Melancton Smith was an American naval officer during the Seminole Wars and the American Civil War.
Background
Melancton was born on May 24, 1810 in New York City, New York, United States. His grandfather, Melancton Smith, having been prominent in early New York politics and his father, a colonel in the War of 1812. His mother was Cornelia Haring Jones.
Education
He studied at the naval school in New York.
Career
On March 1, 1826, Smith entered the naval service, and after three years in the Pacific and was made passed midshipman in April 1832. During the next decade his sea duty was chiefly in the West Indies and his shore duty in New York, with promotion to lieutenant in 1837 and active participation (June 1839 - March 1840) in the Seminole War in Florida. He was in the Mediterranean, 1841-43; in the Vandalia, Home Squadron, 1844-46; executive of the Pensacola yard during the Mexican War; and again in the Mediterranean in the Constitution, 1848-51.
In 1855 he was made commander, but save for a few months as executive of the Potomac in 1855 he had no further sea service until the opening of the Civil War, when he was sent to the mouth of the Mississippi in command of the Massachusetts. Here he had a long-range cannonade with Confederate batteries on Ship Island, July 9, 1861, and another with the Florida on October 19.
Speaking of his "efficient service, " the Navy Department ordered him north at the close of 1861, but soon sent him back to command the side-wheeler Mississippi in Farragut's force against New Orleans. The Mississippi, as third ship of the first division, was heavily engaged in the night passage of the forts below New Orleans on April 23-24, 1862, had a seven-foot gash cut in her side by the ram Manassas, and at daybreak drove the ram ashore and riddled it with two broadsides. Continuing in Farragut's squadron through the ensuing year, the Mississippi, on the night of March 14, 1863, participated in the attempt to pass the batteries at Port Hudson. At a bend in the narrow channel she grounded directly under the enemy guns, and after desperate efforts to save his ship Smith was forced to fire and abandon her, drifting with his men in boats to the Union vessels below.
In the monitor Onondaga he was afterward a divisional commander in the James River, and in May-June 1864 he commanded a half dozen or more wooden gunboats in Albemarle Sound during efforts to destroy the ram Albemarle. He commanded the Wabash in Porter's fleet against Fort Fisher, and was warmly commended by Porter for his handling of his ship during the two heavy bombardments in December-January 1864-65.
Made captain in 1862, commodore in 1866, and rear admiral in 1870, he was chief of the Bureau of Equipment and Recruiting, 1866-70, and was subsequently in charge of the New York Navy Yard until shortly after his retirement, May 24, 1871. He was governor of the Philadelphia Naval Asylum, 1871-72.
Smith died on July 19, 1893 at Green Bay, Wiscosin, United States.
Achievements
Personality
He was an earnest, religious man, without humor, he was a dogged fighter.
Quotes from others about the person
Admiral George Dewey, who as a youthful officer was executive under Smith described the personality of his commander: "He was a pronounced character, " writes Dewey, "absolutely fearless, with something of Farragut's grim determination in the midst of battle. He smoked continually, lighting one cigar with the butt of another, whether shells were bursting around him or he was lounging on the deck. His hobby, except in the matter of cigars, was temperance. "
Connections
In 1837 he married Mary Jackson, daughter of Thomas Jones of Long Island, New York; she died at South Oyster Bay, Long Island, April 4, 1885.