born Sept. 27, 1809, Charles county, Md., U.S.
died Aug. 30, 1877, Mobile, Ala.
U.S. naval officer.
He joined the U.S. Navy in 1826, and in the Mexican War he commanded the naval landing at Veracruz. A resident of Alabama, he resigned his commission in 1861 and was appointed a commander in the Confederate navy. He captured 17 Union merchant ships before assuming command of the English-made Alabama in 1862. On numerous raids he captured, sank, or burned 82 Union ships, disrupting Union commerce. In 1864 he was defeated in a battle with the Union ship Kearsarge in the English Channel, but he escaped capture. After the war he practiced law. See also Alabama claims .