Union Navy personnel. One a day.

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Capt. Percival Drayton - LOC
 
Ah, good old Frank Du Pont. Energetic naval reformer, chaired the important Blockade Strategy Board early in the war that helped set the pattern for the coastal war, engineer of some early successes; fell afoul of Lincoln when he appeared to be a "naval McClellan" (a comparison made by Lincoln himself IIRC, but I think it's not accurate in a number of respects... unfortunately, it came at a time when Lincoln was quite exasperated by McClellan).

A cousin of the du Ponts who had a gunpowder factory that later grew into Du Pont Chemical.
 
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Admiral Samuel Francis du Pont - LOC
He appears to be wearing the pre-war full-dress tailcoat and chapeau - note the tall standing collar with braid edging. Unfortunately I don't know the dates of this uniform, but I believe it's post-1852 because he appears to be carrying the officer's sword from that date.
 
I think he's wearing captain's stripes. On the assumption that he'd take the opportunity to have a photo taken upon his promotion to captain, it would seem to place the photo in late 1855 or early 1856 (a slot for promotion having opened for him in September 1855).
 
Du Pont and Franklin Buchanan were good friends, by the way. They were of similar seniority and were frequent allies in the struggles for naval reform... Buchanan was from Maryland and Du Pont from Delaware. I don't recall if Du Pont made any sort of statement upon Buchanan's "going South."

ETA: Also in that bunch (the proponents of naval reform) were future Confederate Secretary of the Navy Stephen R. Mallory and future Union gunboat admiral Andrew Hull Foote.
 
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The two portraits at the top of this page give a good idea of the "antique" appearance of du Pont's antebellum U.S. naval uniform and their war-era "modernization" by the time of Drayton's. It was similar to the way the army went from the Mexican War-era full-dress tailcoats to the frock coats of the 1850's.
 
Farragut was born James Glasgow Farragut. He later changed his first name to David, in honor of his unofficial foster father and mentor, David Porter (father of the Civil War -era David Dixon Porter and William David Porter).
Was Glasgow a family name or was he named after the city?
 
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Commander Edward P. Barrett - LOC
I don't know anything about his uniform. The navy doesn't have any insignia that matches his.

Gold and silver oak leaves were used on shoulder straps for Lieutenant Commander and Commander respectively (and remain insignia of those ranks today). I think this is a civilian coat of some sort (note the tie pin, as well), that he's pinned an oak leaf to as an unofficial indicator of rank. Entirely non-reg.
 
Wikipedia say his middle name was also spelled Glascoe. Guessing he was not named after the city.
Interesting! Maybe he was named after someone, even if not a relative.

Not sure. Wasn't a family name on his dad's side, anyway... George Farragut (properly Jordi Farragut Mesquida) was from Minorca.
I hadn't realized that--very cool! :smile:
 
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