I91054: Franklin BUCHANAN C.S.N.Adm. (13 Sep 1800

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Franklin Buchanan was born in Baltimore, Maryland, on September 17, 1800. At the age of 14, he became a midshipman, and was promoted to lieutenant in 1825. Selected the first superintendent of the US Naval Academy, and commanded the "Susquehanna" in the Perry Expedition to Japan. In 1855, he was appointed a captain. Believing that his home state of Maryland would be soon seceding from the Union, he tendered his resignation from the US Navy on April 22, 1861. When he realized that Maryland was not going to leave the Union, he asked Navy Secretary Gideon Welles if he could withdraw his resignation. Welles refused to accept Buchanan into the US Navy again, and dismissed him from the service. Buchanan tried to remain neutral, but eventually joined the Confederate navy as a captain. After serving chief of the Confederate Bureau of Orders and Detail until February of 1862, he left administration and returned to combat service. Commanding the CSS "Virginia" ("Merrimack"), he surprised Union troops at Hampton Roads, destroying several ships. Wounded by bullet, he was unable to command the "Virginia" in its battle with the "Monitor" the next day. Promoted to August 26, 1862, Buchanan was promoted to admiral, and was placed in charge of naval forces at Mobile, Alabama. He fought fiercely in the Battle of Mobile Bay in August of 1864, until he was forced to surrender. Held prisoner until February of 1865, he was assigned to Mobile again, arriving in time to surrender the city. After the Civil War, Buchanan was made president of the Maryland Agricultural College (1868-69) (a bankrupt institution with only a handful of students, and turned it into the University of Maryland), and worked as an insurance executive in Mobile. Buchanan died at his home in Talbot County, Maryland, on May 1, 1874. http://www.multied.com/Bio/CWcGENS/CSABuchanan.html.

"Franklin Buchanan was a native of Maryland, but was appointed to the Navy from Pennsylvania, entering on January 28, 1815. A well-respected officer, he helped establish the Naval Academy at Annapolis and was its first president until he resigned to be on active duty in the Mexican War.

In 1861, he was number 47 on the list of USN Captains, and was the Commandant of the Washington Navy Yard. but resigned his commission in the U.S. Navy in expectation that his native state of Maryland would secede. When this failed to materialize, he applied for reinstatement but was refused with concerns about his loyalty. In his early days with the Confederacy, some Southerners also questioned his loyalty because of his attempt to rejoin the US Navy.

However, Buchanan had the respect of the Confederate Secretary of the Navy, Stephen Mallory. When Mallory needed the best officer to command the new, promising, but experimental, iron-clad CSS Virginia, he knew he wanted Buchanan. However, a strict seniority system prevailed and Buchanan could never be assigned as Captain of the most prized ship in the CS Navy as other, more senior, officers would demand the position. Instead, Mallory appointed Buchanan as Flag-Officer of the James River Squadron. Later, when the Virginia was completed, Buchanan naturally chose it as his flagship and assumed command of her. The Virginia never had a Captain appointed to her.

Buchanan was a bold commander, as were all the top commanders of the day. This trait was evidenced by his decision to turn the "trial trip" of the Virginia into her first combat. He alerted the Captains of his squadron but did not inform his crew until they were underway. This secrecy led to the complete surprise of the Union ships on a Saturday morning, although they had known the Virginia might come out at any time.

Buchanan did not cautiously test this untried ship. He immediately sailed past the broadsides one of the strongest of the Union fleet and rammed the USS Cumberland. With that success, he turned to destroy the Congress. Of the four ships that sailed to come to the aid of the Congress and Cumberland, three returned quickly to the safety of Fort Monroe while the fourth was helplessly aground. The Congress, having seen what happened to the Cumberland, tried to avoid being sunk by deliberately being towed aground. But the impregnable Virginia riddled the Congress until she surrendered.

This bold and utterly dominating attack left the Union Navy and Government in panic. Word was sent to the major ports such as Washington, Boston, and New York to prepare to blockade their entrances by sinking barges of rocks. Members of Lincoln's cabinet expected the Virginia to sail up and bombard the Capitol.

After the Congress surrendered, Buchanan ordered the capture of her officers, the rescue of the wounded, and directed that the others be allowed to escape overboard (an easy swim to shore). After all were off, the Congress was to be set afire as she was aground in an enemy-controlled area and could not be easily towed away. While the Beaufort attempted to carry out these orders and had some of the wounded on board, the Union troops opened fire on her, killing a number of Union sailors and some Confederate sailors. The Beaufort withdrew but Buchanan did not even conceive of what had happened. He sent his Flag Lieutenant, Minor, to set fire to the Congress. When he saw the troops fire on the small boat despite the white flag flying from the Congress, he was incensed. Unwisely, he started firing a musket towards the shore positions from the top deck of the Virginia. A minie-ball hit him in the leg near the femoral artery. After being wounded, he ordered hot shot to destroy the Congress by fire and for his Executive Officer, Catesby ap Roger Jones, to take command. Buchanan did this even knowing that his brother, McKean Buchanan, was paymaster on the Congress.

Buchanan was removed to the Naval Hospital on the Elizabeth River the next morning where he spent the next few months(?) recovering from his wounds. He eventually recovered and had other commands in the Confederacy. After the Battle of Hampton Roads, no Southerner ever doubted his loyalty, and he was promoted to Admiral. On August 5, 1864, he commanded the Tennessee and the fleet in Mobile Bay. He wounds were severe enough that his leg had to be amputated."
by Mabry Tyson [email protected]
http://cssvirginia.org/vacsn3/crew/virginia/buchanan.htm.

