Background
Cadwalader Ringgold was born on August 20, 1802 at "Fountain Rock, " his father's estate in Washington County, Maryland, the son of Samuel Ringgold, a prominent Democrat and congressman, and his first wife, Maria, the daughter of John Cadwalader. He was descended from Thomas Ringgold, who settled in Kent County, Maryland, in 1650.
Career
He was appointed midshipman on March 4, 1819, made lieutenant in 1828, and commander in 1849. His notable service in this period included command of the schooner Weasel against West Indian pirates; cruises in the Vandalia to the Pacific, 1828-32, and in the Adams to the Mediterranean, 1834-35; and command of the Porpoise in the Wilkes Exploring Expedition, 1838-42. Under Wilkes he cruised along the antarctic continent, participated in a skirmish with Fiji islanders on August 18, 1840, made surveys along the west coast of America, and returned via the East Indies.
In 1849 and 1850 he engaged in further surveys on the California coast, and published in 1851 A Series of Charts, with Sailing Directions to the Bay of San Francisco, which reached a fifth edition the following year, and Correspondence to Accompany Maps and Charts of California.
He subsequently commanded the North Pacific surveying and exploring expedition, which left Norfolk in June 1853, charted numerous Pacific shoals and islands, and reached China in March 1854.
He delayed there to protect foreigners during revolutionary disturbances, and suffered a severe attack of intermittent fever which greatly weakened him physically and mentally. Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry, returning to Canton from Japan in July, ordered a medical survey, and on its pronouncement that he was insane put the expedition under Commander John Rodgers and sent him home on September 4 in the Susquehanna. Ringgold, who had considerably recovered in the meantime, resented Perry's action bitterly, and his resentment increased when he was placed on the reserved list on September 13, 1855, by a board of which Perry was a member.
A medical survey upon his return had declared him fully recovered, and in 1857, after a review of his case, he was made captain on the active list with his promotion to date from April 2, 1856. After working in Washington on charts of his expedition, which remained unpublished, he commanded in the Civil War the sail-frigate Sabine, which left Norfolk on September 24, 1861, for blockade duty off Georgetown, South Carolina.
During the gale which scattered Du Pont's squadron approaching Port Royal on November 2, Ringgold, displaying expert seamanship, rescued a marine battalion from the disabled steamer Governor, saving all but seven of the 400 men aboard.
He was to have joined Du Pont for the Port Royal attack on November 9, but, owing to delayed orders, he arrived too late, and this, with the fact that Du Pont was also on the board of 1855, probably explains the latter's slight acknowledgment of his services.
After returning to New York in December he sailed on March 12, 1862, in search of the U. S. S. Vermont, adrift rudderless between New York and Bermuda, and, again exhibiting creditable seamanship, located her on March 29 off Bermuda, and provided supplies and assistance which enabled her to proceed unaccompanied. For his first rescue he received commendatory resolutions from the New York aldermen and the legislature of Maryland, and for both exploits a vote of thanks from Congress, though the departmental attitude is reflected in Secretary Welles's comment that it was secured by "intrigue".
He was made commodore in July 1862, and in October, still in the Sabine, he sailed to the vicinity of the Cape Verdes in search for the Alabama, where he remained till June 1863. Save for brief coastal cruises this was his last wartime employment until his retirement for age on August 20, 1864. Two years later he was made rear admiral, retired.
He died of apoplexy in New York City, and was buried in Greenmount Cemetery, Baltimore, Maryland.