the Underwriter, New Bern, 2 February 1864,” in Clark, ed., Histories of Several Regiments and Battalions from North Carolina in the Great War, 1861–65, V; Still, “The Career of the Confederate Ironclad Neuse.”
Luce, Stephen Bleecker (1827–1917, USN) The last of four children of Dr. Vinal Luce (1782–1856) and Charlotte Bleecker Luce (1789– 1858), Stephen Bleecker was born in Albany, NY, on May 25, 1827, appointed a USN midshipman on October 19, 1841, and joined the frigate
Luce Congress in April 1842 for a three-year cruise with the Mediterranean and Brazil squadrons. In May 1845 he was transferred to the East Indies Squadron ship-of-the-line Columbus, which arrived off Canton and was present on December 31 when the parties exchanged ratified copies of the first U.S. commercial treaty with China. Following an unsuccessful effort to open trade with Japan in July 1846, Columbus arrived off Monterey, CA, in March 1847 to join the Mexican War but was found to be too large to serve. Assigned to the Annapolis naval school in April 1848, Luce graduated in June 1849, becoming a passed midshipman, effective the previous August 10. Attached to the Pacific Squadron sloopof-war Vandalia in August, he made several voyages from the West Coast to Hawaii. Following leave and a USNO tour, he joined the Home Squadron steam gunboat Vixen from May 1853 to February 1854 and was seconded to the USCS between May and November 1857, during which deployment, he became a master on September 14, 1855, and a lieutenant a day later. Also, on December 7, he married childhood friend Elisa Henley (1829–1912); the couple had three children. From December 1857 until February 1860, Luce cruised aboard the Home Squadron sloop-of-war Jamestown and that May went to the USNA as assistant instructor of seamanship and gunnery, a billet he filled until May 1861. A month after the Civil War began he was posted aboard the Atlantic Blockading Squadron flagship, the steam screw frigate Wabash. While aboard the Wabash, Luce participated in the August 1861 occupation of Hatteras Island and the November capture of Port Royal, SC. He was detached in January 1862 and ordered to the relocated USNA at Newport, RI, where he wrote a textbook, Seamanship, which was published the following year. He became a lieutenant commander on July 16. He assumed command of the frigate Macedonian in June 1863 and cruised the coast of Portugal until October unsuccessfully seeking Confederate ocean raiders. Upon returning, he assumed command of the Passaic-class South Atlantic Blockading Squadron (SABS) monitor Nantucket, which was assigned to the blockade of Charleston Harbor, including a May 14, 1864, bombardment of the defending fortifications. Luce commanded two SABS gunboats in August, the Sonoma and the
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Remembered as the father of the U.S. Naval War College, Stephen B. Luce, USN, a lieutenant commander during the Civil War, was captain of the monitor Nantucket, which was assigned to the blockade of Charleston Harbor, SC, from November 86 to August 86, and participated in various bombardments of the defending fortifications (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
Canandaigua, before taking command of the SABS gunboat Pontiac. Hit while bombarding Sullivan’s Island on November 7, the paddle wheeler was repaired and in January 1865 dispatched up the Savannah River, where she guarded the left wing of the Army of the Tennessee as it crossed at Sister’s Ferry, GA. Luce was at the USNA from June 1865 until June 1868, serving as commandant of midshipmen after October 1865 and being promoted to commander on July 25, 1866. From September 1868 to May 1869, he was captain of the Pacific Squadron paddle-wheel gunboat Mohongo, steaming to and off Hawaii, and from July 1869 to July 1872, he commanded the Mediterranean Squadron sloop-of-war Juniata. Luce undertook Boston navy yard duty until October 1875 and was promoted to the rank of captain on December 28, 1872. He was captain of the North Atlantic Squadron (NAS) flagship, the steam sloopof-war Hartford, from November 1875 through August 1877 and captain of the steam frigate Minnesota, then a gunnery and training ship,
Lull
2 from January 1878 through February 1881. He was sent to Newport, RI, as commander of the U.S. Naval Training Squadron in April and on November 25 became a commodore. During the next two years he commanded the North Pacific Station from his familiar flagship, the Hartford, and served briefly as NAS commander (July– September 1884) before becoming president of the new NWC at Newport in September. Having collaborated with navy secretary William C. Chandler (1835–1917) to establish that institution and advanced to acting rear admiral on September 20, he held his billet until June 1886, when he returned to his previous NAS command, flying his flag in the steam sloop-of-war Richmond. Confirmed as rear admiral on October 5, 1885, Luce was detached from the NAS in February 1889 and placed on the retired list on March 25. Retiring on active service until 1910, Luce completed his 1887–1898 service as president of the U.S. Naval Institute, wrote, participated in various patriotic organizations, and served both the USNA and the NWC in various capacities. Officially retired on active service since 1901, his final retirement came in November 1910. Suddenly becoming ill at home on the afternoon of July 28, 1917, he died within two hours and was buried at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church Cemetery, Portsmouth, RI. Three USN destroyers were named in his honor during the 20th century: DL-7, DLG-7, and DDG-38. USNA and NWC buildings were named in his honor, as was one at the San Diego Naval Training Center and the library of the New York Maritime College. Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; Cogar; Reynolds; Hamersley, 3rd. ed.; DANFS; Alden, “Stephen Bleecker Luce, USN”; Jen Snoots, “Stephen Bleecker Luce,” FindaGrave, http://www.findagrave. com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=18708081 (accessed August 31, 2016); Hayes and Hattendorf, eds., The Writings of Stephen B. Luce; Luce, Seamanship; Douglas Niermeyer, “Loyal Legion Vignettes: Rear Admiral Stephen Bleecker Luce, Sr.,” Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, http://suvcw. org/mollus/art055.htm (accessed August 31, 2016); Goodrich, In Memorium: Stephen Bleecker Luce, Rear Admiral, United States Navy; Hattendorf, “Stephen B. Luce: Intellectual Leader of the Navy,” in James Bradford, ed., Quarterdeck and Bridge: Two Centuries of American Naval Leaders, I; Gleaves, Life and Letters of Admiral Stephen B. Luce, U.S. Navy: Founder of the Naval War College; Luce, “Stephen B. Luce, Rear Admiral, U.S. Navy: Family Reminiscences by His
Grandson”; Washington Post, August 15, 1887, July 29– 30, 1917; New York Times, July 29, 1917.
Lull, Edward Phelps (1836–1887, USN) The son of Martin Lull (1803–?) and Julianne Lull (1811–?), Edward was born in Windsor, VT, on February 20, 1836. Following the death of his father, the lad and his mother relocated to Wisconsin, from which he was appointed a USNA acting midshipman on October 7, 1851. Becoming a passed midshipman in June 1855, he undertook a three-year European cruise aboard the Mediterranean Squadron frigate Congress and in January 1858 was briefly transferred to the Home Squadron steam frigate Colorado before joining the squadron flagship, the steam frigate Roanoke, in August. The latter was
Following the August 86 Battle of Mobile Bay, AL, Lt. Cmdr. Edward P. Lull, USN, was made captain of the captured CSN ironclad ram Tennessee, which was commissioned into the Union Navy. Lull’s ironclad participated in the Fort Morgan bombardments on August and 22 and then served off the mouth of the Mississippi River until laid up in August 86 (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
Madigan dispatched to Aspinwall, Panama, where she waited until April 1860 to receive the first Japanese embassy to the U.S., which she took to Hampton Roads, VA, on May 12. Lull arrived at the USNA in September as the new instructor of ethics, English, and fencing. On October 30 he became a lieutenant. Following the outbreak of the Civil War, the USNA was moved for its protection from Annapolis, MD, to Newport, RI, and in June Lull, one of its four remaining instructors, was sent back to the Roanoke. After a brief sojourn on the North Atlantic blockade, he returned to the USNA in September as its executive officer and captain of “Old Ironsides,” the training frigate Constitution, becoming a lieutenant commander on July 16, 1862. Prior to his detachment on December 15, 1863, Lull married Elizabeth F. Burton (1812–?). Posted aboard the West Gulf Blockading Squadron (WGBS) steam sloop-of-war Brooklyn, he participated in the August 5, 1864, Battle of Mobile Bay and upon her capture became captain of the former CSN ironclad ram Tennessee. Commissioned into the USN, the ironclad participated in the Fort Morgan bombardments on August 14 and 22 and, following a fall refit, was transferred to the Mississippi Squadron to serve off the mouth of the Mississippi River until laid up in August 1865. Detached, Lull commanded the screw sloopof-war Swatara on a January–May 1866 West Indies cruise and then returned to the USNA as a professor of mathematics and Spanish until 1869, leaving an unpublished history of the institution in its library. Appointed captain of the steamer Guard, Lull participated in the 1870– 1871 Darien Expedition, became a commander on June 10 of the former year, and led the Nicaragua Exploring Expedition of 1872–1873. Following the death of his first wife, he married Emma Gillingham Terry (1836–?), on November 5, 1873, served at the Boston navy yard in 1874, and was hydrographic inspector of the Coast and Geodetic Survey (1875–1879), while during the middle 1870s also publishing various scientific reports. Lull was captain of the screw sloop-of-war Wachusett in 1879 and 1880 and military commander of Alaska. Promoted to captain on October 1, 1881, he commanded the North Pacific Squadron (NPS) flagship Hartford until 1884.
On September 1, 1886, Lull became commandant of the Pensacola navy yard, where he died in the naval hospital on March 5, 1887, and was buried at Barrancas National Cemetery. No USN vessels have been named in his honor. Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; Hamersley, 3rd ed.; U.S. Office of Veteran’s Affairs, “Capt. Edward P. Lull,” FindaGrave, http://www.findagrave. com/ cgi- bin/ fg. cgi?page= gr&GSln= lull&GSfn= edward&GSbyrel=all&GSdyrel=all&GSob=n&GRid= 934025&df=all& (accessed September 1, 2016); “Edward Phelps Lull,” Prabook, http://prabook.com/web/ person-view.html?profileId=1092359 (accessed September 1, 2016); Tom Ledoux, “Edward Phelps Lull,” Vermont in the Civil War, http://vermontcivilwar.org/ units/navy/v-lull.php (accessed September 1, 2016); Lull, Description and History of the U.S. Naval Academy from Its Origins to the Present Time; Lull, “Vocabulary of the Indians of San Blas and Caledonian Bay, Isthmus of Panama,” in American Philological Association Transactions, 1873; Lull, History of the United States Navy Yard at Gosport; Lull and Collins, Reports of Explorations and Surveys for the Location of Interoceanic Ship Canals Through the Isthmus of Panama and by the Valley of the River Napipi; San Francisco Daily Evening Bulletin, March 7, 1887.
Madigan, John, Jr. (1823–1870, USN) The son of Maine sea captain John Madigan (1795–1862) and his wife Elizabeth Cottrill Madigan, John Jr. was born at Newcastle, ME, on August 5, 1823, and appointed a USN midshipman on February 19, 1840. He served aboard the Mediterranean Squadron sloop-of-war Preble until 1844 and then on the Brazil Squadron sloop-of-war Boston in the West Indies and off the eastern coast of South America, being promoted to passed midshipman on July 15, 1846. Madigan joined the Home Squadron bomb brig Vesuvius during the Mexican War, participating in the Vera Cruz, Tuxpan, and Tabasco operations in 1847 and was then seconded to the USCS. In 1851 he joined the East Indies Squadron sloop-of-war Saratoga, participated in the 1853–1854 opening of Japan, and became a master then a lieutenant in September 1855. Madigan filled various billets during the last decade of the antebellum period, and also marrying Helen J. Bryant (1833–?) on March 1, 1859. Joining the West Gulf Coast Blockading Squadron (WGBS) paddle-wheel frigate Missis-
Maffitt
Having seen much service off the Gulf coast, Lt. Cmdr. John Madigan, Jr., USN, assumed command of the monitor Patapsco (shown in this pencil drawing by an unknown artist) in the spring of 86. Assigned to the blockade off South Carolina and Georgia, his ironclad duty was largely taken up with anti-torpedo (minesweeping) work and the occasional duel with the guns on Sullivan’s Island. Taken sick, he was detached in early August; illness caused his death in 8 (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
sippi early in the Civil War, Madigan spent the first year of conflict on the Gulf coastal blockade. In March 1862 he assumed his first command, the sloop-of-war Vincennes, patrolling between her Pensacola base and Mobile, AL. Becoming a lieutenant commander on July 16, he shifted to the blockade off Ship Island, MS, in October, guarding the Mississippi Sound, a mission that continued until the beginning of 1864. That spring he assumed command of the single-turret South Atlantic Blockading Squadron (SABS) Passaic-class monitor Patapsco, assigned to the blockade off South Carolina and Georgia and spending most of his time on anti-torpedo (minesweeping) work. Ill from August until March 1865, he took over the steam gunboat Paul Jones on April 1, being stationed in the Gulf off Mobile until July 1867. Detached, Madigan was stationed at the Boston navy yard from August into1868 before he was again granted sick leave to return to his Newcastle home. He died there on October 22, 1870, and was buried in that area. Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; Hamersly, 3rd ed.; “Some Newcastle Vital Records, 1844– 1875,” Maine Genealogy Archives, http://archives. mainegenealogy. net/ 2011/ 03/ some- newcastle- vitalrecords-1844–1875.html (accessed September 10, 2016); Bushman, The History of Ancient Sheepscot and Newcastle, Maine; Thompson, The U.S. Monitor Patapsco; DANFS; North American and United States Gazette, October 31, 1870.
Maffitt, John Newland “Prince of Privateers” (1819–1886, CSN) The only son of Methodist minister John Newland Maffitt (1795–1850) and Ann Carnic (?–1847), who also had three daughters, John was born at sea on February 22, 1819, as his mother was immigrating from Ireland to Connecticut to join her husband. After his parents separated in ca. 1824, the boy’s uncle at Fayetteville, NC, adopted him and in 1828 saw to his schooling in New York, from which John was appointed a USN midshipman on February 25, 1832. In August 1835 he was aboard the West Indies Squadron sloop-of-war St. Louis, and until October 1837 he served on the Mediterranean Squadron flagship “Old Ironsides,” the frigate Constitution. Upon graduation from the Annapolis naval school, he became a passed midshipman on June 23, 1838, and as sailing master joined the West Indies Squadron frigate Macedonian’s voyages in the Caribbean and off the west coast of Africa until detached in 1842 and seconded to the USCS. During this time, Maffitt married Mary Florence Murrell (1810–?) at Mobile, AL, on November 17, 1840; the marriage, with two children, ended for unknown reasons. His hydrographic work along the East Coast from Massachusetts to Georgia continued for 14 years. While on this duty Maffitt commanded
Maffitt his first ship, the schooner Gallatin, becoming a lieutenant on June 25, 1848. On August 3, 1852, he married widow Caroline Laurens Read (1826–1859) at Charleston, SC; the couple had two children. Furloughed by the Naval Retiring Board in September 1855, he was reinstated January 1858 and assumed his first USN command, the Home Squadron brig Dolphin, which participated in the December–February 1859 Paraguay Expedition. From June 1859 until January 23, 1861, he was captain of the Home Squadron steam gunboat Crusader on West Indies slavery suppression patrol. Having arrived at Key West, FL, Maffitt sent seamen ashore to help bolster the garrisons of Forts Taylor and Jefferson. When his ship was recalled to New
Having taken sick leave from his famous ocean raider Florida, Cmdr. John Newland Maffitt, CSN, assumed command of the ironclad Albemarle in summer 86, dominating the Roanoke River near Plymouth, NC, until he was detached on September . Just over a month later she was blown up by the daring Lt. William B. Cushing, USN (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
2 York he employed his own funds to finance the voyage, arriving on March 1. Maffitt resigned his USN commission on April 28, becoming a CSN lieutenant on May 8 at the Savannah station, where he captained the gunboat CSS Savannah in the defense of Port Royal, SC, and an attack on Union ships off the Savannah River in November. Briefly naval aide to Gen. Robert E. Lee, he commanded the blockade runners Nassau, Cecile, and Gordon, and in August 1862 received command of the ocean raider CSS Florida. He suffered a bout of yellow fever and blockade at Mobile, AL, getting to sea in January 1863. Having sunk or destroyed 37 Union vessels, Maffitt took sick leave in February 1864; during his recovery, he was appointed commander, to rank from April 29, 1863, and was then promoted commander, Provisional Navy, to rank from May 13, 1863. In summer 1864 he was captain of the ironclad ram Albemarle and dominated the Roanoke River near Plymouth, NC, until detached on September 9. Just over a month later, the Albemarle was blown up by the daring Lt. William B. Cushing, USN (1842–1874). Maffitt then successively captained the blockade runners Owl, Lillian, and Florie prior to the end of the conflict in April 1865. Acquiring a British shipmaster’s papers, Maffitt captained the merchantman Widgeon between Liverpool and South America until he returned to Wilmington, NC, in 1868 and purchased a house and over 200 acres near Wrightsville Sound, naming the place “The Moorings.” In June 1870 Maffitt captained the steamer Hornet from Wilmington to New York, where she was turned over to her Cuban revolutionary owners. That November he married Emma Martin (1842–1918) at her Wilmington home; the couple would have three children. She honed his literary inclination, working with him on magazine articles and an 1871 fictional account of his Constitution days. Maffitt died at home of Bright’s disease on May 15, 1886, and was buried at Oakdale Cemetery, Wilmington. Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; Foenander; Callahan; CSN Register; DANFS; Maffitt, “Reminiscences of the Confederate Navy”; Maffitt, Nautilus; or, Cruising Under Canvas; Emma Martin Maffitt, The Life and Services of John Newland Maffitt; Boykin, Sea Devil of the Confederacy; Sprunt, “Running the Blockade”; Bennett, “The Albemarle in Albe-
Maury
marle Sound”; Roy Parker, Jr., “Stealth Practice Served Blockade Well,” Fayette Observer, August 22, 1996; Singleton, High Seas Confederate: The Life and Times of John Newland Maffitt; B.C.W. Roberts, “John Newland Maffitt,” NCpedia, http://ncpedia.org/biography/ maffitt-john-newland (accessed September 6, 2016); Wayne Carver, “Cdr. John Newland Maffitt,” FindaGrave, http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi? page=gr&GRid=6265492 (accessed September 6, 2016); Robert D. Maffitt, “John Newland Maffitt, CSN,” 290 Foundation, https://sites.google.com/site/290foun dation/290-standing-orders/john-newlands-maffitt (accessed September 6, 2016); New York Times, May 16, 1886; Nashville American, February 3, 1907; Boston Daily Globe, September 26, 1907.
Maury, William Lewis (1813–1878, CSN) The third of 13 children of William Grymes Maury (1784–1860) and Anne Hoomes Woolfolk Maury (1793–1856), William Lewis was born at Caroline, VA, on October 13, 1813. Appointed a USN midshipman on February 29, 1829, he served aboard the Mediterranean Squadron frigate Java for three years. Unemployed until fall 1834, he graduated from the Norfolk naval school and became a passed midshipman on July 3, 1835. After leave and shore duty, he sailed on the sloop-of-war Vincennes in the United States Exploring Expedition, August 1838–June 1842. During this deployment, he also served aboard the sloop-of-war Peacock and the brig Porpoise and on February 26, 1841 was advanced to lieutenant. From July 1842 until 1848 Maury was on the Pacific Squadron sloop-ofwar Warren, which served off the coast of California through the Mexican War. At the deployment’s start, he married Mary Hill Beckham (?–1850); the couple would have two children. In 1849 and 1850 he was on the Mediterranean Squadron steam paddle-wheel frigate Mississippi and in 1852 was transferred to the East Indies Squadron sloop-of-war Saratoga, aboard which he participated in the opening of Japan in 1853 and 1854. Maury was a junior member of the U.S. Naval Efficient Board, which met in 1855 and 1856, where he was able to prevent the furlough of his cousin, Lt. Matthew Fontaine Maury (1806–1873) and then served under him at the USNO. He married Anne Fontaine Maury (1832–1890) on April 3; the couple would have five children. The lieutenant departed for Japan
A cousin of Matthew Fontaine Maury, Cmdr. William L. Maury, CSN, commanded the ironclad Tuscaloosa during her construction and trials at Selma and Mobile, AL, in late 862 and early 86. Later in 86 he was appointed captain of the ironclad North Carolina in the Cape Fear River. Built with green timber, the vessel’s hull was riddled by worms, causing her to founder off Southport, NC, on September 2 (James Morris Morgan, Recollections of a Rebel Reefer, Cambridge, MA: Riverside, ).
in May 1860 aboard the steam frigate Niagara, taking home the first Japanese diplomatic mission to the U.S. The Civil War began in April 1861, the same month the Niagara returned from the Far East. Maury resigned his commission on April 20, was made a Virginia navy commander in May, and became a CSN lieutenant on June 10. Assigned to the Wilmington station, he was seconded, as a lieutenant colonel, to the ACS in January 1862 and commanded the Sewell’s Point Battery. In the summer he went to the Charleston
May station, where he participated in the laying of defensive underwater mines (“torpedoes”) in the harbor. Maury commanded the ironclad ram Tuscaloosa during her construction and trials at Selma and Mobile, AL, in late 1862 and early 1863. He became a commander, effective May 13 of the latter year. In April, having traveled to Scotland, he took over the ocean raider CSS Georgia and captured nine vessels in seven months. When Confederate authorities elected to sell his ship, the ill Maury was detached on January 19, 1864, returning to Virginia in April to recover. Late in the year he was appointed captain of the ironclad ram North Carolina in the Cape Fear River; built with green timber, the vessel’s hull was riddled by worms, causing her to founder off Southport, NC, on September 27. Maury was on sick leave when the Civil War ended in April 1865. He eventually served as a New York customs collector. He and his wife were residing at Bowling Green, VA, in Caroline County, when he died on November 27, 1878. He is buried in Lakewood Cemetery, Bowling Green. Maury Bay, Antarctica, was named in his honor in 1955. Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; Foenander; CSN Register; DANFS; Driver, Confederate Sailors, Marines, and Signalmen from Virginia and Maryland; Coddington; Tucker, “Naval Retiring Board,” in Tucker, I; Maury, ed., Intimate Virginiana: A Century of Maury Travels by Land and Sea; George
Seitz, “Capt. William Lewis Maury,” FindaGrave, http:// www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid= 5764690 (accessed July 12, 2015).
May, Robert Logan (1832–1916, USN) Born in Bath, NY, on November 22, 1832, May was appointed a USN acting midshipman on November 7, 1849. Sent to the Philadelphia naval training school, he joined the Susquehanna, participating in her world cruise of 1850– 1855 and the opening of Japan as an aide and signal officer to Com. Matthew C. Perry (1794– 1858). Confirmed a midshipman on July 14, 1852, he returned to the naval school, now the USNA. He graduated and became a passed midshipman and then master on June 30, 1856 (to date from 1855). From July 28 until June 27, 1857, when he was injured and went home on sick leave, May served on the USCS steamers Vixen, Petrel, and Gallatin, being promoted to lieutenant on September 26, 1856. On January 21, 1859, recovered somewhat, May returned to duty at the USNO; on May 5, 1860, his first sea voyage in years began as navigator of the steam frigate Niagara, which returned home the first Japanese diplomatic mission to the U.S. On Washington Navy Yard ordnance duty on April 12, 1861, when war erupted, May became
Long-time Washington navy yard ordnance officer Lt. Cmdr. Robert L. May, USN, assumed command of the Mississippi Squadron’s th District and its station ship, the depicted veteran ironclad Benton, on October , 86. Performing routine and largely administrative duty, he was appointed captain of the fleet’s flagboat, the Tempest (Tinclad No. ) in early 86 (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
a lieutenant commander on July 16, 1862, continuing at Washington until July 14, 1864, when he was ordered to assume command of the Mississippi Squadron ironclad Louisville. Paperwork instead sent him to a short posting aboard the steam frigate Colorado, but by October 7 he in charge of the 4th District of the Mississippi Squadron and captain of its station ship, the ironclad Benton. Early in 1865 he was placed in command of the fleet flagship Tempest (Tinclad No. 1), and when the squadron was disbanded he returned home to Bath, NY, on August 21, 1865, to await orders. May assumed command of the steam sloopof-war Canadaigua on November 15, 1865, sailing her to the European Station. During this deployment, employing crutches, he was largely incapacitated from his earlier injury and thus was ordered detached from his command on February 12, 1866. A court of inquiry found him “inefficient” by reason of incapacity and upon recommendation of the navy secretary, with the concurrence of the president, he was retired on April 21, 1867, with a year’s salary. May thereafter lived in NYC, Bath, and Corning, NY, before obtaining a position with the Union Pacific Railroad at Omaha, NE. His foot having worsened, he suffered an unsuccessful 1889 operation and in 1891 moved to Denver, CO, hoping to obtain relief from bronchial difficulties. Without means, he briefly became a charity case at St. Luke’s Hospital that June. His attempt to win reinstatement to the USN retired list having failed, he lived on a small government pension until he died of pneumonia on September 24, 1916. Buried in Lexington, NE, his balance on deposit in the Central Savings Bank of Denver upon his death was $22.15. Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; Callahan; ORN, I, 27; ORN, I, 27; Smith, Civil War Biographies from the Western Waters; Neeser, “Historic Ships of the Navy: Benton”; U.S. Congress, Senate, Committee on Naval Affairs, Robert Logan May: Adverse Report.
Mayo, William Kennon (1829–1900, USN) The son of attorney Peter Poythress Mayo (1797–1857) and Leah Curtis Upshur Mayo (1815– 1863), Peter was born at Drummondtown, VA,
Mayo on May 29, 1829, appointed a USN midshipman on October 18, 1841, and until October 1844 served aboard the Pacific Squadron flagship, the frigate United States, and the same squadron’s sloop-of-war Cyane. In November 1844 Mayo joined the sloop-of-war St. Mary’s, which arrived off Galveston, TX, in late April 1845; he remained aboard the warship during the entire Mexican War, participating in the blockade and capture of Vera Cruz and Tampico. Promoted to passed midshipman on August 10, 1847, he joined the European Squadron frigate St. Lawrence in October 1848 for a 30-month cruise. Between July 1851 and 1852, he was navigator of the brig Dolphin on a scientific voyage and then aboard the steam frigate Saranac on a trip to Brazil. He went aboard the Home Squadron Cyane in November, participating in her hydrographic survey of Caledonia Bay. He returned to the USNA in October 1854 as an acting master and an instructor. During that deployment, he wrote a textbook and was promoted to master and then lieutenant in September 1855. From May 1857 to September 1859, Mayo was in the Far East on the East Indies Squadron frigate Minnesota, after which he returned to the USNA. In December 1860 he returned aboard the Pacific Squadron St. Mary’s and, because of his adherence to the Union, was declared an alien enemy by the Virginia Convention of July 1861 and forever banished from the state. He thereafter resided in Washington, D.C. Mayo helped outfit the new South Atlantic Blockading Squadron (SABS) steam sloop-ofwar Housatonic from January to August 1862, was promoted to the rank of lieutenant commander on July 16, and was aboard when she joined the Charleston blockade in September. Detached in November, he joined the West Gulf Blockading Squadron (WGBS) Unadilla-class gunboat Kanawha off Mobile, AL, capturing six blockade-running schooners and in October 1863 fighting a heavily reported engagement with Fort Morgan’s batteries. Detached a month later, he oversaw ironclad construction at the New York navy yard from February to May 1864, in May and June escorted recruited contrabands to Panama to join the Pacific Squadron, and in July assumed command of the Passaic-class SABS monitor Nahant off Charleston. Having
McBlair determined that the blockade was occasionally porous, Mayo’s ironclad intensified picket patrols and managed to run nine blockade runners ashore over the next seven months. Detached in March 1865 Mayo became SABS ordnance officer and served as commandant of the Bay Point Depot until May 1866. Navigation officer at Boston, MA, from that November until May 1869, he became a commander on July 25 and commanded the North Atlantic Squadron (NAS) steam sloops-of-war Tuscarora and Congress in 1870 and 1871 and the North Pacific Station (NPS) screw sloop-of-war Omaha during 1872–1874. Promoted to captain on December 12, 1873, May was captain of the screw sloop-ofwar Hartford on the South Atlantic Station (SAS) from 1877 to 1879, was executive officer of the Norfolk navy yard in 1881 and 1882 and
6 its commandant, following his elevation to commodore in July of the latter year, until 1885. During this deployment, he was involved in 15 discipline or etiquette cases with his subordinates, leading the USN promotion board to deny his advancement to rear admiral and causing him to retire of his own volition on May 18, 1886. Most of Mayo’s retirement years following the death of his first wife, Jennet P. Mayo, in 1887 were taken up by highly publicized marriage problems with a second and a third spouse. After an illness of several days, he died at his Washington home on April 10, 1900, and was buried at Arlington National Cemetery two days later. No USN warships have been named in his honor. Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; Hamersly, 4th ed.; “William Kennon Mayo: Obituary,” in Appletons’ Annual Cyclopedia, 1900; “William Kennon Mayo,” in Hamersly, ed., A Naval Encyclopedia; DANFS; “William Kenyon Mayo,” Prabook, http://prabook. com/web/person-view.html?profileId=1092369# (accessed September 12, 2016); Denver Evening Post, June 29, 1899; New York Times, January 28, April 11, 1900; Washington Post, December 16, 1892; April 11, August 2, 1900; Baltimore Sun, April 10, 1900; New York Tribune, April 11, 1900.
McBlair, Charles Henry (1809–1890, CSN)
Lt. Cmdr. William K. Mayo, USN, was appointed captain of the monitor Nahant off Charleston, SC, in July 86. Having determined that the blockade was occasionally porous, Mayo’s ironclad intensified picket patrols and managed to run nine blockade-runners ashore over the next seven months (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
Born at Baltimore, MD, on December 24, 1809, McBlair was appointed a USN midshipman on March 4, 1823. Serving ashore and afloat on different ships, he became a passed midshipman in March 1829 and a lieutenant in July 1831. During the remainder of the decade he served as sailing master of the Mediterranean Squadron sloops-of-war Ontario and Warren, was aboard the paddle wheel frigate Mississippi, and from October 1842 to 1845, held command of the leased War Department paddle-wheel steamer Poinsett on survey duty in Tampa Bay, FL. Aboard the bomb brig Stromboli during the Mexican War (1846–1847), particularly at Tabasco in June 1847 and on the Mexican blockade, McBlair was seconded to the USCS from September 1848 to July 1852, was lighthouse inspector for the 4th District at Wilmington, DE, and one of the most distinguished linguists in the antebellum navy. He became a commander
McBlair
Having been superseded as captain of the ironclad Arkansas by Lt. Isaac Newton Brown, Cmdr. Charles H. McBlair, CSN, completed the ironclad Atlanta (pictured here after the war) and served as her second captain (following the profiled but unpictured Cmdr. William B. McBlair, CSN) until transferred to Mobile, AL, in fall 86. He was Maryland’s adjutant general from 8 to 8 (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
on April 18, 1855, and, five months later, captain of the Great Lakes gunboat Michigan. On USNA board duty in January 1861, McBlair resigned from the Federal service on April 22 and joined the Virginia state navy as a commander. On October 19, 1861, he was appointed a CSN commander, but a month later he was temporarily seconded to the ACS as a colonel. He was sent to Fernandina, FL, in December to serve as the local ACS chief of artillery and officer in charge of batteries, Department of Middle and East Florida. In March 1862 McBlair was posted to Memphis to take over construction supervision of the incomplete ironclad rams Arkansas and Tennessee. Just after the Union capture of New Orleans in April, he ordered the former, the more complete of the two, towed up the Yazoo River to Greenwood, MS, by the contract steamer Capitol. Unable due to flooding to complete the outfitting of the Arkansas, he was, in May, succeeded by Lt. Isaac Newton Brown (1817–1889). Returning to Richmond, VA, McBlair was sent to Savannah late in the year to take command of the casemate ironclad Atlanta. On July 31, 1863, she steamed toward Fort Pulaski in full view of the Union blockade, but defects forced her to retire above the obstructions for modifications. While those were underway, McBlair was transferred to Mobile, AL, and command of the new gunboat CSS Morgan. In December 1863 he took command of the
Gaines and on April 30, 1864, the Huntsville. Also in April 1864 he took command of the Tuscaloosa. All three of the Mobile Bay vessels with which McBlair was associated survived the great battle of August 5 and escaped up the Spanish River. The city of Mobile held out another eight months, with the upper portion of the bay remaining in Confederate hands. On April 12, 1865, the Tuscaloosa and Huntsville were scuttled where the Spanish River splits off from the Mobile River on the north side of Blakeley Island, just north of Mobile. McBlair escaped to Greensboro, NC, and there surrendered. Paroled on April 28, 1865, McBlair returned to “Bonnie Brae,” his home at Baltimore, where in April 1869 he was appointed colonel and aidede-camp to the governor and then assistant adjutant general. In February 1871 he was promoted to the rank of major general and became Maryland’s eleventh adjutant general, serving until 1874. McBlair died in Washington, D.C., on November 15, 1890. Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; CSN Register; Foenander; Callahan; Driver, Confederate Sailors, Marines, and Signalmen from Virginia and Maryland; Smith, Civil War Biographies from the Western Waters; DANFS; Allardice, Confederate Colonels; McBlair, “Historical Sketch of the Confederate Navy”; Smith, CSS Arkansas; Maclean, “The Short Cruise of the CSS Atlanta.”
McBlair McBlair, William Beverly (1810–1863, CSN) Born at Baltimore in 1810, McBlair was appointed a USN midshipman on November 16, 1824, and was aboard the Mediterranean Squadron ship-of-the-line North Carolina during her three-year European deployment. Becoming a passed midshipman on February 20, 1830, he served on the West Indies Squadron sloop-ofwar Fairfield from late 1831 into the middle of the decade, being advanced to the rank of lieutenant on December 31, 1833. Transferred to the sloop-of-war Vandalia until November 1839, he saw service in the Second Seminole War. Furloughed and on leave until 1853, McBlair returned to duty in 1854 and became a commander on September 14, 1855. At the Philadelphia navy yard from 1856 to 1858 and the Washington navy yard in 1859, he became captain of the sloop-of-war Dale in May 1860. Declaring for the South at the beginning of the Civil War, McBlair was dismissed from the USN on April 20, 1861, was appointed a CSN commander on June 10, and was assigned to the Richmond naval station for the remainder of the year. In late spring 1862 he assumed command of the ironclad ram Atlanta then outfitting at Savannah, GA, conducted her sea trials on the Savannah River in July, and was present when she was placed into commission on November 22. Taken ill, McBlair died on duty on February 16, 1863, and, after a funeral at the city’s St. John’s Church, was buried the next day, leaving a wife and five children.
8 Reared on the shores of the Mediterranean and becoming fluent in four languages, he was appointed a USN midshipman on September 9, 1841, and served aboard the Fairfield, Delaware, and Cumberland from February 1842 until November 1845, when he entered the USNA. From May 1846 to January 1848 he was on antislavery patrol aboard the Africa Squadron frigate United States then returned to the USNA, from which he graduated in June and became a passed midshipman, effective August 10, 1847. For a year from October 1848 until taking leave, McCauley was on “Old Ironsides,” the Mediterranean Squadron frigate Constitution. From October 1851 to June 1852, he was aboard the Mediterranean Squadron flagship, the ship-of-the-line
Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; Foenander; CSN Register; Driver, Confederate Sailors, Marines, and Signalmen from Virginia and Maryland; Maclean, “The Short Cruise of the CSS Atlanta”; Savannah Daily Morning News, February 17, 1863.
McCauley, Edward Yorke (1827–1894, USN) The son of Philadelphia and Mideast businessman Daniel Smith McCauley (1798–1852)— a former USN lieutenant and later U.S. counsel to Tripoli and Egypt from 1842 until his death— and Sarah Yorke McCauley (?–ca. 1829) and nephew to RAdm. Charles Stewart, USN (1778– 1869), Edward was born on November 2, 1827.
A veteran of the Atlantic Coast and Caribbean blockade, Lt. Cmdr. Edward Y. McCauley, USN, assumed command of the giant Mississippi Squadron ironclad Benton in November 86, also serving as commander of the squadron’s th Naval District between Grand Gulf and Natchez, MS. In June 86, his vessel accompanied the expedition of Maj. Gen. Edward R.S. Canby to Shreveport, LA, and participated in the capture of the CSS Missouri, the last Confederate ironclad (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
Independence, took leave at the death of his father, and in August joined the new East Indies Squadron paddle-wheel frigate Powhatan. From her decks, McCauley, with a reputation as an amateur artist, witnessed and sketched the opening of Japan. He was appointed master on July 1, 1855, fought Chinese pirates off Kowloon that August, and became a lieutenant on September 14. Deployed aboard the training ship Princeton, he served on the steam frigate Niagara from March 1857 until August 1858, helping to lay the first Atlantic cable. While in port on January 28 of that year, he married Josephine McIlvaine Berkeley (1836–1886), a Virginian; the couple would have a son. While at the USNO, McCauley resigned on August 19, 1859, to enter business in St. Paul, MN. McCauley rejoined the USN on May 11, 1861, as an acting volunteer lieutenant and captain of the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron (SABS) steamer Flag. Becoming a lieutenant commander on July 16, 1862, he took over the East Gulf Blockading Squadron (EGBS) gunboat Fort Henry off the coast of Florida. During this command, five blockade runners were captured and expeditions were mounted against Confederate Crystal River and coastal positions. McCauley became captain of the West India Squadron double-ender gunboat Tioga on November 23. Patrolling as far south as Grand Bahama Island, she took part in the Federal attack on Bayport, FL, and captured three more blockade runners before Yellow Fever forced her into quarantine at Portsmouth, NH, in late June 1864. In the fall McCauley served aboard the Mississippi Squadron flagboat Black Hawk and in November was appointed commander of the squadron’s 5th Naval District between Grand Gulf and Natchez, MS, and the giant ironclad Benton. In June 1865 his vessel accompanied Maj. Gen. Edward R.S. Canby’s (1817–1873) expedition and participated in the capture of the CSS Missouri, the last operational Confederate ironclad. At the Philadelphia navy yard after August 1865, McCauley became a commander on July 25, 1866. Between February 1867 and 1871, he was captain of the North Atlantic Squadron (NAS) steam frigate Susquehanna as well as NAS chief-of-staff, was at the Portsmouth navy yard, and served as head of the USNA French Department. Advanced to captain on September 3,
McGunnegle 1872, while at the Philadelphia navy yard, McCauley commanded the Asiatic Squadron steam sloops-of-war Hartford and Lackawanna from October to May 1875. He was captain-of-theyard at the Boston navy yard from that November until July 1878 and superintendent of the Philadelphia Naval Asylum until June 1880. Becoming a commodore on August 7, 1881, and simultaneously being elected a member of the American Philosophical Society, McCauley worked at the Bureau of Navigation until October 1883. He was unemployed until November 1884, but, having continuously honed his expertise as an Egyptologist throughout his career, he used that year to publish an Egyptian dictionary. Following duty as League Island, PA, navy yard commandant, McCauley became a rear admiral on March 2, 1885, and commanded the Pacific Station from May until November 1886, wearing his flag in Hartford. Placed on the retired list on January 25, 1887, McCauley’s remaining years were given over to his Egyptian passion and life with his family at his home, “The Mist,” on Canonicut Island in Narragansett Bay. McCauley was granted an honorary LLD at Hobart College in 1892. He died on September 14, 1894, and was buried at Laurel Hill Cemetery, Philadelphia. No USN vessels have been named in his honor. Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; Cogar; Appletons’, IV; Callahan; Hamersly, 4th ed.; DANFS; Lew Zerfas, “Edward Yorke McCauley: An American ‘Master and Commander,’” U.S.S. Fort Henry Living History Unit, http://www.ussforthenry.com/USSFH pdf/Edward_yorke_mccauley.pdf (accessed November 29, 2011); Smith, Civil War Biographies from the Western Waters; Neeser, “Historic Ships of the Navy: Benton”; McCauley edited by Cole, With Perry in Japan: The Diary of Edward Yorke McCauley; McCauley, A Manual for the Use of Students of Egyptology; Russ Dodge, “Edward Yorke McCauley,” FindaGrave, http:// www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid= 21872 (accessed November 29, 2011); Frazer, “In Memory of Edward Yorke McCauley, USN”; McCauley, A Dictionary of the Egyptian Language; Washington Post, September 15, 1894; Portland Morning Oregonian, September 15, 1894; New York Tribune, September 15, 1894; New York Times, September 18, 1894.
McGunnegle, Wilson (1829–1863, USN) The eldest of five children of prominent St. Louis businessman George Kennedy McGun-
McGunnegle
Lt. Wilson McGunnegle, USN, became captain of the Western Flotilla ironclad St. Louis (later renamed Baron de Kalb) in April 862. She participated in the disastrous Federal expedition up Arkansas’s White River in June, during which Cmdr. August Kilty’s vessel was badly damaged. Assuming command of the task group, McGunnegle oversaw its withdrawal to Memphis. He died of consumption in April 86 (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
negle (1800–1878) and his wife Elizabeth Easton Starr McGunnegle (1809–1864), Wilson was born on August 23, 1829, and appointed a USN midshipman on December 10, 1845. He became a passed midshipman on June 10, 1853, and married Isabella Steele Ray (1801–1891) at Anne Arundel County, MD, on September 5. Promoted to lieutenant on September 16, 1855, McGunnegle was attached to the Brazil Squadron sloop-of-war Falmouth in 1856 and served until the spring of 1859. In September 1859 he joined the USNA training sloop-of-war Plymouth. McGunnegle was at the Portsmouth navy yard when the Civil War erupted in April 1861 and on March 31, 1862, he was given command of the U.S. Western Flotilla ironclad St. Louis (later known as the Baron de Kalb), then undergoing repair at St. Louis. In April and May he travelled to Cincinnati and Pittsburgh to ascertain the state of AUS ram construction. He participated in an AUS reconnaissance of Craighead Point, AR at the end of May, and in June his vessel accompanied several others on an expedition up the White River of Arkansas. The
task group was fired upon as it approached St. Charles, AR and the flagboat Mound City was badly damaged, with great loss of life and injury, including the unit’s commander. McGunnegle took command of the task group’s orderly, keeping charge until dispatched to St. Louis in July to oversee work on two army rams under construction. In October he was, although ill, put in charge of the recruitment of Mississippi Squadron seamen. He died of consumption on April 2, 1863, while on special duty at Annapolis, MD, and was buried at Bellefontaine Cemetery, St. Louis, MO. No U.S. vessels have been named in his honor. Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; Callahan; DANFS; History of Crawford County, Pennsylvania; “Died on This Date: April 2,” FamousPeopleBuried, http://famous-people-buried.blogspot.com/ 2009/04/april-2nd.html (accessed June 4, 2012); ORN, I, 22; ORN, I, 23, 520; Smith, The Timberclads in the Civil War; Smith, Civil War Biographies from the Western Waters; “Wilson McGunnegle,” FindaGrave, http:// www. findagrave. com/ cgi- bin/ fg. cgi?page= gr&GRid=18471 (accessed June 4, 2012).
McIntosh, Charles Flemming (1813–1862, CSN) Born at Norfolk, VA, on October 24, 1813, McIntosh became a USN midshipman in November 1828, a passed midshipman in June 1834, and a lieutenant in February 1841. In the Orient during July 1846, his ship, the sloop-of-war Vincennes, in company with the ship-of-the-line Columbus, was rebuffed while attempting to pay a diplomatic call on Japan. McIntosh served aboard the Home Squadron sloop-of-war Saratoga during the 1847–1848 Mexican War. On December 4, 1849, he married Isabella Donaldson Thornburn (1827–?). Promoted to commander on March 2, 1857, he was in charge of the Norfolk, VA, naval rendezvous (recruiting station) on April 12, 1861. He immediately resigned. McIntosh was formally dismissed from the Federal service on April 20, joined the Virginia navy in May, received the state militia rank of lieutenant colonel, and was detailed to erect batteries at Fort Nelson. He became a CSN commander on June 13. On March 2, 1862, he was ordered to New Orleans to assume command of. and finish, the ironclad CSS Louisiana. Since the previous year, laborers had struggled to
Meade complete the mighty command, covering her with protective railroad iron and bringing aboard a formidable battery of heavy guns. Unable to obtain propulsion machinery, McIntosh was forced to commission her as a floating battery on April 20 and moor her above Fort St. Philip, on the Lower Mississippi below the Crescent City. As ships of the U.S. West Gulf Blockading Squadron (WGBS) passed on April 24, three grapeshot from one of them struck McIntosh, who was mortally wounded but lingered until May 13. Shortly after McIntosh was hit, the Louisiana was set ablaze and abandoned, with most of her crew becoming POWs. The Spanish River gun battery at Mobile, AL, was named Battery McIntosh in his honor. In 1866 his remains were returned to Cedar Grove Cemetery, Norfolk, VA. Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; CSN Register; Callahan; Driver, Confederate Sailors, Marines, and Signalmen from Virginia and Maryland;; DANFS; Foenander; Porter, A Record of Events in Norfolk Col, VA, from April 19th, 1861 to May 10th, 1861; Crozier, ed., The Buckners of Virginia and the Allied Families of Strother and Ashby; Richmond Daily Dispatch, May 21, 1862; Allison Stec Bell, “Charles F. McIntosh,” FindaGrave, http://www.findagrave.com/ cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSsr=3561&GSvcid=266131 &GRid=61927207& (accessed September 6, 2012).
Meade, Richard Worsam, III (sometimes Jr.) (1837–1897, USN)
In March 862 Cmdr. Charles F. McIntosh, CSN, was ordered to finish the ironclad Louisiana at New Orleans. Unable to do so before the USN assault on the city in April, McIntosh fought her as a floating battery and was mortally wounded during the defense (Scharf, History of the Confederate States Navy).
The son of USN Capt. Richard Worsam Meade, Sr. (1807–1870), and Clara Forsyth Meigs Meade (1811–1879), Junior Meade was born at NYC on October 9, 1837. He was appointed a USN acting midshipman on August 2, 1850, and was attached to the Mediterranean frigate San Jacinto (1851–1853) and the sloop-of-war St. Louis (1853– 1854). During 1854 and 1855, he sailed with the Home Squadron Columbia, and in October of the latter year he was posted to the USNA, from which he emerged in June 1856 with the rank of passed midshipman. Assigned to the steam frigate Merrimac for the next year, he undertook an extensive Africa Squadron antislavery cruise aboard the frigate Cumberland and then the sloop-of-war Dale from 1857 to 1859. Promoted to master and then lieutenant in January 1858, he served on the Pacific Squadron Saranac and then the Cyane (1858–August 1861).