Admiral Franklin Buchanan, Confederate States Navy, (1800-1874)
Franklin Buchanan was born in Baltimore, Maryland, on 13 September 1800. He became a U.S. Navy Midshipman in 1815, was promoted to Lieutenant in 1825, to Commander in 1841 and to Captain in 1855. Over the four and a half decades of his U.S. Navy service, Buchanan had extensive and worldwide sea duty. He commanded the sloops of war Vincennes and Germantown during the 1840s and the steam frigate Susquehanna in the Perry expedition to Japan during the 1850s. In 1845-47, he served as the first Superintendent of the U.S. Naval Academy, followed by notable Mexican War service. In 1859-61, Captain Buchanan was the Commandant of the Washington Navy Yard.

Believing that his native state would soon leave the Union, Buchanan resigned his commission in April 1862. When Maryland did not secede, he tried to withdraw the resignation. Rebuffed by the Navy Department, which dismissed him from the service in May, he joined the Confederate States Navy, receiving a Captain's commission in September 1861. After heading the CSN's Office of Orders and Detail, Buchanan was placed in command of the defenses of the James River, Virginia. He led the pioneer ironclad Virginia in her successful attack on the Federal warships Cumberland and Congress in Hampton Roads on 8 March 1862, but was wounded in the action and had to leave the ship before her battle with USS Monitor on the following day.

In August 1862, Buchanan was promoted to the rank of Admiral and sent to command Confederate Navy forces on Mobile Bay, Alabama. He oversaw the construction of the ironclad CSS Tennessee and was on board her during her gallant battle with Rear Admiral David Glasgow Farragut's Union fleet on 5 August 1864. Wounded and taken prisoner, Admiral Buchanan was not exchanged until February 1865. He was on convalescent leave until the Civil War ended a few months later. Following the conflict, Buchanan lived in Maryland, then was a businessman in Mobile until 1870, when he again took up residence in Maryland. He died there on 11 May 1874.

Three U.S. Navy destroyers have been named in honor of Admiral Franklin Buchanan, including Buchanan (DD-131), Buchanan (DD-484) and Buchanan (DDG-14). www.history.navy.mil/photos/pers-us/uspers-b/f-buchan.htm.

Books:
Title: ADMIRAL FRANKLIN BUCHANAN - FEARLESS MAN OF ACTION Author Name: Lewis, Charles Lee
Title: CONFEDERATE ADMIRAL: THE LIFE AND WARS OF FRANKLIN BUCHANAN Author Name: Symonds, Craig L.
Title: "West Wind, Flood Tide: The Battle of Mobile Bay" has been published by the U.S. Naval Institute Press. New - by historian Jack Friend. to be released in 2004

Confederate Admiral
The Life and Wars of Franklin Buchanan by Craig L. Symonds
A leading historian of both the American Civil War and American naval history takes a fresh look at Franklin Buchanan, the U.S. Naval Academy's first superintendent who went on to become the Confederate Navy's first admiral. Buchanan's resignation from the U.S. Navy in April 1861 as the nation teetered on the brink of Civil War is one of the many dramatic episodes in this revealing biography. Convinced that his native state of Maryland was about to secede from the Union, Buchanan gave up his commission but, when Maryland did not secede, desperately tried to get it back. Unsuccessful, he eventually went South where as the Confederacy's only full admiral, he helped mold Southern naval strategy and took command of both the Virginia (Merrimack) in the battle of Hampton Roads in 1861, and the Tennessee in the Battle of Mobile Bay in 1864 when Farragut damned the torpedoes.

While Buchanan's Civil War experiences helped define the drama of the period, his fifty-year naval career illuminates the sweeping changes in the U.S. Navy of the antebellum years. This stimulating and authoritative biography chronicles Buchanan's life as a midshipman on the square-rigged sailing frigate Java and as a commander at the helm of the coal-burning side-wheel steamer Susquehanna. It examines his pivotal role in the establishment of the Naval Academy and his experiences as the first American to set foot in Japan and the first to conn a U.S. Navy warship up the Yangtze River. More than a record of events in Buchanan's career, this biography helps readers understand Buchanan's character and appreciate the broader issues of politics, slavery, loyalty, and professionalism in the era of America's greatest national trauma.

Craig Symonds is a professor at the U.S. Naval Academy, where he has taught naval history and Civil War history since 1976. He is the author of seven other books, including the Historical Atlas of the U.S. Navy. Naval Institute Press , 8/99

Children:
Elizabeth Tayloe Buchanan
Ellen Buchanan
Letitia McKean Buchanan
Mary Tilghman Buchanan
Nannie Rosa Buchanan
Sallie Lloyd Buchanan
Alice Buchanan
Franklin Buchanan

My Southern Family

Adm. Franklin BUCHANAN C.S.N.

13 Sep 1800 - 11 May 1874

ID Number: I91054

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John COTTON

1684 - Feb 1741

ID Number: I101041

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Mary Pauline GEAUBITEAU

Susannah HARRIS

ABT 1740 - ____

ID Number: I30471

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Nancy HIX

ABT 1780 - ____

ID Number: I35838

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Lewis HUTCHINSON

ABT 1790 - ____

ID Number: I43075

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Sarah LINDSAY

ABT 1758 - ____

ID Number: I87138

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Luke PRYOR

3 Feb 1770 - Jun 1851

ID Number: I74534

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Ann WALLER

11 Nov 1762 - ____

ID Number: I83817

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Sallie (Sarah) WALTON

2 Jun 1784 - 1829

ID Number: I49330

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Harriet WARE

ABT 1816 - ____

ID Number: I39159

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Lela Estell WASCOM

7 Mar 1890 - 31 Mar 1985

ID Number: I58613

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