Mark or Andy, what can you tell me about Isaac Brown of the CSS Arkansas

From CW Sailors:

Isaac N. Brown, born Livingston County, Kentucky, appointed from Mississippi; previous service in the United States Navy, May 15, 1834; served in the Seminole, and Mexican wars; executive officer of the USS Niagara, just prior to the Civil War; name stricken from the rolls of the United States Navy, April 28, 1861; entered the service of the Confederate States Navy, June 6, 1861, as lieutenant; served on the Richmond station, 1861; assigned duties on the Mississippi River, and in the defense of New Orleans, 1861 - 1862; when that city fell in April, 1862, he was sent to Vicksburg, and assumed command of the CSS Arkansas, Jackson Station, 1862; involved in the action of July 15, 1862, when the Arkansas took passage from the Yazoo River, through the combined Union fleet above Vicksburg; promoted commander, August 25, 1862; involved in work on the gunboats on the Yazoo River, 1862; appointed in the Provisional Navy, to rank from May 13, 1863; assigned, by Special Order No. 92, dated at Canton, Mississippi, June 1, 1863, to the command of the heavy artillery at Yazoo City, and the boats on the Yazoo River; later commanded the CSS Charleston, at Charleston, South Carolina, 1863 - 1864; ordered to report to Confederate Army lieutenant general Hardee, at Charleston, for special duty, November, 1864; after the fall of Charleston, he was sent to command the Naval forces west of the Mississippi River, but before reaching this command, the war had ended; paroled at Montgomery, Alabama, on May 22, 1865; at the time of his parole, his personal details were shown as grey eyes, light hair, fair complexion and standing 5 feet 10 inches tall; resided, after the war, in Mississippi, and later at Corsicana, Texas. [Scharf 306n; Register1863; ORN 1, 15, 697 & 732; 1, 19, 69; 1, 23, 711 and 2, 1, 318, 320 & 321; ORA 1, 24 and 1, 35 (part 2), 648; JCC 4, 121; Daily Dispatch (Richmond, Virginia) dated May 31, 1861; Charleston Courier dated Thursday, July 31, 1862; Confederate Navy subject file, R - Prisoners and Prisons, RL - Paroles, A-W, page 22.]
J. Brown, Coal Heaver, CSS Albemarle, and Halifax Station, 1864. [ORN 2, 1, 274.]

U.S. Navy Register:

Brown, Isaac N.
Midshipman, 15 March, 1834. Passed Midshipman, 6 July, 1840. Master, 15 August, 1846. Lieutenant, 31 October, 1846. Dismissed 25 April, 1861.

C.S. Navy Register:

Officers Register.jpg

Grave marker:

Expired Image Removed
Gaylon Neil Beasley's True Tales of Tipton County, Tennessee puts him in that county, north of Memphis, as a teenager at the time of the construction of the county's first permanent courthouse (1830s?).
 
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I know far less about Brown than I'd like to, alas. An extremely capable man, from all accounts. Do you have some specific questions or areas of interest in mind?

(One of Brown's comrades on one of the "around the world" voyages noted on the sign Andy shared was, of course, Henry Walke, Brown's senior by a few years-- Walke was a junior-to-midlevel Lieutenant and Brown a Passed Midshipman in an acting Master's berth-- corresponding to a modern-day Ensign acting as a Lieutenant j.g.)
 
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I know far less about Brown than I'd like to, alas. An extremely capable man, from all accounts. Do you have some specific questions or areas of interest in mind?

(One of Brown's comrades on one of the "around the world" voyages noted on the sign Andy shared was, of course, Henry Walke, Brown's senior by a few years-- Walke was a junior-to-midlevel Lieutenant and Brown a Passed Midshipman in an acting Master's berth-- corresponding to a modern-day Ensign acting as a Lieutenant j.g.)
A few years ago I did a search on Brown and an item popped up implying that he had was involved in a duel with Joseph Fry. Either they couldn't shoot straight or managed to work things out as they both survived to serve during the Late Unpleasantness.
 
There seem to have been a lot of duels and even more near-duels in the Old Navy, despite the practice being officially frowned upon. I came across some correspondence between Walke and his cousin, Charles F. MacIntosh, during their service together in the Pacific off Chile where MacIntosh is all but demanding to be Walke's second in some sort of situation of honor... and Walke and John A. Dahlgren were only prevented from fighting a duel in the Mediterranean by the squadron commander's assigning them to different ships. (Later on, they seem to have gotten back together and determined that it had been a misunderstanding.) Oh, those FFV boys... :laugh:

(MacIntosh was later the commander of the ironclad CSS Lousiana during her brief career and was mortally wounded during Farragut's passage of the forts below New Orleans, btw.)
 
Hm. Looking in the bibliography of Myron J. "Jack" Smith, Jr.'s The CSS Arkansas: A Confederate Ironclad on Western Waters, I note the following source citation... I'm not familiar with the autobiography. Yet, anyway...

Brown, Isaac Newton. The Autobiography of Isaac Newton Brown. The Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, University of Texas, Austin. (Apparently not available online, but I see the archive/manuscript entry for it at http://www.cah.utexas.edu/research/archives_index.php?manuindex=b as
Brown, Isaac Newton

BROWN (ISSAC NEWTON) AUTOBIOGRAPHY, ca. 1885


For a brief online bio, including the site of Brown's burial, see: Isaac Newton Brown of Navarro County, Texas
 
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Thanks, Guys. It started from a small cemetery in a neighborhood in Gallatin that I'm going to get my Camp to adopt. In there is a stone to Julia M. Rice, wife of Dr. C. A. Rice who perished February 5, 1866 in the explosion of the W. R. Carter on the Mississippi. Dr. Rice was assistant surgeon of the 1st Mississippi Light Artillery. He left that regiment in 1862 but shows up in March 1863 in Vicksburg. Long after the war according the Ole Miss archives Brown's widow in 1889 sends a letter to Dr. Rice. Now as your stuff shows, Brown was from Navarro County where my namesake is from and so it's made me curious about him and their relationship.
 
WRCarter.jpg

The W. R. Carter disaster was a bad one. There were about 125 persons killed, near Island 98, abut 35 miles above Vicksburg. W. R. Carter reportedly had tubular boilers similar to the infamous Sultana. They were more efficient on coal than flue-type boilers, but also developed a reputation for going BOOM!. I don't know if that was legit or not.
 
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As I have said elsewhere, I fell in love with Civil War History when I read By Valor and Arms - story of the CSS Arkansas- by James Street. Can't help you with Isaac Brown but here are some sites:
http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/sh-us-cs/csa-sh/csash-ag/ark-k.htm

and this book
The CSS Arkansas: A Confederate Ironclad on Western Waters [Paperback]
Myron J. (Author), Jr. Smith (Author)

The book has an extensive bibliography, and mentions memoirs by several of the Arkansas officers and men, including Brown.

This site also refers to the MSS autobiography as well as a MA thesis
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~txnavarr/biographies/b/brown_isaac_newton.htm
 
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