Stephen Platt Quackenbush was an American naval officer.
Background
Stephen Quackenbush was born on January 23, 1823 in the old Quackenbush mansion, Albany, New York. He was the son of John N. and Nancy (Smith) Quackenbush. Stephen was also a descendant of Pieter Quackenbosh who emigrated from Leyden, Holland, about 1660.
Education
In 1843 - 1845, Stephen Platt Quackenbush studied for a short time at the naval academy and was made passed midshipman on July 11, 1846.
Career
On February 15, 1840 Stephen Platt was appointed midshipman from New York and after cruises in the Boston to the East Indies and around the world and in 1841 - 1842 in the Raritan to Brazil. He was in the sloop Albany on blockade duty and in operations against Vera Cruz during the Mexican War, then in the Supply, Mediterranean Squadron, and after two years in the Coast Survey, an officer of the mail steamers Pacific and Illinois in 1850 - 1852. His promotion to the rank of lieutenant came in 1855, after two years in the Perry on the African coast. He served in the Wabash, Home Squadron, from 1857 to 1858, at the Philadelphia navy yard, in 1859 - 1861 and in the Congress on a Brazilian cruise. In the Civil War his first command was the gunboat Delaware, which participated in the capture of Roanoke Island on February 7 and 8, 1862, and was the flagship of the division commanded by Stephen Clegg Rowan in the destruction of the Confederate "mosquito" flotilla on February 10, the capture of New Bern, North Carolina, and subsequent operations in the Carolina sounds.
Ordered in May 1862 to the James River, and made lieutenant commander in July, Quackenbush was in action during the summer with shore defenses at Sewall's Point, Wilcox Landing, Malvern Hill, and elsewhere, supporting McClellan's army. Still in the Delaware, he covered Burnside's evacuation of Aquia Creek in August and afterward operated in the Potomac patrol. After a month's leave late in 1863 he again took up blockade duty off Wilmington, North Carolina, in the Pequot, a speedy propeller designed for pursuing blockade runners, and on March 4, 1864, he captured the Don, a new British steamer worth $200, 000. During the summer of 1864 while on patrol duty in the James River, he received a shot that took off his right leg.
In December he took command of the monitor Patapsco off Charleston. While dragging for torpedoes in Charleston harbor on January 15, 1865, the ship struck one and sank in twenty seconds with a loss of sixty-eight of her crew of 116. His last war command was the Mingoe off Georgetown, South Carolina. His post-war duty included command of the Conemaugh, Tuscarora, and Terror of the Atlantic Squadron in the period 1866 - 1872, of the receiving ship New Hampshire, 1873-75, and of the Pensacola naval station, 1880 - 1882. In 1885 he made his home in Washington after his retirement. Stephen Platt Quackenbush died of heart trouble on February 4, 1890 in Washington and was buried in Oak Hill Cemetery.
Achievements
Personality
Stephen Platt Quackenbush was a gallant, resolute and just man, typical of the old Knickerbocker stock, loyal to his friends and charitable to the erring.
Connections
On January 18, 1849 Stephen Platt Quackenbush was married to Cynthia Herrick Wright, daughter of Judge Deodatus Wright of Albany. They had two sons and a daughter.