Meade Meade was sick with Acapulco fever at the New York naval hospital until October 1861, was a gunnery training officer until January 2, 1862, and then executive officer of the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron (SABS) steamer Conemaugh until September 8, becoming a lieutenant commander on July 16. Transferred to the Mississippi Squadron, he assumed command of the Pook turtle Louisville, then he was on antiinsurgent duty between Memphis and Helena but was detached in December when invalided back to New York on sick leave. On New York navy yard duty from late January 1863, he commanded the naval battalion that saw action during the New York draft riots in July. In September Meade assumed command of the SABS gunboat Marblehead in South Carolina waters, including the December Battle of Johns Island, SC, for which he won commendation. He was captain of the West Gulf Blockading Squadron (WGBS) steamer Chocura on the Texas coast from May 1864 to July 1865, during which time he captured seven blockade runners. However, in January 1865 he permitted the escape from the mouth of the Calcasieu River of a notorious Southern gunboat, the former USN tinclad Wave. Meade married Rebecca Paulding (1837– 1921), daughter of RAdm. Hiram Paulding (1797– 1878) on June 6, 1865; the couple would have one child. After three years at the USNA, during which he became a commander in September 1868, he captained the Pacific Station steamer Saginaw off Alaska in 1869 and 1870 on a coastal survey surrounding the purchase of the territory from Russia. From 1871 to 1873, he cruised the South Pacific aboard the Narragansett and negotiated a commercial treaty with the Samoan Islands, spending the remainder of the decade on Washington, D.C., shore duties and writing several professional books. From 1879 until 1882 he commanded the Vandalia in the North Atlantic and West Indies, being promoted to captain on March 13, 1880. Meade then served as captain of the new dispatch vessel Dolphin, was commandant of the Washington Navy Yard (1887–1890), and was member of various official boards, becoming commodore on May 5, 1892, and rear admiral on September 7, 1894. He was naval representative at the World Columbian Expedition in Chicago and commander in 1894
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Joining the Mississippi Squadron in September 862 as captain of the ironclad Louisville, Lt. Cmdr. Richard W. Meade, rd, USN, participated in a number of fall punitive expeditions ordered by Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman along the river between Memphis and Helena. Later achieving the rank of rear admiral, he, like RAdm. William A. Kirkland, USN (q.v.), was also censured by President Grover Cleveland in 8, bringing about his resignation (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
and 1895 of the North Atlantic Squadron (NAS), from which he resigned on May 20 following a censure from President Grover Cleveland (1837– 1908) over a policy dispute. On August 17, 1895, Meade, a member of many local civic groups, became a hero when he directed the firemen who saved the blazing Philadelphia Union League Club building. Taken ill with the grippe in early April 1897, he died on May 4 as the result of complications following an emergency appendicitis operation and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery. Two 20th century USN destroyers were named in his honor, DD-274 and DD-602. Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; Appletons’, IV; Callahan; Hamersley, 3rd ed.; Smith, Civil War Biographies from the Western Waters; DANFS;
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“Richard Worsam Meade,” ArlingtonCemetery, http:// www.arlingtoncemetery.net/rwmeade.htm (accessed January 12, 2012); New York Times, May 5, 1897; ORN, I, 22; ORN, I, 23; Gregory Speciale, “Richard Worsam Meade,” FindaGrave, http://www.findagrave.com/cgibin/ fg. cgi?page= gr&GSsr= 3601&GSvcid= 266131& GRid=12066210& (accessed January 12, 2012); Smith, Le Roy Fitch; Meade, Manual of the Boat Exercises at the U.S. Naval Academy; Meade, A Treatise on Naval Architecture and Ship-Building; Meade, Ordnance Instructions for the United States Navy; Meade, trans., Our Naval School and Naval Officers; New York Times, May 21, August 19, 1895, May 5, 1897; Washington Post, May 7, 1897; Daily Inter-Ocean, May 11, 22, 1897.
Miller, Charles W. (In USN Service 1862–1865) Hoosier waterman Miller was appointed an acting master’s mate in the Mississippi Squadron on October 1, 1862. In late February 1863 he was part of an officer shift aboard the Pook turtle Carondelet when Acting Volunteer Lieutenant John McLeod Murphy (1827–1871) took command. Miller became an acting ensign on August 1, rising to the rank of acting master and executive officer on May 18, 1864. By June, Miller was temporary commander of the Carondelet in the absence of her permanent captain and
skippered her on a brief expedition up the White River in July. The vessel was badly worn by that fall and seldom engaged in any strenuous steaming. However, following a period of repair, Miller, who was left in charge, led the craft into the December 1864 Battle of Nashville, and during that campaign she was actively engaged in attacks upon Confederate horse artillery blockading the Cumberland River at Bell’s Mills. In February and March 1865 new men took over the ironclad, leaving Miller as executive officer. He was honorably discharged on September 27, 1865. His life and fate beyond the war are unknown. Sources: Callahan; Smith, Civil War Biographies from the Western Waters; Thomas A. Pearson, “Landlocked Sailors: U.S. Navy Civil War Volunteer Officers from Midwestern States,” St. Louis Public Library Premier Library Sources 2000, http://www.slpl.lib.mo.us/ libsrc/ldsailor.htm (accessed September 30, 2011); Smith, Le Roy Fitch; Smith, USS Carondelet.
Miller, Joseph Nelson (1836–1909, USN) The third of four sons of local auditor Reuben Miller (1797–1897) and Mary Tabb Hedges Miller (1802–1875), Joseph was born in Springfield,
Appointed executive officer of the famous river ironclad Carondelet in May 86, Acting Master Charles W. Miller, USN, became the vessel’s captain in June and commanded her during the December Battle of Nashville. Superseded in charge during February 86, he resumed his billet as XO (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
Miller OH, on November 22, 1836. He was appointed a USN midshipman on October 1, 1851, and graduated from the USNA on June 10, 1854. From September through October 1856 he served aboard the Pacific Squadron flagship, the ship-of-the-line Independence, and in February 1857 he returned as an instructor to the USNA. Detailed to the Home Squadron sloop-of-war Preble from October 1858 to September 1860 and promoted to lieutenant on February 19 of the latter year, he resumed his previous USNA duty until May 1861, when he was appointed captain of the Atlantic Blockading Squadron brig Perry. The Perry served off Florida until July and captured two blockade runners before serving as a Washington, D.C., Potomac River guardship during the Battle of Bull Run. From November to May 1862 he commanded the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron (NABS) steam gunboat Cambridge and then became executive officer of the USNA training vessel John Adams at Newport, RI. In September, after his July 16 advancement to lieutenant commander, Miller became executive officer of the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron (SABS) monitor Passaic, which engaged Fort McAllister, GA, for eight hours on March 3, 1863. On April 7 the Passaic joined other SABS ironclads in an intense but unsuccessful attack on the fortifications in Charleston Harbor; damaged, she had to undergo repair. In September and October Miller saw blockade duty for two months as executive officer of the steam sloop-of-war Sacramento, and in November he became executive officer of the NABS monitor Sangamon, which operated from Hampton Roads, VA. In February 1864, with Miller in command, the ironclad was assigned to the SABS and participated in the blockade of Charleston until summer, when she returned to the NABS and operated in the James River. Detached in November, Miller became executive officer of the new twin-turret monitor Monadnock, which participated in the unsuccessful December attack on Fort Fisher, NC, as well as in its mid–January 1865 capture. Miller taught in February 1865 at the USNA, where on November 22, 1866, he married Ellen Comstock (1833–1867), who died on August 22, 1867. He became executive officer aboard the steam sloop of war Powhatan in October, undertaking a two-year cruise with the Pacific and
The executive officer of the monitor Passaic, Lt. Cmdr. Joseph N. Miller, USN, assumed the same post aboard the monitor Sangamon in November 86. In command by February 86, he participated in the blockade of Charleston, SC, until summer, when his ironclad operated in the James River. Detached in November, Miller became executive officer of the new twin-turret monitor Monadnock, which participated in the unsuccessful December attack on Fort Fisher, NC, as well as in its mid–January 86 capture (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
North Atlantic Station (NAS). After work at the New York navy yard, during which deployment he was advanced to commander on January 25, 1870, Miller was captain and chief of staff of the Pacific Station Southern Division on the sloopof-war Ossippe from April 1870 to November 1872 and captain of the NAS monitor Ajax until May 1874, undertook Washington hydrographic duties, and was captain of the Pacific Station sloop-of-war Tuscarora until August 1876. Assistant chief of the Bureau of Yards and Docks through March 1877, Miller was inspector of the 11th Lighthouse District at Detroit until October 1880. On November 13, 1877, he married Helen Wills (1849–1916); the couple had a daughter. Promoted to captain on May 28, 1881, Miller commanded the Boston receiving ship, the screw frigate Tennessee, and was a member of
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various boards from April 1882 through April 1885. From May 1888 to July 1892, he was captain-of-the-yard, New York navy yard and commander of the cruiser Chicago, flagship of the Squadron of Evolution. Following board duty and advancement to commodore on April 16, 1894, he served as Boston navy yard commandant. Named a rear admiral on March 21, 1897, Miller was Pacific Station commander after July, raised the U.S. flag over Hawaii on August 12, and operated his fleet through the SpanishAmerican War until October 1898. Miller retired to his East Orange, NJ, residence on November 22, 1898. Taken ill in early 1909, he died on April 25 and was buried at Arlington National Cemetery three days later. No USN warships have been named in his honor. Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; Hamersly, 4th ed.; Cogar; SLGMSD, pseud., “RAdm. Joseph Nelson Miller,” FindaGrave, http://www.finda grave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=42329938 (accessed July 11, 2013); “Admiral Joseph N. Miller,” Timely Topics, I; The Youth’s Companion 83 (May 15, 1909), 230; DANFS; Boston Daily Globe, July 8, 1898; New York Times, November 19, 23, 1898, April 27, 1909; Washington Evening Star, May 26, 1909; Washington Post, May 9, July 23, 1897; April 29, 1909; Detroit Free Press, April 27, 1909.
Mitchell, John Gardner (1833–1868, USN) Born at Nantucket, MA, in 1833, Mitchell was appointed a USN midshipman on October 2, 1850, and, following his 1856 USNA graduation, became a passed midshipman and then in 1858 a master and a lieutenant. He served on the San Francisco–like USCS steamer Active until transferred back to the USNA in 1860. Mitchell was aboard in the Gulf Squadron sloop-of-war Sabine when the Civil War began. In May 1861, while attached to the steam frigate Minnesota, Mitchell was prize master of the captured ship North Carolina on a voyage from Hampton Roads, VA, to New York. In August he was given ordnance duty at the Washington Navy Yard, becoming a lieutenant commander on July 16, 1862. On May 1, 1863, he assumed command of the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron (NABS) gunboat Commodore Jones and undertook operations on Virginia’s rivers and coast, performing picket and patrol duty, dragging for torpedoes (mines), skirmishing with enemy cavalry, shelling shore installations, and capturing contraband goods with her shore parties. The Commodore Jones joined in
Active in the amphibious war in Virginia waters, Lt. Cmdr. John G. Mitchell, USN, was appointed captain of the Mississippi Squadron ironclad Carondelet in November 86. He commanded the famous ship (depicted third from left) during the March-May 86 Red River campaign. He was murdered while recruiting for his ship at San Francisco in October 868 (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
Muir the evacuation of West Point, VA, on May 31 and June 1 in the expedition up the Mattaponi River from June 3 to 7 and in the Chickahominy River demonstration of June 10–13. He then put to sea in search of CSS Tacony from June 13 to 19. Mitchell became commander of the Mississippi Squadron ironclad Carondelet in November 1863 and, between March and May 1864, captained the veteran Pook turtle on the Red River campaign in Louisiana, bringing her safely back from Alexandria via the famous emergency dam. At the end of the month Mitchell took over his squadron’s 8th District and in early June was sent up the White River to assist in the rebuff of Confederate cavalry and guerrillas then harassing Union shipping. Shortly thereafter, having become ill, he was granted recuperative leave. In late 1865 Mitchell was posted to the USNA, was then transferred as executive officer to the Pacific Squadron sloop-of-war Pensacola, and in late 1867 became skipper of the sloop-of-war Saginaw, the first ship built at the Mare Island navy yard. In spring and summer 1868 the Saginaw patrolled off Southeast Alaska. Not long after returning to San Francisco, CA, for replenishment, Mitchell obtained permission to augment his depleted crew through personal recruiting. Having gone into the city from Mare Island to recruit on October 21, he was attacked by two club-wielding men on Sutter Street in early evening and murdered. Mitchell Bay in Alaska was named in his honor in 1869; however, there have been no USN warships named for him. Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; Callahan; ORN, I, 5; Smith, Civil War Biographies from the Western Waters; North American and United States Gazette, October 23, 1868; Stockton (CA) Daily Independent, October 23, 31, 1868; Vallejo (CA) Weekly Chronicle, October 24, 1868; San Francisco Daily Morning Chronicle, October 23, 1868, February 16, 1869; Smith, USS Carondelet.
Muir, Walter (1836–1916, USN) The son of shipbuilder/caulker William and Agnes Strong Muir, Walter was born in Scotland on April 22, 1836. Upon the death of his mother and his father’s remarriage, his family moved to Rondout, NY, in 1848 and subsequently to Chicago and then a farm in Lake County, IL. He supplemented his public education through
6 study at the Wauconda Academy in Wauconda, IL, and afterwards returned to Chicago, where he worked in a shipyard and studied law. Upon reaching his majority, Muir participated in the Pike’s Peak gold rush before settling in Denver; he thereafter became a merchandiser at Fort Kearney. In 1860, he returned to Chicago and took up work as a ships carpenter. Muir was among the first to enlist for three months as an Illinois volunteer upon the outbreak of the Civil War in April 1861, but his company was too late to join a regiment forming at Freeport, IL, so it was transferred as Company I into the 15th Illinois, where Muir was appointed orderly sergeant. When soldiers were required to help man the gunboats of the Western Flotilla, he was one of 23 from his regiment detailed in time to participate in the campaign against Island No. 10, Fort Pemberton, and Memphis in the spring of 1862. Subsequently promoted to master’s mate, he found himself at the fleet base at Illinois, where he was, due to his earlier work as an orderly sergeant, detailed to assume charge of the naval post office. Advanced to the rank of acting ensign upon formation of the Mississippi Squadron in October, he was detailed to join the crew of the new ironclad gunboat Chillicothe as her fourth master. By the time of the ironclad’s participation in the February–April 1863 Yazoo Pass expedition, an effort to flank Vicksburg, MS, from the north, Muir had risen to executive officer. Badly damaged in that expedition, the gunboat was under repair until September, when it returned to service. During that break, Muir married Lovisa L. Wheelock of McHenry County, IL; the couple would have seven children. While en route south, the vessel was damaged due to the faulty performance of her captain and Muir succeeded him in acting command of the Chillicothe until just before Christmas. The following spring he transferred to the ironclad Cincinnati, aboard which he participated in the campaign against Mobile, AL, and finally resigned from the USN in June 1865. Walter Muir returned briefly to Chicago before purchasing a farm in Steele County, MN, where he took the family and farmed for 15 years while also serving in the state legislature. In 1879 the Muirs removed to Hunter, ND, and became deeply involved in the state activities of the Pop-
Murphy
ulist Party during the 1890s. He unsuccessfully ran on different occasions for governor, congressman, and twice for U.S. senator, losing one of the latter races by three votes. Muir died at home on January 17, 1916, and was buried in the area. No USN vessels have been named in his honor. Sources: Callahan; Myron J. Smith, Jr., Joseph Brown and His Civil War Ironclads: USS Chillicothe, Indianola, and Tuscumbia (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2017); Lounsberry, Early History of North Dakota, II.
Murphy, John Mcleod (1827–1871, USN) Born on February 14, 1827, in Westchester County, NY, Murphy was appointed a USN midshipman on August 10, 1841. Late in 1846 he joined the Home Squadron bomb brig Stromboli, which arrived in the Gulf of Mexico in April 1847 to participate in the Mexican War, supporting the capture of Tabasco in June and providing blockade and gunfire support until detached in July 1848. Becoming a passed midshipman on August 10, 1847, Murphy married Mary Teresa Mooney (1831–?) in NYC on November 6; the couple would have four children. In 1849 Murphy and William Nicholson Jeffers, III (1824–1883), coauthored the text Nautical Routine and Stowage, with Short Rules in Navigation, which became required reading in 1861. In 1851 Murphy was hydrographic assistant on Maj. John G. Barnard’s survey of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec but resigned on May 10, 1852, to become a first officer with the Collins Steamship Line. He resigned from that position the following year and became a civilian surveyor and engineer, and three years later he was named NYC surveyor. As his heart was still with ships and the sea, Murphy quit that post a year later to become the civilian constructing engineer at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. In 1860 friends persuaded him to try his luck in politics, and in the November elections he won a seat in the New York State Senate representing the 4th District. Before the month was over he was appointed chairman of a special committee to investigate the management of Central Park, NYC. In March 1861 he introduced a bill for the establishment of a publicly funded nautical school for boys in New York Harbor; the unsuccessful idea later became
A former naval officer, engineer, New York politician, and colonel of New York volunteers, John McLeod Murphy transferred to the USN in January 86, was commissioned an acting volunteer lieutenant, and succeeded Capt. Henry Walke as commander of the Mississippi Squadron ironclad Carondelet. He led his vessel through the capture of Vicksburg but was forced ashore by illness in September (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
SUNY Maritime College. Also while in Albany, Murphy wrote American Ships and Shipbuilding. After Fort Sumter Murphy resigned his seat to serve as the first colonel of the 15th Regiment, New York Volunteer Engineers. With this rank and force, the former naval officer saw hard service with the Army of the Potomac, especially during the Peninsular Campaign. In early
Muse August 1862 the Albany, NY, newspapers announced his death, which error he dispelled in a note to New York Times. Disillusioned with the military after participating in the disaster at Fredericksburg, Murphy addressed a letter in late December to RAdm. David Dixon Porter (1813–1891), commander of the USN Mississippi Squadron, supported by letters of reference from Capt. Henry A. Wise (1819–1869) of the Navy’s Ordnance Bureau and RAdm. Andrew Hull Foote (1806–1863), former inland navy chief, seeking a berth in the west. That communication resulted in his appointment as an acting volunteer lieutenant and his transfer to the Pook turtle Carondelet on March 4, 1863. He skippered the ironclad during the Porter-led expedition in Steele’s Bayou, March 18–24, and during that adventure won praise for landing two boat howitzers and 300 men near Rolling Fork to hold that place until the Union ships could cover it with their guns. Murphy next took Carondelet past the Vicksburg batteries in mid– April and engaged the guns at Grand Gulf at the end of the month. His vessel remained active below the Vicksburg fortress until its July 4 surrender. He relinquished command of the gunboat on September 1 due to illness and resigned his commission July 30, 1864. Murphy returned to NYC and resumed his profession as a civil engineer, but several attempts to reenter politics failed, leading to his appointment as inspector at the New York Customs House. He was a frequent contributor to the newspaper and periodical press on subjects connected with his specialty. The apparent victim of a heart attack, Murphy died on June 2, 1871, and was buried in Calvary Cemetery, Woodside, NY, in a plot he had purchased in April 1863. In its obituary, New York Times honored the 44-year-old as “a brave, benevolent, and gifted man.” The USN named a 20th century destroyer in his honor (DD-603). Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; Callahan; DANFS; Smith, USS Carondelet; Smith, Civil War Biographies from the Western Waters; Smith, Joseph Brown and His Civil War Ironclads; Appletons’ IV; Vanicia, pseud., “John McLeod Murphy,” FindaGrave, http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?pag = gr&GRid=55037067 (accessed August 15, 2011); “John McLeod Murphy,” Rootweb, http://wc.rootsweb. ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=mcclary wm&id=I372 (accessed July 12, 2016); Phisterer, New
8 York in the War of the Rebellion, II; New York State Division of Military and Naval Affairs, “Military History: 15th Engineer Regiment During the War,” Unit History Project, https://dmna.ny.gov/historic/reghist/ civil/other/15thEng/15thEngCWN.htm (accessed August 15, 2011); New York Herald, June 22, 1857, May 12, 1861; New York Times, November 23, 1860, April 2, 1861, August 11, 1862, June 2, 4, 1871; Milwaukee Sentinel, August 17, 1871.
Muse, William Templeman (1811–1864, CSN) The second son of William T. Muse, Sr. (1780– 1823), and Mary Blount Muse (1779–1813), Muse was born at Edenton, NC, on April 1, 1811. Following local schooling he was appointed a USN midshipman on June 1, 1828. He was on the Pacific Squadron schooner Dolphin until ordered to the New York naval school in 1833, from which he graduated as a passed midshipman on June 14, 1834. After leave, he served from 1836 to 1841 aboard “Old Ironsides,” the frigate Constitution, in both the Mediterranean and Pacific, during which time he was promoted to lieutenant on December 29, 1840. In 1842 Muse married Priscilla Jane Gantt (1822–1893)—the couple would have four children—and thereafter, until November 1845, he was on the Brazil Squadron frigate Raritan. After leave and shore duty, he joined the East Indies Squadron steam frigate Susquehanna, which after trials voyaged to China. Returning home in late 1851, Muse was assigned to the USNO from August 1852 until September 14, 1855, when he became a commander. Unemployed through 1856, he was seconded to the USCS from 1857 to 1861. Declaring for the South, Muse was stricken from the USN rolls on April 2, 1861. Shortly thereafter, as he accepted a commission in the NC state navy, he learned that his Alexandria, VA, home was occupied by Union troops. Appointed a CSN commander on June 24, 1861, he was detailed to outfit gunboats at the captured Gosport Navy Yard at Norfolk. Muse was captain of the CSS Ellis, which participated in the defense of Hatteras Inlet, NC, in August, and thereafter of the Wilmington-based CSS Uncle Ben. While serving aboard the ironclad battery CSS Arctic in 1863, Muse helped oversee construction of the ironclad ram North Carolina at the city, becoming her captain when she began
service in the Cape Fear River at the beginning of 1864. Catching typhoid fever, Muse died at Wilmington on April 8. His remains were sent by rail to Warren County, NC, for burial in the Old Warrenton Cemetery. Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; Foenander; CSN Register; DANFS; Kelly Agan, “William T. Muse,” NCpedia, http://ncpedia.org/biography/ muse-william-t (accessed September 26, 2016); Anne Rucker, “Com. William Templeman Muse,” FindaGrave, http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi? page=gr&GRid=7845467 (accessed September 26, 2016); Wilmington Daily Journal, April 11, 1864.
Myers, Julian, Sr. (1825–1899, CSN) Third of 12 children of Mordecai Myers (1794–1865) and Sarah Henrietta Cohen Myers (1799–1886), Julian was born at Savannah, GA, on May 5, 1825. Schooled locally, he joined the USN against the wishes of his parents in 1838 and received an appointment as USN midshipman on March 2, 1839. From 1842 to 1844 he was aboard the Home Squadron schooner Boxer. Becoming a Passed Midshipman on July 2, 1845, he was posted aboard the Africa Squadron frigate United States from May 1846 to February
Myers 1849, when he was seconded to the USCS and engaged in East Coast hydrographic surveys until July 1852. While in Key West, FL, on February 18 of the latter year, he married Elizabeth “Lizzie” Wall (1832–1906); the couple would have four children. From July 1853 until May 1854, Myers served on the Brazil Squadron sloop of war Jamestown, after which he was posted to the USNO. He was twice promoted in 1855: master (February 21) and lieutenant (September 20). From late 1858 to December 2, 1861, he was aboard the East Indies Squadron steam sloopof-war Hartford. Myers declared for the South. Dismissed from the service, he was arrested and held at Fort Warren, Boston, MA, until paroled and released on January 16, 1862. Myers joined the CSN as a 1st lieutenant on February 6, 1862, and initially served at the Richmond naval station. Posted to Selma, AL, he participated in the completion and outfitting of the ironclad CSS Huntsville, which, when the craft was delivered in August 1863, was only partially armored and her engines defective. Still, Myers was appointed captain and ordered to guard the waters of Mobile Bay. Unable to provide much assistance during the August 5, 1864, Battle of Mobile, Myers afterwards took his command up the Spanish River and employed her as a floating battery to help protect the upper
Late in 862 Richmond naval station officer Cmdr. Julian Myers, Sr., CSN, was posted to Selma, AL, to participate in the completion and outfitting of the ironclad Huntsville depicted in this drawing by RAdm. David G. Farragut. Upon her August 86 delivery, he became captain and was ordered to guard the waters of Mobile Bay. Only partially armored and with defective engines, the vessel was unable to provide much assistance during the August , 86, Battle of Mobile and was thereafter turned into a Spanish River floating battery (Navy Official Records).
Nicholson portion of the bay and the city of Mobile. During this time, he was named a 1st lieutenant in the Provisional Navy, to rank from January 6, 1864. When Federal forces closed in on the city, the Huntsville was scuttled near Blakeley Island on April 12, 1865, her captain and crew fleeing ashore. Myers was paroled at Nunna Hubba Bluff, AL, on May 10, but unwilling to be “reconstructed” he refused to sign the oath of allegiance to the U.S. He and his wife moved to Savannah, where he operated a rug mill. While at the Montclair, NJ, home of one of his daughters, Myers died on May 21, 1899; his remains were returned to Savannah for burial at Laurel Grove Cemetery. Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; Foenander; CSN Register; DANFS; “Julian Myers, Sr.,” John S. Whitaker Genealogy Home Page, http://www. genealogy. com/ ftm/ w/ h/ i/ John- S- Whitaker/ WEB SITE-0001/UHP-0008.html (accessed May 3, 2016); Jane O. Kelly, “Capt. Julian Myer,” FindaGrave, http:// www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln= myers&GSfn=julian&GSbyrel=all&GSdyrel=all&GS st=12&GScntry=4&GSob=n&GRid=98025068&df= all& (accessed May 3, 2016); Robert Kane, “CSS Huntsville,” Encyclopedia of Alabama, http://www.encyclope diaofalabama.org/article/h-3709 (accessed May 3, 2016); New York Times, May 27, 1899; New York Herald, May 27, 1899; New Orleans Daily Picayune, May 27, 1899.
Nicholson, James William Augustus “War Horse” (1821–1887, USN) The son of Nathaniel Dowse Nicholson (1792–1822) and Hannah Gray Nicholson and grandson of Continental Navy officer Samuel Nicholson (1743–1813, the first commander of “Old Ironsides,” the frigate Constitution, James W.A. Nicholson was born at Dedham, MA, on March 10, 1821. Appointed a USN midshipman on February 10, 1838, he was aboard the West Indies Squadron sloops-of-war Levant, Natchez and Warren until January 1841. Completing a year-long Mediterranean cruise, Nicholson had New York navy yard duty until 1843, then after studying at the Philadelphia naval school, he became a passed midshipman on May 20, 1844. On the Home Squadron steam frigate Princeton until March 1846, he served in the Mexican War through September 1847 aboard the Pacific Squadron sloop of war Lexington and the frigate
Savannah. Following leave, Nicholson shipped aboard the storeship Fredonia, transporting invalids from the war zone to Norfolk, VA, through July 1848. Unemployed for a year, he served on the West Indies Squadron flagship, the frigate Raritan, until April 1850 and then undertook an 18-month cruise aboard the Pacific Squadron paddle-wheel storeship Southampton, during which deployment he became lieutenant on April 24, 1852. After leave he joined the East Indies Squadron sloop-of-war Vandalia in February 1853 and participated in the opening of Japan under Com. Matthew C. Perry (1794– 1858). Taken ill, Nicholson returned to the U.S. in November 1854 and was on sick leave until October 1855, when he was given duty at the New York navy yard. From October 1857 to March 1860, he served aboard the African Squadron sloop-of-war Vincennes and thereafter provided instruction aboard the New York receiving ship until April 1861. During 1860 his wife and the mother of his two children, Ellen Berrian (1826–1860), passed away. Upon the eve of the Civil War Nicholson became executive officer on the steamer Pocahontas, which was sent to the relief of Fort Sumter. However, he arrived after the surrender of April 13. Upon the return of the Pocahontas he was detailed aboard the steam sloop-of-war Pensacola at the Washington Navy Yard. Nicholson assumed command of the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron (SABS) gunboat Isaac Smith, which participated in the November USN assault on Port Royal, SC. In January 1862 she joined in an expedition to Savannah, GA, and served in Florida waters until recalled to New York. During this deployment, Nicholson became a commander on July 16. On New York navy yard ordnance duty until December 1863, he was then named captain of the Canonicus-class West Gulf Blockading Squadron (WGBS) monitor Manhattan, which fought in the August 4, 1864, Battle of Mobile, engaging both Fort Morgan and the CS ironclad ram Tennessee II. The Manhattan bombarded Fort Powell for twelve days and after a siege of six weeks participated in the capture of Fort Morgan. In November she put into New Orleans, LA; resupplied, she joined the blockade off the mouth of the Red River. Detached at New Year’s 1865, Nicholson assumed command of the
Owen in June and July during riots that brought a British bombardment of the harbor forts. During the unrest, he took aboard U.S. and foreign refugees and sent a 100-man contingent to guard the American consulate and rescue its records. Detached on March 1, 1883, the admiral, who had received a gold medal from the king of Sweden in recognition of his Alexandria services, was placed on the retired list on March 10. After an illness of many months, Nicholson died at a NYC address on October 28, 1887, and was buried at Woodlawn Cemetery, in Westchester Co., NY. A 20th century USN torpedo boat (TB-29) and three destroyers (DD-52, DD-442, DD-982) were named in honor of the admiral and his forbearers.
In December 86 Cmdr. James W. A. Nicholson, USN, assumed command of the monitor Manhattan, one of the Union ironclads that fought CSS Tennessee during the August 86 Battle of Mobile Bay. Remaining in the Gulf until November, she was refitted at New Orleans, where Nicholson was detached and ordered to other duties (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
paddle-wheel Pacific Squadron gunboat Monongo in March and cruised off the west coast of South America until October 1866, being appointed captain on July 25, 1866. From August 1867 until May 1868 Nicholson commanded the steam frigate Wampanoag, which during her February 1868 trials set a speed record that stood for 21 years. His first wife having passed away, Nicholson is believed to have married Mary Heape Martin (1843–?) in 1870. He served as navigation officer of the New York navy yard until May 1871, when he became captain of the Brazil Squadron flagship, the sloop-of-war Lancaster. Nicholson, who became a commodore on November 8, 1873, was on board duty until August 1876, when he became commandant of the New York navy yard until May 1880. Unemployed until September 1881, he became commander of the European Squadron on October 1, the same day he was advanced to rear admiral. Flying his flag in the Lancaster, Nicholson was off Alexandria, Egypt,
Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; Cogar; Hamersly, 3rd ed.; DANFS; Friend, Jack, West Wind, Flood Tide: The Battle of Mobile Bay; Robert B. Ely, “This Filthy Ironpot (Manhattan)”; “Nicholson” Roots Web, http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm. cgi?op=GET&db=brucen&id=I1787 (accessed September 12, 2016); New York Tribune, April 9, 1883; New York Times, July 14, 1882, November 1, 1887; Chicago Daily Tribune, October 27, 1887.
Owen, Elias Kane (1834–1877, USN) The third and last child of Indian agent Thomas Jefferson Vance Owen, Sr. (1801–1835), and Emeline Hochkiss Owen (1807–1882), Elias Kane was born in Chicago, IL, on November 21, 1834. Sponsored by Abraham Lincoln, Kane was appointed a USN midshipman on December 7, 1848, and attended the USNA in 1849, then joined the Mediterranean Squadron flagship, the razee Independence, until 1852. For two years, he served aboard the Africa Squadron sloop-of-war Marion, becoming a passed midshipman on June 15, 1854. Owen was attached to the U.S. Coast Survey late that year and was advanced to master and lieutenant in September 1855. Briefly aboard the West Indies Squadron sloop-of-war Jamestown during 1858, he transferred to the Africa Squadron sloop-of-war Saratoga for two more years of antislavery patrol. On April 11, 1860, while on leave, Owen married Sarah Jane Reily (1836–1910) in Kaskaskia, Randolph County, IL. Having returned to the Saratoga late in the year, he returned with his wife to Philadelphia in August 1861. They had no children.
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Active on the East Coast blockade, Lt. Cmdr. Elias K. Owen, USN, became captain of the Mississippi Squadron ironclad Louisville in December 862, joining in the Yazoo River Expedition. In January 86 his command participated in the capture of Arkansas Post, and thereafter Owen was in all of the important fights of the Vicksburg campaign as well as the 86 Red River operation. This 86 Currier & Ives print shows the Louisville (third from left) in action at Arkansas Post (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
During September–December 1861 Owen was aboard the steam gunboat James Adger, which unsuccessfully sought the Confederate ocean raider Nashville off Ireland, returning to join the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron (SABS) blockade off Georgetown, SC, and in March 1862 Charleston, SC. Promoted lieutenant commander on July 16, he assumed command of the Mississippi Squadron ironclad gunboat Louisville in late December, participating in the Yazoo River campaign against Chickasaw Bayou and the assault on Snyder’s Bluff, north of Vicksburg. In 1863 Owen and the Louisville participated in the capture of Arkansas Post in January, the Steele’s Bayou expedition in March, passage by the Vicksburg batteries on April 14, and the Battle of Grand Gulf on April 29. Following Vicksburg’s July 4 surrender, Owen took charge of the squadron’s 5th Division and, in addition to overseeing the initial salvage of the sunken ironclad Cairo, spent the remainder of the year battling Confederate irregular forces along the river-
banks. In February 1864 he led the naval component of the Coates Expedition to Liverpool Heights, on the Yazoo. In March–May he participated in the Red River Expedition and in June engaged the enemy in an action off Columbia, LA. Posted aboard the New York receiving ship in spring 1865, Owen became a commander on July 25, 1866, and returned to the Western waters that fall for two years of special duty at the Mound City naval station overseeing the salvage of sunken naval vessels, the disposition of the river monitors, and the continuing demobilization of naval affairs on the inland rivers. He commanded the steam sloop Seminole of the North Atlantic Squadron in 1868 and 1869, joining in the hunt for the pirate steamer Telegrafo off Hispaniola. From September 1870 to September 1873 he was captain of the Norfolk receiving ship and was thereafter unemployed until he retired on June 9, 1876. Owen died on April 8, 1877, at Kaskaskia, IL,
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and was buried in St. Mary’s Catholic Cemetery in Randolph. One 20th century USN destroyer (DD-536) was named in his honor. Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; DANFS; Callahan; Hamersly, 3rd ed.; Robert W. Nesser, “Ships of the United States Navy: New Hampshire”; Smith, Civil War Biographies from the Western Waters; Smith, Tinclads in the Civil War; Smith, Fight for the Yazoo; “Capt. Elias Kane Owen,” FindaGrave, http://www. findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSsr=3881& GSvcid=266131&GRid=97207210& (accessed November 3, 2012); Mark F. Jenkins,” Elias Kane Owen,” RootsWeb, http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/ read/OWEN/2001–08/0998590348 (accessed November 3, 2012).
Page, Thomas Jefferson “The Commodore” (1808–1899, CSN) The fourth of 14th children of Mann Page (1766–1813) and Elizabeth Nelson Page (1770– 1853), whose father signed the Declaration of Independence, Thomas was born at Shelley Plantation, Rosewell, VA, on January 4, 1808. Locally schooled, he was appointed a USN midshipman on October 1, 1827, and sent to the Norfolk naval school. Upon his graduation, he joined the West Indies Squadron sloop-of-war Erie on a four-year cruise. Following a period of shore duty, during which he became a passed midshipman on June 10, 1833, Page rejoined the Erie, now part of the Brazil Squadron, from June 1834 to 1837. Seconded to the USCS, he advanced to lieutenant on December 20, 1839, and served at the USNO from 1844 to 1848 honing his hydrographic skills under Lt. Matthew Fontaine Maury (1806–1873). During this deployment, he married Benjamina Price Page (1818– 1904); the couple would have five children. From February 13, 1848 until January 1851, Page cruised in the Orient aboard the East Indies Squadron sloop-of-war Plymouth and on November 4, 1852, he became commander of the paddle-wheel gunboat Water Witch. From February 1853 to May 1856, the steamer surveyed along the east coast of South America and its tributary rivers and in February 1855, while on the Rio de la Plata, was fired upon by Paraguay’s Fort Itapiru in an unprovoked attack that killed a crewman and forced the steamer out of the river. Page, who became a commander on September 15, spent the next four years preparing
A noted prewar explorer, Capt. Thomas Jefferson Page, CSN, commanded Confederate James River batteries until sent in 86 to Europe, where he became captain of the oceangoing ironclad Stonewall in January 86. The Civil War being over when he arrived at Havana in May, he turned his vessel over to the Spanish and moved to Argentina (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
reports of his explorations. However, his work was interrupted between October 1858 and April 1859 when he served as fleet captain of the Paraguay Expedition, a U.S. naval force sent to obtain redress for the Water Witch incident. From summer 1859 through early 1861, Page returned to his South American explorations, visiting rivers in Bolivia, Brazil, and Paraguay. When the Civil War erupted on April 12, 1861, Page, though offered a commission in the Italian Navy, declared for the South and was dismissed from the USN on April 22. He joined the Virginia state navy, taking command of a battery at Gloucester Point on the York River. Becoming a CSN commander on June 10 and an ACS artillery colonel on June 12, he retained command
Parrott of the Gloucester Point battery while adding responsibility for the James River batteries at Chaffin’s and Ball’s bluffs in the defense of Richmond. In March 1863 he went to France to assist in the acquisition of ocean raiders, being promoted to the rank of Provisional Navy captain on May 13. In February 1864 one of those secretly contracted, the Sphynx, was under U.S. pressure sold to the Danish government, which refused—upon her completion and trials—to accept delivery, ordering her returned to her Bordeaux builders. Prior to sailing in December, the ironclad was secretly sold to the Confederacy. Page was named captain and having boarded a crew departed Copenhagen, rechristening his ship CSS Stonewall on January 6, 1865. Caught in a Bay of Biscay storm, she put into Spanish ports for repair, being blockaded by two USN sloops-of-war. Scaring the blockaders away, the ironclad steamed to Lisbon and then to Nassau and Havana, at which latter port Page learned, on May 6, that the Civil War was over. Handing the Stonewall over to Spanish authorities in exchange for escape funds for himself and his crew, Page, his wife, and two sons traveled to Argentina, where he had powerful acquaintances who gave him a cattle farm in Entre Rios as sanctuary. Also commissioned an Argentine Navy captain, Page proposed a naval defense for his adopted land, the leaders of which accepted his plan and sent him to Great Britain to oversee construction on their behalf of two monitors and two gunboats. In 1873 he convinced the Argentine government to establish a torpedo station and was on hand in 1881 when the Britishbuilt warships were delivered. In 1882 he unsuccessfully lobbied his government for a torpedo boat designed by John Erickson (1803–1889), father of the USS Monitor. In 1894 Page became secretary to the Argentine diplomatic mission to Italy and relocated his entire family to Rome. Nicknamed “The Commodore,” he became popular in the American community. Page died on October 23, 1899, and was buried at Campo Cestio, the Protestant cemetery at Rome. Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; CSN Register; Driver, Confederate Sailors, Marines, and Signalmen from Virginia and Maryland; Foenander; Coddington; DANFS; NOW, pseud., “Cdr. Thomas Jeffer-
son Page,” FindaGrave, http://www.findagrave.com/ cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=40867417 (accessed September 19, 2016); “Captain Thomas Jefferson Page”; Page, La Plata, the Argentine Confederation, and Paraguay; Page, “Autobiographical Sketch of Thomas Jefferson Page; Submitted by Commander R.S. Crenshaw”; Page, “The Career of the Confederate Cruiser Stonewall”; Hyde, “The Two Stonewalls”; Eduardo C. Gerding, “The Confederate Navy and the Argentine Hydrographic Survey: The Time of the Spar Torpedo,” Buenos Aires Herald (December 14, 2003); Portland Morning Oregonian, December 1, 1899.
Parrott, Enoch Greenleafe (1815–1879, USN) The third of six children of sea captain Enoch Greenleafe Parrott, Sr. (1780–1828), and Susan Parker Parrott (1780–1852) and a cousin of Robert Parker Parrott (1804–1877), the cannon inventor, Enoch was born at Portsmouth, NH, on November 27, 1815. Appointed a USN midshipman on December 10, 1831, he served aboard the Brazil Squadron brig Boxer and then the sloop-of-war Natchez until October 1835. Briefly at the Boston navy yard and the New York naval school, he graduated on June 15, 1837, becoming a passed midshipman. In 1838 and 1839 he served at the New York naval rendezvous (recruiting station), the Boston navy yard, and a training ship, the paddle-wheel steamer Fulton II. Parrott participated in the Southern coastal survey of the brig Consort after December, was seconded to the USCS in 1840, and became a lieutenant on September 8, 1841. On Africa Squadron anti-piracy patrol from December 1842 until July 1845 aboard the sloop-of-war Saratoga, he joined the Pacific Squadron flagship Congress, participated in the Monterey to Los Angeles expedition of John C. Fremont (1813– 1890), and in the Mexican War captures of Guaymas and Mazatlan. On leave and then aboard the Boston receiving ship from September 1849 to December 1850, he sailed aboard the Pacific Squadron frigate St. Lawrence (February– August 1851), transporting U.S. exhibits to the London Exhibition prior to taking station. Between July 1852 and May 1853, Parrott served aboard the Mediterranean Squadron sloop-ofwar St. Louis and the Pacific Squadron sloopof-war St. Mary’s. Following leave, he was twice posted to the USNO (February 1856–February
1858 and April 1859–April 1861). Between those tours, he commanded the sloop-of-war Despatch on a special antislavery patrol of the southern U.S. coast, March 1858–March 1859. After the Civil War began on April 12, 1861, Parrott participated in the failed USN effort to destroy the Gosport [VA] Navy Yard prior to his promotion to commander on April 24. Captain of the brig Perry on the Atlantic blockade, he captured two blockade runners before his transfer up the Potomac River to guard the approaches to Alexandria, VA, during the after-
Cousin of the cannon inventor Robert Parker Parrott, Cmdr. Enoch G. Parrott, USN, took command in September 86 of the monitor Canonicus, which began James River service in 86 and dueled with Confederate batteries at Howlett’s Farm in June and December. Also, in December and in January 86, Parrott’s ironclad participated in the battles at Fort Fisher, NC. He commanded the double-turreted monitor Miantonomoh at New York from February to May and the double-turreted monitor Agementicus at Boston from May to October (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
Parrott math of the July Battle of First Bull Run. In August Parrott took command of the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron (SABS) paddlewheel gunboat Augusta, which participated in the November capture of Port Royal, SC, and the blockade of Charleston. He commanded the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron (NABS) monitor Canonicus, from September to 1863– January 1865, overseeing her June 21 and December 5–6 engagements with Confederate batteries at Howlett’s Farm and two fights with Fort Fisher, NC, on December 24–25 and January 13–15, 1865. Detached, he commanded the double-turreted monitor Miantonomoh at New York from February to May and the doubleturreted monitor Agementicus at Boston from May to October. Parrott commanded the Boston receiving ship from October 1865 through September 1868, being promoted to the rank of captain on July 25, 1866. After leave, he served on several boards and took leave, being advanced to commodore on April 22, 1870. The bachelor was commandant of the Mare Island navy yard (April 1871– September 1872) and the Boston navy yard (August 1872–October 1873), became rear admiral on November 8, 1873, and commanded the Asiatic Station (November to March 1874), flying his flag aboard the screw sloop-of-war Hartford. Forced to take sick leave, he was placed on the Retired List on April 4. Living alone at a NYC hotel, he died of a heart attack during the early evening of May 10, 1879, and was buried at St. John’s Church in Portsmouth. No USN vessels have been named in his honor. Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; Cogar, I; Hamersly, 3rd ed.; DANFS; “Enoch Greenleafe Parrott,” The Parrot Family of Parrott Gun Fame, http:// freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~parrott/ Parrott%20Gun.shtml (accessed June 27, 2016); Sandy, pseud., “Adm. Enoch Greenleafe Parrott,” FindaGrave, http:// www. findagrave. com/ cgi- bin/ fg. cgi?page= gr&GRid=53104855 (accessed June 27, 2016); Foster, “Rear Admiral Enoch Greenleafe Parrott, USN of Portsmouth, NH, 1815–1879”; Vallejo Chronicle, September 16, 1870; San Francisco Chronicle, September 21, 1870; San Francisco Daily Evening Bulletin, November 1, 1873; New York Times, May 11, 1879; Boston Daily Advertiser, May 12, 1879; Hartford Daily Courant, May 13, 1879; Baltimore Sun, May 13, 1879.
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Paulding, Leonard (1826–1867, USN) The son of George Paulding (1791–1855) and Abigail Brower Paulding (1793–1826), Leonard Paulding was born in NYC on February 16, 1826. He moved to Erie County, PA, with his parents, and was appointed a USN midshipman on December 19, 1840, serving aboard the Mediterranean Squadron sloop-of-war Preble upon her return to the U.S. in 1843. Transferred to the Brazil Squadron sloop-of-war Boston for a threeyear cruise, he became a passed midshipman in July 1846, was seconded to the USCS late in the decade, and had USNO duty in the early 1850s. He married Helen Jane Offley (1828–1910) in 1852 (the couple would have four children). Paulding advanced to lieutenant on September 14, 1855, and spent three years at the Portsmouth navy yard. Executive officer of the Brazil Squad ron brig Dolphin after 1858, he was forced in May 1861 to help scuttle her to prevent capture by the Confederates when they occupied the Gosport Navy Yard. In late summer 1861 Paulding was detailed to join the Western Flotilla and was immediately dispatched to Chicago on recruiting duty. In early September he assumed command of the newly finished ironclad St. Louis and in December guided her down a treacherous stretch of the Mississippi River to the unit’s Cairo, IL, base. On January 11, 1862, Paulding’s new vessel and another pursued Confederate gunboats from just below Cairo to their base at Columbus, KY. The St. Louis participated in the capture of Fort Henry on the Tennessee River in early February 1862, while she was flotilla flagboat during the attack on Fort Donelson. The vessel’s pilothouse was hit during the February 14 bombardment, and the pilot killed and three men were wounded. In March-April the St. Louis joined in the Island No. 10 and Fort Pillow campaigns. During the bombardment of the latter Confederate position, Paulding and others were wounded when a 100-pdr. smoothbore exploded his boat. Already suffering from dysentery, the captain was taken to Alton, IL, for medical treatment and placed on sick leave, being promoted to the rank of lieutenant commander on July 16. Upon his recovery he was briefly New York navy yard executive officer then became captain of the pio.
Having commanded the Western Flotilla ironclad St. Louis at the Battles of Fort Henry and Fort Donelson in February 862 as well as the following contests at Island No. and Fort Pillow, Lt. Cmdr. Leonard Paulding, USN, wounded at the latter, took sick leave until late summer, when he assumed command of the pioneer ironclad Galena, from which he was detached in May 86 (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
neer ironclad Galena, which served on the James River from October to February 1863. He was then on independent patrol off Hampton Roads, VA. After briefly overseeing construction detail on the abuilding paddle-wheel gunboat Monocacy, he was captain of the James River double-ender Eutaw from March 30 to April 1865. Paulding became a commander on December 24, 1865, and captain of the Pacific Squadron paddle-wheel gunboat Wateree early in 1866. Ill for several weeks before arriving at Panama Bay from Callao on April 23, 1867, he was diagnosed with a severe case of dysentery and ordered home on the next California steamer. Before he could leave, he died onboard his ship in Panama Bay on April 29. His remains, buried locally, were exhumed and placed in Arlington National Cemetery on November 20, 1911. No USN ships have been named in his honor. Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; Callahan; Smith, Civil War Biographies from the Western Waters; Smith, The Timberclads in the Civil War;
Biller, “From the Drafting Table to the Front Lines: Designing, Building, and Utilizing the Ironclad USS Galena”; Ethier, “De-evolution of a Warship (Galena)”; Hackemer, “The Other Union Ironclad: The USS Galena and the Critical Summer of 1862”; Appletons’, IV; Tom Painter, “Cmdr. Leonard Paulding,” FindaGrave, http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg. cgi?page=gr&GRid=41695875 (accessed May 21, 2012); North American and United States Gazette, May 13, 1867; Daily National Intelligencer, May 18, 1867.
