Background
Walter Queen was born on October 6, 1824 in Washington, District of Columbia, United States. He was the son of John William and Mary G. (Wells) Queen.
Walter Queen was born on October 6, 1824 in Washington, District of Columbia, United States. He was the son of John William and Mary G. (Wells) Queen.
Appointed a midshipman on October 7, 1841, Wiliam served in the Macedonian and Marion, of the West India Squadron, and in the Perry, of the East India Squadron, from 1843 to 1845. Attached to the Cumberland and the Ohio during the Mexican War, he landed at Fort Point Isabel with a detachment of midshipmen and marines to cooperate in the battles of Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma. Later, he participated in the attacks on Tampico and Alvarado, and in the capture of Vera Cruz and Tuspan. He was made a passed midshipman on August 10, 1847, and was ordered, after the war, to the naval school at Annapolis, where he engaged in a duel with Midshipman Byrd W. Stevenson and was severely wounded. At the outbreak of the Civil War, the Powhatan, Capt. David Dixon Porter, reënforced Fort Pickens, where Queen had charge of the squadron's boats for nineteen days.
In April 1862, he commanded the seven vessels comprising the second division of Porter's mortar flotilla, which bombarded Forts Jackson and St. Philip, and assisted Farragut to force the passage and capture New Orleans. He participated later in a similar bombardment at Vicksburg, while Farragut ran past the batteries. Promoted for gallantry to the rank of lieutenant commander on July 16, 1862, he commanded the Florida and the gunboat Wyalusing of the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron from 1863 to 1864. On May 5, 1864, Queen's gunboat, accompanied by six others of the "pasteboard fleet" under Captain Melancton Smith, gallantly engaged the Confederate ram Albemarle and two wooden vessels off the mouth of the Roanoke River. Though the Federal vessels were badly damaged, the Bombshell was captured, and the ram retired with her tiller disabled and smokestack riddled, unable to cooperate in an attack on New Bern.
From 1865 to 1867 Queen was ordnance inspector at the Scott Foundry, Reading, Pa. , and on a board to examine volunteer officers for the navy at Hartford, Connecticut, and at Washington, D. C. He was made a commander on July 25, 1866, commanded the Tuscarora, South Pacific and North Atlantic Stations, the receiving ship Potomac, and was on duty at the Washington navy yard. Promoted to the rank of captain on June 4, 1874, he was in command of the Saranac, North Pacific Station, when she was lost on an uncharted sunken rock off the coast of Alaska. His important later commands were: the receiving ships, Worcester and Franklin, Norfolk; the flagship Trenton, European Station; and the Washington navy yard. After his retirement in October of the same year, he joined Admiral John Jay Almy in profitable real estate investments in northwest Washington. He died of heart disease on October 24, 1893 and was buried in Arlington Cemetery.
Walter Queen was married to Christiana Crosby, a sister of Admiral Peirce Crosby.