1. Franklin Buchanan was an officer in the United States Navy who became the only full admiral in the Confederate Navy during the American Civil War.
12 Facts About Franklin Buchanan
1. 2.
Franklin Buchanan was born in Baltimore, Maryland, on September 13,1800.
3.
Franklin Buchanan was the fifth child and third son of a physician, George Buchanan, and Laetitia McKean Buchanan.
4.
Franklin Buchanan's paternal grandfather was a general with the Maryland Militia during the Revolutionary War while his maternal grandfather Thomas McKean was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence.
5.
Franklin Buchanan joined the US Navy on January 28,1815, and became a midshipman; he was promoted to lieutenant on January 13,1825, commander on September 8,1841, and then captain on September 14,1855.
6.
Franklin Buchanan commanded the sloops of war Vincennes and Germantown during the 1840s and the steam frigate Susquehanna in the Perry Expedition to Japan from 1852 to 1854.
7.
From 1859 to 1861, Franklin Buchanan was the commandant of the Washington Navy Yard.
8.
On September 5,1861, Franklin Buchanan joined the Confederate Navy and was given a captain's commission.
9.
Franklin Buchanan was the captain of CSS Virginia during the Battle of Hampton Roads in Virginia.
10.
Franklin Buchanan soon was brought down by a sharpshooter's minie ball to the thigh.
11.
Franklin Buchanan was on board Tennessee during the Battle of Mobile Bay with Rear Admiral David Glasgow Farragut's Union fleet on August 5,1864.
12.
Franklin Buchanan is buried at the Wye House family plot outside Easton, Maryland.