Pegram, Robert Baker (1811–1894, CSN) The second of 11 children of Gen. John Pegram (1773–1831) and Martha Ward Gregory Pegram (1781–1836), Robert Baker Pegram was born at “Bonneville,” Dinwiddie County, VA, on December 10, 1811. He eventually attended the Dinwiddie Academy. Appointed a USN midshipman on February 2, 1829, he served in the Mediterranean Squadron sloop-of-war Boston and the frigate United States until 1834. Becoming a passed midshipman on July 3, 1835, he married Lucy Cargill (?–1870) on November 26; the couple would have six children. Pegram joined the East Indies Squadron frigate John Adams, which between May 5, 1838 and June 1840 made a world cruise in company with the squadron flagship Columbia. Assigned to the USNO, he was advanced to lieutenant on September 8, 1841, and spent two years on “Old Ironsides,” the frigate Constitution, flagship of the Home Squadron. From 1843 to 1846, he was East India Squadron flag lieutenant, serving on the flagship Brandywine. Pegram was first lieutenant of the sloop-of-war Saratoga off Vera Cruz during the 1847–1848 Mexican War and in 1848 and 1849 he held the same position aboard the Africa Squadron’s John Adams. In 1850 and 1851, he served on a U.S.-UK commission that established the boundaries of the Newfoundland fisheries. During 1852–1855 he served aboard the East Indies Squadron frigate Powhatan during the opening of Japan. On August 4, 1855, he led a landing party from his vessel, in coordination with one from a British warship, in an attack on Chinese pirates at Kulan, capturing a war junk. Suffering a case of heat stroke, Pegram, praised by a British admiral for his leadership and given a ceremonial sword by the Commonwealth of Virginia, recovered while serving after 1856 as
Pegram executive officer of the Gosport Navy Yard at Norfolk. Detached in October 1858, he commanded the steamer Water Witch, which participated in the seven-month Paraguay Expedition, a U.S. naval force sent to obtain redress for an 1855 incident. Pegram was seconded to the USCS in October 1860 and commanded its steamer Bibb during a hydrographic survey in New York waters. Declaring for Virginia when civil war erupted, Pegram’s name was stricken from USN rolls on April 17, 1861, and he was appointed a Virginia navy captain a day later. He briefly commanded the Gosport Navy Yard when the Federals evacuated, but on April 22 he took command of the Pig Point Battery at the mouth of the Nanse-
Captain of the CSS Nashville, the first successful Confederate ocean raider, Cmdr. Robert B. Pegram, CSN, was given command of the ironclad Richmond in July 862. He served as acting James River Squadron commander from September to May 86, when he took over the new ironclad Virginia II. During the late summer he was sent to England to acquire naval vessels (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
Pelot mond River. On June 10 he became a CSN lieutenant and during the summer outfitted the ocean cruiser Nashville at Charleston, SC. Escaping the Atlantic blockade on October 21, Pegram steamed to England, capturing the U.S. merchantman Harvey Birch on November 19, the first success by a Confederate commerce raider. The first Confederate warship in British waters, the Nashville returned to the South on February 18, 1862, and Pegram was briefly detailed back to the Pig Point Battery. Pegram became captain of the ironclad ram Richmond on July 6, was promoted to commander, Provisional Navy, on September 13, and served as acting James River Squadron commander until May 1864, when he took over the new ironclad ram Virginia II. During the late summer he was sent to England as representative of the stock company Virginia Volunteer Navy Association to acquire naval vessels. One was purchased before the end of the conflict, but it was returned to its owners. Pegram resided in Nova Scotia from July to November 1865, when he returned to Petersburg, VA, and signed a U.S. oath of allegiance. Pardoned by President Andrew Johnson (1808– 1875) on October 21, he moved with his family to Petersburg, VA, where in 1866 he was appointed superintendent of the Petersburg and S.C. Weldon Railroad until 1870, after which date he worked in the insurance industry. He died on October 24, 1894, and was buried in the
8 Cedar Grove section of Elmwood Cemetery, Norfolk. Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; CSN Register; Foenander; Driver, Confederate Sailors, Marines, and Signalmen from Virginia and Maryland; “Captain Robert Baker Pegram and Descendants,” Pegram Family Album, https://www.patch.net/simmons/ sim12.html (accessed October 1, 2015); Coski, Capital Navy; “Rubbings,” pseud., “Capt. Robert Baker Pegram,” FindaGrave, http://www.findagrave.com/cgibin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=93764917 (accessed October 1, 2015); DANFS; “R.P. Pegram,” Office of Coast Survey, http://www.nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/history/ CivilWar/people.php?person=24 (accessed October 1 2015); Fleming, “Robert Baker Pegram,” in The South in the Building of the Nation, XII; Eminent and Representative Men of Virginia and the District of Columbia of the 19th Century; Heite, “Captain Robert B. Pegram: Hero Under Four Flags”; Baltimore Sun, October 25– 26, 1894; Atlanta Constitution, October 25, 1894; Norfolk Virginian, October 25, 1894.
Pelot, Thomas Postell (ca. 1835–1864, CSN) The only son of teacher Charles Moore Pelot (1791–1863) and Margaret Ann Ford Pelot (1795– 1843), Thomas was born in Charleston, SC, on June 28, 1835. He was appointed a USN midshipman on June 2, 1849, and graduated as a passed midshipman from the USNA in June 1853. From 1854 until the time she became the Mare Island receiving ship in October 1857, the Pacific Squadron flagship, the razee Independence, was
st Lt. Thomas P. Pelot, CSN, served as captain of the ironclad Georgia, rerated a floating battery and anchored in the Savannah River abreast of the city and Fort Jackson, from June 86 until June 86, when he was killed leading a boat expedition against the USS Water Witch (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
Pelot’s billet. He became a master on September 1, 1855, and a lieutenant on January 1, 1857. While awaiting orders in 1858 he married Clara Theresa Freeman (1841–1907); the couple would have five children. He joined the Home Squadron frigate Savannah in late 1858 for a three-year cruise off the east coast of Mexico. Pelot resigned his USN commission on January 7, 1861, and was appointed a CSN 1st lieutenant on March 26, even before the outbreak of the Civil War on April 12. On May 12 he assumed command of the gunboat CSS Lady Davis at Savanna, GA, capturing the Union merchantman A.B. Thompson, for which he eventually received $1,174.07 in prize money. In June 1863 Pelot took over the CSS Georgia, an ironclad ram that, because of inadequate engines, served as an ironclad floating battery anchored in the Savannah River abreast of the city and Fort Jackson. On January 6, 1864, Pelot was reranked as a 1st lieutenant, Provisional Navy, and in June tasked with leading a boat expedition against the Federal blockade steamer USS Water Witch near Ossabaw Sound, GA. Although his June 2 attack succeeded in capturing the enemy vessel, Pelot was killed in the scuffle. He was buried with full honors on June 4 at Savannah’s Laurel Grove Cemetery. A memorial to South Carolina Naval Heroes in Magnolia Cemetery, Charleston, SC, honors him.
Perkins ton, NH, on October 20, 1836. Educated at Hopkinton and Gilmanton academies, he was appointed a USN acting midshipman in October 1, 1851, and graduated as a midshipman with the USNA class of 1856. Joining the Pacific Squadron sloop-of-war Cyane, until January 1858, he was transferred to the storeship Release, which replenished units of the Mediterranean and Brazil squadrons. Perkins was advanced to passed midshipman in late fall. Thereafter, he was aboard the Africa Squadron steamer Sumpter, becoming a lieutenant on February 2, 1861, and returning home in September. In early 1862 Perkins became executive officer of the West Gulf Blockading Squadron (WGBS) Unadilla-class gunboat Cayuga and performed distinguished service during the campaigns to
Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; Foenander; CSN Register; “Thomas Pelot,” My Heritage, https:// www. myheritage. com/ names/ thomas_ pelot (accessed October 3, 2015); Janice Brown, “Lieut. Thomas Postell Pelot,” FindaGrave, http://www.find agrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=13031041 (accessed October 3, 2015); Douglas Featherstone, “Thomas Postell Pelot, South Carolina Patriot,” State (May 30, 1954); Harden, “The Capture of the U.S. Steamer Water Witch in Ossabaw Sound, GA, June 2–3, 1864”; Murray, “The Condemnation of the CSS Georgia”; DANFS; “With the Water Witch.”
Perkins, George Hamilton (1836–1899, USN) The son of Merrimack County judge Hamilton Eliot Perkins (1807–1886) and Clara Bartlett George Perkins (1818–?) and eldest of eight children, Perkins was born at the family home, Perkins Manor, in Contoocook, near Hopkin-
A veteran of the war in the Gulf of Mexico, Lt. Cmdr. George H. Perkins, USN, took command of the twin-turreted monitor Chickasaw in June 86, participating in the August Battle of Mobile Bay. Her four -inch cannon frequently bombarded Confederate Mobile fortifications prior to the city’s surrender in spring 86 (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
Phelps capture New Orleans, the advance to and above Vicksburg, and the battle with the Confederate ironclad Arkansas. In November he became executive officer of the steam sloop-of-war Pensacola, receiving promotion to lieutenant commander on December 2. In June 1863 he assumed command of the gunboat New London, continuing to see action on the lower Mississippi River, including Port Hudson and Whitehall’s River. Taking over the Unadilla-class gunboat Scioto in December, he participated in the blockade of the Texas coast. In New Orleans on leave in May 1864, Perkins volunteered to join the upcoming USN offensive against Mobile, AL, and was given command of the twin-turreted Milwaukee-class monitor Chickasaw. His aggressive and effective actions in the August 4 Battle of Mobile Bay were a major factor in the capture of the Confederate ironclad ram Tennessee. During the remainder of the war, the Chickasaw’s 11-inch cannon frequently bombarded Mobile fortifications. from May 1866 to 1869 Perkins was executive officer of the Pacific Station steam sloop-of-war Lackawanna during her three-year cruise and afterwards became Boston navy yard ordnance officer. On September 12, 1870, he married wealthy socialite Anna Minot Weld (1835–1924) of Boston; the couple had a daughter, Isabella, who when she was just 4 inherited $17 million from her grandfather, becoming the wealthiest woman in America. Perkins became a commander on March 19, 1871, and in May was captain of the storeship Relief, which transported relief goods to French refugees of the FrancoPrussian War. Lighthouse inspector of the 1st District at Boston until January 1876 and unemployed until March 1877, Perkins commanded the Asiatic Squadron sloop-of-war Ashuelot for three years. During her Far Eastern deployment, during April–June 1879, she provided transport for ex–President Ulysses S. Grant (1822–1885) then on a world tour. Promoted captain on March 10, 1882, Perkins was captain of the Pacific Station flagship, the Hartford, from March 1884 until January 1887, served on court-martial boards, and was transferred to the retired list on October 1, 1891. On May 9, 1896, Perkins received a congressionally authorized promotion to the retired rank of commodore in recognition of his gal-
6 lantry and skill during the Battle of Mobile Bay three decades earlier. Following a short illness, he died of a heart attack on October 28, 1899, and was buried at Forest Hills Cemetery. A bronze portrait statute was erected in his memory on the statehouse grounds at Concord, NH, in April 1902. Three 20th century USN destroyers (DD-26, DD-377, DD-877) were named in his honor. Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; Appletons’, IV; DANFS; Hamersley, 3rd ed.; Smith, CSS Arkansas; Belknap, “Captain George Hamilton Perkins, USN”; Belknap, ed., Letters of Capt. George Hamilton Perkins, USN; Alden, George Hamilton Perkins, Commodore, USN: His Life and Letters; “K,” pseud., “Como. George Hamilton Perkins,” FindaGrave, http:// www. findagrave. com/ cgi- bin/ fg. cgi?page= gr&GRid=124885486 (accessed October 1, 2015); Lord, Life and Times in Hopkinville, NH; Anderson, Under the Black Horse Flag; New York Tribune, October 29, 1899; New York Times, October 29, 1899, April 26, 1902; Boston Daily Globe, February 10, 1896, October 29, 1899; April 25, 1902, August 9, 1914, October 21, 1935.
Phelps, Seth Ledyard (1824–1885, USN) The eldest of the three children of Judge Alfred Phelps (1772–1861) and Anna B. Towsley Phelps (1803–1882), Seth was born at Parkman, Granger County, OH, on January 13, 1824. He was appointed a USN midshipman on October 19, 1841, and participated in the 1842–1845 cruise of the ship-of-the-line Columbus with the Mediterranean and Brazil squadrons and the Africa Squadron sloop-of-war Jamestown. He was aboard the schooner Bonita, which participated in eastern Gulf in-shore operations during the 1846–1847 Mexican War, and following sick leave he studied at the Annapolis naval school from October 1848 to August 1849. Having passed his examinations, he became a passed midshipman. Seconded to the USCS, he was detailed in early 1850 to accompany a scientific party to Santiago, Chile, where he remained two years and upon his return was retained at Washington, working up his observations, until 1856—his longest period of shore duty. During this assignment, on October 3, 1853, he married Miss Eliza “Lizzie” Maynadier (1833–1897); the couple would have a daughter. Phelps advanced to master in June 1855 and lieutenant that Sep-
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6 tember 1. After service aboard the Mediterranean Squadron flagship, the paddle-wheel frigate Susquehanna, from July 1856 until April 1858 he was on the Pacific Squadron sloop-of-war St. Mary’s. On June 19, 1861, two months after the Civil War began, Phelps proceeded west and joined Cmdr. John Rodgers’ (1812–1882) new Western Flotilla at Cincinnati, OH. The appointment came with some pleasure to both Phelps and Rodgers; the two men were friends because the former was a cousin of the latter’s wife. From this time on, Phelps was involved in one significant Western Flotilla/Mississippi Squadron role after another, winning acclaim from its commanders. One of the original timberclad (Conestoga) commanders, Phelps engaged in numerous small-scale reconnaissance missions and patrols on the Mississippi and Tennessee rivers between September and February 1862. Following the Battle of Fort Henry, he guided the first Union raids down the Tennessee River. Captain of the ironclad Benton from March to September, he became a lieutenant commander on July 16, a day after battling the CSS Arkansas above Vicksburg, MS. In August Phelps made the first USN reconnaissance up the Yazoo River and in September was given command of the captured and rebuilt ironclad Eastport, which he skippered up the Red River, where she was scuttled in the spring of 1864. He also served as acting fleet captain, was in command of the second division of ironclads off Vicksburg, and held divisional commands on the Tennessee and White rivers. Held responsible for that loss of the Eastport and frustrated in his continued inability to achieve greater authority in the Mississippi Squadron, he resigned in November. Accepting a position with the Pacific Mail Steam Ship Company, Phelps captained its liners to China and Japan until 1873. Later he became involved with activities surrounding a possible Nicaraguan canal, and, in 1883 he was appointed minister to Peru by President Chester A. Arthur (1829–1886). He died at Lima on June 24, 1885, and was buried at Oak Hill Cemetery, in Washington, D.C., that October. One 20th century USN destroyer (DD-360) was named in his honor. Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; “Captain Seth Ledyard Phelps,” in History of Geauga and Lake Counties, Ohio; Phelps and Servin, The Phelps
One of the original timberclad commanders, Lt. Cmdr. Seth Ledyard Phelps, USN, became captain of the Western Flotilla ironclad Benton in June 862 and the captured and refitted ironclad Eastport in September. Frustrated in his continued inability to achieve greater authority in the Mississippi Squadron, he resigned in November 86 (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command). Family in America and Their English Ancestors; Pearson, “Great Expectations for an Ill-Fated Ironclad (Eastport)”; DANFS; Smith, Civil War Biographies from the Western Waters; Slagle, Ironclad Captain: Seth Ledyard Phelps and the U.S. Navy; Robert W. Neeser, “Historic Ships of the Navy: Benton”; “Sketches of the Officers of the Fort Donelson Fleet,” Philadelphia Inquirer, February 18, 1862; Smith, Le Roy Fitch; Smith, The Timberclads in the Civil War; Smith, CSS Arkansas; Smith, Fight for the Yazoo; Joiner and Tucker, “Seth Ledyard Phelps,” in Tucker, II; Pearson and Birchett, Two Civil War Steamboat Wrecks on Red River: The History and Archaeology of the Ironclad USS Eastport and the Steamer Ed. F. Dix; “Capt. Seth Ledyard Phelps,” FindaGrave, http://www.findagrave.com/ cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=37224690 (accessed July 19, 2012); Washington Evening Star, June 25, 1885; New York Times, August 26, 1885.
Phelps, Thomas Stowell, Sr. (1822–1901, USN) The son of merchant Stephen Phelps (1783– 1829) and his wife Catherine Nixon Phelps
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Active on the Atlantic blockade since 862, Lt. Cmdr. Thomas Stowell Phelps, Sr., USN, became captain of the depicted James River monitor Saugus in November 86. While helping to guard against a sortee by rams of the James River Squadron, she engaged the Southern Howlett’s Battery on December and then participated in the unsuccessful Christmas attacks on Fort Fisher, the protector of Wilmington, NC (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
(1785–1832), Thomas Stowell, Sr., was born at Bucksfield, ME, on November 2, 1822. Appointed a USN midshipman on January 7, 1840, he served aboard the Mediterranean Squadron sloop-of-war Preble for a three-year cruise and the Brazil Squadron sloop-of-war Boston from October 1843 to February 1846. Sent to the Annapolis naval school in March, he graduated on July 11, advanced to passed midshipman, and joined the Boston, en route to the Mexican War. The ship was caught in a squall and wrecked on Eleuthera Island, Bahamas, on November 15. All aboard survived, and in February 1847 Phelps was seconded to the USCS, with which he served until June 1849. During this deployment, he married Margaret R. Sevy (1830–1901) on January 25, 1848; the couple had three children. From July 1849 to December 1850 he was aboard the Mediterranean Squadron flagship, the razee Independence, and then joined that fleet’s most famous vessel, the frigate Constitution (“Old Ironsides”) until May 1851. With the USCS from June 1852 until December 1853, he joined the Pa-
cific Squadron sloop-of-war Decatur, being advanced to master on March 1, 1855, and lieutenant on September 14. After visiting Hawaii, the Constitution hit the Restoration Point rocks at Bainbridge Island, Washington Territory, on December 7; freed, she supported Seattle settlers during the January 1856 Native American attacks. Reaching Panama in March 1857, Phelps crossed over and joined the chartered Brazil Squadron steamer Western Port (later USS Wyandotte) in October 1858, participating in the Paraguay Expedition. He then served aboard the Home Squadron steamer Crusader until August 1859, when he was seconded back to the USCS as captain of its steamer Vixen until September 1861. Taking command of the transferred USCS steamer Corwin in October 1861, Phelps, who would spend much of the Civil War on special survey duties, began surveying and marking locations in Virginia and North Carolina waters, repulsing a November 14 attack by CSS Curlew in Hatteras Inlet, NC. Assigned to blockade duty
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6 in April 1862, Phelps engaged Southern batteries at Yorktown and Gloucester Point, VA, sank a pair of vessels, and prevented the enemy from destroying White House Bridge. Becoming a lieutenant commander on July 16, he was transferred to the Potomac Flotilla, where he remarked many channels where navigational aids had been destroyed. At the end of November 1864 Phelps became commander of the Canonicus-class monitor Saugus, then in the James River supporting Federal operations designed to capture Richmond. While helping to guard against a sortee by rams of the Confederate James River squadron, the Saugus engaged Howlett’s Battery on December 5. Saugus was temporarily transferred to the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron (NABS) and participated in the unsuccessful Christmas attacks on Fort Fisher, protector of Wilmington, NC. After that engagement, Phelps took over the steam sloop-of-war Juniata, which participated in the January 13–15, 1865, capture of the citadel. Transferred to the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron (SABS) on January 18, the warship provided support during the remainder of the month and into February to the Army of the Tennessee as it slogged toward Charleston, SC. At this point, Phelps was ordered aboard the NABS double-ender gunboat Lenapee to assist with the assault on Wilmington’s Fort Anderson, which fell on February 8. Phelps’s Lenapee remained off Wilmington until April 1867, and during this deployment, he became commander on August 5, 1865. Executive officer of the Mare Island Naval Shipyard, CA, from October 1867 to November 1870 and following his promotion to captain on January 19, 1871, he was captain of that facility’s receiving ship until that September. Commander of the North Pacific Squadron (NPS) sloop-of-war Sarnac until October 1873, he returned to the Mare Island yard as its executive officer until April 1877. Switched back to the receiving ship from September to February 1879, he became a commodore on January 13, 1879. Phelps was Mare Island navy yard commandant during January 1880–March 1883, after which he served as captain of the South Atlantic Squadron flagship, the sloop-of-war Brooklyn, until October 1884. Having been promoted to rear admiral on March 1, 1884, he was placed on the retired list on November 2.
Following his retirement, Phelps and his wife resided in Washington, D.C. Late in 1900 Mrs. Phelps, visiting NYC, was sent to New York Hospital with nervous prostration; traveling up to visit her, the admiral contracted pneumonia and was also taken to New York Hospital, where he died on January 10. Phelps was buried at Arlington National Cemetery on January 14 and Mrs. Phelps joined him there on February 21, followed by a son, RAdm. Thomas Stowell Phelps, Jr., USN, on November 5, 1915. One 20th century USN destroyer (DD-360) was named in Phelps’s honor. Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; Hamersly, 4th ed.; Cogar, I; DANFS; Putnam, A History of the Putnam Family in England and America, I; “Adm. Thomas Stowell Phelps,” FindaGrave, http:// www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid= 12655 (accessed April 13, 2015); Phelps, Reminiscences of Seattle: Washington Territory and the U.S. Sloop-ofWar “Decatur” During the Indian War of 1855–56; Cole and Whitman, A History of Buckfield, Oxford County, Maine; Washington Post, January 11, 14, 1901; Thomas Stowell Phelps, Sr., Arlington National Cemetery, http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/tsphelps.htm (accessed April 13, 2015).
Phythian, Robert Lees (1835–1917, USN) One of five children of Dr. Charles Glover Phythian (ca. 1808–1859) and Eliza Linton Phythian (?–1855), Robert was born in Johnstown, PA, on July 31, 1835. He was appointed a USN midshipman on January 28, 1853, and graduated as a passed midshipman from the USNA in June 1856. Attached to the Brazil Squadron frigate St. Lawrence from 1857 to 1859, he became a master in 1859 and a lieutenant on December 25, 1860. Phythian joined the Atlantic Blockading Squadron sloop-of-war Jamestown off Florida in June 1861, taking five blockade runners prior to her recall in May 1862. Promoted to lieutenant commander on July 16, he was on USNA instructor duty until late 1863. From January to May 1864 Phythian was executive officer of the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron (SABS) monitor Lehigh, then on picket duty off Charleston, SC, during which service she frequently bombarded fortifications ringing the harbor. From late May into the fall, Phythian commanded the SABS gunboat Commodore
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Having gained ironclad experience as executive officer of the monitor Lehigh, Lt. Cmdr. Robert L. Phythian, USN, became executive officer of the giant casemate New Ironsides in fall 86 and her captain in January 86. During Phythian’s time aboard, the vessel participated in both campaigns against Fort Fisher, NC, after which she finished the war in the James River. In this 886 photo he is shown seated third from left (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
McDonough on the Charleston blockade and was then transferred as executive officer aboard the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron (NABS) ironclad New Ironsides, where in December he participated in the unsuccessful effort by her unit to capture Fort Fisher, at Wilmington. On January 6, 1865, Phythian became captain of the giant vessel and participated in the reduction of that citadel in mid-month. His command was thereafter transferred to the James River to support the Union advance on Richmond, where she remained until withdrawn on April 6. A USNA instructor from 1866 to 1869 and advanced to commander on July 13, 1870, Phythian married Cordelia Broadhead Phythian (1839– 1917) during this time; the couple had three daughters. Pacific Squadron chief of staff in 1871 and 1872 and Boston navy yard ordnance
through 1873, he was transferred to the New York Nautical School (now SUNY Maritime College) in 1874 as superintendent and captain of the school ship St. Mary’s. A torpedo instructor in 1880, he was promoted to captain on November 15, 1881, and returned to the Boston navy yard until September 1883, when he assumed command of the sloop-of-war Trenton, taking her on a three-year Asiatic Station cruise. In June 1886 Phythian was USNO superintendent of the U.S. Naval Observatory from June 1886 to June 1890 and USNA superintendent until June 1894, chairing a special 1891 board named for him that studied imbalances in the officer corps and the career path. Commissioned a commodore on September 7, 1894, he resumed the USNO superintendency until placed on the retired list on July 21, 1897.
6 Phythian lived a quiet Annapolis retirement until suffering a massive stroke on January 16, 1917. He died four days later and was buried in the USNA Cemetery. No USN vessels have been named in his honor, though his memory lives at SUNY Maritime. Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; Hamersly,4th ed.; The National Cyclopedia of American Biography, XIII; ORN, I, 15; Neeser, “Historic Ships of the Navy: New Ironsides”; Washington Post, January 17, 21, 1917; “Robert Lees Phythian,” FindaGrave, http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr& GRid=57745050 (accessed October 9, 2016); Washington Post, January 17, 21, 1917.
Picking, Henry Forry (1840–1899, USN) The oldest of five children of William Henry Picking (1816–1881) and Angeline Forry Picking, Henry was born in Jenner Township, Somerset County, PA, on January 28,1840. Being appointed a USN acting midshipman on September 28,1857, and graduating from the USNA on June 1, 1861, he was commissioned a midshipman. The Civil War having begun, he joined the
Picking Atlantic blockade off North Carolina in July as acting master of the frigate St. Lawrence, which on the 28th engaged and sank the Confederate privateer Petrel. In early 1862 Picking was briefly attached to the Sewell’s Point batteries and was present in March during the duel between the CSS Virginia and the USS Monitor. Promoted to lieutenant on July 16, he served as a USNA instructor until June 1864, when he was ordered onboard the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron (SABS) Passaic-class monitor Nahant, then on blockade and fire support duty off Charleston, SC. In December Picking became Nahant’s commander, continued to engage Confederate batteries on Sullivan’s Island, and served as her captain until August 1865. Picking served aboard the screw sloop-of-war Swatara from October 1865 until November, her time being split between the West Indies and European squadrons. Advanced to lieutenant commander on July 15, 1866, Picking resumed USNA instructor duties from January 1869 to January 1870. He then joined the Asiatic Squadron flagship, the steam frigate Colorado, for a three-year cruise and during that deployment participated in the June 1871 punitive expedition against aggressive forts on Korea’s Salee River.
Lt. Henry F. Picking, USN, became executive officer of the monitor Nahant off Charleston in June 86 and her captain in late December. The vessel continued blockade duty off the South Carolina city until the end of the war. Retained, she saw service in New York Harbor, as depicted, during the Spanish American War of 88 (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
Pinkney During 1873–June 1874 he was on ordnance duty at the Washington Navy Yard and also at the Newport, RI, torpedo station before taking charge of the New York naval rendezvous (recruiting station) until February 1875. Having become a commander on January 25, he was inspector of the 1st Lighthouse District (Bangor, ME) until November 1878, when he took leave and married Laura Sherwood Picking (1856– 1933) on May 2, 1879; the couple had a son. Picking was captain of the North Atlantic Station (NAS) flagship, the steam sloop-of-war Kearsarge, from May 1879 through May 1881 then returned to his previous 1st Lighthouse District post until October 1882. Picking was secretary to the U.S. Lighthouse Board, in Washington, D.C., until September 1887, when he became commander of naval forces on the Great Lakes as captain of the gunboat Michigan. Advanced to captain on August 4,1889, he commanded the USN Hydrographic Office until September 1890, when he took over the 3rd Lighthouse District at Tompkinsville, NY, through March 1892. He commanded the armored cruiser Charleston (C-2) from April 1892 until February 1894, in both the Pacific and South Atlantic and at the April 1893 International Naval Review at New York. On board duty for most of 1894, he was captain of the training ship Minnesota in 1895, on board duty in 1896 and 1897, and commander of the Boston receiving ship until April 1898. Advanced to commodore on November 25, Picking had board duty for six months and became a rear admiral on March 3, 1899, being simultaneously named Boston navy commandant. He died of a sudden heart attack on September 8 and after initial interment at Forest Hill Cemetery, Boston, was later buried at Union Cemetery, Somerset, PA. No USN vessels have been named in his honor. Sources: USN Register-2; Cogar, I; Hamersly, 4th ed.; Appletons’, VII; The New International Encyclopedia, XV; DANFS; U.S. Congress, Senate, Committee on Pensions, Laura S. Picking: Report; Linda Marker, “Henry Forry Picking,” FindaGrave, http://www. findagrave. com/ cgi- bin/ fg. cgi?page= gr&GRid= 64454313 (accessed January 3, 2016); Baltimore Sun, September 9, 1899; New York Tribune, September 9, 1899; New York Times, September 9, 1899; Boston Daily Advertiser, September 12, 1899.
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Pinkney, Robert F. (ca. 1812–1878, CSN) Born in Maryland ca. 1812, Pinkney was appointed a USN midshipman on December 1, 1827. During the antebellum period, he undertook the normal mix of shore and sea duty of U.S. naval officers and was promoted: passed midshipman, June 1833; lieutenant, February 1838; commander, September 1855. Among the highlights of those years was his participation during 1838–1842 in what was called the “Great United States Exploring Expedition” to the South Seas. Upon the mission’s completion, he was court-martialed for duty infractions and suspended from service for six months. Pinkney resigned from Federal service on April 23, 1861, was appointed a CSN commander on June 24 and posted first to Norfolk; he then was sent to Jackson, MS, and command of the CSS Livingston. Second in command of Confederate naval forces at the March-April 1862 battles for Island No. 10 and Fort Pillow, Pinkney departed the latter point when it was abandoned in May 1862, withdrew south to Fort Randolph, and, just before the June 6 Battle of Memphis, to Liverpool Landing on the Yazoo River. There he was joined within days by two other gunboats. At the end of the month and in response to a reconnaissance by two AUS rams, Pinkney ordered his fleet burned. When he was subsequently ordered east it was widely believed that he faced court-martial, but instead he was posted to Savannah, GA, and given command of the Savannah River paddle-wheel gunboat CSS Resolute. Promoted to captain in May 1863, he assumed command of the Richmond-class ironclad ram CSS Savannah in July. Detached from that vessel in April 1864, Pinkney was ordered to Halifax, NC, to take over the naval defenses of North Carolina and oversee the deployment of another noted armorclad, the Albemarle. He would finish the war as a flag officer at Fort Fisher in December and January 1865 and as a colonel in the naval brigade organized by RAdm. Rafael Semmes (1809–1877). Pinkney was captured and paroled at Greensboro, NC, on April 26, 1865. He took the oath of allegiance at Baltimore, MD, on June 20 and filed for a pardon on September 22.
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Promoted to the rank of captain in May 86, Robert F. Pinkney, CSN, commanded the ironclad Savannah at Savannah, GA, from July until April 86, seeing no action. He afterwards took over the naval defenses of North Carolina and oversaw the deployment of another noted armorclad, the Albemarle. He would finish the war as a flag officer at Fort Fisher in December and January 86 (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
Pinkney died at Baltimore on March 14, 1878, and was buried in Green Mount Cemetery. Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; Foenander; Driver, Confederate Sailors, Marines, and Signalmen from Virginia and Maryland; DANFS; ORN, 2, 1; CSN Register; Callahan; Smith, CSS Arkansas; JCC, IV; Smith, Fight for the Yazoo; Smith, Civil War Biographies from the Western Waters; Bennett, “The Albemarle in Albemarle Sound.”
Porter, William David (“Dirty Bill”) (1813–1864, USN) Born at New Orleans, LA, on March 10, 1808, William David was the son of Com. David Porter (1780–1843) and Evelina Anderson Porter (1790–1871). Among his six siblings was David Dixon Porter (1813–1891) and, later, his stepbrother, David Glasgow Farragut (1801–1870).
Spending his childhood at Chester, PA, at the age of 12 Porter unsuccessfully attempted to stow away aboard the ship-of-the-line Franklin but had to wait until January 1, 1823, to be appointed a USN midshipman—and then from Massachusetts. He was promoted to the rank of passed midshipman on March 23, 1829, and lieutenant on the last day of 1833. Four years later he became the lighthouse inspector for the East Coast District between New York and Norfolk, VA. He became ordnance officer at the Washington Navy Yard in 1840, but in 1845 he began a series of deployments supervising the outfitting of naval steamers and commanding supply vessels. Before 1854 he had served aboard the following vessels: Brandywine, Guerriere, Natchez, Grampus, Experiment, United States, Mississippi, Erie, and Water Witch. Court-martialed on a variety of charges, he was placed on the retired list in
Porter September 1855 but was reinstated in January 1859 and returned to active duty with the rank of commander and an assignment to patrol the Pacific coasts of Mexico and Central America in command of the sloop-of-war St. Mary’s. When the Southern states began to secede in December 1860 the St. Mary’s was recalled and Porter was ordered to Washington, D.C. Posted to St. Louis, MO, he spent October in command of the timberclad New Era—a former ferryboat patrolling the Ohio and Cumberland rivers—seeking Confederate defenses. The timberclad having been converted into an ironclad at St. Louis during November and December, Porter commissioned her Essex in January 1862 in honor of his father’s famous ship. On January 10 and 14, she, together with the Pook turtle St. Louis, twice engaged three Confederate gunboats on the Mississippi River below Cairo, IL, forcing them to retreat to the protection of Southern shore batteries at Columbus, KY. While joined with three other ironclads in attacking Fort Henry on the Tennessee River on February 6, Essex took a 32-pound shot through her bow shield, which pierced her boilers, releasing steam that severely scalded 28 men, including Porter. Though blinded and scalded, he directed the extensive repair and renovation of the ironclad from his St. Louis sick bed while simultaneously superintending conversion into ironclads of two other warships, Lafayette and Choctaw. The expensive renovation of Essex was finished in early July just in time to allow her to rejoin the Western Flotilla above Vicksburg, MS. On the 22nd Porter took his ironclad down under the guns of the Confederate citadel to engage the Arkansas. Although the Essex struck the Rebel vessel, her oblique blow did little damage and, running aground under fire from the Arkansas and shore batteries, it was only with great difficulty that Porter was able to back out his ship and escape. Maintaining station between Vicksburg and Baton Rouge over the next several weeks, Porter’s ironclad assisted in the Union defense of the latter town on August 5 and the next day caught the Arkansas attempting to come to Confederate relief. The Essex bombarded her enemy from range and soon saw her catch fire and blow up. Although the Arkansas was, in fact, scuttled by her own crew to prevent capture after her engines failed, the Federals as-
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Having converted the Western Flotilla ironclad Essex, Cmdr. William D. “Dirty Bill” Porter, USN, led her into action in September 86 against Fort Henry, where he was wounded. Recovered, he participated in actions against the CSS Arkansas in July and Port Hudson in August and September. Detached, he was ordered east where he died of a heart attack on May , 86 (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
sumed their fire caused her demise. Eleven months later the U.S. Congress recognized the role played by Porter and his ship and awarded the Essex crew $25,000 in prize money. In August and September the Essex, now based at New Orleans, came up the river to bombard Natchez, MS, and harass the former Arkansas gunners as they established the batteries guarding the river from the heights of Port Hudson, LA. Advanced to commodore on July 16, Porter was ordered to report to New York to answer charges against him by RAdm. Charles H. Davis (1807–1877), placed as a result of press comments. While engaged in this legal combat, Porter was assigned miscellaneous shore duty.
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He was hospitalized with heart disease in April 1864 and died at St. Luke’s Hospital on May 1, leaving a wife and three children. First buried at Greenwood Cemetery, he was moved to a final resting place at Woodlands Cemetery, Philadelphia, PA. A USN destroyer (DD-579) was christened in his honor in 1942. Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; DANFS; Callahan; Thompson; Boatner; Wegner, “Commodore William D. ‘Dirty Bill’ Porter”; Joiner, “William David Porter,” in Tucker, II; Wright; Smith, CSS Arkansas; Smith, The Timberclads in the Civil War; Smith, Fight for the Yazoo; Smith, Civil War Biographies from the Western Waters; “William Davidson Porter,” FindaGrave, http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi? page=gr&GSsr=4081&GSvcid=266131&GRid=6000& (accessed September 21, 2010); Chicago Daily Tribune, May 5, 1864; New York Times, May 5, 1864; Milwaukee Daily Sentinel, May 6, 1864; New Haven Daily Palladium, May 3, 1864.
Potter, Edward Eells (1833–1902, USN) The oldest of four siblings of merchant Eleazer Hubbell Potter (1806–1861) and Adeline Eells Potter (1806–1839), Edward was born in Medina, NY, on May 9, 1833, moving with his family to Rockford, IL, four years later. Appointed a USN midshipman on February 5, 1850, he served aboard the Home Squadron sloop-of-war Decatur for a three-year cruise and was on the Africa Squadron flagship, the frigate Constitution (“Old Ironsides”), until detached in late 1855. After USNA studies and exam, Potter became a passed midshipman on June 20, 1856, and, after a three-year deployment with the Brazil Squadron frigate St. Lawrence, during which he became lieutenant on July 9, 1858, he joined the complement of the steam frigate Niagara on May 9, 1860. The first Japanese embassy to the U.S. having concluded, its members went home by his vessel, which returned to America in April 1861 to find the Civil War had begun. The Niagara was part of the Atlantic Blockading Squadron from May to August and patrolled off Charleston, SC, Fort Pickens, FL, and Mobile, AL. Detached in September, Potter married Harriett Raymond Black (1833–1873) at Clarendon, NY, on October 1 and the following month was ordered to the new Unadilla-class gunboat Wissahicken, part of the West Gulf Blockading
After two years in the Gulf of Mexico, Lt. Cmdr. Edward E. Potter, USN, assumed command of the James River monitor Mahopac in November 86. After participating in duels with Confederate batteries at Howlett’s Farm on November 2 and December , he fought in the Christmas and January 86 campaigns against Fort Fisher, NC, remaining thereafter in the James River (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
Squadron (WGBS). The Wissahicken participated in the April 1862 capture of New Orleans and the May–July squadron sojourn up the Mississippi River to Vicksburg, MS, and back. During this deployment, she engaged the batteries at Grand Gulf, MS, on June 9 and fought the CSS Arkansas on July 15. Potter became a lieutenant commander on July 16 and joined the East Gulf Blockading Squadron (EGBS) steamer De Soto. Early in 1863 he transferred to the WGBS sloopof-war Lackawana for duty on the blockade off Mobile, participating in the August 1864 Battle of Mobile Bay. When the new single-turreted North Atlantic Blockading Squadron (NABS) Canonicus-class monitor Mahopac was completed in September, Potter was sent to join her in the James River, VA. While protecting Union army positions, she went into action against batteries at Howlett Farm on November 24 and December 5–6. Potter, who had assumed command
Price of the monitor in mid–November, also participated in the unsuccessful NABS Christmas attack on Fort Fisher, near Wilmington, and the successful capture of the citadel in mid–January 1865. On February 18 Potter’s craft helped to bombard Fort Anderson. Thereafter, his ironclad remained in the James River until the end of the conflict in April. Potter was captain of the North Atlantic Squadron (NAS) paddle-wheel steamer Rhode Island from April 1866 to summer 1867 and then cruised to Europe aboard the screw frigate Franklin with RAdm. David G. Farragut (1801– 1870) embarked. Commissioned commander on June 3, 1869, Potter was at the Boston navy yard until 1871, becoming captain of the NAS steam gunboat Shawmut late in the year and ascending Venezuela’s Orinoco River to recapture two American civilian steamers seized by revolutionaries. The Shawmut thus became the first U.S. man-of-war to visit Ciudad Bolivar. From 1872 to 1879 Potter was on shore duty, being commissioned captain on July 11 of the latter year. During that period, his first wife having died, he married Harriett L. Grant (1849–1897) on March 18, 1875, his family growing to include three children. Potter commanded the sloop-ofwar Constellation during her voyage to Ireland in 1880 with relief stores for victims of the potato famine. After his 1881–August 1883 tour at the New York navy yard, he assumed command in November of the screw sloop-of-war Lancaster, cruising to Europe and in the South Atlantic until December 1885. From September 1886 to March 1891 he was commandant of the League Island, PA, navy yard and of the Philadelphia Naval Home. From April to early 1893 he was captain of the Newport naval base receiving ship and at the Norfolk navy yard, being promoted to commodore on September 27 and again in charge of the Philadelphia Naval Home. Potter was placed on the retired list in May 1895 and relocated to Belvidere, IL. He suffered a stroke in 1899 that affected his body but not his mind. He died on January 8, 1902, and is buried in Cedar Bluff Cemetery, Rockford, IL. No USN vessels have been named in his honor. Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; Hamersly, 3rd ed.; Appletons’, V; Michael Potter, “Edward
Eells Potter,” Genealogy Forum, http://www.genealogy. com/forum/surnames/topics/potter/5760/ (accessed October 2, 2016); DANFS; Freeport (IL) Journal Standard, June 17, 2015; J. Nicholson-Turbide, “Edward Eells Potter,” FindaGrave, http://www.findagrave.com/ cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=63739977 (accessed October 2, 2016); New York Times, April 21, May 9, 1895.
Price, Joseph (1835–1895, CSN) The eldest of three children of physician William J. Price (1804–1868) and Sarah McIntire McGowan Price (1817–1836), Joseph was born at Kenansville, NC, on October 26, 1835. On March 17, 1856, he was appointed a USRCS lieutenant and sent aboard the cutter Joseph Lane for service in the Columbia River area. With the onset of the Civil War on April 12, 1861, Price resigned his Federal commission and five days later enlisted in the 40th Regiment, NC Volunteers, becoming a lieutenant within a month. He resigned from the ACS on September 16, was commissioned a CSN lieutenant on May 5, 1863, and was ordered to Savannah, GA, to become executive officer under Lt. Thomas Pelot (ca. 1835–1864), of the CSS Georgia, an ironclad ram that, because of inadequate engines, served as an ironclad floating battery anchored in the Savannah River abreast of the city and Fort Jackson. On January 6, 1864, Price was re-ranked as a 1st lieutenant, Provisional Navy, and on May 1 transferred to the CSS Sampson. On June 3 he joined with Pelot in a boat expedition against the Federal blockade steamer USS Water Witch near Ossabaw Sound, GA, and after the loss of Lt. Pelot early on, Price took over the CSN attack and succeeded in capturing the enemy vessel. Becoming a commander on July 12 in recognition of his victory, Price became acting captain of the CSS Sampson but in August was named commander of the CSS ironclad ram Neuse. Having run aground near Kinston, NC, the vessel, like the Georgia, was employed as a floating battery and, after covering the retreat of nearby Confederate soldiers on March 12, Price ordered his ironclad scuttled. Price settled in Wilmington, NC, after the war, working as a railroad conductor and after 1880 as the city’s harbormaster. He married Mary Eliza Jones Price (1846–1934) and had two
Quakenbush
children, the first in 1861. He died at home on May 15, 1895, and is buried in Wilmington’s Oakdale Cemetery. Sources: CSN Register; Foenander; Duppstadt, “Joseph Price,” in Tucker, II; Wayne Carver, “Cdr. Joseph Price,” FindaGrave, http://findagrave.com/cgibin/ fg. cgi/ http%22// trees. ancestry. com/ tree/ 1980 7769/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=7219918 (accessed October 12, 2016); DANFS; Murray, “The Condemnation of the CSS Georgia”; Still, “The Career of the Confederate Ironclad Neuse”; Bright, Rowland, and Bardon, C.S.S. Neuse: A Question of Iron and Time.
Quakenbush, Stephen Platt (1823–1890; USN) The eighth of eleven children of John N. Quakenbush (1775–1846) and Nancy Smith Quakenbush (?–1866), Stephen was born at Albany, NY, on January 23, 1823. Appointed a USN midshipman on February 15, 1840, he served aboard the sloop-of-war Boston, participating in her around-the-world voyage. Upon her return in August 1843, he was on the Brazil Squadron frigate Raritan until July 1845 and attended the Annapolis naval school from October until July 11, 1846, when he passed his examinations and became a passed midshipman. Quakenbush served in the Mexican War from November 1846 to July 1847 aboard the sloopof-war Albany, participating in the Vera Cruz, Tuxpan River, and Tabasco River operations. Transferred to the storeship Supply, he sailed in the Mediterranean until December 1848. Afterward on leave, he married Cynthia Herrick Wright (1828–1911) on January 18, 1849; the couple would have three children. Seconded to the USCS for much of 1849 into 1850, he took leave to captain the mail steamers Pacific and Illinois in 1851 and 1852 and served on the Africa Squadron brig Perry on antislavery patrol until April 1854. Advanced to master on March 1, 1855, and lieutenant on September 14, Quakenbush was on the Home Squadron flagship, the frigate Potomac, until August 1856, when he transferred to the Home Squadron flagship, the screw frigate Wabash, which helped foil the Nicaraguan scheme of filibusterer William Walker (1824– 1860). After April 1858–June 1859 service aboard the Philadelphia receiving ship, he returned to sea aboard the Home Squadron flagship, the frigate Congress, which returned from overseas
After Atlantic Coast blockade duty, Lt. Cmdr. Stephen P. Quakenbush, USN, took charge of the monitor Patapsco, then off Charleston, SC, in December 86. In January 86 he participated in a reconnaissance of the Wilmington River and thereafter served on the blockades off the coasts of both South Carolina and Georgia. While assisting in the removal of obstacles near Charleston on January , 86, Patapsco struck a Confederate underwater mine (“torpedo”) and sank. A survivor, Quakenbush was given another ship (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
deployment in August 1861, America meanwhile having descended into civil war. Following shore duty, Quakenbush commanded the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron (NABS) gunboat Delaware from November 1861 to August 1862, during which time the vessel participated in the February capture of Roanoke Island and the March attack on Elizabeth City, NC, and capture of New Bern, NC. A lieutenant commander as of July 16, he became captain of the South Atlantic Blockading Squad-
Radford ron (SABS) gunboat Unadilla, namesake of her class, in September and joined the blockade off Charleston, SC, undertaking reconnaissance of shores and streams and guarding Wassaw Sound, GA. Quakenbush took over the NABS screw gunboat Pequot in November 1863 and served on the blockade off Beaufort, NC, until May 1864 and in the James River until December. Detached, Quakenbush briefly held command of the SABS Passaic-class monitor Patapsco, then off Charleston, SC. While assisting in the removal of obstacles near Charleston on January 14, 1865, she struck a Confederate underwater mine (“torpedo”) and sank. Surviving that ordeal, Quakenbush was given command of the SABS double-ender gunboat Mingoe, which remained off Charleston until June. At the New York navy yard until January 1866, Quakenbush was captain of the North Atlantic Station (NAS) paddle-wheel gunboat Conemaugh from February to July 1867, being meanwhile advanced to commander. At the Norfolk navy yard from September 1867 to November 1870, he commanded the NAS hospital ship Pawnee at Pensacola, FL, and the monitor Terror, formerly the Agamenticus, until September 1873, advancing to captain on July 25, 1871. Commander of the Norfolk receiving ship until August 1875, he was unemployed thereafter but was commissioned commodore on March 13, 1880, and commanded the Pensacola naval station from January 1881 until May 1882. Advanced to rear admiral on July 28, 1894, he was placed on the retired list on January 23, 1885. Active in veterans’ activities following his retirement, Quakenbush died on February 3, 1890, and was buried at Oak Hill Cemetery two days later. No USN vessels have been named in his honor. Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; Hamersly, 3rd ed.; Cogar, I; Powell and Shippen; “Stephen Platt Quakenbush,” RootsWeb, http://freepages. genealogy. rootsweb. ancestry. com/~ghosthunter/ fam01816.html (accessed October 21, 2016); SLGMSD, pseud., “Adm. Stephen Platt Quakenbush,” FindaGrave, http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi? page=gr&GRid=37191307 (accessed October 21, 2016); DANFS; Will Quakenbush, “A True Old Salt: Admiral Stephen Platt Quakenbush,” All Things Quakenbush, http://allthingsquackenbush.blogspot.com/2016/08/ a-true-old-salt-admiral-stephen-platt.html (accessed October 21, 2016); Quackenbush, “Admiral Stephen Platt Quakenbush,” in The Quakenbush Family in
2 America; Thompson, The U.S. Monitor Patapsco; Baltimore Sun, February 6, 1890; Chicago Daily Tribune, February 6, 1890.
