Aaron Ward Weaver

Background

Aaron Ward, a son of Lieut. William Augustus Weaver of the United States Navy, and Jane (Van Wyck) Weaver, was born in Washington, D. C.

Education

In 1853 he entered the United States Naval Academy, studied there for one year, and was graduated in the class of 1854 and commissioned a passed midshipman.

Career

On May 10, 1848, he was appointed a midshipman in the navy and ordered to the coast of Brazil, where he served for four years on the sloop St. Louis and the frigate Congress. He was given his first assignment in the new steam navy on the Fulton. In 1856 he was ordered to Coast Survey duty on the steamer Walker, and in 1857 was transferred to the steamer Arctic. On this vessel, under Commander O. H. Berryman, he assisted in the survey of Trinity Bay, Newfoundland, for the projected Atlantic telegraph cable, and in deep-sea soundings in the Gulf Stream. Late that year he was ordered to the Marion and cruised off the coast of Africa on the lookout for slavers. Off the Congo River the Marion captured the bark Ardennes, and Weaver, then a lieutenant, brought her to New York, arriving in July 1859. When the Civil War broke out he was ordered to duty on the steam frigate Susquehanna. He participated in the capture of Fort Hatteras and Fort Clarke at Hatteras Inlet, N. C. , August 28-29, 1861, and of Fort Beauregard and Fort Walker, Port Royal, S. C. , November 7, 1861. The following April, before the fall of Fort Pulaski, he had charge of the Susquehanna's armed launches, convoying guns up to the army battery at Venus Point. When in May 1862 the Susquehanna cooperated with McClellan's operations in the Peninsular campaign, Weaver participated in the engagement with the Confederate batteries at Sewell's Point. That autumn he was given the command of the steam gunboat Winona and joined the Mississippi River Squadron. A period of most arduous service patrolling the lower river followed: on December 14, 1862, he engaged a Confederate battery on Profit Island near Port Hudson, his ship being struck twenty-seven times; the following summer the Winona shelled and drove off a troop of Texas cavalry which had attacked the town of Plaquemine, La. ; ten days later Weaver with the assistance of two other gunboats routed a large force of Texas cavalry when they attacked Fort Butler, Donaldsonville, La. , over one hundred Confederates being killed or wounded. For this service he was commended by Farragut, and by Maj. H. M. Porter of the army. In January 1864 Weaver was ordered to join the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron and captured the blockade runner Ada. In June he was transferred to the steamship Chippewa and in her participated in the first attack on Fort Fisher. After the battle Admiral Porter gave him the command of the monitor Mahopac, and in this vessel he took part in the second bombardment and the capture of the fort. For his part in the action, he was favorably mentioned by Porter and recommended for promotion, and was also mentioned favorably by Commodore William Radford, commander of the ironclad division. Weaver in the Mahopac assisted in the capture of Charleston, and participated in the night bombardment of the works near Richmond just prior to the evacuation of the city. After the war he rose through the grades to the rank of rear admiral (June 27, 1893), his work being of an uneventful routine nature; on September 26, 1893, he was retired. Thereafter he lived quietly in Washington.

Connections

On Feburary 13, 1864, he married Ida Hyatt of Baltimore.

Father:

William Augustus Weaver

Mother:

Jane (Van Wyck) Weaver

Spouse:

Ida Hyatt