John Bonnett Marchand was born in Greensburg, Pennsylvania. He was the son of Dr. David and Catherine (Bonnett) Marchand. His father, a major-general of militia during the years 1812-14 and a member of Congress from 1817 to 1821, was descended from emigrants from Switzerland.
Marchand attended the Norfolk naval school.
Young Marchand entered the navy as a midshipman on May 1, 1828, and in the years 1829-32 saw his first sea service in the West Indies on the Peacock and Porpoise. After attending the Norfolk naval school and receiving in June 1834 a promotion to the rank of passed midshipman, he served from 1834 to 1837 with the Mediterranean Squadron, first on the Potomac, and later the John Adams. Attached to the Porpoise he engaged in the survey of the Savannah River, and then again served in the West Indies. In 1840 he was promoted lieutenant and a year later, while in command of the Van Buren, he took part in the war against the Seminole Indians. From 1843 to 1845 he cruised in the East Indies on the Brandywine. In the Mexican War he served on the Ohio and participated in the bombardment of the castle of San Juan de Ulloa. After the war, a second cruise in the East Indies was followed by a second period of service in the Mediterranean. In 1855 he was advanced to the grade of commander and in 1858-59 he commanded the Memphis of the Paraguay expedition. At the outbreak of the Civil War, while acting as lighthouse inspectorat Detroit, he was offered the command of a Michigan regiment but declined it, preferring service in the navy. On his application for active duty, he was on August 31, 1861, placed in command of the James Adger and was employed in blockading the coast of South Carolina and searching for the Confederate steamer Nashville. Promoted captain from July 16, 1862, he was in the following October ordered to the Lackawanna. In February 1863 he reported to Admiral Farragut for blockade duty in the Gulf of Mexico. After capturing the Neptune and Planter, which ran the blockade at Mobile, he was placed in command of the third division of Farragut's squadron operating on the coast of Texas. He returned eastward in time to participate in the battle of Mobile Bay and in the capture of the ram Tennessee. In the latter part of 1864 he was detached from the Lackawanna and assigned to special duty. His last years of service were spent ashore on duty at Hartford and elsewhere and in command of the Philadelphia navy yard. He was promoted commodore from July 25, 1866, and was retired in that grade on August 27, 1870. He died at his home in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.
His wife, Margaret Donaldson Thornton, to whom he was married in 1856 or 1857, was the daughter of a naval paymaster.