Radford, William (1809–1890, USN) The eldest of three siblings of physician John Radford (1785–1817) and Harriet Kennerly Radford (1788–1831), William was born on March 1, 1809, in Fincastle, VA. Shortly thereafter, the family relocated to Kentucky, near Maysville, in Lewis County. Following the death of John Radford in 1817, the family moved to St. Louis, MO, where Harriet married explorer William Clark in 1821. Radford was appointed a USN midshipman on March 1, 1825, by petition of his stepfather to President John Quincy Adams (1767–
Com. William Radford, USN, became captain of the casemate New Ironsides in August 86 and led the Ironclad Division of the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron in the unsuccessful December attack on Fort Fisher, near Wilmington, NC, and the January 86 capture of that citadel. At the end of January, Radford’s ironclad steamed up the James River to protect the Union supply depot at Bermuda Hundred. Her captain was detached to other duties in February (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
1848) and joined the European cruise of the frigate Brandywine, which returned the Marquis de Lafayette (1757–1834) to France from his American visit. In February 1826 Radford transferred to the Mediterranean Squadron frigate Constitution (“Old Ironsides”) until July 1828. Following leave and New York navy yard duty, he was on the West Indies Squadron sloop-ofwar Erie for a two-year cruise, after which he was unemployed until February 1834, when he joined the Philadelphia receiving ship. In June he deployed aboard the Mediterranean Squadron sloop-of-war John Adams but was stricken with cholera in November, necessitating sick leave. Commissioned a lieutenant on February 9, 1837, he was able to join the West Indies Squadron sloop-of-war Preble and participate in the Second Seminole War. On leave from October 1838 until December 1840, Radford returned to the Preble for a cruise to Labrador before transferring to the Mediterranean Squadron Brandywine. After Norfolk navy yard duty, he was captain of the New Orleans receiving ship sloop-of-war Ontario and the Crescent City naval rendezvous (recruiting station) from December 20, 1841 to July 1843. Spending a year aboard the Pacific Squadron flagship, the frigate Savannah, he joined the same unit’s sloop-ofwar Warren, visited the Hawaiian Islands, and cruised the West Coast of North America during the Mexican War until September 1847. While on blockade duty off Mazatlán on September 7, 1847, Radford led the boat attack that captured the Mexican warship Malek Adhel in the harbor. Unemployed until January 1849, he met and then married Mary Elizabeth (“Minnie”) Lovell (1829–1903), at Morristown, NJ, on November 21, 1848; the couple would have six children. After a tour as captain of the Home Squadron sloop-of-war Lexington through September 1852 and three years of shore duty, mostly at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, until September 1858, he became a commander on September 14, 1855, and served as 3rd Lighthouse District Inspector from fall 1858 through October 1859. Unemployed until May 1860, he became commander of the East Indies Squadron sloop-of-war Dakotah in April 1860, visiting the Far East until July 1861, when he was returned to his old 3rd Lighthouse District post. Radford became captain of the North Atlantic
Radford Blockading Squadron (NABS) frigate Cumberland at Hampton Roads, VA, in February 1862 but was away on official duty on March 8 when she was sunk by CSS Virginia. In June, after two months of board duty, he became executive officer of the New York navy yard, where he equipped and outfitted hundreds of naval conversions. Advanced to captain on July 16, and commodore on April 24, 1863, he became commander in May 1864 of the NABS casemate ironclad New Ironsides, although he was not able to join her at Hampton Roads until August 16. When the NABS passed to RAdm. David Dixon Porter (1813–1891), Radford became commander of its six-vessel Ironclad Division. The New Ironsides and her consorts were heavily involved in the unsuccessful December attack on Fort Fisher, near Wilmington, NC, and the January 1865 capture of that citadel. At the end of January, Radford’s ironclad steamed up the James River to protect the Union supply depot at Bermuda Hundred. Continuing to coordinate naval support with Federal generals ashore, Radford transferred his flag to the gunboat Dumbarton when the New Ironsides was withdrawn for repairs in February. The following month, he again shifted, this time to the gunboat Phlox, which he employed to transport Vice President Andrew Johnson (1808–1875) between DC and Richmond, VA, on April 5–8. On April 28, Radford was appointed an acting rear admiral and was given command of the North Atlantic Squadron (NAS) with his flag in the paddlewheel gunboat Malvern. After service as commandant of the Washington Navy Yard from October 1865 to December 1868, during which time his admiral rank was made permanent on July 25, 1866, Radford was commander of the European Squadron from January 1869 to July 1870, wearing his flag in the screw frigate Franklin. Detached in August 1870, he and his family were caught in Paris when it surrendered to Prussia on September 2. They fled to Le Havre and a commercial voyage home. Finding himself officially on the retired list as of March 1, the admiral continued to serve on naval boards from October through June 1872. A resident of Georgetown who summered on Cape Cod, MA, Radford, then the second most senior USN officer, died on January 8, 1890, and
Ramsay was buried in Oak Hill Cemetery. Two 20th century USN destroyers (DD-120 and DD-446) were named in his honor. Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; Hamersly, 3rd ed.; Tucker, “William Radford,” in Tucker, II; Cogar, I; SLGMSD, pseud., “Adm. William Radford,” FindaGrave, http://www.findagrave.com/cgibin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=37273917 (accessed April 19, 2016); Radford de Meissner, Old Naval Days: Sketches from the Life of Rear Admiral William Radford, U.S. Navy; Roberts, New Ironsides in the Civil War; Neeser, “Historic Ships of the Navy: New Ironsides”; Tommie Flattery Baskins, “Documenting the Historic Town of Oakland, KY, Circa 1859 and Admiral William Radford,” LinkedIn, https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/ documenting-historic-town-oakland-ky-circa-1859admiral-baskis?articleId=6176535105461321728 (accessed October 21, 2016); New York Times, January 9, 1890; Washington Post, January 9, 1890.
on scows in exposed positions before the city from June 19 until its July 4 capture, when he took over the squadron’s 3rd Division. On November 18, while lying off Point Coupe on the Mississippi River, Choctaw rescued the lightdraught gunboat Signal (Tinclad No. 8) from interdicting Confederate horse artillery. During February and March 1864 Ramsay led expeditions up the Black and Ouachita rivers and from March 7 to May 15 participated in the Federal combined arms expedition up the Red River of Louisiana, concentrating on the capture of Fort DeRussy. On September 28 he transferred to the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron (NABS) gunboat Unadilla on the blockade off New Inlet, NC. His ship participated in amphibious assaults on Fort Fisher near Wilmington, NC, in Decem-
Ramsay, Francis Munroe “Frank” (1835–1914, USN) The eldest of four children of Brig. Gen. George Douglas Ramsay (1802–1882) and Eliza H. Gales Ramsay (1815–1891), Frank was born in Washington, D.C., on April 5,1835. He was appointed a USN midshipman on October 5, 1850, was sent to the USNA and then to the Pacific Squadron flagship, the frigate St. Lawrence, for a three-and-one-half year cruise. Made a passed midshipman upon his June 20, 1856, graduation, he was aboard the Brazil Squadron sloop-of-war Falmouth for a year and then joined the Pacific Squadron screw frigate Merrimack until February 1860, becoming a master on January 22, 1858, and lieutenant the next day. Following Washington Navy Yard ordnance duty, Ramsay sailed aboard Africa Squadron sloop-of-war Saratoga on a two-year antislavery patrol, during which he was advanced to lieutenant commander on July 16, 1862. Following leave, Ramsay assumed command on March 23, 1863, of the Mississippi Squadron ironclad Choctaw in the waters above Vicksburg, MS. His gunboat participated in the May 18–23 destruction of the Haynes’ Bluff defenses on the Yazoo River as well as the burning of CSN facilities at Yazoo City, MS. June 6–7 Ramsay supported a Union garrison at Milliken’s Bend, LA, in holding off some 4,000 Confederate troops. Moving on to Vicksburg, he commanded a bombarding battery of heavy guns mounted
After assuming command of the Mississippi Squadron ironclad Choctaw in March 86, Lt. Cmdr. Francis “Frank” Ramsay, USN, participated in the river campaign leading to the fall of Vicksburg, MS, including the defense of a Union garrison at Milliken’s Bend, LA, against some , Confederate troops in June. In February and March 86 he led expeditions up the Black and Ouachita rivers and then participated in the March-May Red River campaign, concentrating on the capture of Fort DeRussy (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
Rhind
ber and January 1865, as well as subsequent February attacks against Fort Anderson and other Southern outposts along the Cape Fear River. In April he assisted in removing torpedoes (mines) from the James River and was present at the capture of Richmond. Ramsay was posted to the USNA from May 1865 to August 1866, becoming a commander on July 25 of the latter year and the Washington Navy Yard until April 1867. In May he became fleet captain and chief of staff for the South Atlantic Squadron (SAS) aboard the flagship, the frigate Guerriere. He married Anna Josephine McMahon (1842–1908) at Buenos Aires, Argentina, on June 8, 1869; the couple would have two children. New York navy yard inspector of ordnance from July 1869 to September 1872, Ramsay was U.S. naval attaché at London until September 1873, served at the Bureau of Ordnance until January 1874, and commanded the NAS screw sloop-of-war Ossipee until January 1875. Between April and January 1881 he spent a year at the Philadelphia Naval Asylum and had ordnance duty at New York navy yard and the Newport Torpedo Station, becoming a captain on December 1, 1877. Commander of the European Squadron screw steamer Trenton in 1881, Ramsay was thereafter USNA superintendent until September 1886, had board duty until April 1887, and then served as captain of the protected cruiser Boston during her shakedown and cruises to strife-torn Haiti and Guatemala. Advanced to commodore on March 26, 1889, he was commandant of the Washington Navy Yard and, having become a rear admiral on April 11, 1894, served as chief of the Bureau of Navigation until April 5, 1897, when he was placed on the retired list. Socially active during his retirement, Ramsay died on July 19, 1914, and was buried at Arlington National Cemetery on July 22. One 20th century USN destroyer (DD-124) was named in his honor. Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; Callahan; Appletons’, V; ANB, XVIII; Cogar, I; The National Cyclopedia of American Biography, XV; DANFS; Hamersly, 4th ed.; DeVries, “The Union Ironclad Ram Choctaw”; Smith, Fight for the Yazoo; Smith, Tinclads in the Civil War; Smith, The Timberclads in the Civil War; Smith, Civil War Biographies from the Western Waters; SLGMSD, pseud., “Adm. Francis Munroe Ramsay,” FindaGrave, http://www.findagrave.com/
cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=42924816 (accessed July 16, 2010); New York Times, April 5, 1897, July 21, 1914; Washington Post, April 2, 5, 1897, July 21,1914.
Rhind, Alexander Colden (1821–1897, USN) A lifelong bachelor, Rhind was born in New York City on October 21, 1821, one of ten children of wealthy ship owner Alexander Rhind (1779–1857) and his wife Susan Fell Rhind (1785– 1865). Having been appointed U.S. minister to Turkey in 1827, Charles, upon his 1831 return, moved his family to Alabama, where Alexander was appointed a USN midshipman on September 3, 1838. Following service with the Mediterranean Squadron ship-of-the-line Ohio and sloop-of-war Cyane until June 1841, Rhind joined the West Indies Squadron sloop-of-war Warren until April 1842, was on the Norfolk, VA, receiving ship Pennsylvania until June 1843, and, after a year with the Africa Squadron frigate
After service on the South Carolina blockade, Cmdr. Alexander C. Rhind, USN, was given command of the experimental casemate ironclad ram Keokuk. She was riddled and sunk during the April , 86, attack on Fort Sumter, Charleston, SC. Uninjured, Rhind returned to the blockade in command of another ship. He retired as a rear admiral in 88 (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
Rhind Macedonian, served in the Second Seminole War aboard the sloop-of-war Falmouth and the schooner Phoenix. Graduating from the Philadelphia naval school as a passed midshipman on July 2, 1845, he was seconded aboard the USCS brig Washington until April 1846, when he was assigned to the Home Squadron in the Gulf serving aboard the frigate Potomac until August 1846, the sloop-of-war Albany until February 1847, the steamer Scorpion until April, and the steamer Water Witch until July 1848. During these deployments, he participated in the Mexican War battles at Alvarado and Tabasco. Traveling to California between November and mid– 1849 aboard the USCS schooner Ewing, he was aboard the Pacific Squadron sloop-of-war St. Mary’s for a year and then returned to USCS duty until July 1854. During his detached activities, Rhind became a master on April 30, 1853, and a lieutenant on February 17, 1854. Transferred to the Pacific Squadron frigate John Adams, he found himself in a dispute with her captain, was court-martialed in May 1855, and was dismissed from the service on September 13. The proceedings of the action were later published in a 94-page book. Rhind was generally regarded as profane, abusive, and insubordinate, and this was the most serious of three occasions on which he was disciplined in his prewar career. Reinstated without loss of rank on January 6, 1859, he was aboard the Africa Squadron sloop-of-war Constellation until October 1861. The Civil War having erupted in his absence, Rhind was given command of the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron (SABS) screw steamer Crusader on December 14, 1861, and joined the South Carolina coastal blockade in January 1862. With a Navy Department commendation for an April raid up the South Edisto River, Rhind was advanced to lieutenant commander on July 16 and simultaneously transferred to command of the Unadilla-class SABS Seneca, which patrolled off Wilmington, NC, until October. Detached, he was ordered to New York to take command and complete the outfitting of the experimental casemate ironclad ram Keokuk, which joined the SABS at Port Royal, SC, on March 26, 1863, Rhind having become a commander on January 2. While participating in the squadron’s unsuccessful ironclad attack on Fort Sumter, Charleston, SC, on April 7, the Keokuk was struck 90
6 times at a range of 600 yards. Riddled, the vessel withdrew and anchored but sank the next day without loss of life. Rhind was given command of the paddle-wheel SABS gunboat Paul Jones in May and commanded the SABS flagship, the steam frigate Wabash, during July–September. Having overseen her completion, he put the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron (NABS) doubleender gunboat Agawam into James River service on May 11, 1864, and on August 13 won praise for the manner in which he fought his ship in an engagement with three Confederate batteries at Deep Bottom Sound, VA. While the Agawam was under repair in November, Rhind took temporary command of the steamer Louisiana, which was outfitted as a giant bomb and employed in an unsuccessful December 23/24 attempt to blow up the magazines of Fort Fisher, near Wilmington, NC, winning another commendation. After the Agawam returned to service on February 18, she blockaded the waters of Pamlico Sound, NC, until the end of the war in May. Following leave, Rhind was captain commanding the New York receiving ship and naval rendezvous (recruiting station from May 1867 to December 1868. Unemployed until August 1872 but having advanced to captain on March 2, 1870, he commanded the Mediterranean Squadron screw sloop-of-war Congress and the 3rd Lighthouse District at Tompkinsville, NY, from September to April 1878, becoming a commodore on September 30, 1876. He was unemployed until May 1880, after which he had board duty and was governor of the Philadelphia Naval Asylum until October 1883, being promoted to the rank of rear admiral on October 30 and placed on the retired list November 1. Socially active the first part of his NYC retirement, Rhind suffered a long illness, was confined to bed in early October 1897, and died on November 8. He was buried at the Colden Family Cemetery, Montgomery, NY, two days later. One 20th century USN destroyer (DD-404) was named in his honor. Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; Hamersly, Colgar, I; “Alexander Colden Rhind, 1821– 1897),” Aztec Club Original Members, http://www. aztecclub.com/bios/rhind.htm (accessed September 22, 2016); DANFS; “Laurie,” pseud., “Adm. Alexander Colden Rhind,” FindaGrave, http://www.finda grave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=12676248 (accessed September 22, 2016); Trial of Lieut. A.C.
Rhind Before a Naval Court Martial in the Pacific Ocean in May 1855); Harding, “The Guns of the Keokuk”; Smith, “Guns of the Keokuk”; Alexander Colden Rhind, “Keokuk Against Sumter,” New York Times, February 5, 1893; Colden Family Cemetery Alphabetical List, Colden Preservation Organization, http://www.coldenpreservation.org/colden_family_ cemetery.htm (accessed September 22, 2016); DAB, XV; New York Times, April 12, 1863, November 10, 12 1897; New York Tribune, November 9, 1897; Milwaukee Journal, November 9, 1897; Washington Post, March 10, 1889; November 10, 1897; Baltimore Sun, November 10, 1897; Chicago Daily Tribune, November 10, 1897.
Riley, Robert K. (1830–1883, USN) Riley was born in Bridgeport, PA, on October 11, 1830. During the late 1840s he entered into the steamboat business on the Monongahela River. Volunteering his services to the Western Flotilla in October 1861, he became first master/executive officer of the Union ironclad Essex. He remained aboard that vessel from the Battle of Fort Henry in February 1862 into the fall, a period that included the vessel’s encounters with the Confederate ironclad Arkansas off Vicksburg in July. Becoming an acting volunteer lieutenant on October 1, and after briefly serving as acting captain of the ironclad Louisville, Riley became first captain of the light-draught Silver Lake (Tinclad No. 23) on December 24. He remained aboard only a short time after she entered Cumberland River service, resigning on February 16, 1863, to become master of the mail steamer Platte Valley. He remained a civilian steamboat captain until 1880 and during his last decade commanded the City of Vicksburg. He moved to NYC upon his retirement, where he died in August 1883. Sources: Callahan; ORN, I, 22; Smith, Civil War Biographies from the Western Waters; Smith, Le Roy Fitch; Smith, Tinclads in the Civil War; Smith, Fight for the Yazoo; “Robert K. Riley,” Riverboat Dave’s Riverboat Captains, http://www.riverboatdaves.com/ captains/r.html#RRILE (accessed May 3, 2012); Jeffrey, ed., Two Civil Wars: The Curious Shared Journal of a Baton Rouge Schoolgirl and a Union Sailor on the USS Essex.
Rochelle, James Henry (1826–1889, CSN) The son of Southampton County clerk James Rochelle (1786–1835) and Martha “Fanny” Hines
Rochelle Gray Rochelle (1791–1870), James Henry was born at the Rochelle House in Jerusalem, VA, on November 1, 1826. He was appointed a USN midshipman on September 9, 1841. After time on shore duty aboard the Home Squadron sloop-of-war Falmouth and aboard the receiving ship at Norfolk, VA, he was ordered aboard the Home Squadron sloop-of-war Decatur in October1846 and participated in the Mexican War until September 1847, taking part in the Tuxpan and Tabasco campaigns and the Mexican coastal blockade. Graduating from the USNA in June 1848, he became a passed midshipman on August 10 and following leave was aboard the Mediterranean Squadron flagship “Old Ironsides,” the frigate Constitution, until 1851. With the Pacific Squadron and Far Eastern Squadron supply vessel Southampton until March 1855, Rochelle participated in the “opening” of Japan. He was seconded to the USCS steamer Corwin in April for a three-year surveying deployment,
A long-time executive officer of the training ship Patrick Henry, st Lt. James H. Rochelle, CSN, assumed command of the ironclad Palmetto State in Charleston Harbor, SC, in April 86 but saw no significant action. When the decision was taken to evacuate the city, he was forced to destroy his ship on the night of February /8, 86 (Scharf, History of the Confederate Navy).
Rodgers during which he advanced to master on September 14 and lieutenant a day later. In October 1858 he joined the chartered steamer Southern Star at Norfolk and participated in the winter Paraguay Expedition, a naval expedition sent to redress 1855 grievances against the government of the South American nation. When the craft returned to Norfolk in August 1859, Rochelle was transferred to navy yard duties and was aboard the frigate Cumberland when the Civil War erupted on April 12, 1861. Declaring for the Confederacy, Rochelle resigned (his name being stricken from USN rolls on April 17), became a Virginia state navy lieutenant on April 13, 1861, and became captain of its two-gun warship Teaser. Transferred to the CSN on June 6, he was rated as 1st lieutenant and sent to the New Orleans station, from which he returned later in the year as executive officer of the CSS Patrick Henry in the James River. An observer of the March 1862 battle between CSS Virginia and USS Monitor, he oversaw the emplacement and use of one of his vessel’s cannon during the May 15 Battle of Drewry’s Bluff. When his ship became the CSNA, Rochelle captained the two-gun gunboat Nansemond before he was sent to the Charleston, SC, naval station a year later. He returned to Richmond, VA, on recruiting duty in August-September 1863 and in October assumed command of the Charleston receiving ship. Appointed a Provisional Navy 1st lieutenant to rank from January 6, 1864, Rochelle assumed command of the ironclad Palmetto State in Charleston Harbor in April but saw no significant action. When the decision was taken to evacuate the city, the ironclad was blown up at the Cooper City docks on the night of February 17/18, 1865. Rochelle then returned to the James River and his old slot as executive officer of the Patrick Henry. Captured and paroled in April 1865, Rochelle retired to Rochelle House. There in 1871 he became a member of the Peruvian Hydrographic Commission as second in command over a group of contract American naval officers and engineers engaged in a three-year exploration of the upper Amazon River and its tributaries. Upon the completion of this enterprise, Rochelle returned home, where he died on March 3, 1889, and was buried at St. Luke’s Episcopal Cemetery in Courtland.
8 Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; Foenander; CSN Register; JCC, IV; DANFS; “The History of the Rochelle-Prince House,” RootsWeb, http://www. rootsweb.ancestry.com/~vaschs/rph.htm (accessed October 13, 2016); Norfolk Virginian, March 21, 1870; Steedman, “The Ladies Build a Gunboat (Palmetto State)”; Rochelle, Life of Rear Admiral John Randolph Tucker; Rochelle and Tucker, “Report of the Hydrographic Commission of Peru on the Amazon River”; Werlich, Admiral of the Amazon: John Randolph Tucker, His Confederate Colleagues, and Peru.
Rodgers, George Washington, II (1822–1863, USN) The second of three sons of War of 1812 commodore George Washington Rodgers (1787– 1832) and Anna Maria Perry Rodgers (1797– 1858), George was born in Brooklyn, NY, on October 30, 1822. He was warranted a USN midshipman on April 30, 1836, three years after his brother, Christopher Raymond Perry “C.R.P.” Rodgers (1819–1892). His uncles included RAdm. John Rodgers, II (1812–1882), and Com. Matthew C. Perry (1794–1858) and Oliver Hazard Perry (1785–1819). Rodgers was advanced to the rank of passed midshipman on July 1, 1842, by which time he had completed deployments with the West Indies, Africa, and Mediterranean Squadrons. When the Mexican War erupted in 1846 he was appointed captain of the troop steamer Colonel and upon arrival in the war zone transferred to the frigate John Adams. Following the May 8 Battle of Palo Alto, near Brownsville, TX, his vessel remained on blockade off the Mexican east coast until the conclusion of the conflict in 1848. Rodgers was seconded to the USCS from 1849 and 1850 being promoted to lieutenant on June 4 of the latter year and aboard the Africa Squadron flagship, the sloop-of-war Germantown from January 1851 to March 1853. On New York recruiting duty until 1857, he was on the Brazil Squadron sloop-of- war Falmouth, which participated in the 1858 Paraguay Expedition before returning to New York in May 1859. On New York navy yard ordnance duty until September 1860, Rodgers became USNA commandant of midshipmen and senior officer aboard the training ship “Old Ironsides,” the frigate Constitution, succeeding his brother, C.R.P. Rodgers. George Rodgers helped to facilitate the USNA
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transfer to Newport, RI, after the outbreak of Civil War in April 1861 and upon her completion became captain of the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron (NABS) double-ender gunboat Tioga, which saw James River service in July (Rodgers became a commander on the 16th) helping to protect the AUS during its peninsula withdrawal. From late August to November the Tioga served as part of the West India Squadron seeking Confederate ocean raiders in the Caribbean. Thereafter detached, Rodgers became captain and oversaw completion of the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron (SABS)
Passaic-class monitor Catskill, which arrived at the Federal Port Royal, SC, base in March 1863 and participated in the unsuccessful April 7 attack on Confederate forts ringing Charleston Harbor. Returning to the blockade line, Rodgers became squadron chief of staff on July 4. A combined bombardment of Fort Sumter with AUS artillery was laid on for August 17 and Rodgers was allowed to reassume the Catskill’s captaincy. On the appointed morning. as she attacked Wagner, a large Confederate shell pierced the monitor’s pilothouse, a metal splinter from which struck Rodgers in the head, instantly killing him. After the fight, Rodgers’ body was transferred from Port Royal to New London, CT, where he was buried in Cedar Grove Cemetery in the presence of his wife, Kate Margaret Rodgers (?–1886). The former blockade-running schooner Shark, captured in 1861, was renamed in his honor later in 1863, but no other USN vessels have been named in his honor. Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; Callahan; Trumbull, “Four Naval Officers That I Have Known”; Irma, pseud., “Cmdr. George Washington Rodgers,” FindaGrave, http://www.findagrave.com/ cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=93850414 (accessed August 12, 2016); Johnson, ed., The 20th Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, IX; DANFS.
Rodgers, John, II (1812–1882, USN)
Captain of the frigate Constitution during her transfer to Newport, RI, in 86, Cmdr. George Washington Rodgers, 2nd, USN, was given command of the monitor Catskill in December 862 and was aboard when she joined the Federal attack on Charleston, SC, in April 86. After briefly serving as his squadron’s chief of staff, he returned to the Catskill but was killed in action during a bombardment of Fort Wagner on August (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
The third of eleven children of Com. John Rodgers (1772–1838) and Minerva Denison Rodgers (1784–1877), Rodgers II was born near Havre de Grace, MD, on August 8, 1812. He entered the USN as a midshipman on April 18. 1828, and served in the Mediterranean Squadron aboard the frigate Constellation in 1829 and sloop-of-war Concord during 1830–1832. In 1833 and 1834 he studied at the Norfolk naval school, becoming a passed midshipman on June 24, 1834. Following a year at the University of Virginia, he cruised on the USCS schooner Jersey and was acting master of the Brazil Squadron brig Dolphin from September 1836 to May 1839. He commanded the USCS schooners Jefferson and Wave during 1839–1842, participating in the Second Seminole War, and was promoted Lieutenant on January 28, 1840. He undertook his
Rodgers first USN command, the Home Squadron schooner Boxer, during 1842–1844. Rodgers assisted in construction of the experimental Hunter-wheel steam gunboat Allegheny at Pittsburgh, PA, from May 1844 to April 1846. Through February 1849 he cruised with the Mediterranean and Africa Squadrons aboard the frigate United States and the sloop-of-war Marion, respectively. He returned to the USCS through October 1852, commanding the schooners Retzel and Legare, and from 1852 to 1858 he participated in, then commanded, the North Pacific Exploring and Surveying Expedition. Advanced to commander on September 14, 1858, he was on duty in Washington, D.C., preparing his expedition report when the Civil War began on April 12, 1861. Rodgers was captured while joining with other officers in an April 20, 1861, effort to withdraw vessels, ordnance, and stores from the Gosport Navy Yard at Norfolk, VA, but was released. In May he was ordered to Cincinnati, OH, to consult with salvage expert James B. Eads (1820–1887), who had recently presented the Lincoln cabinet with a plan for the use of gunboats to help reclaim those portions of the Western rivers seized by the Confederacy. Given that the nation’s interior automatically gave Federal command structure to the AUS, Rodgers, upon his arrival, was placed on the staff of area commander Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan (1826– 1885). The latter authorized the naval officer to find and convert three passenger river steamers into men-of-war (“timberclads”). To assist Rodgers, several other naval officers were also sent west and together these men organized the beginnings of the Western Flotilla. Rodgers was also ordered to supervise construction of the first ironclad river gunboats, Eads’s “City Series” vessels. Meanwhile, his timberclads, including his flagboat Tyler, successfully reached the forward operating base in Cairo, IL, in August and undertook limited operations. When he was succeeded on September 6 by Flag Officer Andrew Hull Foote (1806–1863), a more senior officer, Rodgers returned to the Navy Department for two months of special duty. He then took command of the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron (SABS) screw steamer Flag off Savannah, GA, until March 1862, before becoming captain of the small but revolutionary ironclad
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A noted prewar Pacific explorer, Com. John Rodgers, 2nd, USN, served as first commander of the Western Flotilla in 86, captain of the ironclad Galena during April-October 862, and commanded the monitor Weehawken before Charleston, SC, beginning in November. On June , 86, he captured the Confederate ironclad Atlanta, for which he received the “Thanks of Congress.” Rodgers was captain of the monitor Canonicus until November and thereafter until the end of the war the monitor Dictator (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
Galena in April 1862. Supporting Maj. Gen. McClellan’s Peninsular Campaign, the Galena participated in the unsuccessful May gunboat operation up the James River that halted at Drewry’s Bluff, below Richmond. Rodgers became a captain on July 16 and in November took over the monitor Weehawken, aboard which he distinguished himself during the April 1863 attack on Fort Sumter and by capturing the Confederate ironclad ram Atlanta on June 17 The latter achievement won him the “Thanks of Congress” and promotion to the rank of commodore the following March, backdated to the
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8 day of his triumph. In June Rodgers assumed command of the monitor Canonicus and in November the monitor Dictator, in which he cruised the Atlantic coast as a unit of the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron (NABS) until the end of the war. Briely on the USNA board of visitors in 1865, he was ordered in September to sail the monitor Monadnock from the East Coast to San Francisco, where he would command the Special Squadron. While en route in March 1866 his double-turreted ironclad demonstrated off Valparaiso, Chile, during a Spanish bombardment but averted conflict with the ironclad flagship, the frigate Numancia. Detached in June, he was Mare Island navy yard commandant until December and then Boston navy yard commandant until 1869, being promoted to rear admiral on December 31. In February 1870 he took command of the Asiatic Squadron, handling both naval and diplomatic duties from his flagship, the steam frigate Colorado. The veteran led the June 10–11, 1871, Korean Punitive Expedition, which captured several forts and many cannon in response to attacks on American shipping. Detached in February 1872, Rodgers was commandant of the Mare Island navy yard from 1873 until 1877 and then USNO superintendent from 1877 to 1882. He was also president of the Naval Advisory Board (1881–1882), first president of the U.S. Naval Institute (1879–1882), and a member of the Lighthouse Board (1878–1882). Rodgers, who was ill for some time while performing his duties, died in Georgetown on May 5, 1882, and was buried at Oak Hill Cemetery three days later. Three 20th century U.S. naval destroyers (DD-254, DD-574, DD-893) were named in his honor, along with a torpedo boat (TB-4) and a lighthouse tender. Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; Appletons’, V; Thompson; Cogar, I; Reynolds; ANB, XVIII; DANFS; Tucker, “John Rodgers,” in Tucker, II; Johnson, Rear Admiral John Rodgers, 1812–1882; Johnson, “John Rodgers: The Quintessential Nineteenth Century Naval Officer,” in Bradford, ed., Captains of the Old Steam Navy; Hall, Biographical Memoir of John Rodgers, 1812–1882; Smith, The Timberclads in the Civil War; Soley, “Rear Admiral John Rodgers, President of the Naval Institute, 1879–82”; Heitzmann, “The Ironclad Weehawken in the Civil War”; Loring, “The Monitor Weehawken in the Civil War”; Merrill, “USS Weehawken: Gallant Ironship”; Neeser, “Historic Ships of the Navy: Monadnock”; Garver Graver, “John
Rodgers,” FindaGrave, < http://www.findagrave.com/ cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSsr=4281&GSvcid=266131& GRid=7050871&> (accessed August 15, 2008); Smith, The Timberclads in the Civil War; Smith, USS Carondelet; Smith, Civil War Biographies from the Western Waters; Fuller, “Chilean Standoff: Ironclad Monitor Monadnock, Naval Power-Politics, and the Spanish Bombardment of Valparaiso, 1866,”; Washington Post, February 20, 1882; April 25, May 8–9, 1882; Boston Daily Advertiser, May 6, 1882.
Rogers, George Washington (1811–1885, USN) Born in Pennsylvania in 1811, Rogers traveled west to Paducah, KY, before the war, established a boatbuilding yard, and constructed steamboats, also publishing a technical book on the subject in 1845. In September 1861 when military forces of the United States occupied his town, Rogers was forced to abandon his yard, which, together with the equipment and lumber stock, was appropriated for Federal use. Unable to effect change in the status of his business, he chose to enlist in the USN on January 8, 1862, and was sent aboard the new ironclad Pittsburg as her carpenter. Rogers participated in the Battles at Fort Henry (February), Island No. 10 (March-April), and Plum Point Bend, above Fort Pillow (May), rendering significant damage control service to his vessel and others during those fights. Having been promoted as the boat’s 4th master on August 16, he was a USN Mississippi Squadron acting ensign on October 1 and was present as the Pittsburg saw action in the Chickasaw Bayou expedition (December) and the slough through Steele’s Bayou (March 1863). Promoted to acting master on April 16, he became the ironclad’s executive officer and participated in her run past Vicksburg’s batteries that night and also in the Battle of Grand Gulf on April 29, during which he was rendered partially deaf. On July 24 Rogers was injured and his hands were badly burned while fighting the after effect of a naphtha explosion in the Pittsburg’s yeoman’s storeroom. Sent to the hospital, he returned to duty on December 18 with one arm in a sling. He participated in the March–May 1864 Red River Expedition and dramatically employed his carpentry expertise in damage control activities aboard the ironclads Louisville and Eastport. As a result of
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A boat builder before the conflict, Acting Volunteer Lt. George Washington Rogers, USN, commanded, from July 86 to December , 86, the Mississippi Squadron monitor Osage, depicted in this F. Muller painting. During the war, Rogers’ services were much in demand as a salvage expert (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
his labors, Rogers was promoted to acting volunteer lieutenant on July 9 and captain of the monitor Osage the next day, finding her grounded four miles above Helena, AR. During an inspection of repair timber preparation ashore in late September, he was bitten on his right ankle by a poisonous spider, leaving him with a wound that would bother him for years. Diligent work and higher water allowed the monitor to be refloated in early November, with Rogers retaining her command until January 1865, when she was transferred to the West Gulf Blockading Squadron (WGBS). He was then given the light-draught Kate (Tinclad No. 55), which beginning in June raised the cannon aboard the tinclads sunk at Johnsonville, TN, the previous November. Detached in August, Rogers was reassigned to the staff of the Mound City, IL, naval station until October, when he was transferred to the League Island navy yard near his home in Philadelphia to oversee laidup monitors. He was honorably discharged on December 15, 1868. Rogers worked at the Brooklyn navy yard from 1870 to 1877 and the Washington Navy Yard until 1881, his leg problems intensifying,
with swelling reaching his knee. He moved to De Soto, MO, with his daughter that July and worked through 1884 to secure a government pension. He died at home on January 8, 1885. Sources: Callahan; ORN, I, 27; “Landlocked Sailors: U.S. Navy Civil War Volunteer Officers from Midwestern States,” St. Louis Public Library Premier Library Sources 2000, http://www.slpl.lib.mo.us/libsrc/ ldsailor.htm (accessed September 30, 2011); ORN, I, 26; ORN, I, 27; Smith, Tinclads in the Civil War; Memorial of George W Rogers; Rogers, The Shipwright’s Own Book: Being a Key to the Most of the Different Kinds of Lines Made Use of by Ship Builders; Smith, Civil War Biographies from the Western Waters.
Rogers, John (In USN Service 1862–1865) Little is known of this volunteer officer. Rogsers was appointed an acting ensign in October 1862 and became an acting master on August 21, 1863. Thereafter, he skippered the light-draught Queen City (Tinclad No. 26) and the Naumkeag (Tinclad No. 37) on the White River, AR. In May 1864 his tinclad materially aided a fleet of transports that were under attack below Jacksonport, winning commendation from the local AUS
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Acting Volunteer Lt. John Rogers, USN, a noted White River tinclad commander from August 86 to January 86, was captain of the Mississippi Squadron ironclad Carondelet from February 86 until May. The 28-pound skipper was praised for his kindness to his crews (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
commander as well as the Mississippi Squadron commander. As of July 16, 1864, he was an acting volunteer lieutenant on July 16, 1864, and became captain of the Pook turtle Carondelet on February 2, 1865, commanding the veteran ironclad until May. Honorably discharged on December 4, one of his subordinates praised the 238-pound skipper for his kindnesses to his crews, though mentioning that he was a bit rough in his conversation. Sources: Callahan; Smith, USS Carondelet; Smith, Tinclads in the Civil War; Smith, The Timberclads in the Civil War; Smith, Civil War Biographies from the Western Waters.
Rootes, Thomas Reade “Old Tom” (1809–1885, CSN) The second of four sons and a daughter of Thomas Reade Rootes (1785–1824) and Sarah Ryng Battaile (1760–1811), Thomas was born in Portsmouth, VA, on December 10, 1809. Appointed a USN midshipman on March 1, 1827, he was aboard the West Indies Squadron sloopof-war Natchez for two cruises through August 1831. Deployed on the Mediterranean Squadron frigate Constellation until late 1832, he was sent to the Norfolk naval school, from which he
graduated and was warranted a passed midshipman on June 10, 1833. Following a two-year leave, he was acting master of the schooner Enterprise during her four-year Far Eastern cruise. Rootes married Mary Overton Minor at Braynville, VA, on January 24, 1838. The couple would have five children, including two sons, both of whom would serve with him in the CSN. Advanced to lieutenant on February 28,1838, he rejoined his schooner, now with the Brazil Squadron, until 1844, then served three years in the Home Squadron flagship, the frigate Raritan. During the Mexican War, he and men from his ship participated in the landings at Vera Cruz in March 1847 and at Tuxpan and Tabasco in April and June. After serving a year on the Africa Squadron sloop-of-war Yorktown, Rootes commanded the unit’s brig Porpoise until December 1851. During this deployment, he took special interest in the Episcopal Church missions in Liberia and made every effort to see them outfitted with hymnals and copies of the Book of Common Prayer. Taking leave in 1852, Rootes was appointed 1st lieutenant of the sloopof-war Vandalia and participated in the 1853– 1855 opening of Japan under Com. Matthew C. Perry (1794–1858), being advanced to commander on September 14, 1855. Rootes was at
Rowan the New York navy yard in 1857 and from 1858 to 1861 was in charge of the vessels in ordinary at the Norfolk (Gosport) navy yard. When the Civil War began on April 12, 1861, Rootes sided with his native state and resigned his commission; his name was stricken from the rolls of the USN on April 19. He participated in the capture of the Norfolk yard by the Confederates, becoming a commander on June 10 and captain of the captured frigate United States, a 1797 veteran turned into a receiving ship. A year later Rootes was placed in charge of the Office of Special Services, which oversaw the navy yard and facilities at Richmond. In May 1864 he assumed command of the James River Squadron ironclad ram CSS Fredericksburg. The warship, in company with another ironclad, engaged the U.S. monitor Onondaga in the inconclusive June 21 Battle of Trent’s Reach. During the remainder of the year, particularly in August, October, and December, as well as January 1865, the Fredericksburg engaged Federal naval craft and shore batteries on the James River in support of Southern military movements, although Rootes was ashore on sick leave during the latter fight and was detached in February 1865. Following the war Rootes and his family moved to Bowling Green, MO, where his sonin-law was a judge. Falling ill during the summer of 1885, Rootes made a special request, subsequently granted, that he be buried in his old USN uniform, which had been carefully preserved since April 1861. Rootes died on October 7, 1885, and was buried in Bowling Green. Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; Callahan; CSN Register; Driver, Confederate Sailors, Marines, and Signalmen from Virginia and Maryland; DANFS; Wilcox, History of the Mexican War; Coski, Capital Navy; Army and Navy Journal, VI (September 15, 1838), 80; XXIII (October 10, 1885), 208; New York Times, October 8, 1885; “Obituary for Thomas Reade Rootes,” Ancestry Message Board, http://boards. ancestry.com/surnames.rootes/72.1/mb.ashx (accessed October 31, 2016).
Rowan, Stephen Clegg (1808–1890, USN) The son of John Rowan and his wife was born in Downpatrick, Ireland (near Dublin), on December 25, 1808. Scalded by a teakettle in 1810, Stephen was forced to remain with his grandfa-
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Active in the fighting off North Carolina, Com. Stephen C. Rowan, USN, oversaw completion of the monitor Roanoke between August 862 and July 86, when he became captain of the casemate ironclad New Ironsides. He commanded the giant vessel off Charleston, SC, until September 86, when he was detached due to illness (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
ther when his family immigrated to Pennsylvania. Eight years later he was able to cross the Atlantic and join his relatives, who by now had relocated to Piqua, OH. There he clerked in a local store until 1825, when he travelled to Oxford, OH, to enroll in Miami University. On February 1, 1826, he was appointed a USN midshipman and joined the sloop-of-war Vincennes on her three-year and 10-month circumnavigation of the globe. Furloughed for 18 months but promoted to passed midshipman on April 28, 1832, Rowan, in August, went aboard the USCS ship Rush for a year-long cruise off New York, after which, during 1834–1836, he sailed as acting master on the West Indies Squadron schooner Shark and the larger sloop-of-war Vandalia. Rowan participated in the Second Seminole War, leading part of a large March 1836 raid inland of Charlotte Harbor, FL. Advanced to lieutenant on March 8, 1837, while aboard the storeship Relief, he was seconded to the USCS from
8 April 1838 to March 1841 and served aboard the ship-of-the-line Delaware while she was attached to the Brazil Squadron (1841–1843) and Mediterranean Squadron (1843–1844). Following leave an shore duty, Rowan became executive officer of the Pacific Squadron sloop-of-war Cyane in July 1845 and, following the outbreak of the Mexican War in April 1846, he and men from his ship occupied Monterey and San Diego in July and fought in the January1847 battles of San Gabriel and La Mesa. After participating in the Mexican coastal blockade, later, in November and December, he joined in attacks near Mazatlan and San Jose. Detached in October 1848 and granted leave, he was New York navy yard ordnance inspector from February 1849 to December 1852. Rowan received his first command, the storeship Relief, in February 1853 and serviced the Brazil Squadron until November 1855, becoming a commander that September 14. In command of the New York receiving ship until May 1857, assistant ordnance inspector at the New York navy yard until February 1860, and on leave for the next 11 months, Rowan became commander of the screw sloopof-war Pawnee in January 1861, completing his orders to sail her from New York to Washington, D.C., where she was the only major USN warship available to defend the city during the inauguration of President Abraham Lincoln (1809– 1865) in March. In April 1861 the Pawnee was unsuccessfully dispatched to assist the garrison at Fort Sumter, SC, and, later in the month following the onset of the Civil War, aided in the evacuation of the Gosport Navy Yard at Norfolk, VA, saving the frigate Cumberland. On patrol in the Potomac River, Rowan accepted the surrender of Alexandria, VA, on May 24 and attacked Rebel batteries at Aquia Creek the next day, firing the first shots of the Civil War in the East from a naval vessel. He later became commander of the Potomac Flotilla. In August his vessel joined in the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron (NABS) capture of Forts Hatteras and Clark, NC. Briefly captain of the steam sloop-of-war Brooklyn, which he delivered to Hampton Roads, VA, in January 1862, he commanded the paddle-wheel gunboat Delaware, from which he led a small flotilla during the February capture of Roanoke Island, combat with Confederate gunboats in the Pas-
Rowan quotank River, and attacks on Elizabeth City and Winton, NC; in March the assault on New Bern, NC; and in April the naval portion of a joint expedition against the Dismal Swamp Canal. These activities were recognized with the thanks of Congress on July 11. Five days later Rowan was advanced to captain (early in 1864 he was advanced to commodore, effective back to July 16, 1862). In August Rowan became captain of, and completed, a twin-turreted monitor, the Roanoke, converted from a screw frigate. The vessel was accepted in April 1863 but commissioning was delayed. Consequently, in July Rowan assumed command of the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron (SABS) flagship New Ironsides, the most powerful USN ironclad, which was then lying off the harbor of Charleston, SC. Her mission was to provide gunfire support in the continuing battle against the Confederate forts. Thousands of rounds would be fired by the broadside vessel, which would be hit hundreds of time without significant damage or casualties. The target of a failed spar-torpedo attack (August 21), she was assaulted by the semi-submersible CSS David on October 5/6; the Rebel strike caused only minor damage. Rowan was acting SABS commander during February–June 1864. On May 18, while visiting New York, he was presented an elegant sword by the U.S. Sanitary Commission. Appointed commander of USN forces in the NC sounds in August, he was detached due to illness in September and saw no further service in the conflict. Unemployed until June 1866, Rowan became a rear admiral on July 25, 1866, and was Norfolk navy yard commandant until August 1867. Flying his flag in the steamer Piscataqua (renamed Delaware in 1869), he commanded the Asiatic Squadron from September to November 1870, taking a prominent role in the protection of American interests during the Japanese civil war (1868–1869). Promoted to the rank of vice admiral on August 15, 1871, Rowan was the last officer to hold that rank prior to World War I. He served on various boards, was New York naval station and navy yard commandant from May 1872 until October 1876, governor of the Philadelphia Naval Asylum (September 1881– June 1882), superintendent of the USNO (July 1882–May 1883), and chairman of the Lighthouse
Rutledge Board (May 1883–April 1889). His wife, Mary Basset Rowan (b. 1819), died on May 14, 1876, but Rowan remained steadfastly on duty until placed on the retired list on April 26, 1889. Nearly every evening of his short Washington, D.C., retirement, Rowan entertained friends and retired naval officers. He died of a heart attack during the night of March 31/April 1, 1890, and was buried at Oak Hill Cemetery. A monument to the admiral in the form of a 10-inch Rodmantype Columbiad with attendant cannonballs and a plaque was presented to the city of Piqua, OH, by J.G. Schmidlapp on October 13, 1909. Four 20th century USN warships were named in his honor (TB-8, DD-64, DD-405, and DD-782). Rowan Hall at Miami University was constructed in 1949 Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; Cogar, I; Reynolds; Dorothy Goodwin Rowan, “Comment: Rowans of Bradford,” Ancestry Message Board, http:// boards. ancestr y. com/ thread. aspx?mv= flat&m= 154&p=surnames.rowan (accessed June 1, 2016); Zemke, “Stephen C. Rowan and the U.S. Navy: Sixty Years of Service”; DAB, XVI; “Rubbings,” pseud., “Adm. Stephen Clegg Rowan,” FindaGrave, http:// www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid= 37280108 (accessed June 1, 2016); DANFS; Tucker,” Stephen Clegg Rowan,” in Tucker, I; Roberts, New Ironsides in the Civil War; Stewart; Grimmett, St. John’s Church, Lafayette Square: The History and Heritage of the Church of the Presidents, Washington, D. C.; Piqua Daily Call, July 21, 1973; “Vice Admiral Stephen Clegg Rowan,” Historical Marker Database, http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=19195 (ac-
86 cessed June 1, 2016); Washington Post, January 20, 1889, April 3, 1890; New York Times, September 12, 1870, April 3, 1890.
Rutledge, John (1820–1894 CSN) The grandson of South Carolina governor John Rutledge, who had signed the Declaration of Independence and also served on the U.S. Supreme Court, was born at Charleston, SC, on October 4, 1820, one of eight children of John Rutledge and Maria Rose Rutledge (1801–1881). Appointed a USN midshipman on August 9, 1835, he served at sea and ashore, being advanced to passed midshipman on June 22, 1841. Rutledge was on duty at the Norfolk, VA, navy yard from June 1842 to March 1845, after which he served aboard the Pacific Squadron sloop-ofwar Warren during the Mexican War. Promoted to lieutenant on January 7, 1849, he joined the Mediterranean Squadron flagship, the paddlewheel frigate Mississippi, for a three-year cruise. On leave until October 1852, Rutledge was seconded for two years to the USCS, and from December 1854 until August 1858 he was on the steam sloop-of-war San Jacinto in the Home, West Indies, and East Indies squadrons. Unemployed until June 1860, he joined the Africa Squadron sloop-of-war Saratoga. Rutledge resigned his USN commission on February 23, 1861, and become ordnance inspec-
When the engines of his ship were transferred into the depicted ironclad Palmetto State, st Lt. John Rutledge, CSN, was transferred aboard as her captain. From September 862 through February 86, when she was destroyed to prevent capture, the vessel, shown in this wash drawing by Clary Ray, participated in the defense of Charleston, SC (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
8 tor on the staff of Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard (1818– 1893), commander of Southern defenses at Charleston, SC. Following the April 12 attack on Fort Sumter and the opening of the Civil War, Rutledge, who became a CSN 1st lieutenant on March 26, was assigned to the Savannah, GA, naval station. Captain of the CSS Lady Davis that fall, he participated in the unsuccessful defense of Port Royal, SC, on November 7 and became commander of the gunboat Nansemond on the James River near Richmond, VA, in May 1862. He patrolled the stream during the Peninsula Campaign into the summer, when the CSN decided to transfer the Lady Davis’s engines to the new ironclad ram Palmetto State, then under construction in Charleston Harbor. Perhaps given that he was familiar with that power plant, the lieutenant became her captain in September. On January 31, 1863, together with the ironclad Chicora, the Palmetto State attacked the unarmored vessels of the offshore Union blockade, capturing one and disabling another. Rutledge’s ship also participated in the defense of Charleston Harbor on April 7 when a number of Union ironclads made a concentrated, but unsuccessful assault upon its fortifications. Appointed 1st lieutenant in the Provisional Navy, to rank from January 6, 1864, the South Carolinian remained in command of his ironclad until she was destroyed to prevent capture on February 18, 1865. Rutledge, a Charleston resident after the conflict, died on May 6, 1894, and was buried at the cemetery of the Cathedral Church of St. Luke and St. Paul.
