Background
Thomas Harman Patterson was born on May 10, 1820 in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. He was the son of Daniel Todd Patterson and George Ann (Pollock) Patterson.
Thomas Harman Patterson was born on May 10, 1820 in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. He was the son of Daniel Todd Patterson and George Ann (Pollock) Patterson.
Thomas Harman Patterson was appointed midshipman on April 5, 1836, and served first for seven months in the Porpoise, participating in coast survey work, and from 1837 to 1840 in the Falmouth, Pacific Squadron. Following a year at the naval school in Philadelphia he was made passed midshipman July 1, 1842, standing sixth in his class of thirty-six. He was at the Naval Observatory in 1843, and then spent a year in the West Indies on board the Lawrence. He served again in the coast survey from 1844 to 1848. Promotion to the rank of lieutenant came on June 23, 1849, just before a long Pacific cruise in the Vandalia. After his return in October 1852 he was assigned to special duty in Washington. Then followed a cruise in the Jamestown, African Squadron, from 1854 to 1857, two years at the Washington navy yard, and another African cruise in the Mohican.
His Civil War service began in October 1861 when he sailed from Boston for Virginia waters in command of the gunboat Chocura. The Chocura was in the naval force which cooperated with McClellan during the Peninsular Campaign in the spring of 1862. It was the first gunboat to ascend the Pamunkey River to Whitehouse after the evacuation of Yorktown on May 4, and supported Gen. George Stoneman's advance at that point. Patterson was made commander July 16, 1862, and from June to October of that year he was senior officer in the York and Pamunkey rivers. From November 1862 to June 1865 he commanded the sidewheel gunboat James Adger on the southeast coast blockade. His ship assisted in cutting out the blockade-runner Kate under the Confederate batteries at New Inlet, North Carolina, on August 1, 1863, and on August 23 came under heavy fire near this point while destroying the beached vessel Hebe.
Patterson's captures of blockade-runners in this year included the Cornubia, on November 8, the steamer Robert E. Lee with valuable arms and stores, on November 9, and the schooner Ella on November 26. He was senior officer of the offshore blockade at Charleston from September 1864 to February 1865, and a month later operated with the convoy fleet in the Mariguana Passage in the West Indies. He was made captain July 22, 1866, commodore in 1871, and rear admiral in 1877. He commanded the Brooklyn, flagship of the Brazil Squadron from 1865 to 1867, and during the next ten years was assigned to various shore duties, being commandant of the Washington navy yard from 1873 to 1876. From 1878 to October 1880, Patterson commanded the Asiatic Squadron, and was subsequently engaged in revising the naval regulations. Following his retirement on May 10, 1882, Thomas Harman Patterson made his home in Washington where his death occurred after more than three years of ill health on April 9, 1889.
Quotes from others about the person
A classmate, Rear Admiral T. H. Stevens, described Thomas Harman Patterson as a man "of great dignity of manner and reticent but to those who knew the warm heart beneath the cold exterior of lovable nature, a constant, unswerving friend. "
Thomas Harman Patterson was married in Washington on January 5, 1847, to Maria Montrésor Wainwright, daughter of Colonel R. D. Wainwright, United States M. C. They had one daughter and four sons.