Charles William Read

Background

Charles William Read was born on May 12, 1840 in Yazoo County, Mississippi. Nothing is known of his parents or his childhood.

Education

He entered the United States Naval Academy in September 1856, and was graduated in June 1860.

Career

He served as midshipman aboard the Pawnee and the Powhatan. When he received news of the secession of Mississippi he forwarded his resignation from Vera Cruz, Mexico, and returned to the United States in March 1861. He reported to the Confederate secretary of the navy, who appointed him an acting midshipman on April 13.

He was assigned to duty as sailing master on the cruiser McRae, which was shortly converted into a river gunboat with Read as executive officer. In February 1862 he was promoted to be lieutenant-for-the-war. He participated in the Ship Island expedition in July, in the successful night attack on the blockading squadron at the Head of the Passes in October, in the unsuccessful defense of Island No. 10, Tennessee; and New Madrid, Missouri, and in the unfortunate operations below New Orleans in March and April of the following year.

Shortly after the attack began on April 24, the captain was mortally wounded, and the command devolved on Read, who fought the McRae with gallantry. After the débâcle at New Orleans he was ordered to the squadron stationed below Fort Pillow, Tenn. , being assigned first to a shore battery, then to the C. S. S. Arkansas. He commanded the stern gun division of this ram in her five brilliant engagements during July and August. He was next assigned to a shore battery at Port Hudson, Louisiana, and was promoted in October to the rank of second lieutenant in the Regular Navy.

On account of his reputation for "gunnery, coolness and determination, " he was assigned to the cruiser Florida, then in Mobile harbor. He remained with her from November 1862 until early the following May when Capt. John Newland Maffitt placed him in command of the prize brig Clarence (off Brazil), and ordered him to raid the coast of the United States.

His crew consisted of one officer and twenty men, and his armament of one boat howitzer, which he supplemented by an imposing battery of dummy guns made from spars. He took twenty-one prizes in as many days between the latitude of Charleston, South Carolina, and Portland, Maine. Thirteen of them were burned, six bonded, and two recaptured. He transferred his flag, successively, to his fourth prize, the Tacony, and his twentieth, the schooner Archer.

In the last he sailed boldly into Portland harbor and captured the revenue cutter, Caleb Cushing, which was retaken a few hours later. During his consequent imprisonment at Fort Warren, on January 6, 1864, he was promoted to the rank of first lieutenant of the Provisional Navy.

He was exchanged in Virginia on October 18, 1864, assigned to the command of Battery Wood below Richmond, and was detached to the command of the torpedo boat division of the James River Squadron in January 1865. Shortly before the evacuation of Richmond, he was ordered to Shreveport, Louisiana, to command the seagoing ram William H. Webb.

Disguised as a Union cotton transport, he ran the gauntlet of the Federal fleet in the Mississippi River but just before gaining the sea he was blocked by the U. S. S. Richmond, April 24, 1865. Read beached and fired his ship and escaped with his crew into the swamp where they were subsequently captured. He was again imprisoned at Fort Warren, being released the following July. After the war he went into the merchant service as an owner-captain and in the rôle of ship broker supplied the Republic of Colombia with a gunboat.

He later became a Mississippi River bar pilot and one of the harbor masters of the port of New Orleans. He died at Meridian, Mississippi, after a painful illness which he bore with an unflinching courage characteristic of the mild-mannered young naval officer whose brilliant record was unsurpassed by any other officer of his rank in either the Union or Confederate Navies.

Achievements

• Read served as acting commander of the Arkansas during her final battle supporting the Confederate Army assaulting Baton Rouge, Louisiana on 6 August 1862.