Thomas pattison was born on February 8, 1822 in Troy, Rensselaer County, New York, United States. He was the son of Elias Pattison, who owned a large line of freight steamers on the Hudson, and Olivia (Gardiner) Pattison. On his father's side he was descended from Robert Pattison, who came from Ireland to Colerain, Massachussets, before the Revolution, and on his mother's side from George Gardiner, who settled in Rhode Island in 1638.
Career
Thomas Pattison was appointed midshipman March 2, 1839, and shortly thereafter sailed in the St. Louis on a Pacific cruise which lasted until December 1842. After taking short leave at home, he was assigned to a rigging loft in Boston, and then to the naval school at Philadelphia where he remained until he was promoted to passed midshipman in July 1845. During the Mexican War he served in the steamers Scorpion and Princeton, the frigates Raritan and Cumberland, the ordnance ship Electra, and the gunboat Reefer. He was on coast survey duty from 1850 to 1851, and then went to the China station as sailing master in the sloop Portsmouth, being promoted during the cruise to the rank of lieutenant. From 1855 to 1857 he was stationed at Boston on shore duty. While doing service in the Far East on the side-wheeler Mississippi, Pattison witnessed the bombardment of the Pei-ho River forts by the French and British in May 1858. A few months later he had occasion to escort from Simoda to Tokyo the first American minister to Japan, Townsend Harris. It is presumably on the basis of this visit or some slightly earlier official entry that Pattison is said to have been the first American naval officer to enter Tokyo.
After duty at the Sacketts Harbor naval station, New York, Thomas began his service in the Civil War as executive of the sloop Perry, which captured the privateer Savannah off Charleston on June 3, 1861. As this was the first privateer taken, the capture drew from Secretary Welles a commendatory letter to officers and crew. During the next autumn he commanded the steamer Philadelphia of the Potomac flotilla and twice in October was engaged with Confederate batteries along the river. From December 17, 1861, he commanded the steamer Sumter on the southeast coast blockade, and was senior officer at Fernandina, Florida, during the summer and autumn of 1862. Early in 1863 he was ordered to the Clara Dolson of Porter's Mississippi Squadron, and from March 12, 1863, until July 1, 1865, he was commandant of the naval station established in the former Confederate base at Memphis, Tenn. He had been made lieutenant commander July 16, 1862, was advanced to commander March 3, 1865, and received subsequent promotions to the rank of captain in 1870, commodore in 1877, and rear admiral November 1, 1883, three months before his retirement.
His sea commands after the war were the Muscota of the Atlantic Squadron from 1866 to 1867, the Richmond, which he commanded in the West Indies and then took to the Pacific coast in 1872, and the Saranac of the Pacific Squadron in 1874. He died at New Brighton, Staten Island, New York, where he had made his home after retirement on December 17, 1891.
Achievements
Connections
His wife was Serafina Catalina Webster of Cuba, whom Thomas Pattison married in Washington, D. C. , July 1, 1850. His only child, Maria Webster, married John Randle of New York.