Sands sloop-of-war Vandalia until December 1831, followed by the sloop-of-war St. Louis until July 1833. On leave or shore duty, he became a passed midshipman in July 1834 and in November 1835 was seconded to the USCS, engaging in mapping and hydrographic activities. A year after beginning that assignment, he was married at Baltimore, MD, to Henietta Maria French (1817– 1893); the couple would have eight children, one of whom, James Hoban Sands (1845–1911), also became a rear admiral. Advanced to lieutenant on March 16, 1840, Sands was on the Mediterranean Squadron frigate Columbus for two years then served at the USNO Depot of Charts and Instruments until December 1846. Posted aboard the Home Squadron brig Washington and sent to the Gulf of Mexico to participate in the Mexican War, he participated in the 1847 fighting off Tabasco and Tuxpan. From December until April 1850 he commanded the Africa Squadron brigantine Porpoise and in May was re-seconded to the USCS, taking command of the steamer Walker in the Gulf of Mexico. While on this service, he invented a new deep-sea sounding instrument. Becoming a commander
Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; Foenander; CSN Register; Steedman, “The Ladies Build a Gunboat (Palmetto State)”; Saratoga,” pseud., “Capt. John Rutledge,” FindaGrave, http://www.findagrave. com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=99669057 (accessed November 8, 2016); DANFS.
Sands, Benjamin Franklin (1811–1883, USN) The son of Benjamin and Rebecca Hooks Sands of Baltimore, MD, Benjamin was born on February 11, 1811, raised in Louisville, KY, and warranted a USN Midshipman on April 1, 1828. After completing study at the New York naval school in October, he joined the Brazil Squadron
Remembered for his oceanographic work, Cmdr. Benjamin F. Sands, USN, was also the first commander of the large, three-turret monitor Roanoke. He retired a rear admiral (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
Selfridge on September 14, 1855, Sands served at the Bureau of Construction, Equipment and Repair and the Bureau of Ordnance from September 1858 until April 1861. He returned to the USCS in May, a month after the opening of the Civil War, as captain of the Active, performing West Coast surveys. Promoted to the rank of captain on July 16, 1862, Sands returned East in November and took command of the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron (NABS) steam sloop-of-war Dakotah. After service in and around Hampton Roads, VA, until April 1863, the Dakotah undertook a mission to New Orleans in May and June carrying dispatches to and from West Gulf Blockading Squadron (WGBS) commander RAdm. David G. Farragut (1801–1870). Detached, Sands became captain of the monitor Roanoke, the first ironclad with three turrets, but found her a bad ocean-keeping ship during her initial voyage from New York to Hampton Roads. She also suffered damage during the first firing of her guns. Sands arranged a transfer to command of the NABS paddle-wheel gunboat Fort Jackson, aboard which he remained through the end of the war. He remained off the coast of Texas through spring 1865, officially accepting the surrender of Galveston on June 2. At the Boston navy yard from August 1865– April 1867, where he became a commodore on July 25, 1866, Sands became USNO in May 1867, advanced to rear admiral on April 27, 1871, and was placed on the retired list on February 11, 1874. An 1850 convert to Catholicism, he devoted his retirement to service as a member of the Catholic Indian Bureau. He died on June 30, 1883, and was buried in Mount Olive Cemetery and reinterred in Arlington National Cemetery. Both a 20th century USN destroyer (DD-243) and an oceanographic research ship (T-AGOR-6) were named in his honor. Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; Cogar, I; Sands, From Reefer to Rear-Admiral: Reminiscences and Journal Jottings of Nearly Half a Century of Naval Life; “Benjamin Franklin Sands,” FindaGrave, https:// www. findagrave. com/ cgi- bin/ fg. cgi?page= gr&GRid=6611 (accessed May 3, 2017); “Benjamin F. Sands, Rear Admiral, U.S. Navy,” Arlington National Cemetery, http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/bfsands. htm (accessed May 3, 2017); Washington Post, July 1,1883; John F. Coyle, “The Diary of an Admiral,” Washington Post, March 10, 1895.
88
Selfridge, Thomas Oliver, Jr. (1836–1924, USN) Thomas Oliver Selfridge, Jr., the eldest son of RAdm. Thomas O. Selfridge, Sr. (1804–1902), and Louisa Cary Soley Selfridge (1810–1896), was born on the Boston receiving ship on February 6, 1836. He was appointed a USN acting midshipman on October 3, 1851, and was posted to the USNA, from which he graduated on June 10, 1854, at the head of his class, becoming the first to receive a diploma under the permanent USNA education system and the first to have his rank made permanent. Sent immediately aboard the Pacific Squadron razee Independence for a two-year cruise, he was advanced to the rank of passed midshipman on November 22, 1856. In January 1857 Selfridge was seconded to the USCS schooner Nautilus to participate in her surveys of the Rappahannock River, VA, and Hudson River, NY, becoming her acting master in June. In October he became master of the Africa Squadron sloop-of-war Vincennes and was promoted to master on January 22, 1858. Becoming ill, he took leave in April 1860; but that October, having become a lieutenant on February 15, he was sent aboard the Home Squadron flagship, the frigate Cumberland, based at the Gosport Navy Yard, Norfolk, VA. Following the outbreak of the Civil War on April 12, 1861, Selfridge joined in efforts to destroy the untenable Gosport yard before escaping the burning and beleaguered base aboard the paddle-wheel tug Yankee. Outfitted with two cannon, the Yankee began Potomac River reconnaissance at month’s end and on May 3 engaged Confederate batteries at Gloucester Point. Selfridge participated in the capture of the Hatteras forts in September and, as second lieutenant in charge of the forward battery, was on board when Cumberland was sunk by the Confederate ironclad Virginia on March 8, 1862. After watching the engagement between the Southern ram and USS Monitor the next day, he was sent to command the latter ship after her captain was wounded He was detached on March 12. After a brief leave, he became flag lieutenant of the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron (NABS) and, promoted to lieutenant commander on July 16, volunteered to command the Alligator, an experimental submarine, in testing opera-
8 tions based at the Washington Navy Yard that July and August. During August Selfridge joined the Mississippi Squadron as commander of the Pook turtle Cairo. On December 3, while leading a minesweeping operation in the Yazoo River, the ironclad was sunk by a Confederate torpedo, becoming the first warship sunk by an underwater mine. Selfridge subsequently became captain of the timberclad gunboat Conestoga and in May 1863 spent two months as skipper of the new light-draught Manitou, later renamed Fort Hindman (Tinclad No. 13), before commanding a naval land battery bombarding Vicksburg in June and July. After the surrender of the Confederate citadel on July 4, Selfridge returned to the Conestoga, which he commanded until she was lost in a March 1864 collision—the third vessel sunk out from under him during the war. Assigned command of the river monitor Osage, he accompanied the Union expedition up the Red River of Louisiana during March–May and upon his return became captain of the Federal ram Vindicator and the squadron’s 5th District, retaining command of both through October. Returning East, he commanded the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron (NABS) Unadillaclass gunboat Huron in the December-January 1865 attacks on Fort Fisher, participating in the ensuing bombardment of Fort Anderson and the capture of Wilmington. He was on duty in the James River when the war ended. Selfridge married Ellen F. Shepley (1846– 1905) in August 1865; the couple would have four children. A month later he began a three-year posting to the USNA and as captain of the training frigate Macedonian on summer cruises. From 1868 until June 1870 he commanded the West Indies Squadron gunboat Nipsic during her mission to locate a naval base site. Promoted to commander on December 31, 1869, Selfridge, after duty at Washington, D.C., led the U.S. Surveying Expedition to the Isthmus of Darien (Panama) during November 1870–December 1871, was Inspector of the 1st Lighthouse District at Portland, ME, until August 1872, and assistant executive officer of the Boston navy Yard until that December, when he returned to the Darien task from December 1872 to May 1873, completing his report in May 1874. At the Boston yard until August 1875, he took leave until May 1877,
Selfridge
Captain of the Mississippi Squadron ironclad Cairo, which was sunk in December 862, Lt. Cmdr. Thomas O. Selfridge, Jr., USN, also commanded the timberclad Conestoga and from March to May 86 the monitor Osage during the Red River Campaign. He retired a rear admiral in 88 (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
after which he was at the Newport Torpedo Station. In April 1878 he became captain of the screw sloop-of-war Enterprise, and after a survey of the mouth of the Mississippi River undertook a similar mission covering 1,300 miles on the Amazon and Madeira rivers. That December, the Enterprise was assigned to the European Station. While on that deployment, Selfridge participated in the International Canal Conference at Paris in May 1879 as a special delegate chosen by its promoter, Ferdinand de Lesseps (1805– 1894), and was simultaneously presented with the Legion of Honor by the French government and made an honorary member of the Royal Geographic Society of Belgium. Following an 1880 tour at the Bureau of Navigation, he was promoted to captain on February 24, 1881, and commanded the Newport Torpedo Station until November 1884. Selfridge served as captain of the steam sloop-of-war Omaha on the Asiatic Station from March 1885 to February 1888, prior to his arrest in May on charges of dereliction and
Semmes negligence. In April 1887 his ship had conducted target practice off the Japanese island of Ikeshima and created an international incident when four curious Japanese civilians handling unexploded shells ashore were killed when one blew up. Acquitted of wrongdoing by a June 1888 court-martial, Selfridge was on board duty and Boston navy yard commandant from May 1890– July 1893, becoming a commodore on April 11, 1894. Named an acting rear admiral on November 12, Selfridge commanded the European Station, hoisting his flag aboard the armored cruiser New York (ACR-2). While in Europe— his rank being made permanent on February 28, 1896—he was American naval delegate to the May coronation of Czar Nicholas II (for which he received a commemorative gold metal), and had an audience with Pope Leo XIII in March 1897. He was detached and placed on the retired list on February 6, 1898. Following the death of his first wife in 1905, Selfridge married Gertrude Wildes (1848–1926), in 1907. He died of heart disease on February 4, 1924, and was buried in Forest Hills Cemetery, Boston. Two 20th century USN destroyers (DD320 and DD-357) were named in honor of Selfridge and his father. Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; Appletons’, V; ANB, XIX; Cogar, I; DANFS; Still, Ironclad Captains; Selfridge, Memoirs of Thomas O. Selfridge, Jr., Rear Admiral, U.S.N.; Selfridge, “Origin of the U.S. Ship Portsmouth”; Selfridge, “Plan of Selection”; Bolander, “The Alligator, First Federal Submarine of the Civil War”; Quarstein, The Monitor Boys; Tucker, “Thomas Oliver Selfridge, Jr.,” in Tucker, II; Smith, The Timberclads in the Civil War; Smith, Fight for the Yazoo; Smith, Tinclads in the Civil War; Smith, Civil War Biographies from the Western Waters; Hamersley, 3rd ed.; Jen Snoots, “Thomas Oliver Selfridge, Jr.,” FindaGrave, http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg. cgi?page= gr&GSsr= 4441&GSvcid= 266131&GRid= 23082470& (accessed October 3, 2008); Nicholson, T.O. Selfridge: A Finding Aid to the Papers in the Naval Historical Foundation Collection, Library of Congress; New York Times, April 18, 1887, June 18, 1888, October 12, 1895; Army and Navy Journal 25 (June 23, 1888); Washington Post, January 20, 1896, April 25, 1898, February 5, 1924.
Semmes, Alexander Alderman (1825–1885, USN) The son of Alexander (?–1826) and Eleanor Harrison Beatty Semmes (1802–?), Semmes was
A cousin of CSN admiral Rafael Semmes, Lt. Cmdr. Alexander A. Semmes, USN, was captain of the monitor Lehigh off Charleston, SC, from April 86 to February 86, when that citadel surrendered. In March Semmes’ monitor transferred to the James River, where she engaged Confederate cannon at Howlett’s Battery and her captain was present at the fall of Richmond in April (Porter, Naval History of the Civil War).
born at Georgetown, Washington, D.C., on January 18, 1825, and was appointed a USN midshipman on October 27, 1841. This cousin of future CSN admiral Rafael Semmes (1809–1877) sailed aboard the Mediterranean Squadron flagship, the ship-of-the-line Columbus, for a threeyear cruise and late in 1844 transferred to the East Indies Squadron sloop-of-war Vincennes. Ordered to the Annapolis naval school, later the USNA, he graduated from his course of study on August 10, 1847, became a passed midshipman, and was on duty at the USNO until June 1850, when he was posted aboard the Brazil Squadron flagship, the frigate Congress, for a cruise that ended in June 1853. Seconded to the USCS in 1853 and 1854, he was on the Pacific Squadron paddle-wheel steamer Massachusetts, which departed Norfolk for the West Coast in July and arrived at Mare Island, CA, in May 1855.
He became a master on September 14 and a lieutenant a day later. In February 1856 his steamer was sent to patrol the Puget Sound area, guarding against indigenous raiding parties. In November Semmes led a landing party ashore at Port Gamble that attacked an encampment of 100 Russian-Native American fighters preparing an assault. Her Pacific Northwest mission completed, the gunboat returned to Mare Island in April 1857. Following leave, at San Francisco in 1859 Semmes joined the East India Squadron steam sloop-of-war Powhatan, aboard which he served until the outbreak of the Civil War in April 1861. In July 1861 Semmes was ordered aboard the four-gun paddle-wheel steamer Rhode Island, which served as a supply ship for the Federal coastal blockades. On April 14, 1862, he became captain of the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron (SABS) screw gunboat Wamsutta, which undertook blockade and reconnaissance duty in St. Simon’s Sound, GA, and was damaged on April 27 during a battle with dismounted Confederate cavalry on Woodville Island in the Riceboro River. While continuing patrols off Darien, GA, Semmes was advanced to lieutenant commander on July 16. On October 17 he assumed command of the East Gulf Blockading Squadron (EGBS) Unadilla-class gunboat Tohoma, which began service off the coast of Florida in January 1863. Between that month and June 18, Semmes captured or destroyed seven blockade runners, taking time out on April 2 to bombard Southern batteries at Tampa. He married Mary Mortimer Dorsey (1835–?) at Baltimore, MD, on February 9, 1864; the couple would have one son. He became captain of the SABS Passaic-class monitor Lehigh off Charleston, SC, in April 1864 and oversaw her shore bombardment missions against the fortifications of the city’s harbor. A particular target of interest was Fort Pringle, on James Island, which she relentlessly shelled during July 7–10. Continuing on picket duty during the winter of 1864–65, the Lehigh participated in renewed attacks against James Island in February. In March Semmes’s monitor transferred to the James River, where she engaged Confederate cannon at Howlett’s Battery and her captain was present at the fall of Richmond in April. Becoming a commander on July 25, 1866,
Shepperd Semmes was on Philadelphia navy yard ordnance duty until the end of 1868. From 1869 until 1871 he was captain of the sloop-of-war Portsmouth on the Brazil Station. Elevated to captain on August 24, 1873, he served at the Pensacola, FL, navy yard until summer 1875, when he became captain of the European Squadron sloop-of-war Alaska. He was executive officer of the Washington Navy Yard from October 1876 until promoted to commodore on March 10, 1882, at which time he was named the yard’s commandant. On board duty after 1880, he departed Washington in September 1885 to join his family summering at Hamilton, in Loudon County, VA. There he became ill and died of peritonitis on September 22. No USN ships have been named in his honor. Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; Appletons’, V; Hamersly, 3rd ed.; Newman, The Maryland Semmes and Kindred Families; DANFS; Baltimore Sun, September 23, 1885; Washington Post, September 23, 1885.
Shepperd, Francis Edgar “Frank” (1834–1887, CSN) A native of Germantown, NC, where he was born in 1834, the third of four children of Congressman Augustine Henry Shepperd (1792– 1864) and Martha Peyton Tabb Turner Shepperd (1807–1858), Frank was appointed a USN acting midshipman on October 16, 1849, and briefly sent to the USNA. He joined the Africa Squadron flagship, the sloop-of-war Germantown, in 1852 for his first cruise and in September 1853 was transferred to the unit’s sloop of war Dale. Following his June 1855 USNA graduation, he became a passed midshipman, moving up to master on September 1. Assigned to the East India Squadron sloop-of-war Portsmouth in October, Shepperd became a lieutenant on January 1, 1857, and was assigned as an instructor to the USNA the following year and remained there until the beginning of the Civil War. Following the secession of his home state, he resigned from Federal service and was officially dismissed from the USN on July 8, 1861. On July 15, 1861, Shepperd was commissioned a CSN 1st lieutenant and sent to the New Orleans naval station. Following the loss of that
Shirk city and base in April 1862, he was ordered to Yazoo City, MS, to take command of the small gunboat Mobile. After the departure of the Western theater naval commander in the fall, he earned the trust of, and provided sterling service to, his de facto successor, Cmdr. Isaac Newton Brown (1817–1889), who considered him “an active and intelligent officer.” In December Brown, busy attempting to construct vessels, delegated to Shepperd the supervision and inspection of the torpedo project that resulted in the destruction of the U.S. ironclad Cairo. It was later said that Shepperd found the act cowardly and refused to have anything further to do with socalled infernal machines. Employing the gunboat St. Mary, it was Shepperd who organized the work parties that initially attempted to block the entrance of Federal forces into the Yazoo Pass in February 1863 and who assisted in the defense of Fort Pemberton at Greenwood, MS, in the following two months. After the loss of Yazoo City in July, he was briefly reassigned to command of the torpedo steamer Torch at Charleston, SC, in the fall. Within weeks, however, he was named executive officer of the ironclad Palmetto State but saw no action before he was sent to join the James River Squadron in summer 1864.There he served as executive officer and sometimes commander of the ironclad ram Virginia II, from September 24–December 28. As 1865 began, he joined the ironclad ram Fredericksburg as executive officer under the ill captain Cmdr. Thomas Reade “Old Tom” Rootes (1809–1885). With Rootes ashore on sick leave, Shepperd took command of the Fredericksburg and enjoyed the only significant success by the squadron’s ironclads during the January 24 Battle of Trent’s Reach. Detached from the vessel at month’s end, he commanded the paddle-wheel wooden gunboat CSS Hampton in February. Shepperd resided in Georgetown, Washington, D.C., after the war, where he died in December 1887. He was buried at Philadelphia. Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; Callahan; CSN Register; “Children of Augustine H. Shepperd,” FamilyTreeMaker, http://familytreemaker. genealogy.com/users/m/o/o/Jackie-H-Moody-1/WEB SITE-0001/UHP-1343.html (accessed February 29, 2012); Foenander; ORN, I, 23; DANFS; ORN, 2, 1; Charlotte News and Observer, December 30, 1887; Smith, Fight for the Yazoo; Smith, Civil War Biographies from the Western Waters; Coski, Capital Navy;
2 Jeannette Holland Austin, “Francis Edgar Shepperd Lit the First Torpedo,” Old North Carolina Families Blogspot, http://oldnorthcarolinafamilies.blogspot. com/ 2016/ 06/ francis- edgar- shepperd- lit- first. html (accessed November 5, 2016).
Shirk, James Whitehall (1832–1873, USN). Born in Erie County, PA, on July 16, 1832, Shirk, who graduated from Erie Academy, was appointed a USN midshipman on March 26, 1849. Attached to the Africa Squadron sloop-ofwar John Adams until transferred to the paddlewheel frigate Mississippi of the East India Squadron in 1851, he participated in the 1853–1854 “opening” of Japan, during which he became a passed midshipman. Promoted to master in 1855 and lieutenant in 1856, Shirk was aboard the Home Squadron sloop-of-war Saratoga from 1856 to 1858. During the latter year, he married Mary W. Marshall (1826–1894) in Erie, PA; the
The veteran Western Flotilla timberclad captain Lt. Cmdr. James W. Shirk, USN, served as captain of the ironclad Tuscumbia from March 86 through the close of the Vicksburg campaign. He eventually became the longest-serving junior officer in the Mississippi Squadron (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
Simms
couple would have three children. Later in the year the lieutenant was ordered to the training sloop-of-war Plymouth and, following her summer cruise of the Atlantic coast, was transferred to the Great Lakes gunboat Michigan. In spring 1859 Shirk was ordered to the Pacific Squadron sloop-of-war Saranac and was aboard at the outbreak of the Civil War in April 1861. In late fall 1861 Shirk was among a group of junior USN officers attached to the AUS Western Flotilla where, early in 1862, he was given command of the timberclad USS Lexington. He skippered the Lexington during the February campaign at Fort Henry and subsequent Tennessee River sweep. More important, in concert with a second timberclad, the Tyler, his vessel offered spirited bombardment support to Federal troops in trouble during the first day of April’s Battle of Shiloh. Following the Battle of Memphis in June, Shirk participated in the White River expedition, ably supporting embarked land troops in the capture of St. Charles, AR, and providing succor and relief to the damaged ironclad Mound City. Becoming a lieutenant commander on July 16, he remained aboard his wooden warrior through the December 1862 Chickasaw Bayou effort near Vicksburg and was then detailed to command the ironclad Tuscumbia, which joined the campaign against the Mississippi fortress in March 1863. Shirk commanded the poorly designed vessel during her run past Vicksburg’s guns on the night of April 16–17 and in the April 29 Battle of Grand Gulf, as well as the intense combat of May 22 against the citadel’s batteries. After the town’s July 4 surrender, he was sent up theater to command the Mississippi Squadron’s 7th District of the Mississippi Squadron and, beginning in January 1864, oversaw operations on the Tennessee River and a portion of the Mississippi. Shirk’s vessels participated in actions at Paducah, Fort Pillow, and Johnsonville in the spring and late fall, and he became the longest-serving junior officer in the squadron’s history. At the Philadelphia navy yard after the war, Shirk became a commander on July 25, 1866, and served as executive officer of the European Squadron steam frigate Franklin in 1867 and 1868. In 1869 he was detailed to the Navy Department as special assistant to Adm. David Dixon Porter (1813–1891) in charge of appoint-
ments, after which he was transferred to the Naval Hydrographic Office as Assistant Hydrographer. He died at his Washington, D.C., residence of pneumonia on February 10, 1873. One 20th century USN destroyer (DD-318) was named in his honor. Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; Callahan; DANFS; The National Cyclopedia of American Biography, V; Joiner, “James W. Shirk,” in Tucker, II; Hamersley, 3rd ed.; New York Times, February 11, 1873; U.S. Congress, House, Committee on Pensions. Mary W. Shirk: Report; Smith, Tinclads in the Civil War; Smith, Fight for the Yazoo; Smith, The Timberclads in the Civil War; Smith, Le Roy Fitch; Smith, Joseph Brown and His Civil War Ironclads; Smith, Civil War Biographies from the Western Waters; North American and United States Gazette, February 11, 1873; Baltimore Sun, February 12, 1873.
Simms, Charles Carroll (1824–1884, CSN) One of seven children of John Douglas Simms (1788–1843) and Eleanor Carroll Brent Simms (1787–1846), Charles Carroll was born in Alexandria, VA, on March 30, 1824. He was appointed a USN midshipman on October 9, 1839, and served on the Brazil Squadron sloop-of-war Potomac for three years. From 1843 to 1844, he was aboard the Africa Squadron brig Truxton and upon completion of his Philadelphia naval school studies became a passed midshipman on July 2, 1845. Simms returned to the Africa Squadron for a cruise aboard the sloop-of-war Marion from 1846 to 1848, was seconded to the USCS off the Pacific coast in 1849–1850, and sailed on the Pacific Squadron steamer Massachusetts in 1851 and 1852. During the latter year, he married Elizabeth “Bet” James Nourse Simms (1832–1907); the couple would have two children. While at the Washington Navy Yard during 1853–1855, Simms advanced to master on January 15, 1854, and lieutenant on August 12; he then helped operate the Philadelphia rendezvous (recruiting station) in 1856 and 1857 and assumed his first command, the bark-rigged storeship Release, in 1858. Briefly aboard the Pacific Squadron steam frigate Merrimack in 1859, he transferred to the East Indies Squadron steam frigate Minnesota, where he was when the Civil War erupted in April 1861. Simms, whose family resided in Norfolk near
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The captain of the bow guns of the ironclad CSS Virginia, st Lt. Charles C. Simms, CSN, assumed command of the depicted ironclad gunboat Baltic in January 86. The deteriorated condition of the warship, which he labeled a “mud scow,” prevented her participation in the defense of Mobile Bay (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
the Gosport Navy Yard, declared for the South and was stricken from USN rolls on April 22. He served as a Virginia state navy lieutenant until June 10, when he accepted a CSN commission at the same rank, becoming captain of the armed steam tug Empire, both at Gosport and later in action off Elizabeth City, NC. At year’s end he was sent aboard the Confederate ironclad ram Virginia as captain of bow guns and, on March 8, 1862, had the honor of opening the Battle of Hampton Roads by firing on the USS Cumberland and next day joining in the duel with the USS Monitor. Transferred to the James River Squadron gunboat Nansemond on April 12 and on promoted to 1st lieutenant on October 2, Simms commanded the gunboat Florida (later Selma) at Mobile, AL, from October 25 until early 1863, when he was assigned to the Selma naval cannon factory. Appointed 1st lieutenant in the Provisional Navy effective January 2, 1864, he was given command of the Mobile-based ironclad gunboat Baltic shortly thereafter. The deteriorated condition of the warship, which Simms labeled a “mud scow,” prevented her par-
ticipation in the defense of Mobile Bay. The vessel was dismantled in July and her armor was sent to another ironclad, the Nashville, then outfitting at Mobile. Detached from the Baltic on July 21, Simms became her captain but could not outfit his craft in time to participate in the August Battle of Mobile Bay. Relieved on November 26, he returned to the Selma cannon works and surrendered at Nanna Hubba Bluff, AL, on May 10, 1865, and was paroled. Simms relocated to Norfolk and in 1874, having returned with his wife to Georgetown, became a clerk in the District of Columbia health department. He died on December 18, 1884, and was buried in Rock Creek Park. Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; Foenander; CSN Register; Driver, Confederate Sailors, Marines, and Signalmen from Virginia and Maryland; Jay Kelly, “Charles Carroll Simms,” FindaGrave, http:// www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi/page/gr/search. ancestry. com/ Browse/ fg. cgi?page= gr&GRid= 4134 7516 (accessed October 12, 2016); DANFS; Hall, comp., Record of the Descendents of John and Elizabeth Bull, Early Settlers of Pennsylvania; Oxford, The War on Hatteras.
Simpson, Edward (1824–1888, USN) The son of Edmund Shaw and Julia Elizabeth (Jones) Simpson was born in NYC on March 3, 1824, and educated under private tutors until February 11, 1840, when he was named a USN midshipman. He served in the Brazil Squadron frigates Decatur, Potomac, and Constitution until November 1841, after which he was berthed aboard the Home Squadron razee Independence, in ordinary, until May 1842, when he was posted aboard the Mediterranean and Brazil Squadron frigate Congress until March 1845. Simpson was detailed to the Annapolis naval school from the New York receiving ship in September as a member of the first class of what became the USNA and advanced to passed midshipman upon his June 11, 1846, graduation. He served on the Home Squadron side-wheel gunboat Vixen in the Mexican War and between July and December 1847 participated in the Gulf cam-
A longtime instructor at the U.S. Naval Academy, Lt. Cmdr. Edward Simpson, USN, was captain of the monitor Passaic from July 86 until May 86. During the fall of 86 his ship was particularly active in the campaign against the harbor forts of Charleston, SC (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
Simpson paigns at Alvarado, Tabasco, Tampico, Tuxpan, Coatzacoalcos, Laguna de Terminos, and Vera Cruz, as well as the blockade of Mexico’s east coast. After leave, he was seconded to the USCS (February 1848–January 1849) and then served aboard the USRCS Service brig Washington, then attached to the USN, until November. He was acting master of the Brazil Squadron flagship, the frigate Congress, from April 1850–July 1853. He married Mary Ann Ridgeley Simpson (1826–1862) on August 27 of the latter year; the couple would have five children. A USNA instructor until December 1854, having become a master on July 10, he returned to the USCS in 1855 and was promoted to lieutenant on April 18, 1855. A year to the month later he joined the East Indies Squadron sloop-of-war Portsmouth for a two-year Far Eastern cruise and participated in the November 1857 actions against offending Chinese forts on the Pearl River. He returned to the USNA in September 1858 and then served as a training officer aboard the New York receiving ship until August 1861 while also writing and publishing a wellreceived ordnance textbook. He returned to the USNA as commandant of cadets until June 1863, being promoted to lieutenant commander on July 16, 1862. Given temporary command of the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron (SABS) screw frigate Wabash off Charleston, SC, Simpson became captain of the Passaic-class monitor Passaic off Morris Island on July 25, 1863. Her mission over the next two months was to provide frequent gunfire support against the forts ringing Charleston Harbor. During the shoot on September 8, Passaic provided covering fire that allowed the rescue of her sister, the Weehawken, which had grounded in a channel between Cumming’s Point and Fort Sumter the day before. Detached in May 1864, Simpson became captain of, and oversaw, the outfitting of the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron (NABS) paddle-wheel gunboat USS Isonomia, which joined the blockade off New Inlet, NC, in late August. He became fleet captain of the West Gulf Blockading Squadron (WGBS) and was promoted to the rank of commander on March 3, 1865, participating in the final operations against Mobile, AL, from March 27 to April 12. Simpson was captain of the North Pacific
Sinclair Station (NPS) steam sloop Mohican and then the paddle-wheel gunboat Mohongo from July 1866 to December 1868, when he returned to Washington, taking charge of the Hydrographic Office until October 1869. Becoming a captain on August 15, 1870, he served on special European ordnance duty studying armaments of the great powers until September 1872, when he returned to the Bureau of Ordnance, where he wrote a two-volume report on his findings. In charge of the Newport Torpedo Station from 1873 until mid-1875, he stepped out to command the North Atlantic Station (NAS) screw frigates Franklin and Wabash during January–April of the latter year. Captain of the NPS screw sloopof-war Omaha (July 1875–March 1877), Simpson was New York navy yard captain-of-the-yard until September 1878, when, having become a commodore on April 26, he took over the New London, CT, naval station until January 1881, after which he was commandant of the Philadelphia (League Island) naval station and a member of the Gun Foundry site selection board until February 9, 1884, the day he was elevated to rear admiral. After two years of board duty, he was placed on the retired list on March 3, 1886. Simpson, a widower suffering from Bright’s disease, wrote to and received friends until his death on December 1, 1888. He was interred at Cypress Hills Cemetery, Long Island, next to his wife. One 20th century USN destroyer (DD-221) was named in his honor. His son and namesake, Edward Simpson (1860–1930), became a rear admiral, and a daughter married Charles Mitchell Thomas (1846–1908), also a rear admiral. Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; DANFS; Cogar, I; Hamersly, 4th ed.; “Saratoga,” pseud., “Admiral Edward Simpson,” FindaGrave, http://www. findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=7450 2928 (accessed December 12, 2015); Hurd, “Rear Admiral Edward Simpson,” in History of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations Biographical; Miller, “The Monitor’s Lucky Sister (Passaic)”; Powell and Shippen; Reed and Simpson, Modern Ships of War; Simpson, “The Monitor Passaic”; Simpson, A Treatise on Ordnance and Naval Gunnery; Simpson, Report on a Naval Mission to Europe; Simpson, “A Proposed Armament for the Navy”; Simpson, “The Navy and Its Prospects of Rehabilitation”; New York Times, December 2, 1888; Washington Post, December 2, 1888.
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Sinclair, Arthur, III (1819–1865, CSN) The eldest of four children of USN Com. Arthur Sinclair II and Sarah Short Skipwith (Kennon) Sinclair (1791–1827), Arthur 3rd was born at Norfolk, VA, on November 29, 1810, was appointed a USN midshipman on March 4, 1823, and was on the West Indies Squadron flagship, the frigate Constellation, for a year, followed by a three-year cruise in the Pacific aboard the frigate Macedonian. Taking leave after his 1829 Norfolk naval school attendance, he became a passed midshipman on June 4, 1831, serving aboard the sloop-of-war Peacock in the Pacific and Middle East until the spring of 1835. Sinclair was promoted to lieutenant on March 3 and later that year married Lelia Imogen Dawley (1813– 1906). The couple would have three children, including Arthur Sinclair IV (1837–1925), later
Cmdr. Arthur Sinclair, CSN, was unable to finish outfitting the ironclad Mississippi at New Orleans before that city was captured in April 862. From February until May 86 he was captain of the ironclad Atlanta, being detached before she was lost. Turning to blockaderunning, he was drowned when the swift Lelia foundered off Liverpool, England, on January , 86 (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
an officer aboard the CSS Alabama. From 1836 to 1840 Sinclair was on the West Indies Squadron sloop-of-war Natchez and was then stationed at the Norfolk navy yard or naval rendezvous (recruiting station) until September 1849, when he became captain of the storeship Supply. After cruising to California and back to the West Indies during January 1850–1853, the Supply was attached to the East Indies Squadron until February 1855, participating in the “opening” of Japan. Named a commander on September 15, 1855, Sinclair commanded the Norfolk naval rendezvous until November 1857 and then the Pacific Squadron sloop-of-war Vandalia until November 1860, when she was reassigned to the West Indies Squadron. When the Civil War began in 1861 Sinclair declared for the South and resigned from the Federal service; he was formally dismissed from the USN on April 18. Two weeks later he became a Virginia State Navy commander, taking charge of Fort Norfolk. He was appointed a CSN commander on June 10 and captained the CSS Winslow during the Battle of Hatteras Inlet, NC, August 28–29. This action was followed by shore assignments at Norfolk, Charlotte, and Richmond. Early in March 1862 Sinclair was ordered to New Orleans to take command of the incomplete ironclad Mississippi. From April 3 to 25 he valiantly attempted to either complete or defensively position the vessel; but, frustrated on both counts and leaving orders that she be scuttled, he departed for Richmond the day after the U.S. West Gulf Blockading Squadron (WGBS) began its advance past Forts Jackson and St. Philip. After serving in the Bureau of Orders and Details, Sinclair was captain of the ironclad Atlanta from February 18 to May 2, 1863. He then relinquished command to Lt. William Augustine Webb (1824–1881), who subsequently lost the ship. During the remainder of the year and into 1864, Sinclair was seconded to the department charged with mine and torpedo experimentation and captained the armed launch Squib, which would go on to successfully attack the USS Minnesota. In September he took command of the blockade runner Mary Celesteia, which ran aground and sank off Bermuda. He then traveled to Liverpool, England, where he became captain of the blockade runner Lelia. She foundered shortly after leaving port
Smith on January 14, 1865, and Sinclair drowned. His body was recovered and buried at Fleetwood Cemetery, Lancashire, England. He was the grandfather of literary giant Upton Sinclair (1878–1968), author of The Jungle. Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; ORN, 2, 1; CSN Register; Callahan; Driver, Confederate Sailors, Marines, and Signalmen from Virginia and Maryland; Maclean, “The Short Cruise of the CSS Atlanta”; Foenander; Hussey, Cruisers, Cotton and Confederates: Liverpool Waterfront in the Day of the Confederacy; J.V. Ward, “Cmdr. Arthur Sinclair, III,” FindaGrave, http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg. cgi?page=gr&GRid=117467632 (accessed December 1, 2015); DANFS.
Smith, Watson (1825–1864, USN) A native of Trenton, NJ, where he was born on November 3, 1825, Smith was appointed a USN midshipman on October 19, 1841. From February 1845 to July 1847, he served aboard the Home Squadron brig Porpoise, participating in the Mexican War naval operations at Tampico, Panuco, and Vera Cruz. Having earlier graduated from the Annapolis naval school and being advanced to the rank of passed midshipman on August 10, 1847, he joined the new European Squadron frigate St. Lawrence until November 1850, when he took leave to captain the U.S. Mail Steamship Company liner Illinois on her roundtrip route from New York to Chagres, on the Isthmus of Panama. Rejoining the USN in early 1852, Smith served aboard the West Indies Squadron paddle-wheel gunboat Fulton until 1855. Advanced to lieutenant that September 15, he accompanied Capt. Henry Julius Hartstene (1814–1868) on the polar expedition fitted out by the Navy Department to search for Dr. Elisha Kent Kane (1820–1857) of the Advance, a vessel sent out in 1853 to discover, if possible, some traces of the fate of Sir John Franklin (1786– 1847), who had been missing for over two years. The unsuccessful Hartstene expedition consisted of two vessels, the Release and the Arctic. Smith was acting master on the latter. Upon his return from this adventure, he again took leave. Returning to duty during the summer of 1861 following the outbreak of the Civil War, Smith was dispatched to New York to oversee conversion of the civil schooner Norfolk Packet into a bomb vessel, equipped with a giant 13-inch mor-
Stembel tar. The vessel was commissioned on February 7, 1862, and joined the Mortar Flotilla, a division of the West Gulf Blockading Squadron (WGBS) assembled at the mouth of the Mississippi River to capture New Orleans. On April 16 she joined consort vessels in the bombardment of Forts Jackson and St. Philip, which guarded the Crescent City. The city fell on April 25 and Smith’s schooner accompanied elements of the squadron to Vicksburg during the May–July bombarding of the city as well as the Confederte ironclad Arkansas, anchored there after July 15. Upon the formation of the Mississippi Squadron on October 1, Smith, promoted to lieutenant commander on July 16, was assigned to supervise naval activities at Cincinnati, OH. Early in 1863 Smith was chosen to lead the naval component of the Yazoo Pass Expedition, a combined arms thrust designed to reach the Yazoo River north of Vicksburg, MS. Smith— who was seriously ill (perhaps from yellow fever) aboard his flagboat Rattler (Tinclad No. 1) when his task group reached Greenwood, MS, in late March—had to be relieved and was invalided home. He recovered in time to participate in the Red River expedition in the spring of 1864, arriving off the mouth of that stream just before April 3, when Lt. Cmdr. Joseph Pitty Couthouy (1808–1864) was killed aboard the ironclad Chillicothe near Grand Ecore. Smith assumed command of the ironclad four days later and participated with her in the remainder of the campaign, including the escape over the Bailey dams. At the end of May Smith again went on sick leave but could not return. He died at his Trenton, NJ, home on December 19 and was buried in the local Riverview Cemetery. No USN vessels have been named in his honor. Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; Stryker, II; Samuel S. Armstrong, “Trenton in the Mexican, Civil, and Spanish-American Wars,” in the Trenton Historical Society, A History of Trenton, 1679–1929,” http://trentonhistory.org/His/Wars.html (accessed January 11, 2012); “Officers of the United States Navy During the War Period Appointed from New Jersey,” New Jersey Civil War Record Page 1600, http://www. njstatelib. org/ NJ_ Information/ Searchable_ Publica tions/civilwar/NJCWn1600.html (accessed July 4, 2008); Callahan; Smith, Fight for the Yazoo; Smith, Tinclads in the Civil War; Smith, Civil War Biographies from the Western Waters; Smith, Joseph Brown and His Civil War Ironclads; Russ Dodge, “LCDR Watson
8 Smith,” FindaGrave, http://www.findagrave.com/cgibin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=19487580 (accessed November 3, 2014).
Stembel, Roger Nelson (1810–1900, USN) One of three children of the War of 1812 lieutenant colonel Henry Stembel (1776–1829) and Christina Harmon Stembel (1768–1858), Roger Nelson was born in Middleton, MD, on December 27, 1810. When Henry lost an 1817 election for the Maryland assembly, the family moved to Georgetown, Washington, D.C., and in 1823 they moved on to Dayton, OH. After attending Dayton Academy, Stembel enrolled in Miami College (now Miami University), from which he graduated in 1831. He was appointed a USN
After serving as captain of the timberclad Lexington, Cmdr. Roger N. Stembel, USN, was appointed captain of the Western Flotilla ironclad Cincinnati in January 862, serving at Fort Henry, Island No. , and Fort Pillow. The captain was severely injured when his ship was sunk by Confederate rams at Plum Point Bend on May . Although he recovered, Stembel served ashore for the remainder of the war (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
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midshipman on March 27, 1832, was aboard the West Indies Squadron schooner Porpoise and sloop-of-war Vandalia (September 1832– December 1837), and attended the New York naval school until June 23, 1838, when he graduated, becoming a passed midshipman. Working at the Charts and Instruments Depot at DC until May 1839, Stembel served aboard the Mediterranean Squadron frigate Brandywine for three years then was unemployed until May 1843, taking advantage of the time to marry Laura Clara McBride (1810–1900) of Hamilton, OH, (the couple would have two children). Advanced to lieutenant on October 26, he was seconded to the USCS until December 1847, was posted aboard the sloop-of-war Plymouth at New York in January-February 1848, and was thereafter unemployed until November 1849, when he was assigned to the Home Squadron sloop-of-war Germantown until September 1850. Following leave, he was on antislavery patrol off Africa (February 1851–October 1854) aboard the Brazil Squadron sloop-of-war Jamestown. Completing a tour of unspecific service in Washington between November and June 1857, he joined the East Indies Squadron flagship, the paddle-wheel frigate Mississippi until January 1860. Assigned to the Philadelphia Naval Asylum from May 1860 to June 1861, Stembel advanced to commander on July 1 of the latter year and was sent west to Cincinnati to oversee preparation of the first Union warships on the Western Waters, the timberclads Lexington, Conestoga, and Tyler. Upon the activation of the AUS Western Flotilla at Cairo, IL, in September, he became captain of the Lexington, which he commanded in the engagements at Lucas Bend (September 8) and Belmont (November 7). In January 1862 he became official building inspector for the seven Pook turtle ironclads and received command of the Cincinnati. Thereafter, he accompanied the flotilla up the Tennessee River, personally securing, as captain of the squadron flagboat, the surrender on February 6 of Fort Henry, TN. The Cincinnati participated in the bombardment and capture of Island No. 10 in the Mississippi River in March and April. On May 10 the Cincinnati was attacked by units of the Confederate River Defense Force at Plum Point Bend, above Fort Pillow, TN, and was
badly damaged. Cmdr. Stembel was hit in the throat by a rifle bullet and severely wounded. Invalided to the hospital, he was officially on sick leave from August 1862 through January 1863. The recovering gunboat captain spent the remainder of the war and several months beyond engaged on various shore assignments, including serving as commander of the Philadelphia naval rendezvous (recruiting station). From October 1865 until December 1866 Stembel commanded the European Squadron sloop-of-war Canandaigua, being promoted to captain on July 25. Unemployed until August 1869, he commanded the Boston naval rendezvous until January 1871, having been elevated to commodore on July 1, 1870. He commanded the North Pacific Station (NPS) from February 1871 through October 1872, flying his flag aboard the sloop-of-war Saranac and upon his detachment was placed on the retired list on December 27. By act of Congress on June 5, 1874, Stembel was advanced to the rank of rear admiral on the retired list. Having caught pneumonia while visiting NYC in October 1900, he died on November 20 and was buried at Woodlawn Cemetery. His wife died on December 19. One 20th century USN destroyer (DD-644) was named in his honor. Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; Callahan; Cogar, I; DANFS; Tucker, “Roger Nelson Stembel,” in Tucker, II; New York Times, November 21, 1900; Oren “Skip” Stembel, “Roger Nelson Stembel,” Stembel Family History Project, http://familyhistory.stembel. org (accessed August 28, 2012); Smith, The Timberclads in the Civil War; Smith, Civil War Biographies from the Western Waters; “Roger Nelson Stembel, Rear Admiral, United States Navy,” Arlington National Cemetery Website, http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/ rnstembel.htm (accessed August 28, 2012); Washington Post, January 20, 1889, November 21, 1900; New York Times, November 21, December 20, 1900.
Stevens, Henry Kennedy “Harry” or “Hal” (1824–1863, CSN) The second of four children of USN lieutenant Clement William Stevens (1792–1836) and Sarah J. Fayssoux Stevens (1795–1864), Stevens was born in Norwich, CT, on October 17, 1824.
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While in command of the auxiliary steamer Capitol (here depicted on the left), Lt. Henry K. Stevens, CSN, was invited to become executive officer of the CSS Arkansas. With that commander ill, Stevens became the ironclad’s captain and had the unhappy duty of scuttling the famous ship above Baton Rouge when her engines failed in August 862. He was killed in action near Patterson, LA, on January , 86 (Battles and Leaders, vol. ).
Educated in the public schools of Pendleton, SC, he was appointed a USN midshipman from Florida on March 2, 1839, and advanced to passed midshipman on July 2, 1845. From January 1847 until September 1850 he served aboard the Pacific Squadron paddle-wheel storeship Southampton, largely off the coast of California. On leave until October 1852, he became captain of the schooner Fenimore Cooper, which participated in the 1853–1856 North Sea Exploring and Surveying Expedition. He was on duty at Washington, D.C., in connection with the expedition report until ordered aboard the Africa Squadron sloop-of-war Portsmouth in November 1859 for a three-year antislavery patrol. Stevens was aboard the USS Portsmouth at London, England, in March 1861, when, with civil war looming in the U.S., he elected to resign from the Union navy. Following the return of the Federal warship to Portsmouth, NH, on Sep-
tember 24 he was arrested after refusing to take the oath of allegiance and was confined in Fort Lafayette, NY, and then Fort Warren, MA, prior to his official dismissal on September 30. Held as a POW for eight weeks, he was exchanged, became a CSN lieutenant in November, and was posted to Charleston, SC, where he participated in various small unit activities near Edisto. On March 31, 1862, he journeyed to Memphis, TN, to participate in the building of two ironclads under the supervision of Cmdr. Charles McBlair (1809–1890). When the time arrived in late April 1862 to transfer the one most nearly complete, the ram Arkansas, out of harm’s way, Stevens participated in her removal to Greenwood, MS, as acting captain of the steamer Capitol. When Lt. Isaac Newton Brown (1817–1889) displaced McBlair, Brown took over the warship and moved her to Yazoo City to complete outfitting in early May and invited Stevens to serve as his
2 executive officer. Stevens would remain with the Arkansas throughout her brief life. When, at the end of July, it was required that she support Confederate military forces moving on Baton Rouge, Stevens, temporarily in command of the Arkansas while Brown was on sick leave, was unable to convince his superiors that the engines of the vessel were not up to the mission. When her power plant failed on August 6 a few miles above the Louisiana town, it was Stevens who was forced to order her destruction. Following his escape ashore with most of the crew, the officer escorted his men to the Jackson naval station, from which the majority were ordered temporarily to help establish the river batteries at Port Hudson, LA, a few miles below Vicksburg. In December Stevens was detached from this duty and ordered to Alexandria, LA, to confer with ACS officers regarding how best to provide naval assistance. He simultaneously assumed command of the CSS J.A. Cotton and several small vessels. Before arrangements could be executed, he was killed in action aboard that vessel at the Battle of Corney’s Bridge in Bayou Teche, near Patterson, LA, on January 14, 1863. He was buried at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church Cemetery, Pendleton, SC. Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; Callahan; DANFS; CSN Register; Mosely, “The Naval Career of Henry Kennedy Stevens as Revealed in His Letters, 1839–1863”; Carr, “Lieutenant Henry Kennedy Stevens, CSN: Warrior of the CSS Arkansas”; Capers, South Carolina, Vol. 5 of Clement Anslem Evans, ed., Confederate Military History; Smith, CSS Arkansas; Smith, The Timberclads in the Civil War; Smith, Fight for the Yazoo; Smith, Civil War Biographies from the Western Waters; Shannon Dobbins, “Lieutenant Henry Kennedy Stevens,” FindaGrave, http://www. findagrave. com/ cgi- bin/ fg. cgi?page= gr&GRid= 19582748 (accessed April 10, 2010).
Stevens, Thomas Holdup (1819–1896, USN) The son of USN Com. Thomas Holdup Stevens (1795–1841), captain of the USS Trippe in the War of 1812 Battle of Lake Erie, and his wife Elizabeth Sage Stevens (?–1848), Stevens Jr. was born in Middletown, CT. on May 27, 1819. During his youth, worked at the countinghouse of his mother’s cousin, Gurdon Saltenstall Hubbard (1802–1886), the pioneer Chicago fur trader.
