George Foster Emmons, the son of Horatio and Abigail (Foster) Emmons, was born at Clarendon, Vermont. The Emmons family emigrated from England in 1718 and settled in Connecticut. Horatio served throughout the War of 1812 as an officer in the army.
George Foster was appointed a midshipman on April 1, 1828, and learned the rudiments of his profession at the New York Naval School.
Horatio served throughout the War of 1812 as an officer in the army.
His second extensive cruise was in the Mediterranean on the frigate Brandywine in 1830-33.
Joining the Wilkes Exploring Expedition in 1838 as acting lieutenant of the Peacock, the second ship of the squadron, he remained with that vessel until it was wrecked at the mouth of the Columbia River.
In the fall of 1841 he conducted an exploring party overland from the Columbia to San Francisco, obtaining much scientific information and adding not a few objects to the collection of the expedition.
In the same year he was commissioned lieutenant.
In 184346 Emmons served on the Boston of the Brazil Squadron.
During the Mexican War he was with the Ohio of the Pacific Squadron and was employed on shore expeditions in California, including a journey to the Sierra Nevada Mountains as a bearer of dispatches to Gen. Mason.
From 1853 (June) to 1856 he was attached to the Savamiah, the flagship of the Brazil Squadron, part of the time as commander, a grade that he reached in the last-named year.
In May 1861, Emmons was appointed a member of the Light House Board, but in the fall of that year was sent to the Gulf of Mexico on blockade duty.
For about two years he served in the Gulf and on the Mississippi River, commanding the Hatteras, R. R. Cuyler, and other vessels, and taking several prizes.
In the fall of the year of 1862 he was fleet captain under Rear-Admiral Dahlgren of the South Atlantic blockading squadron.
A year later he returned to the Gulf where he commanded one of the divisions of the West Gulf blockading squadron, with the Lackawanna as his flagship.
Off the coast of Texas he captured several Confederate blockade-runners, laden with cotton and other supplies.
In 1867 Emmons, while in command of the Ossipee, conveyed to Alaska the American and Russian commissioners appointed to consummate the purchase of that country by the United States.
Commissioned commodore in 1868, he spent the rest of his active duty at shore stations, chiefly as head of the Hydrographic Office in Washington and as commandant of the Philadelphia navy-yard.
On Aug. 23, 1873, he was retired as rear-admiral, a grade to which he had been promoted in the previous November.
He long resided at Princeton, New Jersey, where he died.
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From 1850 to 1853 he was with the Bureau of Construction and Repair in Washington, and it was during this tour of duty that he compiled an exceedingly useful book, The Navy of the United States from the Commencement, 1775 to 1853, with a Brief History of Each Vessel's Service and Fate (1853).
member of the Light House Board
His wife, Frances Antonia Thornton, of Virginia descent, whom he married on January 10, 1843, was the daughter of a purser in the navy.
