Captain William F. Lynch (CSN)

[ColorizedPast]

Captain William Francis Lynch (CSN)

William Francis Lynch was born in Norfolk, Virginia on 1 April 1801. He was appointed a midshipman 26 January 1819 to the USS Congress, then the U.S. schooner Shark under Lieutenant Matthew C. Perry. He also served with Commodore David Porter's "Mosquito Squadron" in the West Indies and in the Mediterranean. On 2 June 1828, a month after being promoted to lieutenant, Lynch married Virginia Shaw, the youngest daughter of a senior navy officer and sister-in-law of another.

Lynch received his first command, the Poinsett, from 3 March to 30 December 1839, sailing on behalf of the United States Naval Hydrographic Office. In 1847, he proceeded to the Jordan River, transporting overland, by camels, a copper and a galvanized iron boat with 16 men including John Y. Mason. The expedition ended with an exploration of the River Jordan and the Dead Sea.

Using the triangulation method, Lynch's expedition was the first to determine the Dead Sea was below sea level. He published Narrative of the United States' Expedition to the River Jordan and the Dead Sea.

In 1849, he was commissioned commander and in 1850 was promoted to captain. In 1852, he requested permission to explore the interior of Africa for purposes of possible colonization. During his exploration in west central Africa (Liberia), he caught a fever and was force to return to the United States.

On 21 April 1861, he resigned from the United States Navy. He was appointed captain in the Virginia Navy and then on 10 June 1861, captain in the Confederate States Navy. He commanded naval batteries at Aquia Creek, Virginia, during their shelling by Union gunboats under the command of Commander James H. Ward in May 1861. He commanded the defense of Roanoke Island, North Carolina in February 1862, and then led Confederate naval forces at Vicksburg, Mississippi from March to October 1862.

Later he commanded forces in North Carolina waters, fighting during the Union attack on Fort Fisher in December 1864 and January 1865.

He died in Baltimore, Maryland on 17 October 1865.

 

[AndyHall]

Boats from the schooner U.S.S. Porpoise burn five vessels of a "piratical" fleet on the coast of Cuba, January 1822.

Lynch published a memoir in 1851 in which he gave a vivid account of the February 1825 wreck of U.S.S. Ferret, part of the "Mosquito Squadron," near Matanzas, Cuba, that I mentioned in another thread a short while back. Porter had organized his squadron very wisely, focusing on equipping it with the maximum number of the smallest vessels practicable for extended operations -- frigates and ship-sloops were of almost no use in running down pirates around Cuba and Hispañola, who were operating mostly out of secluded coves and inlets. Porter and his successor, Lewis Warrington, proved to be fairly successful in tamping down piracy, although probably no one could completely shut it down -- as usual, too many "respectable" people on shore had an under-the-table interest in keeping it going. For ambitious young American naval officers in the 1820s, the West Indies -- yellow fever and malaria notwithstanding -- was about the only place to find action and adventure.

 

[DixieRifles]

He commanded the defense of Roanoke Island, North Carolina in February 1862, and then led Confederate naval forces at Vicksburg, Mississippi from March to October 1862.

His biography places him in the East but then he suddenly has a brief career at Vicksburg. I would like to know more about his role in CS Navy during this time.

 

[AndyHall]

William Francis Lynch, born Virginia, 1801, and appointed from that state; entered the United States Navy, as midshipman, January 26, 1819; promoted lieutenant, May, 1828; involved in an expedition to
explore the course of the Jordan River, and the shores of the Dead Sea, in 1847; promoted captain, 1856; resigned from the United States Navy, April 21, 1861; entered Confederate Naval service, June
10, 1861, as captain; served on the Richmond station, 1861 – 1862, and along the North Carolina Coast, and commanded CSS Sea Bird; later commanded CS Naval forces on the Mississippi and its tributaries, and on the Jackson station, 1862; later served on the steam gunboat CSS Yadkin, and as commander of the ironclad sloop, CSS North Carolina, Wilmington station, North Carolina, 1863 – 1864; also as flag officer aboard the CSS Arctic, 1863; attached to the Cumming's Point battery, Charleston station, South Carolina, for a very brief period in April, 1863; ordered by President Jefferson Davis, in a dispatch dated at Richmond, Virginia, March 9, 1864, to relinquish command of the Wilmington station, and immediately report to the Navy Department, because his Naval command was on a collision course with that of the Army command of general W.H.C. Whiting; died Baltimore, October 17, 1865; buried at Mount Olivet Cemetery, Washington, D.C. [ORN 1, 11, 756; 1, 14, 78 & 686; 1, 19, 132 and 2, 1, 276, 306, 313, 318, 321 & 323; ORA 1, 18 and 1, 51 (part 2), 829; Scharf 377 (note); Register1863; burial data provided by Cecilia Kirk in an e-mail ([email protected]) dated July 14, 2006, and from data researched by descendant, lieutenant colonel John Shaw Lynch, USAF (ret.); additional data from The Private Mary Chestnut: the Unpublished Civil War Diaries, edited by C. Vann Woodward and Elisabeth Muhlenfeld, published by Oxford University Press, 1984, page 173; New York Times dated October 19, 1865.]


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