Stevens Stevens was appointed a USN midshipman on December 14, 1836, served aboard the Brazil Squadron razee Independence from February 1837 to April 1840, and graduated from the Philadelphia naval school on July 1, 1842, as a passed midshipman. After briefly serving as naval aide to President John Tyler (1790–1862), he was seconded to the USCS and participated in a Gulf of Mexico examination until August 1843. Stevens served on the Great Lakes steam gunboat Michigan from September 1843 to September 1844. At the Michigan’s Erie, PA, base, he married Anna Marie Christie Stevens (1824– 1893) on November 2; the couple would have nine children, including RAdm. Thomas Holdup Stevens (1845–1914). Stevens, with his wife and daughter, were relocated to Honolulu, Sandwich Islands, where he was naval storekeeper until December 1847. The Chilean ship Maria Helena, aboard which they were returning home, was wrecked on Christmas Island on January 4, 1848; all of the survivors, including the Stevenses, were marooned until rescued three months later. Stevens returned to duty at the Sackets Harbor, NY, navy yard in June 1849 but was transferred back to the Michigan in September. Following a brief January-February 1851 assignment aboard the sloop-of-war Germantown, he commanded the USCS schooner Ewing on a survey of the California and Oregon coasts until January 1855.Unemployed, he was released from the USN by ruling of the Naval Efficiency Board on September 13 but was reinstated as a lieutenant on May 10, 1857. Stevens joined the Home Squadron steam frigate Colorado in March 1858 and that August transferred to the squadron’s screw frigate Roanoke, where he served until January 1861, when he returned to the Michigan and remained with her until July after the outbreak of the Civil War. From late July 1861 Stevens served on the Potomac Flotilla steam gunboat Penguin and in September oversaw completion, and took command, of the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron (SABS) Unadilla-class gunboat Ottawa, which participated in the November 7 capture of Port Royal, SC, and in March-April 1862 led the first expedition up Florida’s St. Johns River, which occupied Jacksonville and other fortified points, including Fernandia. In April Stevens was transferred to command of the North
Stevens Atlantic Blockading Squadron (NABS) paddlewheel gunboat Maratanza, which supported the Army of the Potomac advance on the Peninsula, including the Battle of Eltham’s Landing. En route to scouting Turkey Bend on July 4, the steamer engaged and captured CSS Teaser at Haxall’s on the James River. Becoming a commander on July 16 and simultaneously captain of the ironclad USS Monitor, Stevens assisted the military during the withdrawal of Federal troops from the Peninsula. An intemperate reputation led to his reassignment on September 10 to the West Indies Squadron task group, or “Flying Squadron,” paddle-wheel gunboat Sonoma, which was assigned to hunt the Confederate
After capturing CSS Teaser on the James River in July 862, Cmdr. Thomas H. Stevens, USN, then held command of the famous Monitor until September. He was given command of the monitor Patapsco off Charleston, SC, in August 86, keeping her in action against the fortifications at Charleston, SC, until May 86, when he was detached. He returned to ironclad work briefly in August when he served as acting captain of the Winnebago during the Battle of Mobile and the actions against Forts Gaines and Morgan (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
22 ocean cruisers Alabama and Florida as well as to assist in the apprehension of blockade runners. During her deployment Sonoma joined in the capture of four runners between January 18 and April 14, 1863. That August, Stevens became captain of the SABS Passaic-class monitor Patapsco, then cruising off Charleston, SC. In August and September she was part of the ironclad attack on the town’s harbor fortifications, including Fort Sumter, Fort Moultrie, and Fort Wagner. Patapsco remained on the gun line off Charleston during the winter, and on November 2 an 8-inch Parrott rifle suffered a premature cartridge explosion that killed two men and wounded four others in her turret. Stevens was given command of the West Gulf Blockading Squadron (WGBS) screw sloop-of-war Oneida on the blockade off Mobile in May 1864, and at the beginning of August he was made temporary captain of the double-turret monitor Winnebago, which participated in the Battle of Mobile Bay on August 5. Winnebago intermittently bombarded Fort Morgan and Fort Gaines until they surrendered, on August 24 and 6, respectively. Returning to the Oneida, Stevens cruised off the Texas coast, from which duty he was detached in August 1865. Stevens was assigned to the New York naval rendezvous (recruiting station) from November 1865 to March 1866 and became a captain on July 25. In August he began a three-year tour as inspector of the 11th Lighthouse District at Detroit, MI, after which he served as captain of the screw sloop-of-war Guerriere on the European Station until September 1871. His cruise did not go well, as the warship twice grounded. Courtmartialed and suspended for three years in September 1871, Stevens’ sentence was remitted on November 26, 1872, and he was elevated to commodore on November 20. Unemployed until July 1873, he was Commandant of the Washington navy yard from August to June 1876 and chairman of the Norfolk, VA, harbor board until August 1880, being promoted to rear admiral on October 27, 1879. Stevens was commander of the Pacific Station from October 1880 to July 1881, flying his flag in the sloop-of-war Pensacola, and was placed on the retired list, effective May 27, 1881. Stevens’ Washington, D.C., retirement included social activities, writing, including a
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2 recollection of his days on the monitor Patapsco published in the Philadelphia Times in 1886, and successful investments. He died as the result of an acute case of indigestion on May 15, 1897, and was buried at Arlington National Cemetery. One 20th century USN destroyer (DD- 479) was named in his honor. Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; Cogar, I; Hamersly, 3rd ed.; Still, Ironclad Captains; Quarstein, The Monitor Boys; DANFS; Morris, ed., Men of the Century; Edgar K. Thompson, “The U.S. Monitor Patapsco”; Carol Stevens, “Admiral Thomas Holdup Stevens, Jr.,” FindaGrave, http://www.findagrave.com/ cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=20599662 (accessed December 2, 2015); “Thomas Holdup Stevens, Jr.,” Arlington National Cemetery Homepage, http://www. arlingtoncemetery.net/tstevens.htm (accessed December 2, 2015); Stevens, Narrative of the Wreck of the Chilean Ship Maria Helena on Christmas Island, January 4, 1848; Stevens, “The Boat Attack on Sumter,” B&L, IV; Philadelphia Times, January 10, 1886; Denver Evening Post, May 15, 1896; New York Tribune, May 16, 1896; New York Times, May 16, 1896; Washington Post, May 16, 1896; Milwaukee Sentinel, May 16, 1896; Chicago Daily Tribune, May 16, 1896.
Stone, Edward Erastus “E.E.” (1826–1892, USN) The son of merchant Jeremy Stone (1798– 1837) and Ann Green Mitchell Stone (1800– 1861), E.E. Stone was born in Savannah, GA, on January 26, 1826. He matriculated at Georgetown University in 1840 but on October 19, 1841, was appointed a USN midshipman and served aboard the Home Squadron brig Bainbridge from 1842 to 1844, after which he joined the East Indies Squadron brig Perry on her circumnavigation of the globe. He was on the Home Squadron flagship, the frigate Cumberland, during the Mexican War in the fall of 1846 and thereafter sent to the Annapolis naval school, from which he graduated in June 1847, becoming a passed midshipman on August 10, 1847. Stone married Fannie Leonide de Montalant Stone (1848–1877) of Norfolk, VA, in Philadelphia, PA, on February 23, 1848; the couple had two daughters. After leave, he participated in a two-year antislavery cruise aboard the Africa Squadron brig Perry, joining the same unit’s sloop-of-war Portsmouth in 1851. With the USCS in 1852 and during 1854–
Lt. Cmdr. Edward E. Stone, USN, a veteran of the Atlantic blockade, became captain of the monitor Montauk in October 86 and participated in the December 86 and January 86 campaign against Fort Fisher, NC, and the capture of Fort Anderson in February. At the Washington Navy Yard in April, the monitor served as a bier for the Lincoln assassin, John Wilkes Booth, and a temporary prison for six of his accomplices. The laid-up ironclad (shown on the left) is at the Philadelphia navy yard in (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
Tattnall 1856, he was aboard the Pacific Squadron storeship Fredonia in 1853, being promoted to lieutenant on September 15, 1855. In 1857 he served aboard the rescued Royal Navy bark Resolute, which was refurbished by act of Congress and returned to England in an act of good will. In 1858 and 1859 he was on the Africa Squadron sloop-of-war Marion and thereafter in the East Indies Squadron sloop-of-war John Adams. His ship was at Siam when word was received in July 1861 that the Civil War had begun. The John Adams returned to New York in January 1862. From spring 1862 to March 1863 Stone commanded the frigate Macedonian on patrol in the West Indies, protecting American commerce while being on the lookout for blockade runners and Confederate ocean cruisers. Advanced to lieutenant commander on July 16, 1862, he became captain of the converted North Atlantic Blockading Squadron (NABS) steam gunboat Iron Age in April 1863, undertook a short fruitless search for the CSS Tacony, patrolled off the New England coast on fisheries protection duty until September 7, and shifted to the Wilmington, NC, blockade. While on a January 9, 1864, coastal mission, Stone’s vessel grounded herself and could not be gotten off; she was destroyed on January 11. Over the next nine months Stone served as temporary captain of a number of blockade gunboats, but at the end of September he was given command of the SABS Passaicclass monitor Montauk, a veteran of the campaign against Charleston, SC. In addition to firing upon Fort Sumter and the other harbor bastions, the monitor was detailed, in late fall, to join with several other loaned vessels in the assault upon Fort Fisher, NC. Temporarily transferred to the NABS, the ironclads participated in both the unsuccessful December attacks and the successful campaign that led to the fall of Wilmington’s guardian on January 15, 1865. The Montauk, the only SABS monitor not returned, joined in the Federal campaign against Fort Anderson, which fell on February 19. Not long before the end of the conflict in April, the Montauk was ordered to the Washington Navy Yard. There, following the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln (1809– 1865), Stone’s ironclad served as a bier for his assassin, John Wilkes Booth (1838–1865), and
2 prison for six of his accomplices until they were removed to the Old Federal Penitentiary on April 29. Stone was detached from the Montauk on May 26. Some weeks later he was ordered to New Orleans, where he served on special duty in connection with Reconstruction and became a commander on July 25, 1866. From August 1867 to July 1868 Stone commanded the Atlantic Squadron steam gunboat Shawmut and, a lighthouse inspector thereafter, he was placed on the retired list due to poor health on January 5, 1874. Ill during most of his retirement, Stone became bedfast in 1890, died on June 18,1892, and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery. No USN vessels have been named in his honor. Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; Hamersly, 3rd ed.; Bartlett, Gregory Stone Genealogy; DANFS; Meriam Medina, “Roster by Classes of the Georgetown Men in the Federal Service in the Civil War, Part II,” The History Box, http://thehistorybox. com/ny_city/nycity_cw_georgetown_roster_ fed_svc_ article00358.htm (accessed November 25, 2015); Georgetown University, Alumni Association, Blue and Gray: Georgetown University and the Civil War; “A Resolute Story About a Ship That Became a Desk,” Washington Post, January 29, 1977; Army and Navy Journal 19 (February 25, 1882), 669; T.J. Clemente, “The Story of the Ironclad USS Montauk in the Civil War,” Southampton Patch, July 17, 2012; Neeser, “Historic Ships of the Navy: Montauk”; Steers and Holzer, eds., The Lincoln Assassination Conspirators; Fonevielle, To Forge a Thunderbolt: Fort Anderson and the Battle of Wilmington; Washington Post, June 20, 1892; New York Times, June 20, 1892.
Tattnall, Josiah, Jr. (1795–1871, CSN) Among the most prominent former USN officers to enter the CSN, Josiah was born at Bonaventure Plantation, near Savannah, GA, on November 5, 1795. The fifth of seven children of U.S. senator and future Georgia governor Josiah Tattnall, Sr. (1764–1803), and Harriett Fenwick Tattnall (1769–1802), he studied in England prior to his January 1, 1812, appointment as a USN midshipman. Joining the blockaded frigate Constellation at Hampton Roads, VA, on August 1, he was part of an early 1813 detail that manned a nearby battery at Craney Island, defending it against a British attack on June 13. After participating in the August 1814 Battle of Bladensburg, he went to the Mediterranean from Savannah,
2 GA, in October aboard the sloop Epervier, fought the Barbary pirates at Algiers between May and July 1815, and transferred aboard the Constellation until early 1817. Advanced to lieutenant on April 1, 1818, he was on the frigate Macedonian in the Pacific until August 1820; from December 1822 until May 1823 aboard the schooner Jackall in the West Indies; and then three years in the Mediterranean aboard the frigate Constitution. After a long leave, Tattnall served on the sloop Erie in the Caribbean, conducting surveys and fighting pirates. On April 15, 1831, he received his first command, the schooner Grampus. While on antipiracy patrol shortly thereafter, he captured the Mexican pirate schooner Montezuma. Tatnall becoming a commander on February 25, 1836, and given command of the brig Pioneer, his warship returned the Mexican general Santa Anna, captured by the Texicans at San Jacinto, back to Vera Cruz. From 1838 to 1840 he was on duty at the Boston
On March 2, 862, Capt. Josiah Tattnall, Jr., CSN, became flag officer and commander of Virginia’s naval defenses, including the James River Squadron and its flagship, the ironclad CSS Virginia, which had fought the USS Monitor three weeks earlier. Unable to retreat from Norfolk in May when Federal forces approached, the vessel was destroyed at his order. Later, in December 86, he would also be forced to scuttle the ironclad Savannah (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
Tattnall navy yard; in 1841 and 1842 he commanded the sloop Fairfield in the Mediterranean; and he then served with the Africa Squadron during 1843–1845 aboard the sloop-of-war Saratoga. Tattnall commanded the Home Squadron paddle-wheel gunboat Spitfire in the Mexican War, engaging the citadel at San Juan de Ulloa during the February 1847 Vera Cruz assault. In April he took an arm wound while engaging the defenses of Alvarado during the Tuxpan expedition. Following 1848–1849 Boston navy yard service, he became a captain on February 5, 1850, and in March took command of the Home Squadron paddle-wheel sloop-of-war Saranac in the Caribbean until July 1851, when he became commandant of the Pensacola, FL, navy yard. Captain of the Pacific Squadron flagship, the razee Independence, from August 1854 to November 1855, Tattnall was then commandant of the Sackets Harbor, NY, naval station until October 1857. From November until January 1861 he commanded the East Indies Squadron, wearing his flag first in the steam sloop-of-war San Jacinto and then the paddle-wheel frigate Powhattan. While observing Anglo-French naval operations during the 1858 Arrow War, Tattnall commanded a chartered gunboat, ToeyWan, and led it against the Taku forts off the mouth of the Pei Ho, or Hai, River when they fired upon the allies. He later justified his unneutral act, later supported by his superiors, with the slogan “Blood Is Thicker Than Water!” He continued his Far East mission until February 1860, when he departed for the U.S. transporting the first Japanese diplomatic embassy aboard the Powhattan. Tattnall resigned his commission on February 20, 1861, upon Georgia’s secession from the Union. Again blood was thicker, as he personally opposed secession. At the beginning of March he was commissioned flag officer of the Georgia State Navy and on March 26 was appointed a CSN captain and given command of the naval defenses of Georgia and South Carolina, leading them in the unsuccessful defense of Port Royal in November. On March 29, 1862, Tattnall became flag officer and commander of Virginia’s naval defenses, including the James River Squadron and its flagship, the ironclad CSS Virginia, which had fought the USS Monitor three weeks earlier. Wearing his pennant from the
Thompson ironclad but also serving as her captain, he unsuccessfully led a small task group into Hampton Roads on April 11, hoping to entice the Monitor into a reengagement. With Union forces approaching Norfolk and unable to steam further up the James, Tattnall had the Virginia moved close to Craney Island and blew her up on the morning of May 11. Acquitted by a courtmartial of charges arising from this action, he resumed command of CSN forces off Georgia on May 29, holding that position until March 31, 1863, when he was detached and placed in command of Savannah’s defenses. As Federal forces approached the city on December 24, 1864, Tattnall ordered his most powerful vessel, the Richmond-class ironclad CSS Savannah, destroyed. After the fall of Savannah, Tattnall retreated to Augusta, GA, where he was captured and on May 9, 1865, paroled. Thereafter, Tattnall moved to Halifax, Nova Scotia, but returned home to Savannah at the beginning of February 1869. There, he worked briefly in insurance before receiving the position of inspector of the Port of Savannah, a position created especially for him. In ill health, he was able to serve in the post for only 17 months before he died of general debility and congestion of the brain on June 14, 1871. Tattnall was buried at Bonaventure Plantation cemetery. Two 20th century USN destroyers (DD-125 and DDG-19) were named in his honor. Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; Foenander; CSN Register; DANFS; Tucker, “Josiah Tattnall,” in Tucker, II; Reynolds; Farley, “Josiah Tattnall: Gallant American”; Russell K. Brown, “Josiah Tattnall,” New Georgia Encyclopedia, http://www.georgia encyclopedia. org/ articles/ history- archae ol ogy/ csssavannah (accessed May 17, 2016); “Josiah Tattnall,” FindaGrave, http://cemeteryrecordsonline.com/cgibin/ fg. cgi?page= gr&GSln= Tattnall&GSiman= 1& GSob=n&GRid=11367& (accessed May 17, 2016); Confederate States of America, Navy Department, Proceedings of a Navy General Court Martial in the Case of Captain Josiah Tattnall; Jones, The Life and Services of Commodore Josiah Tattnall; Langdon, “Josiah Tattnall—‘Blood Is Thicker Than Water’”; Melton, The Best Station of Them All: The Savannah Squadron, 1861–1865; Quarstein, CSS Virginia: Sink Before Surrender; West Georgia Telegraph, February 19, 1869; New York Tribune, October 1, 1859; June 16 1871; Washington Post, January 10, 1915.
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Thompson, Egbert (1820–1881, USN) The son of Egbert and Catherine Thompson, Egbert Jr. was born in NYC on June 6, 1820. He was appointed a USN midshipman on March 13, 1837, was aboard the razee Independence (1837– 1838), participated in the 1838–1842 Wilkes Exploring Expedition, and served onboard the brig Somers (1842–1843). Advanced to passed midshipman during the latter year, he served on the Mediterranean Squadron frigate Cumberland until 1845 and was first lieutenant of the Home Squadron schooner Bonita in the Mexican War in 1846 and 1847, participating in, among others, the 1847 campaigns against Veracruz (March), Tuxpan (April), and Tabasco (June). Billeted aboard the Great Lakes patrol steamer Michigan during 1847–1850, Thompson was at the Philadelphia navy yard in 1850 where he became a lieutenant. In 1851 and 1852 he served aboard the Home Squadron sloop-of-war Decatur and the New York receiving ship (1853–1855). At Washington, D.C., in 1854, he married Emily B Mudd (1831–1894); the couple would have one daughter. Thompson served on the Africa Squadron steamer St. Louis from 1855 to 1858 and was Washington navy yard ordnance officer in 1858 and 1859. In May 1859 he was given command of the Home Squadron steamer Fulton, which was damaged in a July hurricane but made it to Pensacola, FL, where her captain was reassigned to the sloop of war Pensacola for the remainder of that year and 1860. In 1861 Thompson was aboard the Gulf Squadron paddle-wheel frigate Powhatan of the Gulf Squadron, but late in the year he was transferred to the AUS Western Flotilla and given command of the new Pook turtle Pittsburg, which took significant damage during the February 1862 Battle of Fort Donelson. The repaired ironclad participated in the March-April New Madrid Island No. 10 campaign and was the second vessel (after the Carondelet) to pass her batteries. In the process, his firing on points below the citadel was so dangerous to her consort that he was publicly chastised by her commander, Henry Walke (1809–1896). Thompson participated in the May 10 Plum Point Bend engagement with CRDF rams, near Fort Pillow, TN, but was reportedly drunk. Advanced to com-
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Cmdr. Egbert Thompson, USN, served as captain of the Western Flotilla ironclad Pittsburg (depicted) from January to May 862. After the Battle of Fort Donelson in February, his vessel became the second ironclad to run the batteries at Island No. in April, afterward participating in the May Battle of Plum Point Bend. He served in the East from 86 to 86 (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
mander on July 16, he commanded the Philadelphia naval rendezvous (recruiting station) in 1863 and 1864. During the latter year, Mississippi Squadron commander RAdm. David Dixon Porter (1813–1891) testified against Thompson’s petition for promotion to captain, which was delayed. Thompson was captain of the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron (SABS) steamer McDonough in 1864 and 1865. During 1866–1867, Thompson commanded the steamer South Pacific Station (SPS) and became a captain on July 25 of the former year, despite continuing opposition from brother officers. He served at the Mound City, IL, naval station (1869–1871) and was captain of the North Atlantic Station (NAS) Canadaigua in 1871 and 1872. Eligible for promotion to the rank of commodore in 1873, Thompson went before an examining board, which turned him down. He was placed on the retired list on January 6, 1874. He applied to Congress for redress, which body passed a new law in June 1878 refining the promotion process without granting authority to make a promotion. Thompson renewed his struggle, but before it could be taken up he died on January 5, 1881.
His family filed suit in the matter before the U.S. Court of Claims, which dismissed the case in May 1883. No USN vessels have been named in his honor. Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; Callahan; Hamersly, 3rd ed.; Herringshaw, V; Appletons’, VI; “Sketches of the Officers of the Fort Donelson Fleet,” Philadelphia Inquirer, February 18, 1862; Smith, USS Carondelet; Smith, The Timberclads in the Civil War; Smith, Civil War Biographies from the Western Waters; Jeffrey, ed., Two Civil Wars: The Curious Shared Journal of a Baton Rouge Schoolgirl and a Union Sailor of the USS Essex; U.S. Congress, House, Committee on Naval Affairs, Egbert Thompson: Report; Army and Navy Journal, January 8, 1881, May 26, 1883.
Townsend, Robert (1819–1865, USN) The third of nine children of ironworks executive Isaiah Townsend (1777–1838) and his wife Hannah Townsend (1784–1854), Robert was born at Albany, NY, on October 21, 1819. He attended the Albany Academy, Dr. Dewey’s Boarding School at Pittsfield, MA, and Union College at Schenectady, NY. He did not graduate
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Having abandoned his career as a USN officer in 8, Robert Townsend, USN, became an acting volunteer lieutenant in 86, rising to the rank of commander by July 862. In late spring 86 he became captain of the Mississippi Squadron ironclad Essex (depicted) and remained with that vessel through the Vicksburg and Red River campaigns, being detached in November 86 (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
from college but rather joined the board of survey for the Utica and Schenectady Railroad Company. He was commissioned a USN midshipman on August 4, 1837, and was sent aboard the frigate John Adams. The following year he was posted aboard the ship-of-the-line Ohio. Between 1829 and 1842, he served onboard the sloop-of-war Falmouth and the steamer Missouri. Promoted to the rank of passed midshipman in 1843, Townsend thereafter served onboard the frigate Raritan and the brig Porpoise, as well as being on shore duty. He was advanced to lieutenant on October 11, 1850. He married Harriet Monroe (1829–1919) in 1850, and the couple had two children. During the Mexican War Townsend participated in the capture of Vera Cruz; however, he resigned on April 7, 1851, to pursue more lucrative opportunities. Townsend reentered the USN on September 17, 1861, as an acting volunteer lieutenant on
the West Gulf Blockading Squadron (WGBS) double-ender gunboat Miami and participated in the April capture of New Orleans. Advanced to commander on July 10, 1862, he was by October commander of the Miami. In late spring 1863 he was transferred to the Mississippi Squadron, holding command of the ironclad Essex during the May 21–July 9 siege of Port Hudson, LA. On surrender day, July 9, the Essex was damaged in an engagement with Confederate artillery batteries at Donaldsonville, LA. She remained on station throughout the remainder of the year and into 1864 as Townsend provided leadership for his squadron’s 1st District. On March 6 the Essex joined the combined arms expedition up the Red River of Louisiana and assisted in the capture of Fort de Russy ten days later. However, at the end of April, Townsend had the unhappy task of investigating and reporting upon the loss of the light draught Petrel
2 (Tinclad No. 5) below Yazoo City, MS. He was at Memphis, TN, in October when Lt. Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest was rumored to be en route to attack the city. Townsend assured civilian and military leaders that the Essex’s heavy guns would discourage the Confederate leader, who in the end skirted the city. On November 3 Townsend joined the sloop-of-war Wachusett, which had captured CSS Florida off Brazil the month before. In February 1865 the Wachusett was ordered to the East Indies Station to join several other Union ships engaged in what proved to be an unsuccessful hunt for the Southern raider Shenandoah and in the suppression of piracy along the China coast. The Wachusett sailed up the Yangtze River in early August 1866 and there Townsend, who had just been promoted to the rank of captain on July 26, suffered a heat stroke and died on August 15. He was initially buried in a Shanghai cemetery, but his body was later interred in Rural Cemetery, Albany, NY. His sword and sea chest were later discovered at an estate sale in Colorado. No USN vessels have been named in his honor. Sources: USN Register-; Appletons’, VI; Callahan; Memorial Biographies of the New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1864–1871; Reynolds, Genealogical and Family History of Southern New York and the Hudson River Valley, III; ORN, I, 26; DANFS; Smith, Le Roy Fitch; Smith, USS Carondelet; Smith, Civil War Biographies from the Western Waters; Smith, Fight for the Yazoo; North American and United States Gazette, October 20, 1866; Lauren Fellers, “Estate Sale Find Uncovers Past of Civil War Sailor,” Colorado Springs Gazette, June 3, 2012.
Tucker, John Randolph (1812–1883, CSN) The son of sea captain John Tucker, originally from Bermuda, and Susanna M. Douglas Tucker (1785–1846), John Randolph was born in Alexandria, VA, on January 31, 1812. He became a USN midshipman on June 1, 1826, and served aboard the Mediterranean Squadron frigate Javan then the sloop-of-war Lexington from 1827 to 1831. Completing New York naval school studies, he advanced to passed midshipman in June 1833 and spent the next three years on the Brazil Squadron sloop-of-war Erie. Promoted to lieutenant on December 20, 1837, he alternated
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service between the Norfolk, VA, naval base and the West Indian Squadron sloops-of-war Warren and St. Louis during 1838–1847. In Norfolk, on June 7, 1838, Tucker married Virginia Webb (1819–1858); the couple had three children. Participating in the Mexican War in March 1847, he became executive officer then captain of the Home Squadron bomb brig Stromboli, which blockaded the east coast of Mexico, participated in the June Tabasco campaign, and was quarantined with yellow fever during the summer. Recovered, he was on the Home Squadron frigate Raritan in 1849 and 1850, unemployed in 1851, and joined the Mediterranean Squadron frigate Cumberland (1852–1855), becoming a commander on September 14, 1855. Returning to Norfolk, he commanded the receiving ship there in 1857 and became the yard’s ordnance officer in 1858, holding that post until the beginning of the Civil War. Tucker resigned his USN commission on April 18, 1861, and transferred to the Virginia State Navy at an equal rank. While continuing service as the captured Norfolk navy yard’s ordnance officer, he converted, at Richmond, the steamer Yorktown into the Commonwealth’s most powerful warship, the 12-gun Patrick Henry, insuring during this process that she received an iron shield to protect her boilers and in a sense creating the first Southern ironclad. Tucker became a CSN commander on June 6, serving as both captain of his ship and James River Squadron commander. On September 2 and December 13 the Patrick Henry sortied downstream and attacked Federal shipping near Newport News. During the May 8, 1862, engagement between the Union fleet and the CSS Virginia, Tucker cruised in support as the ironclad attempted to take the surrender of the stricken USS Cumberland, but he was forced away by shore batteries. The next day, his ship again attempted to assist the Virginia by firing on the Monitor from long range. On May 5/6, Tucker’s command joined in equipment removal from the Norfolk navy yard before it was abandoned. After the surrender of Norfolk a week later Tucker led his squadron up the James River to Drewry’s Bluff, where his ship’s gunners assisted in turning back pursuing Federals on May 15. In August he was transferred to the Charleston Squadron to assume command of the ironclad
Turner Chicora, which, together with a consort, attacked Union blockaders off the entrance to Charleston Harbor on January 31, 1863. Promoted to captain on January 7, 1864, and Charleston Squadron flag officer in March, he supported the defense of Charleston by transporting troops, providing gunfire support, and overseeing the activities of revolutionary submersible craft and spar-torpedo warfare, including Chicora’s provision of the first crew for the Hunley submarine in August. As Union troops advanced on Charleston in February 1865, Tucker was forced to blow up his three ironclads and order a retreat to Wilmington, NC, which fell before his arrival. Diverted with his contin-
In August 862 Cmdr. John Randolph Tucker, CSN, was ordered to become captain of and oversee completion of the Charleston, SC, based ironclad Chicora. His duty was expanded in January 86 when he became flag officer of the Charleston Squadron and ended unhappily in February 86 with the destruction of his command. Tucker then received an army commission and formed Tucker’s Marine Brigade, which he gallantly led in the April 6 Battle of Sailor’s Creek, southwest of Petersburg, during the Army of Northern Virginia’s retreat (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
2 gent to Richmond, he resumed command of the Patrick Henry as well as all local naval forces near Drewry’s Bluff, and in March he formed Tucker’s Marine Brigade. He and his men fought gallantly in the April 6 Battle of Sailor’s Creek, southwest of Petersburg, during the Army of Northern Virginia’s retreat. Tucker was captured and by April 15 had been transferred to Fort Warren, MA, where he was released on July 14. Early in 1866 Tucker was recruited by the Peruvian ambassador to the U.S. to serve as a Peruvian navy rear admiral during the Chincha Islands War between Spain and Peru/Chile. Resigning that commission in 1871, he accepted the position of president of the Hydrographic Commission of Peru on the Amazon River. Several of his former American acquaintances, including James Henry Rochelle (1826–1889), joined him under contract in a three-year exploration of the upper Amazon River and its tributaries, after which Tucker and Rochelle compiled the results into a published report. In 1877 the widower retired to Petersburg, VA, where he died of a heart attack on June 12, 1883, and was buried in Cedar Grove Cemetery, Norfolk. No USN vessels have been named in his honor. Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; Appletons’, VIII; The New International Encyclopedia, XIX; CSN Register; Reynolds; Driver, Confederate Sailors, Marines, and Signalmen from Virginia and Maryland; Wexler, “John Randolph Tucker,” in Tucker, II; DANFS; Rochelle, Life of Rear Admiral John Randolph Tucker, Commander in the Navy of the United States: With an Appendix Containing Notes on Navigation of the Upper Amazon River and Its Principal Tributaries; Werlich, Admiral of the Amazon: John Randolph Tucker, His Confederate Colleagues, and Peru; Coski, Capital Navy; Garver Graver, “John Randolph Tucker,” FindaGrave, https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg. cgi?page=gr&GRid=7051415 (accessed June 12, 2015); Old Dominion University, Perry Library, Special Collections, A Guide to the Papers of Admiral John Randolph Tucker, 1866–1897; Ray Davidson, “Tucker’s Confederate Marine Brigade: From Drewry’s Bluff to Appomattox Court House,” Blakeley (GA) Early County News, February 10, 2010; New York Times, June 13, 1883; Baltimore Sun, December 31, 1903.
Turner, Thomas, Jr. (1808–1883, USN) The fourth of 10 children of Maj. Thomas Turner, Sr. (1772–1839), and Elizabeth Carter
2 Randolph Turner (1782–1866), Thomas Jr. was born on the Virginia side of the Potomac River, not far from Washington, D.C., on December 23, 1808. Appointed a USN midshipman on April 21, 1825, he served in the Mediterranean until September 1835 aboard the frigate Constellation and sloop-of-war Warren, taking time off in 1828 to attend the Norfolk naval school and being advanced to passed midshipman on June 4, 1831. Becoming a lieutenant on December 22, 1835, he was aboard the frigate Macedonian between March 1837 and February 1838 as she transported relief supplies to famine-stricken Ireland. He then cruised the Pacific until June 1841 on the ship-of-the-line Columbus. On the receiving ship and recruiting duty at Philadelphia until June 1843, Turner joined the Home Squadron sloop-of-war Falmouth, which served as a Gulf of Mexico message vessel and troop transport until January 1844. He was posted to the Home Squadron sloop-of-war Albany in October, which after an Azores cruise supported AUS Mexican War operations at Vera Cruz in March 1847 and was present at Tuxpan on April 7. Turner then commanded the supply bark Fredonia off Mexico’s east coast until December, was unemployed for a year, and served two more years on the Philadelphia receiving ship. From April 1850 until July 1853 Turner was executive officer of the Brazil Squadron flagship, the frigate Congress, and then Philadelphia navy yard ordnance officer until August 1857, being promoted to commander on September 14, 1855. His first major command came in June 1858, the Home Squadron sloop-of-war Saratoga. The high point of her cruise, before returning home in June 1860, was her invited participation in the naval battle of Anton Lizardo, Vera Cruz, Mexico, on March 6 of that year. During the engagement, two rebel Mexican ships were defeated helping to close the so-called Reform War. After commanding both the Philadelphia recruiting effort and navy yard until late May 1862, Turner received command of the giant broadside ironclad New Ironsides in June 1862, bringing her into commission on August 21. Mechanical and other issues kept her from becoming a fully operational member of the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron (SABS) until January 1863. With Turner’s vessel as flagship, that fleet, including nine ironclads, undertook a massive
Turner
Following early-war shore duty at Philadelphia, Cmdr. Thomas Turner, Jr., USN, assumed command of the casemate ironclad New Ironsides in June 862, bringing her into commission on August 2 and full service in January 86. His vessel was flagship of the ironclad division that delivered a massive bombardment on the fortifications in the harbor of Charleston, SC, on April . Praised for his ship-handling, Turner was promoted to captain on July 6 and detached to other duties (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
but unsuccessful bombardment on April 7 of the Charleston Harbor fortifications. Detached and advanced to captain on July 16, he became a commodore on December 13 and finished the war at New York on a special assignment in connection with warship construction. Turner served at the Philadelphia navy yard from August 1865 until June 1868, having become a rear admiral on May 27. From July to September 1870 he commanded the South Pacific Station (SPS), wearing his flag aboard the steam sloop-of-war Saranac, although while still engaged in that mission he was officially placed on the retired list on April 21.
Walke Turner died near Media, PA, on March 24, 1883, and was buried in Laurel Hill Cemetery, Philadelphia, although later he was reinterred in Evergreen Cemetery, Hillside, NJ. He left a wife, Fanny, and three children. No USN vessels have been named in his honor. Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; Cogar, I; Hamersly, 3rd ed.; Mary Harrell-Sesniak, “Admiral Thomas Turner,” FindaGrave, http://www.findagrave. com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=89578768 (accessed March 12, 2016); Powell and Shippen; Roberts, USS New Ironsides in the Civil War; Neeser, “Historic Ships of the Navy: New Ironsides”; U.S. Congress, Senate, Committee on Naval Affairs, Rear Admiral Thomas Turner: Report; Philadelphia Inquirer, March 26, 28 1883; North American, March 26, 1883.
Walke, Henry (1809–1896, USN) The second of five children of Yale-educated Virginia legislator Anthony Walke IV (1783– 1865) and Susan H. Carmichael Walke (1786– 1874), Henry was born on Christmas Eve 1809 at “The Ferry,” a plantation on the Lynn Haven River near Portsmouth, VA. Following the War of 1812 the Walke family relocated to Chillicothe, OH, where Mr. Walke eventually became a member of the Ohio State Senate and Henry was educated in local academies. On February 1, 1827, Walke was appointed a USN midshipman and reported for duty at the navy yard at Gosport (Norfolk), VA. Walke received his initial naval training there and, from July 1827 to February 1829, cruised the West Indies in sloop Natchez in an anti-piracy campaign, during which he survived a major hurricane. He made a voyage to the Mediterranean in the sloop-ofwar Ontario between June 1829 and November 1831. He received his warrant as a passed midshipman on July 12, 1833, and, after several months of post-sea duty leave, transferred to duty ashore at the Philadelphia navy yard on March 7, 1834. During his period ashore Walke married Sarah Jane Aim (ca. 1812–1855), with whom he would have a son, Henry Augustus Walke (1834–1902). Between January 1836 and June 1839 he served aboard the Pacific Squadron ship-of-the-line North Carolina, primarily along the western coast of South America protecting American commerce during a period of unrest caused by strained relations between the United States and Mexico and the war between Peru
22 and Chile. Between June 1837 and January 1839 he was seconded to the schooner Boxer as her acting first lieutenant. On December 9, 1839, while billeted in the New York receiving ship, Walke was promoted to lieutenant. He reported to the East Indies Squadron sloop-of-war Boston on October 5, 1840, aboard which passed midshipman and future opponent Isaac Newton Brown (1817–1889) was also embarked, for a three-year cruise to the Far East in company with the frigate Constellation. After an extended leave, Walke spent May 1844 until September 1845 at sea in the Brazil Squadron brig Bainbridge for a cruise along the Brazilian coast. Following a year on the New York receiving ship, he was appointed executive officer of the bomb brig Vesuvius in February 1847, which ship then participated in the Mexican War, blockading Laguna and supporting the capture of Vera Cruz and landings at Tuxpan and Tabasco. Destined to become known as one of the country’s foremost Romantic artists, Walke, upon his return to New York in October of that year, took leave and completed a series of nautical paintings of the USN contribution to the war effort that were released as a series of lithographs. Returning to the New York receiving ship in September 1848, he served aboard the Mediterranean Squadron frigate Cumberland between June 23, 1849, and mid–January 1851. Following a post-voyage leave, he reported to the Washington, D.C., U.S. Naval Observatory in April for a very brief tour before beginning further duty in the New York receiving ship, his old North Carolina, in July. Although ordered to the sloop-of-war St. Mary’s in September 1853, Walke received permission to switch billets with another officer, remaining aboard the North Carolina. Walke was furloughed in July 1854 and promoted to the rank of commander on the reserve list on September 13, 1855, as a result of the recommendations of the Naval Retiring Board. Much of this leave was spent attending to his wife, who eventually died of cancer on August 3 and was buried in Greenwood Cemetery. Sometime in 1856 Walke married Jane Elm Burger (1814–1857) of Staten Island; however, she died of an unspecified illness on May 15, 1857, and was, like Sarah, buried in Brooklyn. On April 5, 1858, Julia Reed (1835– 1916), a widow, became the sailor’s third wife; the couple would have four children. Recalled
2 to the active list on January 29, 1858, Walke was given command of the storeship Supply in August 1859, with orders to cruise off the African coast and in the West Indies. In January 1861, as the Civil War approached, Walke and the Supply were at Pensacola, FL, en route to the waters off Vera Cruz, Mexico. On the 12th of that month, when the navy yard was surrendered to Confederate forces from Alabama and Florida, Walke provided temporary support for the defenders of Fort Pickens, who refused to submit, and took off some of the loyal sailors and navy yard employees. After arriving at New York with the evacuees on February 4, Walke was arrested for acting without orders and was court-martialed during March-April. However, in May he received an admonition, a “complimentary reprimand,” from navy secretary Gideon Welles (1802–1878). Released to serve in the Civil War, Walke was given command of the chartered gunboat Mount Vernon in May 1861. Over the next two months the Mount Vernon undertook a convoy escort to the Gulf of Mexico and conveyed north Union refugees from Key West, FL, to Fort Monroe, VA. In August Walke became lighthouse inspector for the 11th District at Detroit. After only four days he received orders to report to Capt. Andrew Hull Foote (1806–1863) for special duty at St. Louis, MO. That assignment proved to be the command of Tyler, one of the first three river gunboats (called “timberclads”) of the army’s Western Flotilla. In September and October he took his gunboat downriver to bombard Confederate shore batteries at Hickman and Columbus in western Kentucky and traded a few shots with the Confederate gunboat Jackson. Early in November his ship supported the move on the Southern camp at Belmont, MO, escorting troop transports, bombarding shore batteries and, finally, covering the withdrawal of the mauled forces. In mid–January 1862 the wooden gunboat captain assumed command of the newly commissioned Western Flotilla ironclad gunboat Carondelet. In February Walke led her during the captures of Forts Henry and Donelson, which guarded the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers, respectively. In April he led the Carondelet in the passing of heavily fortified Island No. 10 and in the attack on, and spiking of, shore batteries below New Madrid, MO. From April
Walke
A noted romantic painter as well as a long-serving naval officer, Capt. Henry Walke, USN, became the first captain of the famous Western Flotilla ironclad Carondelet in January 862, guiding her through the river war from Fort Henry to the Yazoo campaign of December. During that time, he won glory during the passage of the Island No. batteries in April and lost a fight with the CSS Arkansas in July. He assumed command of the Lafayette in January 86, leading her though the Vicksburg fighting until July, when he was detached and ordered East (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
through the end of June his ship participated in the drawn-out series of operations against Plum Point Bend, Fort Pillow, and Memphis. On July 15 Walke almost met his match when Lt. Isaac Newton Brown’s Confederate ironclad ram Arkansas made its move down the falling Yazoo River toward Vicksburg. Carondelet, supported by Queen of the West and Walke’s former command, Tyler, engaged the Southern ironclad. During the brisk opening exchange, Carondelet
Walke suffered heavy damage and was forced out of action in a disabled, though floating, condition. On August 4 Walke, suffering from malaria contracted off Vicksburg, was promoted to the rank of captain and was promised command of the ironclad ram Lafayette, then under conversion from a river steamer at St. Louis. He put her in commission on February 27, 1863, and commanded her during the dash past Vicksburg on April 6 and during the duel with shore batteries at Grand Gulf just 23 days later. Early in June his ship briefly blockaded the mouth of the Red River. On July 24 Walke was ordered back to the East Coast to prepare the side-wheeler Fort Jackson for service. He put her in commission at New York on August 18, but his command of that steamer proved brief. On September 22 Walke was transferred to the screw sloop-of-war Sacramento and, following her departure into the Atlantic on February 2, 1864, commanded her through the final two years of the Civil War. Sacramento cruised the South American coast in search of Confederate commerce raiders and, most famously, participated in the failed effort to intercept the ironclad ocean raider Stonewall in the spring of 1865. On August 17 Walke was detached from Sacramento and returned home to await orders. He was promoted to the rank of commodore on July 31, 1866, and, on May 1, 1868, assumed command of the Mound City, IL, naval station, where he served until April 30, 1870. On September 1, 1868, he oversaw the sale of the receiving ship Grampus and the tugboat Pansy, leaving the tug Mignonette as the final vessel attached to the station and the last representative from the once-powerful USN Mississippi Squadron. While awaiting orders to his next assignment, Walke was promoted to rear admiral on July 20, 1870, thereafter undertaking board duties until placed on the retired list on April 26, 1871, reportedly at his own request in order to benefit junior officers. His USN service did not immediately end, for on that same day, he reported for special duties under the senior admiral of the navy, David Dixon Porter (1813–1891), whom he had known well on the Western waters a decade earlier. That tour lasted until Walke was appointed a Light House Board member on October 1. Detached on April 1, 1873, Walke withdrew to
2 his Third Street home in Brooklyn, NY, and a life of painting, sketching, and writing; his acerbic Western waters memoirs were moderated by two well-regarded contributions to Century Illustrated magazine’s Battles and Leaders series. He was a member of Rankin Post, No. 10, G.A.R., and took pride in a large personal collection of relics and curios. For the most part his retirement was joyful, except on December 17, 1877, when he was robbed while en route to deposit $1,100 in the Seaman’s Bank for Savings; he never recovered the funds. Walke’s death at home on March 8, 1896, was caused by heart failure and complications from the grippe he had contracted a week earlier. He was buried at Greenwood Cemetery beside his two previous wives. His artwork hangs in various museums. Three 20th century USN destroyers (DD-34, DD-416, DD-723) were named in his honor. Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; Appletons’, VI; ANB, XXII; Callahan; Cogar, I; DANFS; Reynolds; Hamersly, 3rd ed.; “Sketches of the Officers of the Fort Donelson Fleet,” Philadelphia Inquirer, February 18, 1862; Walke, Naval Scenes and Reminiscences of the Civil War in the United States on the Southern and Western Waters During the Years 1861, 1862 and 1863; with the History of That Period Compared and Corrected from Authentic Sources; Walke, Private Record of the Walke Family in the United States; Walke, “The Gunboat Attack on Fort Donelson,” Indianapolis Star, February 4, 1912; Walke, “The Gun-Boats at Belmont and Fort Henry,” B&L, I; Walke, “Operations of the Western Flotilla”; Walke, “Taking Fort Henry,” Chicago Daily Tribune, December 27, 1884; Walke, “The Western Flotilla at Fort Donelson, Number Ten, Fort Pillow, and Memphis,” B&L, I; Mark F. Jenkins, “Re: ISO Family Photos of RAdm. Henry Walke and Family,” Genealogy.com, http://www.genealogy.com/ forum/surnames/topics/walke/124/ (accessed December 3, 2016); Tucker, “Henry Walke,” in Tucker, II; Smith, Fight for the Yazoo; Smith, USS Carondelet; Smith, The Timberclads in the Civil War; Smith, CSS Arkansas; Smith, Tinclads in the Civil War; Smith, Le Roy Fitch; Smith, Civil War Biographies from the Western Waters; Herringshaw, V; Howe, “Capt. Henry Walke Passing Island No. 10”; Melville, “The Carondelet Runs the Gauntlet”; George C. Baxley, “Henry Walke,” BaxleyStamps, http://www.baxleystamps.com/ litho/walke.shtml (accessed March 19, 2013); Gary Matthews, “Mound City, Illinois, in the Civil War,” Brownwater Navy, http://www.brownwaternavy.org/ subpage/MoundCityNS.htm (accessed August 10, 2011); “Henry Walke,” FindaGrave, http://www.finda grave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=5039 (accessed December 2, 2016); Robert G. Breen, “The Admiral Mixed Oil and Water,” Baltimore Sun, Decem-
2 ber 20, 1954; “Rear Admiral Henry Walke, USN,” New York Tribune, December 18, 1877; March 7, 9, 1896; New York Times, March 9, 1896; Washington Post, March 9, 1896; New Orleans Daily Picayune, March 9, 1896; Chicago Daily Tribune, March 9, 1896.
Walker, John Grimes (1835–1907, USN) One of three children of Alden Walker (1772– 1851) and Susan Grimes Walker (1803–1846), James was born in Hillsborough, NH, on March 20, 1835. Upon the death of his mother he moved to Iowa when he was adopted by her brother, James Wilson Grimes (1816–1872), the noted Whig politician and future Iowa governor and U.S. senator. Schooled at Des Moines, Walker was appointed an acting USN midshipman from Iowa on October 5, 1850, and attended the
Lt. Cmdr. John G. Walker, USN, was appointed captain of the Mississippi Squadron ironclad Baron de Kalb in August 862 and in December guided her during the Yazoo River expe dition. Following participation in the Arkansas Post campaign of January 86, his was one of two ironclads assigned to the un successful Yazoo Pass Expedition. Walker remained in the Yazoo River until May, when he was given the responsibility of commanding the naval gun battery attached to the U.S. XV Army Corps. He returned East after the fall of Vicksburg (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
Walker USNA until October 1851. He served aboard the Pacific Squadron sloop-of-war Portsmouth from that November through April 1855, returning that September to Annapolis, from which he graduated at the head of his class and was given a passed midshipman’s warrant on June 20, 1856. Interspersed with leave, Walker served aboard the Brazil Squadron sloop-of-war Falmouth and frigate St. Lawrence from January 1857 until May 1859, being advanced to the rank of master on January 22, 1858, and lieutenant a day later. He was a USNA instructor from September 1859 to July 1860 and was aboard the paddle-wheel frigate Susquehanna during her cruises to Mexico and the Mediterranean, from which she returned in June 1861 following the Civil War’s outbreak. Walker was hurriedly transferred to the armed gunboat/storeship Connecticut, which resupplied the Atlantic coast blockade in August and September 1861 before Walker joined the Unadilla-class gunboat Winona as executive officer in October. Attached to the West Gulf Blockading Squadron (WGBS), the Winona participated in the April 1862 engagements with Forts St. Philip and Jackson, as well as the Chalmette batteries during the operations that resulted in the fall of New Orleans. Walker also took part in the first Vicksburg campaign (May to July), including during combat with the Confederate ram Arkansas, and was promoted to lieutenant commander on July 16. In August Walker assumed command of the Mississippi Squadron ironclad Baron de Kalb and, beginning in December, participated in the various efforts to flank Vicksburg via the Yazoo River, including the attack on Snyder’s Bluff late that month. He was with the fleet at Arkansas Post in January 1863 and during February–April and captained one of the two ironclads engaged in the Yazoo Pass expedition and the failed effort to subdue Fort Pemberton, near Greenwood, MS. The Baron de Kalb, having been left in the Yazoo when the remainder of the Vicksburg squadron ran past the guns of that city on April 16, joined in the feint against Haynes’ Bluff, which preceded the April 29 Battle of Grand Gulf. Walker docked at Haynes’ Bluff upon its May 19 Confederate evacuation, led the naval component of the task group days later, which captured Yazoo City, and during the final June-July siege of
Warley Vicksburg, commanded the naval gun battery attached to the U.S. XV Army Corps. On July 13, twelve days after the fall of the citadel, the Baron de Kalb was sunk by a Confederate torpedo a mile below Yazoo City. From August to December Walker was at the Boston navy yard billet and in January 1864 assumed command of the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron (NABS) gunboat Saco, which arrived off the North Carolina coast. A year later he was transferred to command of the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron (SABS) gunboat Shawmut, which participated in the bombardment of Fort Anderson, NC, on February 18–20, 1865. Upon the fall of Wilmington, the Shawmut was stationed in the York River until the end of the conflict and her captain was detached in June 1866. Promoted to commander on July 23, 1866, Walker, on September 12, married Rebecca White Pickering; the couple had two sons and four daughters. In August and September he was USNA assistant superintendent and commander of its training ship, the frigate Sabine, after which he was inspector of Boston’s 2nd Lighthouse District from October until April 1872 and secretary of the Lighthouse Board from May until May 1878, during which tenure he advanced to captain on June 25, 1877. Unemployed until February 1881, Walker was commander of the North Atlantic Station (NAS) paddle-wheel frigate Powhatan between March and August and became Chief of the Bureau of Navigation in October. Promoted to commodore on February 12, 1889, he was made an acting rear admiral on October 1 and given command of the Squadron of Evolution, or “White Squadron,” flying his flag in the protected cruiser Chicago (CA-14). Overseeing this experimental unit of new vessels until November 1892, Walker supervised numerous tactical exercises designed to improve fleet fighting maneuvers. On board duty through 1893, Walker’s permanent rear admiral rank was confirmed on January 23, 1894. Walker commanded the Pacific Station from March until December, being authorized to secure Pearl Harbor as a naval station, and took the White Squadron to Hawaii in 1895 when a coup d’état posed a threat to American interests. He had board duty in 1896 and 1897 and was placed on the retired list on March 20, 1897. Walker was unsuccessfully recommended to
26 replace Theodore Roosevelt as assistant secretary of the navy in May 1898 but served as president of the Nicaraguan Canal Commission from July until June 1899 and president of the Isthmian Canal Commission from June 1899 to April 1905. He died on September 16, 1907, and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery. Two 20th century USN destroyers (DD-163 and DD-517) were named in his honor. Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; Appletons’, VI; Michael; Callahan; Hamersly, 4th ed.; Cogar, I; Stearns, Genealogical and Family History of the State of New Hampshire, II; Barnes, “RAdm. John G. Walker”; EFB, 3rd, pseud., “Adm. John Grimes Walker,” FindaGrave, http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg. cgi?page= gr&GSvcid= 564844&GRid= 26544197& (accessed May 3, 2014); DANFS; Wicks, “New Navy and New Empire: The Life and Times of John Grimes Walker”; Smith, Fight for the Yazoo; Smith, Tinclads in the Civil War; Smith, The Timberclads in the Civil War; Smith, Civil War Biographies from the Western Waters; New York Times, August 23, 26, September 12, 1891; February 25, 1893; March 29, December 1, 1894; May 7, 1898; May 9, 1903; Army and Navy Register, September 21, 1907.
