Daniel Bowly Ridgely was born on August 1, 1813 near Lexington, Kentucky, where his father, also Daniel Bowly Ridgely, descended from a prominent Maryland family, had moved in 1810. His mother was Jane (Price) Ridgely, the daughter of Col. John Price.
Young Daniel and his brother, Richard Henry, were orphaned by their father's early death, and the former was placed in school for eighteen months among relatives at Rock Hill Academy, Ellicott City, near Baltimore, Maryland.
He was appointed a midshipman on April 1, 1828, and saw his first service on the sloop St. Louis in the Pacific. This was followed by duty on the receiving ship at Norfolk, the sloop Warren in the West Indies, the ship of the line Columbus in the Mediterranean and on the coast of Brazil, the brig Lawrence of the Home Squadron, the receiving ship Ontario, Baltimore, the Warren again, and the receiving ship Pioneer at Baltimore.
Meanwhile he was promoted to passed midshipman on June 14, 1834, and to the rank of lieutenant on September 10, 1840.
He was attached to the Naval Observatory, Washington, D. C. , 1850-52, under Matthew Fontaine Maury, to the receiving ship Ontario, Baltimore, and to the sloop Germantown in the West Indies.
Promoted to the rank of commander on September 14, 1855, he was given his first command, the steamer Atalanta, 1857-58, of the Paraguayan Expedition, and dispatched to demand satisfaction from the government of Paraguay for an insult to the flag of the United States and injuries to American citizens.
When the Civil War broke out, he was in command of the receiving ship Alleghany in Baltimore, which was moved to Annapolis on May 3, 1861, to assist in the protection of the Naval Academy. He received command of the steamer Santiago de Cuba on October 5, 1861, and cruised in the Gulf of Mexico and West Indian waters, capturing several blockade runners by August of the following year.
On November 16, 1862, he was advanced to the rank of captain. He took command of the steam sloop Shenandoah, North Atlantic Blockading Squadron, in June 1863, and cruised independently in West Indian waters, later participating in the blockade off Wilmington and New Inlet.
He took part in the attack on Fort Fisher on December 24 and 25, 1864, and in the capture on January 13 and 14, 1865, for which he was recommended for promotion by David Dixon Porter in his report to Welles, as one who also "has been very energetic during the war against blockade runners".
Ridgely was then ordered to Charleston where the Shenandoah assisted in the operations at Bull's Bay, and was present at the evacuation of that city. He commanded the Powhatan of Admiral Rodgers's squadron in the Pacific, and returned home in 1867 in command of the steamer Lancaster.
He had been promoted meanwhile to the rank of commodore on July 25, 1866, and was made a member of the examining board in Philadelphia in 1868.
He died of heart disease in this city on May 5 of the same year, and he was interred in Greenmount Cemetery in Baltimore.
He married Johanna M. Clemm of Baltimore on October 11, 1837, and they had one son, Dr. Nicholas Ridgely. His second wife, Elizabeth Dulany Rogers, whom he married on Feburary 8, 1858, survived him, dying in 1907. Their only child died in infancy.
