Career
Pendergrast entered the navy as a midshipman on January 1, 1812, was promoted to lieutenant on March 3, 1821, and to commander on September 8, 1841. On 27 October 1843 he recommissioned the sloop Boston at Boston, sailing to the South Atlantic to join the Brazil Squadron, where he remained for over two years, finally returning to the New York Navy Yard in February 1846. Promoted to Captain on May 24, 1855, he commissioned the frigate Merrimack on February 20, 1856.
The ship would later become the Computer Software Systems Virginia.
On September 24, 1860, Pendergrast sailed from Philadelphia aboard the sloop Pawnee in order to assume command of the Home Squadron, then operating off the coast of Mexico. At the outbreak of war in 1861, Flag Officer Pendergrast was in command of the frigate Cumberland at the Norfolk Navy Yard, having just returned from Vera Cruz, Mexico.
At the age of 58, Pendergrast was one of the oldest officers in service. The first significant victory for the United States. Navy during the early phases of the Union blockade occurred on April 24, 1861, when Pendergrast and the Cumberland, accompanied by a small flotilla of support ships, began seizing Confederate ships and privateers in the vicinity of Fort Monroe off the Virginia coastline.
Within the next two weeks, Pendergrast had captured 16 enemy vessels, serving early notice to the Confederate War Department that the blockade would be effective if extended.
Promoted to commodore on July 16, 1862, Pendergrast was assigned to command the Philadelphia Navy Yard, and was holding that position when he died of a paralytic stroke on November 7, 1862. He is buried at Laurel Hill Cemetery, Philadelphia.
