William Talbot Truxtun was born on March 11, 1824 in Philadelphia, Pa. He was a grandson of Commodore Thomas Truxtun, and only son of William Truxtun by his marriage to Isabelle Shute Martin of South Carolina.
His father was a naval lieutenant who died at Key West in 1830.
He became a midshipman on Februery 9, 1841, and his early service at sea was in the Dolphin and Falmouth of the Home Squadron. He next cruised in the brig Truxtun on the African coast, in the suppression of the slave trade, and after six months at the newly established Naval Academy was made passed midshipman, August 10, 1847.
In 1847-48 he was on the Brazil station, and came home as prize-master of the former slaveship Independence, captured off Rio.
After three years in the Pacific, he served on board the Dolphin in 1853 in soundings for the first Atlantic cable, and in 1854 in the Strain expedition, surveying the Isthmus of Darien for a canal route. Only his iron constitution carried him through the hardships of this latter duty in the tropics, which is believed to have caused some permanent injury to his health.
After the outbreak of the Civil War, he was assigned in June 1861 as executive of the sailing sloop-of-war Dale in the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron, and subsequently commanded her on the southeast coast blockade, being senior officer during the summer of 1862 in St. Helena Sound, S. C.
Made lieutenant commander July 16, 1862, he commanded the Chocura from October 1862 to November 1863, chiefly on the Wilmington blockade, and thereafter the gunboat Tacony until the close of the war.
The Tacony operated in the North Carolina sounds during the summer of 1864, took part in an hour's sharp action with batteries at Plymouth, N. C. , October 31, 1864, before its occupation, and was engaged in Admiral Porter's squadron in both attacks on Fort Fisher, December 1864 and January 1865. Porter in a letter to Truxtun (Feb. 18, 1865) remarked: "There has been no other officer in this squadron in whom I have more confidence or for whom I have a higher respect".
His post-bellum service included duty as superintendent of naval coal shipments, 1866-67; in command of the Jamestown, North Pacific Squadron, 1868-70; in command of the Brooklyn in the North and South Atlantic, 1873-75; and at the Boston and Norfolk navy yards, 1876-80.
Thereafter he had special duty on the Norfolk harbor commission, and from 1885 until his retirement he commanded the Norfolk yard.
He was commissioned commodore May 1, 1882, and was nominated for rear admiral in February 1886, but he had aroused some political opposition during his navy-yard administration, and his promotion was delayed until prevented by his retirement for age March 11, 1886.
He died on 26 February 1887 at Norfolk.
He was twice married: first, October 15, 1856, to Annie Elizabeth, daughter of John E. Scott of Philadelphia, who died in 1873; and second, September 2, 1875, to Mary Calvert Walke of Norfolk. There were three children of the first marriage, and five of the second; one of the sons, William, became a lieutenant commander in the navy and died in 1905.
(1881–1939)
(1876–1876)
(1886–1935)
(1883–1971)
(1879–1976)
(1861–1905)
(1865–1906)
(1857–1914)
(1876–1890)
(1845–1928)
(1834–1873)