Warley, Alexander Fraser (1823–1895, CSN) The son of Jacob Warley (1792–1839), clerk of the South Carolina Senate 1830–1839, was born at Waterboro, SC, on July 20, 1823. Appointed a USN acting midshipman on February 17, 1840, through the influence of John C. Calhoun, he was aboard the frigate USS Constitution during her 1843–1845 circumnavigation of the globe, being advanced to the rank of passed midshipman on July 11. Warley served aboard the Pacific Squadron flagship, the razee Independence, in the Mexican War from early 1847 to 1848. On June 21, 1850, he married Emily Carry Warrington Forrest (1832–1862); the couple had no children. From 1852 until 1855 Warley served aboard the Brazil Squadron frigate Savannah, being promoted to the rank of master on March 1 and lieutenant on September 14, 1855. Assigned to the East Indies Squadron paddle-wheel frigate Mississippi in November 1856, he participated in her August 1857–1860 Far Eastern cruise, being present during the Anglo-French attack on the Chinese fortifications at Taku in June 1859 and the August Shanghai landings. When the warship returned to the Boston navy yard,
2
Warley
Becoming one of the first Southern naval officers in March 86, st Lt. Alexander Warley, CSN, took over and completed the ironclad ram Manassas (depicted), begun as a private venture. He was captain of the vessel during the October 2 Battle of Head of Passes and when the Manassas was lost below New Orleans in April 862. Warley had the misfortune to lose a second ironclad, the Albemarle, when she was destroyed at Plymouth, NC, by USN Lt. William Cushing on October 2, 86 (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
he was among the first of the later CSN officers to quit the Federal service for political reasons, turning in his resignation on December 24 in the wake of his home state’s secession. Warley was commissioned a CSN first lieutenant on March 26, 1861, and was stationed at a defensive battery at Morris Island, Charleston, SC, when, on April 12, Fort Sumter was bombarded. Later in early summer he joined the CSS McRae at New Orleans, LA, but in August assumed command of the privately constructed ironclad ram Manassas, which was originally converted by local citizens under a Confederate government permit allowing the building and operation of sanctioned privateers. In company with several smaller gunboats, the Manassas engaged Union blockade vessels at Head of the Passes on the Mississippi River on October 12. Although the attack was unsuccessful, Warley’s vessel succeeded in ramming the USS Richmond. In February 1862 he attempted to take his craft up the Mississippi to the relief of Southern forces at Columbus, KY, but she broke down and had to return to the Crescent City. The Manassas was unable to stand against the passage of the
Federal fleet by Forts Jackson and St. Philip beginning on April 24 and was destroyed, while Warley was captured, being exchanged on August 1. Following service aboard the CSS Palmetto State at Charleston during the fall, Warley was ordered to the Texas coast in February 1863 and a berth aboard the captured Federal steamer Harriet Lane. Finding the duty disagreeable, he requested a transfer and was sent to Richmond with dispatches for the Navy Department. En route, he married Isabella Middleton Huger (1837–?) of New Orleans at Jackson, MS; the couple would have two children. Warley became captain of the ironclad Chicora at Charleston, SC, in March and on August 4 led one of four boat crews from his ship and her consort, Palmetto State, that captured a Union picket station on Morris Island in Charleston Harbor. Late in the fall he was succeeded as Chicora’s commander by Cmdr. Thomas Triplett Hunter (1813–1872). On June 20, 1864, Warley took over the prize steamer Water Witch and on September 10 the noted ironclad CSS Albemarle, then tied to the riverbank at Plymouth, NC. He was in command when the ram was sunk, on
Weaver October 27, by Lt. William Cushing using a spar torpedo. Following the loss of the Albemarle, Warley served at the Wilmington naval station and, on April 24, 1865, he was captured while en route to report to navy secretary Stephen Mallory at Washington, GA, where he was captured. Warley resided with his family in New Orleans after the war and died there of a heart attack on January 12, 1895. His remains were sent to Pendleton, SC, for burial in the family vault at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church Cemetery. Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; Callahan; CSN Register; JCC, IV; ORN, 2, 1; DANFS; Foenander; New Orleans Picayune, January 13, 1895; Alexander F. Warley, “The Ram Manassas at the Passage of the New Orleans Forts,” B&L; Warley, “Note on the Destruction of the Albemarle,” B&L, IV; Bennett, “The Albemarle in Albemarle Sound”; Stickley, Promotion or the Bottom of the River: The Blue and Gray Naval Career of Alexander F. Warley, South Carolinian; Stempel, The CSS Albemarle and William Cushing: The Remarkable Confederate Ironclad and the Union Officer Who Sank It; Barnhart, “The Iron Turtle (Manassas)”; “The First Ironclad (Manassas)”; Morgan, “The Pioneer Ironclad (Manassas)”; Scott F. Lewis, “Lieu. Alexander F. Warley,” FindaGrave, http:// www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid= 14512358 (accessed February 13, 2015); New York Society Library, NYC Marriage and Death Notices, 1857– 1868, https://www.nysoclib.org/collection/nyc-mar riage-death-notices-1857–1868 (accessed February13, 2015); Charleston Courier, December 11, 1864; Chicago Daily Inter-Ocean, January 13, 1895; Detroit Free Press, March 10, 1895; New Brunswick Daily Times, April 11, 1895.
Weaver, Aaron Ward (1832–1919, USN) The second son of Capt. William A. Weaver (1792–1846) and his wife Jane, Aaron was born at Washington, D.C., on July 1, 1832. Appointed a USN midshipman on May 10, 1848, he served aboard the Brazil Squadron sloop of war St. Louis and frigate Congress until summer 1853. Completing his USNA studies on June 10, 1854, he became a passed midshipman and was on the Home Squadron steamer Fulton from October 1854 until July 1856, during which deployment he was advanced to master on September 15, 1855 and lieutenant the next day. From October 1856 to November 1857 he was seconded to the USCS steamers Walker and Arctic surveying the seabed at Trinity Bay, Newfoundland, for an At-
218 lantic telegraph cable. He was posted aboard the Africa Squadron sloop of war Marion from December until he returned to NYC with a prize in July 1859. Assigned to the Philadelphia navy yard, Weaver was transferred to the steam frigate Susquehanna in August 1861 and was aboard when she participated in the captures that month of Forts Clark and Hatteras and Port Royal, SC, in November, the Peninsula campaign in April 1862, and the occupation of Norfolk, VA, in May. Promoted to lieutenant commander on July 16, he assumed command of the West Gulf Blockading Squadron (WGBS) Unadilla-class gunboat Winona in August, joining the blockade of Mobile, AL. On September 4, the Winona, with other vessels, unsuccessfully engaged the Confederate ocean raider Florida as she ran into the port through the blockade. Transferred to the Mississippi River in December, the Winona participated in the campaign against Port Hudson, LA, which fell to Union forces in July 1863. On leave from August to January 1864, Weaver married Ida Hyatt (1845–1909) at Baltimore in February; the couple would have four children. Joining the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron (SABS), the Winona was operating on the Suwanee River, near Charleston, from March until June, when Weaver, following leave, took over the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron (NABS) Unadillaclass gunboat Chippewa, which participated in the unsuccessful December attack on Fort Fisher. Weaver became captain of the NABS monitor Mahopac in early January 1865 and was lauded for his contribution to the successful capture of Fort Fisher that month, before the Mahopac moved south on loan to the SABS to lend her presence to the capture of Charleston in mid–February. During the shoot on February 17, the Mahopac was in the front line of the firing on Fort Moultrie. Late that month the monitor was transferred to the James River and fired her guns during the April 3 night bombardment of Confederate works just prior to the surrender of Richmond, VA. Weaver served at the Boston Navy Yard from June 1865–December 1866, during which deployment he became a commander on July 25, 1866. In December he assumed command of the Gulf Squadron steamer Tallahassee for six
2
Weaver
A veteran of small gunboat service, Lt. Cmdr. Aaron Ward Weaver, USN, assumed command of the monitor Mahopac in early January 86 and was lauded for her contribution to the successful capture of Fort Fisher that month. After service at Charleston, SC, in February, he was transferred to the James River and fired the Mahopac guns during the April night bombardment of Confederate works just prior to the surrender of Richmond, VA. Weaver (2nd from right, seated) and his officers are depicted aboard on the James (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
months and then commanded the DC naval rendezvous (recruiting station). Unemployed until May 1869, Weaver had shore duty at DC and Norfolk until November 1870 when, for two years, he was captain of the North Atlantic Squadron (NAS) twin-turret monitor Terror (formerly the Agamenticus). Following further navy yard duty until August 1873, he commanded the NAS monitor Dictator from December 1875 to May 1877, during which assignment he was advanced to captain on August 8, 1876, and his ship was maintained in readiness at Port Royal, SC, in case of war with Spain over the Virginius Affair. Unemployed until July 1879, Weaver returned to the Norfolk navy yard until
October 1881, when he became captain of the South Atlantic Station (SAS) steam sloop-of-war Brooklyn, making a lengthy voyage to Cape Town, South Africa, in 1883. On board duty from October 1884 to January 1990, Weaver served as Norfolk navy yard commandant until January 1893. Advanced to rear admiral on June 27, he retired on September 26. Weaver was active during his Ballston, Alexandria County, VA, retirement. He died on October 2, 1919, and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery. At the time of his death, he was the oldest surviving USNA graduate. No USN warships have been named in his honor. Sources: Cogar, I; Hamersly,4th ed.; The Na-
Webb tional Cyclopedia of American Biography, XIII; SLGMSD, pseud., “RAdm. Aaron Ward Weaver,” FindaGrave, https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi? page=gr&GRid=56936878 (accessed May 3, 2017); DANFS; “The Noted Old Ironclad: The Monitor Mahopac,” Baltimore Sun, April 19, 1898; Baltimore Sun, October 6, 1919.
Webb, William Augustine (1824–1881, CSN) The middle of six children of USN CAPT Thomas Tarleton Webb (1790–1853) and his wife Harriet Davis Webb (1795–1875),William was born at Norfolk, VA, on July 14, 1824. Appointed
22 a USN midshipman on January 26, 1838, he became brother-in-law to future CSN captain John Randolph Tucker (1812–1883), who married his sister Virginia on June 7. Webb was aboard the storeship Southampton, in support of the Africa Squadron, from February 1845 to September 1847, being advanced to passed midshipman on July 2 of the former year. He then served at the Norfolk navy yard from October until August 1849, after which he was unemployed until July 1851 when he was seconded to the USCS. Although unknown, it is probable that during this period Webb married Elizabeth Ann Fleming (1828–1893) of Goochland County, VA; the couple would have three children. He sailed aboard
Having won the “Thanks” of the Confederate congress for his actions during the March 862 Battle of Hampton Roads, st Lt. William A. Webb, CSN, became captain of the ironclad Atlanta in May 86. He moved into Wassau Sound against orders on June and ran aground. Discovered by the Union monitors Weehawken and Nahant, he was compelled to surrender within a few minutes. Captured along with many of his officers shown here at Boston’s Fort Warren, Webb (seated 2nd from right) was the first CSN captain to surrender an ironclad to the enemy (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
22 the East Indies Squadron sloop-of-war Saratoga in 1852 for a two-year Far Eastern deployment that included the “opening” of Japan, becoming a master on October 9, 1853, and a lieutenant on June 12, 1854. Following leave, he joined the Mediterranean Squadron sloop of war Constellation from March 1855 until early 1857, when he was transferred to the Africa Squadron flagship, the frigate Cumberland until April 1859. Unemployed, Webb was posted aboard the East Indies Squadron sloop-of-war Vandalia, which departed for the Orient in November 1860. With the opening of the Civil War, the Vandalia was recalled. Webb resigned his USN commission on May 17, 1861, became a CSN 1st lieutenant in June, and served at the Fernandia, FL, station until late fall. Transferred to Richmond, he became captain of the James River Squadron armed tug Teaser at the beginning of 1862 and supported the CSS Virginia during the March 8–9 Battle of Hampton Roads, being slightly wounded but receiving the “Thanks” of the Confederate congress for his efforts. Detached in June, Webb traveled to Charleston, SC, to assume command of the “Special Expedition” spar-torpedo boat squadron, which did not enter combat before Webb was transferred to Savannah, GA, in May 1863 to become captain of the ironclad ram CSS Atlanta. Offensively moving into Wassau Sound against orders on June 17, the warship ran aground at an impossible shooting angle and when found by the Union monitors Weehawken and Nahant was compelled to surrender within minutes. Taken POW with most of his crew, Webb was the first CSN captain to surrender an ironclad to the enemy; he would face criticism from fellow officers even after the war. Exchanged on October 18, 1864, Webb was immediately given command of the James River Squadron ironclad ram Richmond, which on October 22 withstood intense shelling during combat with the heavy new Union battery at Chaffin’s Bluff, VA. Due to ill health, Webb resigned his CSN commission in November and moved to England in December. He took the oath of allegiance to the U.S. in late May 1865 and returned to Richmond, where he was pardoned in midyear. Webb died on December 1, 1881, and was buried in the Fleming family plot in Goochland County.
Wilson Sources: CSN Register; USN Register-2; DANFS; Foenander; Driver, Confederate Sailors, Marines, and Signalmen from Virginia and Maryland; Maclean, “The Short Cruise of the CSS Atlanta”; Melton, “The First and Last Cruise of the CSS Atlanta”; “Webbs in History: William Augustine Webb,” Webb Bulletin 3 (January 2012), 1–2; Thomas Daniels, “William Augustine Webb,” FindaGrave, http://www.findagrave. com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=50683343 (accessed January 22, 2017); R. Campbell, ed. “CSS Atlanta: William A. Webb,” in Voices of the Confederate Navy; Jonathan Webb Diess, “Webbs in the Military,” Webb-Diess Research, http://www.webbdeiss.org/ webb/webb_boys_w.html (accessed January 22, 2017); Werlich, Admiral of the Amazon: John Randolph Tucker, His Confederate Colleagues and Peru; Coski, Capital Navy.
Wilson, Byron (1837–1893, USN) The eldest of five children of Richard Wilson (1804–1882) and Saphronia Parrish Wilson (1817–1853), Byron was born in Marion, OH, on December 17, 1837, and was appointed an acting USN midshipman on January 31, 1853. An 1857 USNA graduate, he was attached as a passed midshipman during the next three years to the East Indies Squadron paddle-wheel frigate Mississippi and in 1860 to the Gulf Squadron steam sloop of war Richmond. Made a Lieutenant on April 16, 1861, four days after the outbreak of the Civil War, Wilson joined the AUS Western Gunboat Flotilla that summer, working his way up to become captain of the ordnance steamer Great Western in March 1862. Following the June failed White River Expedition, he was dispatched to the Federal Cairo, IL, base to assume command of the repairing City Series ironclad Mound City, serving as interim skipper of the ironclad Cincinnati until October. Wilson commanded the Mound City from that point until late January 1864, participating in the Vicksburg campaign through its conclusion on July 4, 1863. Advanced to lieutenant commander on November 5, he was detached on February 6, 1864, becoming captain of the large tinclad Ouachita, which he led in support of the AUS campaign up the Yazoo River from Vicksburg toward Meridian, MS. On September 29 he became commander of the squadron’s 1st District, based at Donaldsonville, LA, and served until the war’s end. Following two years (1866–1868) on the
Winslow Pacific Squadron steam sloop-of-war Saranac, Wilson transferred to the European Squadron steam sloop-of-war Plymouth and participated in the Darien expedition of 1870–1871. Becoming a commander in 1872, he was captain of the Asiatic Squadron steam gunboat Yantic, then from 1875 to 1878 he commanded the Philadelphia receiving ship. Advanced to captain in April 1883, he was Philadelphia navy yard commandant until April 1890, when he stepped down to once more captain the local receiving ship. Wilson retired in February 1893 to Philadel-
222 phia’s Stratford Hotel, where he died from a heart attack on September 6. Later buried at Marion, the bachelor was at the time of his death the second ranking USN captain. No USN ships have been named in his honor. Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; David A. Mereness, “Descendants of Richard Wilson,” RootsWeb, http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/ read/Wilson-Network/1999–09/0938035515 (accessed March 3, 2014); Hamersly, 3rd ed.; Callahan; DANFS; Smith, Fight for the Yazoo; Smith, USS Carondelet; Smith, Civil War Biographies from the Western Waters; Army and Navy Journal, April 5, 1890; Bangor Daily Whig and Courier, September 8, 1893.
Winslow, John Ancrum (1811–1873, USN)
Captain of the Mississippi Squadron ironclad Cincinnati from July to October 862, Lt. Cmdr. Byron Wilson, USN, took charge of the ironclad Mound City, guiding her through the river campaign until February 86, when he was transferred to a large tinclad for the remainder of the war. During his tenure aboard, the Mound City participated in the December 862 Yazoo campaign, the March 86 Deer Creek expedition, and the heaviest fighting of the Vicksburg campaign, including passage of the batteries and engagement at Grand Gulf in April (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
Born on November 19, 1811, in Wilmington, NC, Winslow was the son of importer Edward Winslow (1788–1879) and his wife Sara Eliza Ancrum (?–1837). Sent for an education to the ancestral Massachusetts home in 1825, he was instead appointed a USN midshipman on February 1, 1827, and served aboard the West Indies Squadron sloop-of-war Falmouth from November through August 1830. Winslow attended the naval school at New York and Norfolk, VA, December–March 1831 and September 1832June 10, 1833, his studies broken by another Falmouth voyage, in the Pacific. Advanced to passed midshipman upon graduation, he was at the Boston naval rendezvous (recruiting station) on leave and from June 1835 until September 1837 with the Brazil Squadron aboard the sloops-ofwar Ontario and Erie. Winslow married Catherine Amelia Winslow (1813–1890) on October 18; the couple had five children. During the final year of Boston recruiting duty (1838–1841), where he became a lieutenant on December 9, 1839, Winslow led a successful fire fighting operation aboard a British packet in Boston Harbor, an action that brought him praise and a commemorative sword from Queen Victoria. He then undertook 15 years of sea duty (interspersed by leave, shore, and rendezvous service), successively serving on Enterprise, Columbus, Missouri, Cumberland, Mississippi, Saratoga, and St. Lawrence. He was commander of the USRCS cutter Morris during the Mexican War, using her to blockade the Gulf Coast and assist in the capture of Tampico. In December 1848 his first
22 command was lost on a reef and he was ordered to share quarters aboard the U.S. flagship with another shipwrecked lieutenant from a different ship, Rafael Semmes (1809–1877). Winslow was captain of the Boston naval rendezvous from May 1855 to July 1858, being promoted to commander on September 15, 1855. He was unemployed until December 1860, when he became inspector of Boston’s 2nd Lighthouse District. Throughout his career, Winslow was an ardent abolitionist often critical of the Federal government on matters of emancipation, even after the outbreak of the Civil War on April 12, 1861. After Flag Officer Andrew Hull Foote (1806– 1863) relieved Cmdr. John Rodgers (1812–1882) in command of the AUS Western Flotilla in September 1861, he requested that Winslow be sent west to assist him as the unit’s executive officer. At Cairo, IL, Winslow labored to fit out and man the new ironclad gunboats built for service on the Mississippi River and its tributaries. In October he assumed command of Foote’s flagboat, the Benton, at St. Louis. As that deep-draft ironclad steamed downriver to Cairo, she ran aground on a sandbar. During efforts to refloat the ship, Winslow was injured by a flying chain link and forced to return home late in the year to recover. Returning to duty in February 1862, he was given command of the ironclad St. Louis, later Baron de Kalb, which he commanded through what he considered to be a series of comparatively minor assignments. Although commissioned a captain on July 16, Winslow contracted malaria, became discontented, and asked to be reassigned to other duty. Detached from the newly formed Mississippi Squadron in October, Winslow went home on sick leave where on December 5 he received notice of his appointment to command the new screw sloop-of-war Kearsarge, joining her in April 1863. For the next fourteen months, Winslow, not assigned to any particular squadron, sought action against the Confederate commerce raiders Florida and Alabama, finally coming up with the latter off Cherbourg, France, on June 19, 1864. In the most famous open sea battle of the Civil War, Winslow won a complete victory over Semmes, his one-time cabin mate, which gained him promotion to commodore effective the same day. After shifting to the Caribbean, the Kearsarge returned
Winslow
Immortalized for his June 86 victory over the Confederate ocean raider Alabama, Capt. John A Winslow, USN, had previously served in the Western Flotilla from September 86 until November 862, commanding first the ironclad Benton and subsequently the ironclad St. Louis, renamed Baron de Kalb. He believed his river service was a series of minor assignments and he caught malaria, which led to his request for a transfer East. He is shown here following his promotion to commodore (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
to the U.S. that November and Winslow received leave. Following Philadelphia and New York during 1865, Winslow became commander of the Gulf Squadron in January 1866, retaining that post for 18 months and flying his flag in the paddlewheel gunboat Estrella. Returning home to Boston to await orders, he was honored to speak at the opening of the Winslow House at Kearsarge Mountain, NH, on August 12, 1868. From June 1869 to July 1870 Winslow was Portsmouth navy yard commandant, becoming a rear admiral on March 2 of the latter year and then commander of the North Pacific Station (NPS) from
Worden August 1870 to June 1872, employing as his flagship first the screw sloop-of-war Saranac and then the California. On sick leave upon his return, he died at Boston on September 29, 1873; the coffin in which he was buried at Forest Hill Cemetery on October 3 was draped with the flag of the Kearsarge. Three 20th century USN ships (TB-5, DD-53, and DD-359) were named in his honor and his son, RAdm. Herbert Winslow (1848–1914), had the distinction of commanding the battleship Kearsarge (BB-5). A bronze table honoring the admiral was unveiled in the Massachusetts State House on May 8, 1909. Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; Callahan; Appletons’, VI; Reynolds; ANB, XXIII; Thompson; DANFS; Cogar, I, 211–212; Tucker, “John Ancrum Winslow,” in Tucker, II; Neeser, “Historic Ships of the Navy: Benton”; Ellicott, The Life of John Ancrum Winslow, Rear Admiral, U.S. Navy; Ditzel, The Ruthless Exploits of Admiral John Winslow; Stone, Jr., “John Ancrum Winslow,” in Powell, ed., Dictionary of North Carolina Biography, VI; Larry Chenault, “John Ancrum Winslow,” FindaGrave, http://www.findagrave. com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=5308125 (accessed May 12, 2014); Smith, Le Roy Fitch; Smith, The Timberclads in the Civil War; Smith, Civil War Biographies from the Western Waters; New Hampshire Statesman, August 7, 1868; New York Times, October 1, 4, 1873, March 15, 1902; Washington Post, May 9, 1909.
22 a master on August 13 and a lieutenant on November 30. He became executive officer of the Pacific Squadron storeship Southampton in February 1847, joining her in supplying the vessels engaged in the Mexican War along the California coast and remained with the Pacific Squadron until April 1850, serving consecutively aboard the razee Independence, the sloop-of-war Warren, and the ship-of-the-line Ohio. He returned to the USNO from October until April 1852, when he undertook a three-year cruise aboard the Mediterranean Squadron frigate Cumberland. Posted at the New York navy yard from March 1856 until July 1858, Worden became executive officer of the Home Squadron frigate Savannah. The high point of the Savannah’s Caribbean cruise before returning home in June 1860 was her invited participation in the naval battle of Anton Lizardo, Vera Caribbean,
Worden, John Lorimer (1818–1897, USN) The second of 10 children of farmer Ananais Worden (1790–1861) and Olivia Akin Toffey Warden (1793–1883), John was born at Sing Sing, presently Ossining, NY, on March 12, 1818,. He was appointed a USN midshipman on January 10, 1834, and served aboard the Brazil Squadron sloop-of-war Erie from June to April 1838 and the Mediterranean Squadron sloop-of-war Cyane until November 1839. Graduating from the Philadelphia naval school as a passed midshipman on July 16, 1840, he joined the Pacific Squadron storeship Relief, from which he was seconded to the sloop-of-war Dale from September 1842 to October 1843. Given leave, he married Quaker Hill, NY, belle Olivia Akin Toffey (1820–1903) in early 1844; they had four children. Worden was at the USNO from April until December 1846 and during his tour, he became
Associated with the revolutionary ironclad Monitor since January 862, Lt. John L. Worden, USN, guided her into the March 8 Battle of Hampton Roads against the CSS Virginia. Late in the duel between the equally matched warships, the captain was badly wounded and forced to turn over command. Recovered, lauded, and promoted, he took command of the monitor Montauk in January 86 and participated in the April assault on Charleston, SC. He retired a rear admiral in 886 (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
22 on March 6. During the engagement, two rebel Mexican ships were defeated, helping to close the so-called Reform War. Worden was on leave until the outbreak of the eve of the Civil War. He was dispatched to Pensacola, FL, on April 6, 1861, with special orders regarding the reinforcement of Fort Pickens. Initially promised safe conduct north, he was arrested by the Confederates at Montgomery, AL, on April 13. Held prisoner for seven months, during which time he became ill, Worden was exchanged on November 13 and was sent on sick leave to recuperate. Returning to duty in January 1862, he reported to Long Island, where he superintended completion of the revolutionary ironclad USS Monitor and commissioned her into service on February 25. Unable to reach his assigned Hampton Roads, VA, destination before the CSS Virginia attacked the Federal fleet on March 8, Worden arrived in time to battle the Confederate ironclad the next day. Late in the duel between the evenly matched warships, a Southern shell exploded on the Monitor’s pilothouse. Worden was badly wounded, losing the sight of his left eye, and was forced to turn over command to executive officer Lt. Samuel Dana Greene (1839–1884) for the remainder of the action. Worden was invalided back to Washington, D.C., where he received advanced medical treatment and was visited by President Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865). After a long recuperation, during which he was voted the “Thanks of Congress” on July 11 and became a commander on July 16, Worden was assistant director of ironclad construction from August until October, after which he oversaw completion of the Passaic-class monitor Montauk, bringing her into commission on December 14 as her captain. While on this duty, he was presented by officials of New York with an elaborate sword and sash, crafted by Tiffany & Co., and a testimonial. His new warship joined the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron (SABS) on January 19, 1863, and led a small squadron in the bombardment of Fort McAllister, GA, on January 27 and February 1. Promoted to captain on February 3, the same day he was given a second Thanks of Congress, Worden led his craft up the Ogeechee River, near McAllister, on February 28, where he sank the Confederate blockade runner Rattlesnake (ex–CSS Nashville). Although the Mon-
Worden tauk was damaged by a torpedo during her withdrawal, she was undamaged while participating in the SABS ironclad attack on Fort Sumter, Charleston, SC, on April 7, after which Worden was detached and sent to Long Island as superintendent of ironclad construction, a post he would hold until relieved in February 1866. Between February and May 1866, Worden was captain of the new steam sloop-of-war Idaho while her innovative machinery was tried—and failed—in the waters off New York. He commanded the Pacific Squadron screw steamer Pensacola from August until May 1867, after which he took leave until December 1869. During that time, he was elevated to commodore on May 27, 1868. Worden was USNA superintendent from December 1869 through September 1874, becoming a rear admiral on November 19, 1872, eleven years to the day from his Montgomery release. He commanded the European Squadron from December 1874 through October 1877, flying his flag, respectively, on the screw frigate Franklin and the screw steamer Marion. Serving thereafter on various naval boards, he was placed on the retired list on December 23, 1886, at his own request. In honor of his service, Congress ordered that he continue to draw full pay. Worden lived eleven years at his Washington, D.C., home, alternating summers with another residence at Quaker Hill, NY. Little is known of his retirement activities save that he often spoke out favorably regarding the assimilation of exConfederate naval officers into political life. From 1878 through December 1880, he was defendant in a $20,000 libel suit brought by a former USNA professor he had dismissed during his superintendence; the case was eventually won in the U.S. Circuit Court at Baltimore, MD. In the years afterward, he was a frequent visitor to Congress, where by virtue of his having received its Thanks he enjoyed “the privileges of the floor” in both the House and Senate. Having suffered ill health, including reduced vision and severe headaches since March 1862, Worden’s death came from pneumonia on October 18, 1897. He was buried the Worden-Toffey plot in the city cemetery of Pawling, NY, just north of NYC. The USNA parade field was named in his honor, along with four 20th century USN warships (TB-16, DD-288, DD-352, and DLG-18).
Wright Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; Hamersly, 3rd ed.; Cogar, I; Reynolds; Still, Ironclad Captains; Quarstein, The Monitor Boys; “Biography of John Lorimer Worden,” The Monitor Center, http:// www. monitorcenter. org/ donate- now/ captain- wor den-challenge/biography-of-john-lorimer-worden/ (accessed August 19, 2016); DANFS; Chittenden, comp., The Monitor and the Merrimac: Both Sides of the Story, Told by Lieut. J.L. Worden, USN, Lieut. Greene, USN of the Monitor, and H. Ashton Ramsay, CSN, Chief Engineer of the Merrimac; Engineering News-Record 38 (October 21, 1897), 145; “The Naval Career of Rear Admiral John Lorrimer Worden”; McMurtry, “The Life and Career of John L. Worden”; McMurtry, “Lincoln’s Promotion of John L. Worden”; Jones, “John L. Worden and the Fort Pickens Mission: The Confederacy’s First Prisoner of War”; Jones, “Lincoln’s Courier: John L. Worden’s Mission to Fort Pickens”; Browne, The First Cruise of the Montauk (“Personal Narratives of Events in the War of the Rebellion”); T.J. Clemente, “The Story of the Ironclad USS Montauk in the Civil War,” Southampton (NY) Star Patcher, July 17, 2012; Neeser, “Historic Ships of the Navy: Monitor”; Neeser, “Historic Ships of the Navy: Montauk”; Clemens, “The Mysterious Theft of Admiral Worden’s Sword”; Army and Navy Journal 18 (December 18, 1880), 390, xxxv (October 23, 1897), 133; Russ Dodge, “John Lorimer Worden,” FindaGrave, http://
226 www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid= 1128 (accessed August 19, 2016); New York Times, November 25, 1872, May 21, 1879, December 4, 1880; October 19, 1897, March 10, 2012; Washington Post, February 22, 1887, January 19, August 7, 1890, October 19–22, 1897; Portland Morning Oregonian, July 14, 1886, October 19, 1897; Denver Rocky Mountain News, October 19, 1897.
Wright, Thomas (In USN Service 1862–1864) Wright, about whom nothing personal is known, was appointed a USN acting ensign at Cairo, IL, on October 1, 1862. While in command of the Illinois naval base tugboat Dahlia, he was present in February 1863 when the new light-draught gunboat Glide I took fire, towing the blazing vessel far out into the river where the explosion of her magazine did no damage to shore installations or personnel. Wright resigned from the service on May 20 but was restored on November 17, and at the beginning of December he was given command of the river
Lauded for his actions as a tugboat commander, Acting Ensign Thomas Wright, USN, became captain of the Mississippi Squadron monitor Osage (depicted) in December 86. During February-May 86, he participated in the Federal naval expeditions up the Black, Ouachita, Washita and Red rivers. His command having been found wanting, he was dismissed from the service on June 8 (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
22 monitor Osage, then lying between Fort Adams and the Red River. Between February 28 and March 5, 1864, Osage participated in a Federal naval expedition up the Black, Ouachita, and Washita rivers, but shortly after turning into the Ouachita on March 1, she was taken under fire and her turret was disabled. After her turret damage was addressed, Wright’s command joined the March 12–May 22 Red River Expedition and en route assisted in the capture of Fort DeRussy on March 14. On May 9, Osage was the fourth vessel to escape, via the Bailey Dam, from the low water at Alexandria. Having failed to live up to expectations, Wright was dismissed from the service on June 8. Sources: Callahan; DANFS; ORN, I, 24; ORN, I, 25; Smith, Tinclads in the Civil War; Smith, The Timberclads in the Civil War; Smith, Civil War Biographies from the Western Waters.
Young Young, Jonathan (1826–1885, USN) The eldest of two brothers, Young was born in Cincinnati, OH, on November 27, 1826. Appointed a USN midshipman on October 19, 1841, he served for three years with the Home Squadron, initially aboard the paddle-wheel frigate USS Mississippi and then the sloop-ofwar Vincennes. Young served aboard the shipof-the-line Columbus during her 1845–1848 circumnavigation of the globe and during that deployment visited Japan in 1846. Promoted to passed midshipman on August 10, 1847, he cruised the California coast during the Mexican War. Transferred back to the Home Squadron, he was on the frigate Raritan in 1849 and 1850, made a second trip around the world, aboard the Pacific Squadron sloop-of-war St. Mary’s, during 1850–1852, and spent 1853 at the USNO.
In July 86 Lt. Cmdr. Jonathan Young, USN, a veteran of the Atlantic blockade, became captain of the monitor Sangamon (depicted after being recommissioned at New York in May 88). Over the next seven months, she participated in the blockade of Charleston, SC, bombardments of its harbor fortifications, and actions off Savannah, GA. Following capture of those two cities in February 86, the ship was transferred to the James River, where Young was detached on March 28 (courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command).
Young Seconded to the USCS in 1854, he joined the Pacific Squadron paddle-wheel steamer Massachusetts at Mare Island, CA, in May 1855, becoming a master on September 14 and a lieutenant a day later. In February 1856 she began patrolling the Puget Sound area, guarding against indigenous raiding parties. In November Young led a landing party ashore at Port Gamble that attacked an encampment of 100 Russian–Native American fighters preparing an assault. Young returned to the USNO in the fall and, in 1858 and 1859, was on the steamer Western Port during the Paraguay Expedition. Back at the USNO from spring early 1860, he was next posted to the Home Squadron paddle-wheel frigate Susquehanna and was aboard when the Civil War began on April 12, 1861. Young remained aboard the Susquehanna during the early months of the conflict and participated in the capture of Hatteras Inlet, NC, in late August 1861 and the Battle of Port Royal, SC, on November 7. He then joined the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron (NABS) sloop-ofwar Jamestown as executive officer, helping to take or destroy five runners off Wilmington, NC, over the next six months. In June 1862 he was given the same post aboard the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron (SABS) paddlewheel frigate Powhatan on blockade duty off Charleston, SC. And on July 16 was promoted lieutenant commander. In November he received his first command, the West Gulf Blockading Squadron (WGBS) Unadilla-class gunboat Pembina, on the blockade of Mobile, AL. However, later in the year, he contracted a fever while off Pensacola, FL, and was placed on sick leave and light ordnance inventory duty. Recovered by March 1864, Young became captain of the SABS double-ender gunboat Cimarron, on the blockade-line between Charleston, SC, and Georgia, and that July he was transferred aboard the SABS monitor Sangamon off Charleston. Over the next seven months, the Passaic-class
228 warship participated in the blockade of that port, bombardments of its harbor fortifications, and actions off Savannah, GA. Following the capture of those two cities in February 1865, the Sangamon was transferred to the James River, where she supported the Army of the Potomac drive on Richmond, including troop support operations and mine (“torpedo”) sweeping, particularly after March. Young was commander of the Portsmouth receiving ship from March 28, 1865 until 1867, during which tour he became a commander on July 25, 1866. From later that year until September 1868, he was captain of the North Atlantic Squadron (NAS) paddle-wheel gunboat Mahaska. From 1869 to 1871 he served at the USNO, after which he once more was captain of the Portsmouth receiving ship (1872–1873). Promoted to captain on November 8, 1873, he remained at the yard until 1876, when he was became captain of the Asiatic Squadron screw frigate Tennessee. Temporary commander of the squadron between August and October 1877, he completed that deployment in 1878 and returned to duty at Portsmouth. In 1882 he was appointed commandant of the New London navy yard in Connecticut, where he died at the Crocker House on May 17, 1885, from the effects of a fever contracted six weeks earlier. Young was buried at Greenwood Cemetery, Brooklyn, NY, next to his wife, Eva Walton Watkins Young (1832–1880), of Georgia and their child, who had died in 1866. No USN ships have been named in his honor. Sources: USN Register-1; USN Register-2; Hamersly, 3rd ed.; “Com. Jonathan Young,” FindaGrave, http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi? page = gr&GSln= Young&GSfn= Jonathan&GSby= 1826&GSbyrel=in&GSdy=1885&GSdyrel=in&GScntry=4&GSob=n&GRid=23835039&df=all& (accessed December 1, 2015); DANFS; Terre Haute Daily Wabash Express, August 5, 1882; New York Times, April 12, May 18, 1885; Washington Post, May 18, 1885; Indianapolis Sentinel, May 18, 1885; Milwaukee Sentinel, May 18, 1885; Marion Star, May 20, 1885.
Appendix: Register of Ironclad Captains This listing is arranged by nation (Confederate States or United States) and then by vessel. Individuals who served as captains are listed alphabetically under each vessel and, if they transferred between ships, may appear more than once. Only ironclad warships or floating batteries (not including tinclads) are included.
Confederate States of America
Eastport (ironclad) Brown, Isaac Newton
Albemarle (ironclad)
Fredericksburg (ironclad)
Cooke, James Wallace Maffitt, John Newland Warley, Alexander Fraser
Arctic (ironclad floating battery)
Barbot, Alphonse Pierre Glassell, William Thornton Rootes, Thomas Reade “Old Tom” Shepperd, Francis Edgar “Frank”
Muse, William Templeman
Georgia (ironclad steam battery)
Arkansas (ironclad)
Gwathmey, Washington Pelot, Thomas Postell
Brown, Isaac Newton Mcblair, Charles Henry Stevens, Henry Kennedy (“Harry” or “Hal”)
Huntsville (ironclad steam battery) Mcblair, Charles Henry Myers, Julian, Sr.
Atlanta (ironclad)
Lousiana (center-wheel ironclad)
Mcblair, Charles Henry Mcblair, William Beverly Sinclair, Arthur Webb, William Augustine
Mcintosh, Charles Flemming Sinclair, Arthur
Baltic (ironclad gunboat)
Warley, Alexander Fraser
Johnston, James Douglas Simms, Charles Carroll
Merrimack see Virginia (ironclad)
Manassas (ironclad)
Mississippi (ironclad)
Charleston (ironclad)
Sinclair, Arthur
Brown, Isaac Newton
Missouri (paddle-wheel ironclad)
Chicora (ironclad)
Carter, Jonathan Hanby
Dozier, William Gaillard, Sr. Hunter, Thomas Triplett Tucker, John Randolph Warley, Alexander Fraser
Nashville (ironclad) Bennett, John William Simms, Charles Carroll
229
Appendix: Register of Captains Neuse (ironclad) Loyall, Benjamin Pollard Price, Joseph
North Carolina (ironclad) Jones, John Pembroke “Paul Jones” Maury, William Lewis Muse, William Templeman
Palmetto State (ironclad) Rochelle, James Henry Rutledge, John
Raleigh (ironclad) Jones, John Pembroke “Paul Jones”
Richmond (ironclad) Kell, John Mcintosh Pegram, Robert Baker Webb, William Augustine
Savannah (ironclad) Brent, Thomas William Pinkney, Robert F.
Stonewall (oceangoing ironclad) Page, Thomas Jefferson “The Commodore”
Tennessee (ironclad) Buchanan, Franklin “Old Buck” Johnston, James Douglas
230 Gwin, William Lord, George Peter Mccauley, Edward Yorke May, Robert Logan Phelps, Seth Ledyard Winslow, John Ancrum Wright, Charles A.
Cairo (center-wheel ironclad) Bryant, Nathaniel Cushing Selfridge, Thomas Oliver, Jr.
Canonicus (monitor) Belknap, George Eugene Parrott, Enoch Greenleafe Rodgers, John, II
Carondelet (center-wheel ironclad) Clark, Charles Peter Donaldson, Oliver Gipson, James C. Greer, James Augustin Miller, Charles W. Mitchell, John Gardner Murphy, John Mcleod Rogers, John Walke, Henry
Catskill (monitor)
Mcblair, Charles Henry Maury, William Lewis
Barrett, Edward Andre Gabriel Carpenter, Charles Carroll Cilley, Greenleaf Harrison, Napoleon Boneparte Rodgers, George Washington, II
Virginia (ironclad)
Chickasaw (monitor)
Buchanan, Franklin “Old Buck” Jones, Catesby Ap Roger Tattnall, Josiah, Jr.
Bacon, Jonathan Knight Fitzpatrick, James W. Perkins, George Hamilton
Virginia II (ironclad)
Chillicothe (ironclad)
Dunnington, John W. Pegram, Robert Baker Shepperd, Francis Edgar “Frank”
Couthouy, Joseph Pitty Eytinge, Henry St. Clair Foster, James P. Lord, George Peter Muir, Walter Smith, Watson
Tuscaloosa (ironclad steam battery)
United States of America Baron De Kalb (center-wheel ironclad) Erben, Henry, Jr., “Bully” Fraser, Alexander Mcgunnegle, Wilson Paulding, Leonard Walker, John Grimes Winslow, John Ancrum
Benton (ironclad) Clark, Charles Peter Greer, James Augustin
Choctaw (ironclad) Cornwell, John Jacob Ramsay, Francis Munroe “Frank”
Cincinnati (center-wheel ironclad) Bache, George Mifflin, II Brown, George (“Spud”) Goudy, Jason Hall, John P. Hoel, William Rion
231 Stembel, Roger Nelson Wilson, Byron
Appendix: Register of Captains Monitor (monitor)
Rodgers, John, II
Bankhead, John Payne “J.P.” Greene, Samuel Dana Jeffers, William Nicholson, 3rd Worden, John Lorimer
Eastport (ex–CSS ironclad)
Montauk (monitor)
Dictator (monitor)
Phelps, Seth Ledyard
Essex (center-wheel ironclad) Bryson, Andrew Caldwell, Charles Henry Bromedge Porter, William David “Dirty Bill” Townsend, Robert
Galena (ironclad gunboat) Paulding, Leonard
Indianola (ironclad) Badger, Arthur Charles Brown, George “Spud” Duble, John A.
Keokuk (casemate ironclad) Rhind, Alexander Colden
Badger, Oscar Charles Davis, John Lee Fairfax, Donald Macneill Fillebrown, Thomas Scott, Jr. Stone, Edward Erastus “E.E.” Worden, John Lorimer
Mound City (center-wheel ironclad) Coleman, Silas Bunker Duble, John A. Gwin, William Kilty, Augustus Henry Langthorne, Amos R. Mcgunnegle, Wilson Wilson, Byron
Nahant (monitor)
Foster, James Peter Walke, Henry
Cornwell, John Jacob Downes, John Albert, Jr. Mayo, William Kennon Picking, Henry Forry
Lehigh (monitor)
Nantucket (monitor)
Bryson, Andrew Bunce, Francis Marvin Guest, John Howell, John Cumming Semmes, Alexander Alderman
Beaumont, John Colt Fairfax, Donald Macneill Lewis, Robert F.R. Luce, Stephen Bleecker
Louisville (center-wheel ironclad)
Febiger, John Carson Howard, Samuel Howden, Robert
Lafayette (ironclad)
Bacon, George Dove, Benjamin M. May, Robert Logan Meade, Richard Worsam, III (sometimes Jr.) Owen, Elias Kane Riley, Robert K.
Mahopac (monitor) Potter, Edward Eells Weaver, Aaron Ward
Neosho (monitor)
New Ironsides (casemate ironclad) Belknap, George Eugene Phythian, Robert Lees Radford, William Rowan, Stephen Clegg Turner, Thomas, Jr.
Onondaga (monitor)
Manhattan (monitor)
Cushman, Charles Haddock
Grafton, Edward Charles Nicholson, James William Augustus “War Horse”
Osage (monitor)
Miantonomoh (monitor) Parrott, Enoch Greenleafe
Monadnoc (monitor) Bunce, Francis Marvin
Couthouy, Joseph Pitty Febiger, John Carson Gamble, William Marshall Rogers, George Washington Selfridge, Thomas Oliver, Jr. Wright, Thomas
Appendix: Register of Captains Ozark (monitor) Brown, George Washington
Passaic (monitor) Drayton Percival Fillebrown, Thomas Scott, Jr. Simpson, Edward
Patapsco (monitor) Ammen, Daniel Bunce, Francis Marvin Madigan, John, Jr. Quakenbush, Stephen Platt Sevens, Thomas Holdup
232 Crosby, Peirce Fillebrown, Thomas Scott, Jr. Guest, John Miller, Joseph Nelson Young, Jonathan
Saugus (monitor) Colhoun, Edmund Ross Phelps, Thomas Stowell, Sr.
Tecumseh (monitor) Craven, Tunis Augustus Macdonough “Tam” or “Mac”
Tennessee (ex–CSS ironclad)
Pittsburg (center-wheel ironclad)
Lull, Edward Phelps
Coleman, Silas Bunker Hoel, William Rion Thompson, Egbert
Tunxis (monitor)
Roanoke (monitor)
Tuscumbia (ironclad)
Gansevoort, Guert Kilty, Augustus H. Rowan, Stephen Clegg Sands, Benjamin Franklin
Shirk, James Whitehall
St. Louis (center-wheel ironclad) see Baron De Kalb Sangamon (monitor) Chandler, Ralph Cooper, George Henry
Erben, Henry, Jr., “Bully”
Weehawken (monitor) Bunce, Francis Marvin Colhoun, Edmund Ross Rodgers, John, Ii
Winnebago (monitor) Kirkland, William Alexander “Ashe” or “Red Bill” or “El Rubio” Sevens, Thomas Holdup
Bibliography Information for the various biographical entries in this book comes from numerous sources, print and electronic. Although references are provided with every profile, some of the information was a one-time only use—for example, biographies given within a regional history, an Internet site, a print autobiography or biography, a newspaper obituary, or a burial record—while others were from compendiums or sites continuously mined. To save space, a series of key or commonly employed abbreviations has been employed to identify some of the latter, both print and Internet sources, identified immediately below. References to books, periodical articles, and academic papers cited in the profile sources, whether once or multiple times, are drawn from the bibliography and are abbreviated. Newspaper and Internet citations in the sources are omitted from the bibliography.
