Background
Andrew Hull Foote was born in New Haven, Connecticut, United States on September 12, 1806, the son of Senator Samuel A. Foot (or Foote) and Eudocia Hull.
Andrew Hull Foote was born in New Haven, Connecticut, United States on September 12, 1806, the son of Senator Samuel A. Foot (or Foote) and Eudocia Hull.
His father compromised and had him entered at the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York. Six months later in 1822, he left West Point and accepted an appointment as a midshipman in the United States Navy.
Foote entered the navy as a midshipman in 1822. Foote served in the West Indies under the elder David Porter and then in the Pacific for three years. His temperance work while on Mediterranean service resulted in abolition of the navy's spirit ration in 1862. He was placed in command of the Perry on the African coast in 1849 and was energetic in suppressing the slave trade. Foote commanded the sloop Portsmouth in the Far East from 1856 to 1858, and then he served as commandant of the New York Naval Shipyard in Brooklyn. In 1861 he was put in charge of naval operations on the upper Mississippi. Foote's flotilla engaged Fort Henry on the Tennessee River and forced its surrender before the arrival of General Ulysses S. Grant's army. Foote received two wounds in the engagement. The fall of this fort broke the Confederate line of defense in northern Tennessee. Island No. 10 surrendered to Foote on April 7, 1862, and Fort Pillow, 80 miles (130 km) above Memphis, was evacuated on June 4; Memphis then surrendered to Charles H. Davis, Foote's successor. Foote was invalided, but remained in nominal command until June 17. Promoted to rear admiral on June 16, he was chief of the Bureau of Equipment and Recruiting during the winter of 1862-1863. In June 1863 he was appointed commander of the Union squadron before Charleston but died in New York City on June 26, before he could assume command.