Commonly-Abbreviated Titles
Terry White, ed. The National Cyclopedia of American Biography. 11 vols. New York: James T. White, 1900. The New International Encyclopedia = Daniel Coit Gilman, et al., eds. The New International Encyclopedia. 20 vols. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1907 OR = U.S. War Department. The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies. 128 vols. Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1880–1901, Series I, Vol. IIII, 390 cited hereafter as OR, followed by a comma, the series number in Roman numerals, a comma, the volume number in Arabic, a colon, and the page in Arabic, e.g., OR, I, 3: 390. ORN = U.S. Navy Department, Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion. 31 vols. Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1894–1922, Series I, Vol. IV, 154–155, cited hereafter as ORN, followed by a comma, the series number in Roman numerals, a comma, the volume number in Arabic, a colon, and the page in Arabic, e.g., ORN, I, 25: 155. USN Register-1 = Tom Woronko, comp. HyperWar Foundation Registers of the Commissioned Officers and Warrant Officers of the United States Navy, 1802–1945. http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/AMH/USN/Naval_ Registers/. USN Register-2 = Hathi Trust Digital Library. Register of the Commissioned and Warrant Officers of the United States Navy and Marine Corps and Reserve Officers on Active Duty. https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000 523460.
ANB =American Council of Learned Societies. American National Biography. 24 vols. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. APPLETON’S = James Grant Wilson and John Fiske, eds. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography. 5 vols. New York: D. Appleton, 1887–1889. B&L = Battles and Leaders of the Civil War. Edited by Robert V. Johnson and Clarence C. Buel. 4 vols. New York: Century, 1884–1887; repr. Thomas Yoseloff, 1956. CSN Register = U.S. Navy Department, Office of Naval Records and Library, Naval War Records Office, Register of Officers of the Confederate States Navy, 1861– 1865. Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1931. CSS Pontchartrain = “CSS Pontchartrain Crew List.” The CSS Pontchartrain Project. https://www.facebook.com/ pages/The-CSS-Pontchartrain-Project/129006840279. DAB = American Council of Learned Societies. Dictionary of American Biography. 20 vols. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1928–1936; repr., 10 vols. 1946. DAB Supplement = American Council of Learned Societies. Dictionary of American Biography Supplements. 10 vols. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1944–1995. DANFS = Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. 8 vols. Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1916–1981. Foenander = Terry Foenander, comp. Confederate Naval and Marine Corps Personnel. http://www.rblong.net/ sailor/index.html. This impressive research site was revived in August 2013 by the compiler Foenander, Sion Harrington, and Bruce Long as part of their North Carolina Civil War Sailor Project. JCC = Journal of the Congress of the Confederate States of America, 1861–1865. 7 vols. Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1904–1905. The National Cyclopedia of American Biography = James
Sources Adams, Roger C. “Panic on the Ohio: The Defense of Cincinnati, Covington, and Newport, September 1862.” Journal of Kentucky Studies 9 (September 1992), 80–98.
233
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Index Numbers in bold italics indicate pages with illustrations Adirondack (USN Steam Sloop): Gansevoort, Guert 90–91 Agawam (USN Double-Ender Gunboat): Rhind, Alexander Colden 175–176 Agementicus (USN Monitor): Parrott, Enoch Greenleafe 154–155 Alabama (CSN Ocean Raider): Kell, John Mcintosh 118–119 Alabama (USN Gunboat): Langthorne, Amos R. 122– 123 Albemarle (CSN Ironclad Ram): Cooke, James Wallace 61–62; Maffitt, John Newland “Prince of Privateers” 131, 132–133; Warley, Alexander Fraser 216– 218 Alfred Robb (USN Tinclad No. 21): Goudy, Jason 94–95 Alligator (USN Submersible): Selfridge, Thomas Oliver, Jr. 188, 189–190 Amanda (USN Bark): Howard, Samuel 107–108 Ammen, Daniel 13, 14–16 Anacostia (USN Gunboat): Badger, Oscar Charles 19–21; Fillebrown, Thomas Scott, Jr. 85, 86–87 Antietam, MD, 1862 Battle 81 Arctic (CSN Ironclad Floating Battery): Gwathmey, Washington 101–102; Muse, William Templeman 148–149 Arizona (USN Gunboat): Brown, George “Spud” 33, 34– 36 Arkansas (CSN Ironclad Ram): Barbot, Alphonse Pierre 23– 24; Brown, Isaac Newton 38, 39–41; McBlair, Charles Henry 136–138; Stevens, Henry Kennedy “Harry” or “Hal” 199–201
Arkansas Post, 1863 Battle of 36, 80, 88, 152, 215 Aroostook (USN Gunboat): Beaumont, John Colt 26, 27– 28 Atlanta (CSN/USN Ironclad Ram): Barbot, Alphonse Pierre 23–24; McBlair, Charles Henry 136–137; McBlair, William Beverly 138; Sinclair, Arthur, III 196–197; Webb, William Augustine 220–221 Augusta (USN Gunboat): Parrott, Enoch Greenleafe 154– 155 Bache, George Mifflin, II 16–17 Bacon, George Bement 17–19 Badger, Oscar Charles 19–21 Baltic (CSN Ironclad Gunboat): Johnston, James Douglas 113– 114; Simms, Charles Carroll 193–194 Bankhead, John Payne “J.P.” 21– 23 Barbot, Alphonse Pierre 23–24 Baron De Kalb (USN CenterWheel Ironclad): Erben, Henry “Bully,” Jr. 80, 81–82; McGunnegle, Wilson 139–140; Paulding, Leonard 156–157; Walker, John Grimes 215–216; Winslow, John Ancrum 222, 223–224 Barrett, Edward Andre Gabriel 24, 25–26 Baton Rouge, LA, 1862 Battle 81, 168 Beaumont, John Colt 26, 27–28 Belknap, George Eugene 28, 29– 31 Belmont, MO, 1861 Battle 213 Bennett, John William 31–32 Benton (USN Ironclad): Clark, Charles Peter 57–58; Greer, James Augustus 97, 98–99;
247
Gwin, William 102–103; Lord, George Peter 125–126; May, Robert Logan 134–135; McCauley, Edward Yorke 138– 139; Phelps, Seth Ledyard 160– 161; Winslow, John Ancrum 222, 223–224 Black Hawk (USN Gunboat): Fitzpatrick, James W. 87–88; McCauley, Edward Yorke 138– 139 Blair’s Landing, LA, 1864 Battle 17 Brent, Thomas William 32–33 Brooklyn (USN Steam Sloop): Bryant, Nathaniel Cushing 41– 43; Lull, Edward Phelps 129– 130; Rowan, Stephen Clegg 184–186 Brown, George “Spud” 33, 34– 36 Brown, George Washington 36– 38 Brown, Isaac Newton 38, 39– 41 Bryant, Nathaniel Cushing 41– 43 Bryson, Andrew 43–44 Buchanan, Franklin “Old Buck” 44, 45–46 Bunce, Francis Marvin 46, 47– 48 Cairo (USN Center-Wheel Ironclad): Bryant, Nathaniel Cushing 41–43; Selfridge, Thomas Oliver, Jr. 188, 189– 190 Caldwell, Charles Henry Bromedge 48–50 Cambridge (USN Gunboat): Gwin, William 102–103; Miller, Joseph Nelson 143, 144–145 Canandaigua (USN Gunboat): Luce, Stephen Bleecker 127,
Index 128–129; May, Robert Logan 134–135 Canonicus (USN Monitor): Belknap, George Eugene 28, 29–31; Parrott, Enoch Greenleafe 154–155; Rogers, John, II 179, 180–181 Capitol (CSN Supply Ship): Stevens, Henry Kennedy “Harry” or “Hal” 199–201 Carondelet (CSN Gunboat): Gwathmey, Washington 101– 102 Carondelet (USN Center-Wheel Ironclad): Clark, Charles Peter 57–58; Donaldson, Oliver 73; Gipson, James C. 91–93; Greer, James Augustus 97, 98–99; Hoel, William Rion 105, 106–107; Miller, Charles W. 143; Mitchell, John Gardner 145–146; Murphy, John McLeod 147–148; Rogers, John 182–183; Walke, Henry 212, 213–214 Carpenter, Charles Carroll 50, 51–52 Carter, Jonathan Hanby 52–53 Catskill (USN Monitor): Barrett, Edward Andre Gabriel 24, 25– 26; Bunce, Francis Marvin 46, 47–48; Carpenter, Charles Carroll 50, 51–52; Cilley, Greenleaf 55, 56–57; Harrison, Napoleon Boneparte 104–105; Rodgers, George Washington, II 178–179 Cayuga (USN Gunboat): Fairfax, Donald Macneill 82, 83– 84; Harrison, Napoleon Boneparte 104–105; Perkins, George Hamilton 159–160 Chandler, Ralph 53, 54–55 Charleston (CSN Ironclad Ram): Brown, Isaac Newton 38, 39– 41 Chartleston, SC, 1863–1865 Battles/Bombardments 14, 18, 25–26, 28–30, 43, 47–48, 51, 60–61, 64, 70, 73, 75–77, 81, 83, 86, 93, 105, 111, 124, 128, 135–136, 144, 163, 165, 173, 176, 179, 185, 187, 191, 195, 202, 204, 210–211, 217, 221, 225, 228 Chattahoochee (CSN Gunboat): Jones, Catesby ap Roger 114, 115–116 Chenango (USN Gunboat): Fillebrown, Thomas Scott, Jr. 85, 86–87 Chickamauga (CSN Ocean Raider): Dozier, William Gaillard, Sr. 75–76 Chickasaw (USN Monitor): Fitzpatrick, James W. 87–88;
248 Perkins, George Hamilton 159–160 Chickasaw Bayou, MS, 1862 Battle see Vicksburg, MS, 1862 Battle Chicora (CSN Ironclad Ram): Dozier, William Gaillard, Sr. 75–76; Glassell, William Thornton 93–94; Hunter, Thomas Triplett 110–111; Tucker, John Randolph 209– 210; Warley, Alexander Fraser 216–218 Chillicothe (USN Ironclad): Badger, Oscar Charles 19–21; Couthouy, Joseph Pitty 65–67; Eytinge, Henry St. Clair 82; Foster, James Peter 88–89; Lord, George Peter 125–126; Muir, Walter 146–147; Smith, Watson 197–198 Chippewa (USN Gunboat): Bryson, Andrew 43–44; Weaver, Aaron Ward 218, 219– 220 Choctaw (USN Ironclad): Cornwell, John Jacob 64–65; Ramsay, Francis Munroe “Frank” 174–175 Chocura (USN Gunboat): Meade, Richard Worsam, III 141, 142–143 Cilley, Greenleaf 55, 56–57 Cimarron (USN Gunboat): Young, Jonathan 227–228 Cincinnati (USN Center-Wheel Ironclad): Bache, George Mifflin II 16–17; Brown, George “Spud” 33, 34–36; Goudy, Jason 94–95; Hall, John P. 103– 104; Hoel, William Rion 105, 106–107; Muir, Walter 146–147; Stembel, Roger Nelson 198– 199 Clara Dolson (USN Supply Ship): Fitzpatrick, James W. 87–88 Clark, Charles Peter 57–58 Coleman, Silas Bunke r 58–60 Colhoun, Edmund Ross 60–61 Colorado (USN Steam Frigate): Davis, John Lee 72–73; May, Robert Logan 134–135 Commodore Jones (USN Gunboat): Mitchell, John Gardner 145–146 Commodore McDonough (USN Gunboat): Bacon, George Bement 17–19, 163–164 Conestoga (USN Gunboat): Duble, John A. 78–79; Phelps, Seth Ledyard 160–161 Constitution (USN Sail Frigate): Lull, Edward Phelps 129–130; Rodgers, George Washington, II 178–179
Cooke, James Wallace 61–62 Cooper, George Henry 62, 63– 64 Cornwell, John Jacob 64–65 Corwin (USN Steamer): Phelps, Thomas Stowell, Sr. 161–163 Couthouy, Joseph Pitty 65–67 Covington (USN Tinclad No. 25): Lord, George Peter 125– 126 Craven, Tunis Augustus Macdonough “Tam” “Mac” 67–68 Cricket (USN Tinclad No. 6): Langthorne, Amos R. 122–123 Crosby, Pierce 68, 69–70 Crusader (USN Gunboat): Craven, Tunis Augustus Macdonough “Tam” “Mac” 67–68; Rhind, Alexander Colden 175–176 Cumberland (USN Sail Frigate): Radford, William 172–174; Selfridge, Thomas Oliver, Jr. 188, 189–190 Curlew (CSN Gunboat): Hunter, Thomas Triplett 110–111 Cushman, Charles Haddock 70– 72 Dakotah (USN Steam Sloop): Sands, Benjamin Franklin 187–188 Dan Smith (USN Mortar Schooner): Brown, George Washington 36–38 David (CSN Torpedoboat): Glassell, William Thornton 93–94 Davis, John Lee 72–73 Delaware (USN Gunboat): Quakenbush, Stephen Platt 171–172; Rowan, Stephen Clegg 184–186 DeSoto (USN Steamer): Lewis, Robert F.R. 123–124 Dictator (USN Monitor): Bunce, Francis Marvin 46, 47–48; Rogers, John, II 179, 180–181 Donaldson, Oliver 73 Dove, Benjamin 73–74 Downes, John Albert, Jr. 74– 75 Dozier, William Gaillard, Sr. 75–76 Drayton, Percival 76, 77–78 Drewry’s Bluff, VA, 1861 Battle of 28, 178, 180, 209 Duble, John A. 78–79 Dumbarton (USN Gunboat): Radford, William 172–174 Dunnington, John William 79– 80 Eastport (Csn/Usn Ironclad): Brown, Isaac Newton 38, 39–
249 41; Phelps, Seth Ledyard 160– 161 Ellis (CSN Gunboat): Cooke, James Wallace 61–62; Muse, William Templeman 148–149 Empire (CSN Gunboat): Simms, Charles Carroll 193–194 Erben, Henry “Bully,” Jr. 80, 81– 82 Essex (USN Center-Wheel Ironclad): Bryson, Andrew 43–44; Caldwell, Charles Henry Bromedge 48–50; Porter, William David “Dirty Bill” 167, 168–169; Riley, Robert K. 177; Townsend, Robert 207– 209 Ethan Allen (USN Bark): Lewis, Robert F.R. 123–124 Eutaw (USN Double-Ender Gunboat): Paulding, Leonard 156–157 Exchange (USN Tinclad No. 38): Gipson, James C. 91–93 Eytinge, Henry St. Clair 82 Fairfax, Donald Macneill 82, 83–84 Febiger, John Carson 84–85 Fillebrown, Thomas Scott, Jr. 85, 86–87 Fitzpatrick, James W. 87–88 Flag (USN Gunboat): Carpenter, Charles Carroll 50, 51–52; McCauley, Edward Yorke 138– 139; Rogers, John, II 179, 180– 181 Florida (USN Gunboat): Bankhead, John Payne “J.P.” 21–23; Crosby, Pierce 68, 69– 70; Greene, Samuel Dana 96– 97 Forest Rose (USN Tinclad No. 9): Brown, George Washington 36–38 Fort Anderson, NC, 1865 Battle 28, 163 Fort Beauregard, SC 13 Fort Clark, NC see Hatteras Inlet 1861 Battle of Fort Donelson, TN, 1862 Battle 74, 92, 206, 213 Fort Fisher, NC, 1864–1865 Battles 14, 28, 57, 71, 75–76, 109, 123, 155, 163–164, 166, 170, 173–176, 189, 204, 218 Fort Henry, TN, 1862 Battle 73, 78, 92, 105, 156, 160–161, 168, 177, 181, 193, 199, 213 Fort Henry (USN Gunboat): McCauley, Edward Yorke 138– 139 Fort Hindman, AR see Arkansas Post, Battle of Fort Hindman (USN Tinclad No.
13): Selfridge, Thomas Oliver, Jr. 188, 189–190 Fort Jackson (USN Gunboat): Cilley, Greenleaf 55, 56–57; Sands, Benjamin Franklin 187–188; Walke, Henry 212, 213–214 Fort Jackson, LA see New Orleans 1862 Battle Fort McAllister, GA, 1863 Battle 14, 70, 75, 77, 81, 144, 225 Fort Pickens, FL, 1861 Engagements 29 Fort Pillow, TN, 1862 Battle 42, 92, 105, 120, 156, 166, 181, 199, 206, 213 Fort St. Philip, LA see New Orleans 1862 Battle Fort Sumter, SC see Charleston, SC, 1863–1865 Battles/Bombardments Fort Wagner, SC see Charleston, SC, 1863–1865 Battles/Bombardments Foster, James Peter 88–89 Fredericksburg (CSN Ironclad Ram): Barbot, Alphonse Pierre 23–24; Glassell, William Thornton 93–94; Rootes, Thomas Reade “Old Tom” 183–184; Shepperd, Francis Edgar “Frank” 191–192 Gaines (CSN Gunboat): Bennett, John William 31–32; McBlair, Charles Henry 136– 137 Galena (USN Ironclad Gunboat): Paulding, Leonard 156–157; Rogers, John, II 179, 180–181 Galveston, TX, 1862–1863 Battle 100 Gamble, William Marshall 89– 90 Gansevoort, Guert 90–91 General Lyon (USN Supply Ship): Lord, George Peter 125–126 General Polk (CSN Gunboat): Carter, Jonathan Hanby 52–53 Genesee (USN Gunboat): Grafton, Edward Charles 95– 96 Georgia (CSN Ironclad Steam Battery): Gwathmey, Washington 101–102; Jones, John Pembroke “Paul Jones” 116, 117–118; Pelot, Thomas Postell 158–159 Georgia (CSN Ocean Raider): Maury, William Lewis 133–134 Gipson, James C. 91–93 Glassell, William Thornton 93– 94 Glaucus (USN Gunboat): Cald-
Index well, Charles Henry Bromedge 48–50; Cooper, George Henry 62, 63–64 Goudy, Jason 94–95 Grafton, Edward Charles 95–96 Grand Gulf, MS, 1863 Battle of 50, 59, 98, 106, 152, 181, 193, 214–215 Great Western (USN Supply Ship): Wilson, Byron 221– 222 Greene, Samuel Dana 96–97 Greer, James Augustus 97, 98– 99 Guest, John 99–100 Gwathmey, Washington 101–102 Gwin, William 102–103 Hall, John P. 103–104 Harrison, Napoleon Boneparte 104–105 Hatteras Inlet 1861 Battle of 22, 96, 189, 197 Haynes Bluff, MS, 1862 Battle see Vicksburg, MS, 1862 Battle; Vicksburg, MS, 1863 Battle Head of Passes, LA, 1861 Battle 72, 217 Hoel, William Rion 105, 106–107 Housatonic (USN Steam Sloop): Mayo, William Kennon 135– 136 Howard, Samuel 107–108 Howell, John Cumming 108, 109–110 Howlett’s Farm, VA, 1864–1865 Battles 30, 61, 68, 70–71, 155, 163, 169, 191 Hunchback (USN Gunboat): Colhoun, Edmund Ross 60–61 Hunter, Thomas Triplett 110–111 Huntress (CSN Gunboat): Dozier, William Gaillard, Sr. 75–76 Huntsville (CSN Ironclad Steam Battery): McBlair, Charles Henry 136–138; Myers, Julian, Sr. 149–150 Huntsville (USN Gunboat): Chandler, Ralph 53, 54–55; Erben, Henry “Bully,” Jr. 80, 81–82 Huron (USN Gunboat): Belknap, George Eugene 28, 29–31; Downes, John Albert, Jr. 74– 75; Selfridge, Thomas Oliver, Jr. 188, 189–190 Indian Chief (CSN Receiving Ship): Dozier, William Gaillard, Sr. 75–76 Indianola (USN Ironclad): Badger, Oscar Charles 19–21; Brown, George “Spud” 33, 34– 36
Index Iosco (USN Double-Ender Gunboat): Guest, John 99–100 Iron Age (USN Gunboat): Stone, Edward Erastus “E.E.” 203– 204 Iroquois (USN Steam Sloop): Greene, Samuel Dana 96–97 Isaac Smith (USN Gunboat): Nicholson, James William Augustus “War Horse” 150– 151 Isonomia (USN Gunboat): Simpson, Edward 195–196 Itasca (USN gunboat): Bacon, George Bement 17–19; Brown, George “Spud” 33, 34–36; Caldwell, Charles Henry Bromedge 48–50; Lewis, Robert F.R. 123–124 J.A. Cotton (CSN Gunboat): Stevens, Henry Kennedy “Harry” or “Hal” 199–201 Jackson (CSN Gunboat): Gwathmey, Washington 101–102 Jacksonville, FL, 1862 Battle 14, 22, 201 James Adger (USN Gunboat): Owen, Elias Kane 151–153 Jamestown (USN Sail Sloop): Bache, George Mifflin, II 16– 17; Harrison, Napoleon Boneparte 104–105; Kirkland, William Alexander “Ashe” “Red Bill” “El Rubio” 120, 121– 122; Phythian, Robert Lees 163, 164–165; Young, Jonathan 227–228 Jeffers, William Nicholson, III 111, 112–113 John Adams (USN Sail Frigate): Miller, Joseph Nelson 143, 144–145; Stone, Edward Erastus “E.E.” 203–204 Johnston, James Douglas 113– 114 Jones, Catesby ap Roger 114, 115–116 Jones, John Pembroke “Paul Jones” 116, 117–118 Juniata (USN Steam Sloop): Phelps, Thomas Stowell, Sr. 161–163 Kanawah (USN Gunboat): Febiger, John Carson 84–85; Mayo, William Kennon 135– 136 Kate (USN Tinclad No. 55): Rogers, George Washington 181–182 Kearsarge (USN Steam Sloop): Winslow, John Ancrum 222, 223–224 Kell, John Mcintosh 118–119
250 Keokuk (USN Casemate Ironclad): Rhind, Alexander Colden 175–176 Keystone State (USN Gunboat): Brown, George Washington 36–38; Crosby, Pierce 68, 69– 70 Kilty, Augustus Henry 119–120 Kingfisher (USN Gunboat): Couthouy, Joseph Pitty 65–67 Kirkland, William Alexander “Ashe” “Red Bill” “El Rubio” 120, 121–122 Lady Davis (CSN Gunboat): Pelot, Thomas Postell 158–159; Rutledge, John 186–187 Lafayette (USN Ironclad): Foster, James Peter 88–89; Gipson, James C. 91–93; Walke, Henry 212, 213–214 Langthorne, Amos R. 122–123 Lehigh (USN Monitor): Bryson, Andrew 43–44; Bunce, Francis Marvin 46, 47–48; Guest, John 99–100; Howell, John Cumming 108, 109–110; Phythian, Robert Lees 163, 164–165; Semmes, Alexander Alderman 190–191 Lenapee (USN Double-Ender Gunboat): Phelps, Thomas Stowell, Sr. 161–163 Lewis, Robert F.R. 123–124 Lexington (USN Timberclad Gunboat): Bache, George Mifflin, II 16–17; Fitzpatrick, James W. 87–88; Hoel, William Rion 105, 106–107; Shirk, James Whitehall 192– 193; Stembel, Roger Nelson 198–199 Lincoln Assassins see Montauk (USN Monitor) Little Rebel (USN Tinclad No. 16): Hoel, William Rion 105, 106–107 Livingston (CSN Gunboat): Pinkney, Robert F. 166–167 Lord, George Peter 125–126 Louisiana (CSN Center-Wheel Ironclad): Barbot, Alphonse Pierre 23–24; McIntosh, Charles Flemming 141; Sinclair, Arthur Louisiana (USN Steamer): Rhind, Alexander Colden 175–176 Louisville (USN Center-Wheel Ironclad): Bacon, George Bement 17–19; Dove, Benjamin 73–74; Loyall, Benjamin Pollard 126–127; May, Robert Logan 135; Meade, Richard Worsam, III 141–142; Owen,
Elias Kane 151–153; Riley, Robert K. 177 Lucas Bend, MO, 1861 Battle 101, 199 Luce, Stephen Bleecker 127, 128–129 Lull, Edward Phelps 129–130 Macedonian (USN Sail Frigate): Luce, Stephen Bleecker 127, 128–129; Stone, Edward Erastus “E.E.” 203–204 Mackinaw (USN Double-Ender Gunboat): Beaumont, John Colt 26, 27–28; Madigan, John, Jr. 130–131 Maffitt, John Newland “Prince of Privateers” 131, 132–133 Mahaska (USN Double-Ender Gunboat): Harrison, Napoleon Boneparte 104–105 Mahopac (USN Monitor): Potter, Edward Eells 169–170; Weaver, Aaron Ward 218, 219– 220 Malvern (USN Gunboat): Radford, William 172–174 Manassas, VA, 1861 Battle 32 Manassas (CSN Ironclad Ram): Warley, Alexander Fraser 216– 218 Manhattan (USN Monitor): Grafton, Edward Charles 95– 96; Nicholson, James William Augustus “War Horse” 150–151 Maratanza (USN Gunboat): Stevens, Thomas Holdup 201, 202–203 Marblehead (USN Gunboat): Meade, Richard Worsam, III 141, 142–143 Maria Deming (USN Supply Ship): Dove, Benjamin 73–74 Massachusetts (USN Supply Ship/Gunboat): Cooper, George Henry 62, 63–64; Cushman, Charles Haddock 70–72 Mattabesett (USN Double-Ender Gunboat): Febiger, John Carson 84–85 Maumee (USN Gunboat): Chandler, Ralph 53, 54–55 Maury, William Lewis 133–134 May, Robert Logan 134–135 Mayo, William Kennon 135–136 McBlair, Charles Henry 136–138 McBlair, William Beverly 138 McCauley, Edward Yorke 138– 139 McGunnegle, Wilson 139–140 McIntosh, Charles Flemming 141 McRae (CSN Gunboat): Dunnington, John William 79–80
251 Meade, Richard Worsam, III 141, 142–143 Memphis, TN, 1862 Battle 42, 73, 81, 104, 120, 166, 213 Merrimack see Virginia (CSN Ironclad Ram) Metacomet (USN Gunboat): Crosby, Pierce 68, 69–70 Miami (USN Double-Ender Gunboat): Townsend, Robert 207–209 Miantonomoh (USN Monitor): Ammen, Daniel 13, 14–16; Parrott, Enoch Greenleafe 154– 155 Miller, Charles W. 143 Miller, Joseph Nelson 143, 144– 145 Milliken’s Bend, LA, 1863 Battle 174 Mingo (USN Double-Ender Gunboat): Quakenbush, Stephen Platt 171–172 Minnesota (USN Steam Frigate): Grafton, Edward Charles 95– 96; Howell, John Cumming 108, 109–110; Mitchell, John Gardner 145–146 Mississippi (CSN Ironclad): Sinclair, Arthur, III 196–197 Missouri (CSN Paddle-Wheel Ironclad): Carter, Jonathan Hanby 52–53 Mitchell, John Gardner 145–146 Mobile (CSN Gunboat): Shepperd, Francis Edgar “Frank” 191–192 Mobile, AL, 1864–1865 Battle 32, 90, 121, 130, 146, 149–150, 160, 195, 202 Mobile Bay, AL, 1864 Battle 31, 68, 78, 114, 130, 137, 149–150, 202 Mohawk (USN Gunboat): Carpenter, Charles Carroll 50, 51– 52 Mohican (USN Screw Sloop): Ammen, Daniel 13, 14–16 Monadnock (USN Monitor): Bunce, Francis Marvin 46, 47–48; Miller, Joseph Nelson 143, 144–145 Monitor (USN Monitor): Bankhead, John Payne “J.P.” 21–23; Greene, Samuel Dana 96–97; Howard, Samuel 107– 108; Jeffers, William Nicholson, III 111, 112–113; Selfridge, Thomas Oliver, Jr. 188, 189– 190; Stevens, Thomas Holdup 201, 202–203; Worden, John Lorimer 224–226 Montauk (USN Monitor): Badger, Oscar Charles 19–21; Cushman, Charles Haddock
70–72; Davis, John Lee 72–73; Fairfax, Donald Macneill 82, 83–84; Fillebrown, Thomas Scott, Jr. 85, 86–87; Stone, Edward Erastus “E.E.” 203– 204; Worden, John Lorimer 224–226 Morgan (CSN Gunboat): McBlair, Charles Henry 136– 138 Morris Island, SC, 1863 Battle of see Charleston, SC, 1863–1865 Battles/Bombardments Mound City (USN Center-Wheel Ironclad): Coleman, Silas Bunker 58–60; Duble, John A. 78–79; Gwin, William 102– 103; Kell, John Mcintosh 118– 119; Langthorne, Amos R. 122–123; McGunnegle, Wilson 139–140; Wilson, Byron 221– 222 Mount Vernon (USN Supply Ship): Walke, Henry 212, 213– 214 Muir, Walter 146–147 Murphy, John McLeod 147–148 Muse, William Templeman 148– 149 Myers, Julian, Sr. 149–150 Nahant (USN Monitor): Cornwell, John Jacob 64–65; Downes, John Albert, Jr. 74– 75; Mayo, William Kennon 135–136; Picking, Henry Forry 165–166 Nansemond (CSN Gunboat): Rochelle, James Henry 177– 178; Rutledge, John 186–187; Simms, Charles Carroll 193– 194 Nantucket (USN Monitor): Beaumont, John Colt 26, 27– 28; Fairfax, Donald MacNeill 82, 83–84; Lewis, Robert F.R. 123–124; Luce, Stephen Bleecker 127, 128–129 Nashville (CSN Ironclad Ram): Bennett, John William 31–32; Simms, Charles Carroll Nashville (CSN Ocean Raider): Bennett, John William 31–32; Pegram, Robert Baker 157–158 Nashville, TN, 1864 Battle 108, 143 Naumkeag (USN Tinclad No. 37): Coleman, Silas Bunker 58–60; Rogers, John 182–183 Neosho (USN Monitor): Febiger, John Carson 84–85; Howard, Samuel 107–108 Nereus (USN Gunboat): Howell, John Cumming 108, 109–110 Neuse (CSN Ironclad Ram):
Index Loyall, Benjamin Pollard 126– 127; Price, Joseph New Era (USN Timberclad Gunboat) see Essex (USN Ironclad) New Ironsides (USN Casemate Ironclad): Belknap, George Eugene 28, 29–31; Phythian, Robert Lees 163, 164–165; Radford, William 172–174; Rowan, Stephen Clegg 184– 186; Turner, Thomas, Jr. 210, 211–212 New London (USN Gunboat): Perkins, George Hamilton 159–160 New Orleans 1862 Battle of 18, 24, 36, 50, 69, 100, 105, 141, 160, 169, 198, 215, 217 Niagara (USN Steam Frigate): Erben, Henry “Bully,” Jr. 80, 81–82; Nicholson, James William Augustus “War Horse” 150–151; Potter, Edward Eells 169–170 Nipsic (USN Gunboat): Bacon, George Bement 17–19; Lewis, Robert F.R. 123–124 Norfolk Packet (USN Mortar Schooner): Smith, Watson 197–198 North Carolina (CSN Ironclad Ram): Glassell, William Thornton 93–94; Jones, John Pembroke “Paul Jones” 116, 117–118; Maury, William Lewis 133–134; Muse, William Templeman 148–149 Octarora (USN Gunboat): Brown, George “Spud” 33, 34– 36 Oneida (USN Steam Sloop): Stevens, Thomas Holdup 201, 202–203 Onondaga (USN Monitor): Cushman, Charles Haddock 70–72 Osage (USN Monitor): Couthouy, Joseph Pitty 65–67; Febiger, John Carson 84–85; Gamble, William Marshall 89– 90; Rogers, George Washington 181–182; Selfridge, Thomas Oliver, Jr. 188, 189–190; Wright, Thomas 226–227 Ostsego (USN Double-Ender Gunboat): Bankhead, John Payne “J.P.” 21–23 Ottawa (USN Gunboat): Stevens, Thomas Holdup 201, 202–203 Ouachita (USN Large Tinclad): Wilson, Byron 221–222 Owasco (USN Gunboat): Guest,
Index John 99–100; Kirkland, William Alexander “Ashe” “Red Bill” “El Rubio” 120, 121– 122 Owen, Elias Kane 151–153 Ozark (USN Monitor): Brown, George Washington 36–38 Page, Thomas Jefferson “The Commodore” 153–154 Palmetto State (CSN Ironclad Ram): Glassell, William Thornton 93–94; Rochelle, James Henry 177–178; Rutledge, John 186–187; Shepperd, Francis Edgar “Frank” 191–192; Warley, Alexander Fraser 216– 218 Pamlico (CSN Gunboat): Dozier, William Gaillard, Sr. 75–76 Parrott, Enoch Greenleafe 154– 155 Passaic (USN Monitor): Drayton, Percival 76, 77–78; Fillebrown, Thomas Scott, Jr. 85, 86–87; Miller, Joseph Nelson 143, 144–145; Picking, Henry Forry 165–166; Simpson, Edward 195–196 Patapsco (USN Monitor): Ammen, Daniel 13, 14–16; Badger, Oscar Charles 19–21; Bunce, Francis Marvin 46, 47–48; Erben, Henry “Bully,” Jr. 80, 81–82; Madigan, John, Jr. 130–131; Picking, Henry Forry 165–166; Quakenbush, Stephen Platt 171–172; Stevens, Thomas Holdup 201, 202–203 Patrick Henry (CSN Schoolship): Rochelle, James Henry 177– 178; Tucker, John Randolph 209–210 Paulding, Leonard 156–157 Pawnee (USN Sloop): Bunce, Francis Marvin 46, 47–48; Drayton, Percival 76, 77–78; Rowan, Stephen Clegg 184– 186 Pegram, Robert Baker 157–158 Pelot, Thomas Postell 158–159 Pembina (USN Gunboat): Bankhead, John Payne “J.P.” 21–23; Cushman, Charles Haddock 70–72; Young, Jonathan 227–228 Penguin (USN Gunboat): Stevens, Thomas Holdup 201, 202–203 Penobscot (USN Gunboat): Bunce, Francis Marvin 46, 47–48 Pensacola (USN Steam Sloop): Nicholson, James William Augustus “War Horse” 150–
252 151; Perkins, George Hamilton 159–160 Pequot (USN Gunboat): Quakenbush, Stephen Platt 171–172 Perkins, George Hamilton 159– 160 Perry (USN Brig): Cornwell, John Jacob 64–65; Gwin, William 102–103; Miller, Joseph Nelson 143, 144–145; Parrott, Enoch Greenleafe 154–155 Phelps, Seth Ledyard 160–161 Phelps, Thomas Stowell, Sr. 161– 163 Phlox (USN Gunboat): Radford, William 172–174 Phythian, Robert Lees 163, 164– 165 Pinkney, Robert F. 166–167 Pinola (USN Gunboat): Crosby, Pierce 68, 69–70; Erben, Henry “Bully,” Jr. 80, 81–82 Pittsburg (USN Center-Wheel Ironclad): Coleman, Silas Bunker 58–60; Hoel, William Rion 105, 106–107; Rogers, George Washington 181–182; Thompson, Egbert 206–207 Plum Point Bend 1862 Battle see Fort Pillow, TN, 1862 Battle Pocahontas (USN Gunboat): Dove, Benjamin 73–74; Drayton, Percival 76, 77–78; Nicholson, James William Augustus “War Horse” 150–151 Pontchartrain (CSN Gunboat): Dunnington, John William 79–80; Gamble, William Marshall 89–90 Pontiac (USN Gunboat): Luce, Stephen Bleecker 127, 128–129 Port Hudson, LA, 1862–1863 Battle 39, 50, 160, 168, 201, 219 Port Royal, SC, 1861 Battle 13, 22, 77, 128, 150, 155, 187, 201, 218, 228 Porter, William David “Dirty Bill” 167, 168–169 Potomac (USN Supply Ship): Davis, John Lee 72–73 Potter, Edward Eells 169–170 Powhatan (USN Steam Sloop): Bache, George Mifflin, II 16– 17; Thompson, Egbert 206– 207; Young, Jonathan 227–228
Jones, John Pembroke “Paul Jones” 116, 117–118 Ramsay, Francis Munroe “Frank” 174–175 Rattler (USN Tinclad No. 1): Carter, Jonathan Hanby 52–53; Smith, Watson 197–198 Red River, LA, 1864 Battles 17, 37, 59, 66, 98, 106, 122–123, 145–146, 152, 161, 174, 181, 189, 198, 208, 214, 227 Red Rover (CSN/USN steamer): Barbot, Alphonse Pierre 23–24 Resolute (CSN Gunboat): Gwathmey, Washington 101– 102; Jones, John Pembroke “Paul Jones” 116, 117–118; Pinkney, Robert F. 166–167 Rhind, Alexander Colden 175– 176 Rhode Island (USN Gunboat): Semmes, Alexander Alderman 190–191 Richmond (CSN Ironclad Ram): Kell, John Mcintosh 118–119; Loyall, Benjamin Pollard 126– 127; Pegram, Robert Baker 157–158; Webb, William Augustine 220–221 Riley, Robert K. 177 Roanoke (USN Monitor): Gansevoort, Guert 90–91; Kell, John Mcintosh 118–119; Rowan, Stephen Clegg 184– 186; Sands, Benjamin Franklin 187–188 Roanoke (USN Steam Frigate): Fillebrown, Thomas Scott, Jr. 85, 86–87; Lull, Edward Phelps 129–130 Roanoke Island, NC, 1862 Battle 60, 62, 185 Rochelle, James Henry 177–178 Rodgers, George Washington, II 178–179 Rodgers, John, II 179, 180–181 Rogers, George Washington 181–182 Rogers, John 182–183 Rootes, Thomas Reade “Old Tom” 183–184 Rowan, Stephen Clegg 184–186 R.R. Cuyler (USN Gunboat): Downes, John Albert, Jr. 74– 75 Rutledge, John 186–187
Quakenbush, Stephen Platt 171– 172 Queen City (USN Tinclad No. 26): Goudy, Jason 94–95; Rogers, John 182–183
Saco (USN Gunboat): Walker, John Grimes 215–216 Sacramento (USN Steam Sloop): Walke, Henry 212, 213–214 St. Lawrence (USN Sail Frigate): Downes, John Albert, Jr. 74– 75; Picking, Henry Forry 165– 166
Radford, William 172–174 Raleigh (CSN Ironclad Ram):
253 St. Louis (USN Center-Wheel Ironclad) see Baron De Kalb St. Louis (USN Sail Sloop): Beaumont, John Colt 26, 27– 28; Greer, James Augustus 97, 98–99 San Jacinto (USN Steam Frigate): Chandler, Ralph 53, 54–55; Fairfax, Donald Macneill 82, 83–84; Greer, James Augustus 97, 98–99 Sands, Benjamin Franklin 187– 188 Sangamon (USN Monitor): Chandler, Ralph 53, 54–55; Cooper, George Henry 62, 63– 64; Crosby, Pierce 68, 69–70; Fillebrown, Thomas Scott, Jr. 85, 86–87; Guest, John 99– 100; Miller, Joseph Nelson 143, 144–145; Young, Jonathan 227–228 Sassacus (USN Gunboat): Davis, John Lee 72–73 Saugus (USN Monitor): Colhoun, Edmund Ross 60–61; Phelps, Thomas Stowell, Sr. 161–163 Savannah (CSN Gunboat): Maffitt, John Newland “Prince of Privateers” 131, 132–133 Savannah (CSN Ironclad Ram): Brent, Thomas William 32–33; Gwathmey, Washington 101– 102; Jones, John Pembroke “Paul Jones” 116, 117–118; Pinkney, Robert F. 166–167 Savannah (USN Sail Frigate): Barrett, Edward Andre Gabriel 24, 25–26 Scioto (USN Gunboat): Perkins, George Hamilton 159–160 Sea Bird (USN Howitzer Schooner): Clark, Charles Peter 57–58 Sebago (USN Double-Ender Gunboat): Ammen, Daniel 13, 14–16; Beaumont, John Colt 26, 27–28 Selfridge, Thomas Oliver, Jr. 188, 189–190 Selma (CSN Gunboat): Simms, Charles Carroll 193–194 Semmes, Alexander Alderman 190–191 Seneca (USN Gunboat): Ammen, Daniel 13, 14–16; Belknap, George Eugene 28, 29–31; Rhind, Alexander Colden 175–176 Shawmut (USN Gunboat): Walker, John Grimes 215– 216 Shenandoah (USN Screw Sloop): Ammen, Daniel 13, 14–16
Shepherd Knapp (USN Gunboat): Eytinge, Henry St. Clair 82 Shepperd, Francis Edgar “Frank” 191–192 Shiloh 1862 Battle 59, 94, 103, 193 Shirk, James Whitehall 192–193 Signal (US Tinclad No. 8): Fitzpatrick, James W. 87–88 Silver Lake (USN Tinclad No. 23): Riley, Robert K. 177 Simms, Charles Carroll 193–194 Simpson, Edward 195–196 Sinclair, Arthur, III 196–197 Siren (U.S. Tinclad No. 56): Fitzpatrick, James W. 87–88 Smith, Watson 197–198 Snyder’s Bluff, MS see Vicksburg, MS, 1862 Battle Sonoma (USN Double-Ender Gunboat): Cooper, George Henry 62, 63–64; Fillebrown, Thomas Scott, Jr. 85, 86–87; Gamble, William Marshall 89– 90; Luce, Stephen Bleecker 127, 128–129; Stevens, Thomas Holdup 201, 202–203 Spanish Fort, AL see Mobile, AL, 1864–1865 Battle of Squib (CSN Armed Launch): Sinclair, Arthur, III 196–197 Steele’s Bayou, MS, 1863 Battle 16, 59, 106, 148, 152, 181 Stembel, Roger Nelson 198–199 Stevens, Henry Kennedy “Harry” or “Hal” 199–201 Stevens, Thomas Holdup 01, 202–203 Stone, Edward Erastus “E.E.” 203–204 Stonewall (CSN Ironclad Ocean Ram): Page, Thomas Jefferson “The Commodore” 153–154 Sumter (CSN Ocean Raider): Kell, John Mcintosh 118–119 Sumter (CSN/USN Gunboat): Erben, Henry “Bully,” Jr. 80, 81–82 Supply (USN Supply Ship): Downes, John Albert, Jr. 74– 75; Walke, Henry 212, 213–214 Susquehanna (USN Steam Frigagte): Bankhead, John Payne “J.P.” 21–23; Weaver, Aaron Ward 218, 219–220; Young, Jonathan 227–228 Tahoma (USN Gunboat): Howell, John Cumming 108, 109– 110 Tattnall, Josiah, Jr. 204, 205–206 Tawah (USN Tinclad No. 29): Goudy, Jason 94–95
Index Teaser (CSN Gunboat): Rochelle, James Henry 177– 178; Webb, William Augustine 220–221 Tecumseh (USN Monitor): Craven, Tunis Augustus Macdonough “Tam” Or “Mac”, 67– 68 Tennessee (CSN/USN Ironclad Ram): Buchanan, Franklin “Old Buck” 44, 45–46; Johnston, James Douglas 113–114; Lull, Edward Phelps 129–130 Thompson, Egbert 206–207 Tioga (USN Double-Ender Gunboat): McCauley, Edward Yorke 138–139; Rodgers, George Washington, II 178– 179 Tohoma (USN Gunboat): Semmes, Alexander Alderman 190–191 Torch (CSN Torpedoboat): Shepperd, Francis Edgar “Frank” 191–192 Torpedo (CSN Gunboat): Jones, John Pembroke “Paul Jones” 116, 117–118 Townsend, Robert 207–209 Trent’s Reach, VA, 1865 Battle 117, 119, 184, 192 Tucker, John Randolph 209–210 Tunxis (USN Monitor): Erben, Henry “Bully,” Jr. 80, 81–82 Turner, Thomas, Jr. 210, 211–212 Tuscaloosa (CSN Ironclad Steam Battery): Maury, William Lewis 133–134; McBlair, Charles Henry 136–137 Tuscarora (CSN Gunboat): Dunnington, John William 79–80 Tuscarora (USN Steam Sloop): Craven, Tunis Augustus Macdonough “Tam” “Mac” 67–68 Tuscumbia (USN Ironclad): Badger, Oscar Charles 19–21; Shirk, James Whitehall 192– 193 Tyler (USN Timberclad Gunboat): Bache, George Mifflin, II 16–17; Coleman, Silas Bunker 58–60; Gipson, James C. 91–93; Gwin, William 102– 103; Rogers, John, II 179, 180– 181; Walke, Henry 212, 213–214 Unadilla (USN Gunboat): Cilley, Greenleaf 55, 56–57; Quakenbush, Stephen Platt 171–172; Ramsay, Francis Munroe “Frank” 174–175 Underwriter (USN Gunboat): Jeffers, William Nicholson, III 111, 112–113
Index United States (CSN Receiving Ship): Rootes, Thomas Reade “Old Tom” 183–184 Vandalia (USN Sail Sloop): Chandler, Ralph 53, 54–55 Vicksburg, MS, 1862 Battle 16, 59, 69, 73, 81, 100, 103, 105, 122, 125, 152, 160–161, 168–169, 177, 181, 193, 198, 213, 215, 221 Vicksburg, MS, 1863 Battle 16, 34–35, 59, 98, 106, 148, 152, 174, 181, 193, 198, 214–215, 221 Vincennes (USN Sail Sloop): Madigan, John, Jr. 130–131 Vindicator (USN Ram): Hoel, William Rion 105, 106–107; Selfridge, Thomas Oliver, Jr. 188, 189–190 Virginia (CSN Ironclad Ram): Buchanan, Franklin “Old Buck” 44, 45–46; Jones, Catesby ap Roger 114, 115–116; Jones, John Pembroke “Paul Jones” 116, 117–118; Simms, Charles Carroll 193–194; Tattnall, Josiah, Jr. 204, 205–206 Virginia II (CSN Ironclad Ram): Dunnington, John William 79–80; Pegram, Robert Baker 157–158; Shepperd, Francis Edgar “Frank” 191–192 Wabash (USN Screw Frigate): Cushman, Charles Haddock
254 70–72; Luce, Stephen Bleecker 127, 128–129; Simpson, Edward 195–196 Wachusett (USN Steam Sloop): Townsend, Robert 207–209 Walke, Henry 212, 213–214 Walker, John Grimes 215–216 Wamsutta (USN Gunboat): Semmes, Alexander Alderman 190–191 Warley, Alexander Fraser 216– 218 Warsaw Sound, SC, 1865 Battles 14 Water Witch (USN/CSN Gunboat): Davis, John Lee 72–73; Warley, Alexander Fraser 216– 218 Weaver, Aaron Ward 218, 219– 220 Webb, William Augustine 220– 221 Weehawken (USN Monitor): Badger, Oscar Charles 19–21; Bunce, Francis Marvin 46, 47–48; Colhoun, Edmund Ross 60–61; Rogers, John, II 179, 180–181 Weldon N. Edwards (CSN Gunboat): Cooke, James Wallace 61–62 White River, AR, 1862 Battles 17, 78–79, 120, 140, 193, 221 Wilson, Byron 221–222 Winnebago (USN Monitor):
Kirkland, William Alexander “Ashe” “Red Bill” “El Rubio” 120, 121–122; Stevens, Thomas Holdup 201, 202–203 Winona (USN Gunboat): Walker, John Grimes 215–216; Weaver, Aaron Ward 218, 219– 220 Winslow (CSN Gunboat): Sinclair, Arthur, III 196–197 Winslow, John Ancrum 222, 223–224 Wissahickon (USN Gunboat): Davis, John Lee 72–73; Gamble, William Marshall 89–90; Potter, Edward Eells 169–170 Worden, John Lorimer 224–226 Wright, Thomas 226–227 Wyoming (USN Steam Sloop): Bankhead, John Payne “J.P.” 21–23; Kirkland, William Alexander “Ashe” “Red Bill” “El Rubio” 120, 121–122 Yankee (USN Tugboat): Selfridge, Thomas Oliver, Jr. 188, 189–190 Yazoo River, MS, 1863 Battles 16, 174, 192, 215 Yazoo Pass, MS, 1863 Expedition 36, 88, 146, 192, 198, 215 Young, Jonathan 227–228