Carlile Pollock Patterson (August 24, 1816 – August 15, 1881) was the fourth superintendent of the

United States Coast and Geodetic Survey The United States Coast and Geodetic Survey (abbreviated USC&GS), known from 1807 to 1836 as the Survey of the Coast and from 1836 until 1878 as the United States Coast Survey, was the first scientific agency of the United States Government. It ...

. He was born in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, the son of Commodore Daniel Todd Patterson. He was appointed a midshipman in the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

in 1830. He studied Civil Engineering at

Georgetown College Georgetown College is a private Christian college in Georgetown, Kentucky. Chartered in 1829, Georgetown was the first Baptist college west of the Appalachian Mountains. The college offers 38 undergraduate degrees and a Master of Arts in educat ...

, graduating in 1838, and returned to the Navy, assigned to work with the U.S. Coast Survey. He left the Navy in 1853 and captained mail steamers in the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contin ...

. In 1861, as a civilian, he was appointed as Hydrographic Inspector of the U.S. Coast Survey. In 1874, he was made Superintendent of the U.S. Coast Survey (renamed the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey in 1878), a position he held until his death. In 1880, he was elected as a member to the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...

Biography

Family

Patterson was born in Shieldsboro (now Bay St. Louis, Mississippi), the son of Captain Daniel Patterson. He was the brother of Admiral Thomas H. Patterson, of Elizabeth Catherine Patterson who married George Mifflin Bache (brother of Alexander Dallas Bache) and of George Ann Patterson who married Admiral David Dixon Porter. Patterson married Elizabeth Pearson (daughter of Congressman Joseph Pearson of North Carolina) on January 23, 1851, in the Pearson family home "Brentwood" in Washington D.C. They had several children; at least three daughters reached adulthood.

Navy service

Patterson was appointed Midshipman on the US frigate ''Brandywine'' in 1830 and served in the Mediterranean Squadron for five years. He was warranted Midshipman in 1831 and Passed Midshipman in 1836. He graduated from

in Kentucky as a civil engineer in 1838, and was attached to the

United States Coast Survey United may refer to: Places * United, Pennsylvania, an unincorporated community * United, West Virginia, an unincorporated community Arts and entertainment Films * ''United'' (2003 film), a Norwegian film * ''United'' (2011 film), a BBC Two f ...

from 1838 to 1841. In 1839 he was an officer of the Coast Survey brig when it captured the Spanish

slave ship Slave ships were large cargo ships specially built or converted from the 17th to the 19th century for transporting slaves. Such ships were also known as "Guineamen" because the trade involved human trafficking to and from the Guinea coast ...

La Amistad ''La Amistad'' (; Spanish for ''Friendship'') was a 19th-century two- masted schooner, owned by a Spaniard colonizing Cuba. It became renowned in July 1839 for a slave revolt by Mende captives, who had been captured and sold to European slave ...

'', which the slaves had taken over, off Montauk, New York. (This incident became the subject of the film '' Amistad''). He was commissioned Lieutenant in 1841. Patterson, as first commander of the Coast Survey schooner ''Phoenix'', led the first USCS hydrographic expedition to the

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United ...

in 1845, and subsequently commanded the Coast Survey steamer ''Robert J. Walker''. He left active naval service in 1849 and resigned from the Navy in 1853.

Steamer captain

Leaving Naval service for the commercial world, he commanded steamers of the

Pacific Mail Steamship Company The Pacific Mail Steamship Company was founded April 18, 1848, as a joint stock company under the laws of the State of New York by a group of New York City merchants. Incorporators included William H. Aspinwall, Edwin Bartlett (American consul ...

, such as the ''Oregon'' and the ''Golden Gate'' from 1849 to about 1853, primarily running between the West Coast of Panama and San Francisco. His ships sometimes carried as many as a thousand gold-seeking men per voyage north during the California Gold Rush. He appears frequently as ship-captain in the reports of the newspaper ''

The Daily Alta California The ''Alta California'' or ''Daily Alta California'' (often miswritten ''Alta Californian'' or ''Daily Alta Californian'') was a 19th-century San Francisco newspaper. ''California Star'' The ''Daily Alta California'' descended from the first ...

''. When California was made a state by Act of Congress, it was Patterson who brought the news to San Francisco, arriving on October 18, 1850, resulting in city-wide celebrations lasting well into the night. Shortly after this, Patterson moved his wife and child from Washington, D.C., to Oakland. With James B. LaRue and John R. Fouratt he sought to found one of the first ferry services across San Francisco Bay, fighting all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court to win the right to provide service against a competitor. It is unclear, however, if he and his partners actually started a separate ferry line, and if so, how long it operated before being sold to another operator or shut down. He also engaged in real estate investments in San Francisco and San Diego. Several more children were born during this time in the Bay Area.

Civil War

In 1861, on the outbreak of the Civil War, the family returned to Washington, D.C. and Patterson returned to federal service, this time as a civilian hydrographic inspector in the Coast Survey. The Hydrographic Inspector was in charge of the charting and marine survey work, and that office was traditionally held by a naval officer. Patterson's experience and good connections let him step into the role smoothly. During the Civil War, the role of the Coast Survey included preparing charts and other material to help Naval ships execute the blockade of Southern ports (the strategy known as the "

Anaconda Plan The Anaconda Plan is the name applied to a strategy outlined by the Union Army for suppressing the Confederacy at the beginning of the American Civil War. Proposed by Union General-in-Chief Winfield Scott, the plan emphasized a Union blockade ...

"). He remained in the Coast Survey after the war, eventually becoming its superintendent in 1874. During his superintendency, it was renamed the

in 1878.

Friendship with President Grant

Patterson first met

Ulysses S. Grant Ulysses S. Grant (born Hiram Ulysses Grant ; April 27, 1822July 23, 1885) was an American military officer and politician who served as the 18th president of the United States from 1869 to 1877. As Commanding General, he led the Union Ar ...

in mid-1852, when Grant was taking a detachment of troops across Panama for eventual posting in Oregon, and Patterson commanded the steamer that took most of Grant's troops north to San Francisco. It was during that posting in Oregon that Grant eventually, in 1854, decided to resign from the Army. During the Civil War, Grant coordinated with Patterson's brother-in-law, David Dixon Porter, in the

Vicksburg Campaign The Vicksburg campaign was a series of maneuvers and battles in the Western Theater of the American Civil War directed against Vicksburg, Mississippi, a fortress city that dominated the last Confederate-controlled section of the Mississippi Ri ...

, and may have met Patterson's brother, Thomas H. Patterson, who was a naval officer fighting in the Civil War. As a result of these pre-war and wartime connections, the Pattersons were well-known to Grant and other leading Union officers. From 1861 through the 1880s, the Pattersons occupied the Brentwood Mansion, designed by

Benjamin Latrobe Benjamin Henry Boneval Latrobe (May 1, 1764 – September 3, 1820) was an Anglo-American Neoclassical architecture, neoclassical architect who emigrated to the United States. He was one of the first formally trained, professional architects in t ...

and inherited by Patterson's wife, in Brentwood, Washington, D.C., (since demolished), and it became a social center during the administration of President Grant. Patterson was one of the early members of Washington's Metropolitan Club, which included numerous Union generals, admirals, and other officers. A large oil portrait of Patterson's brother-in-law, David Dixon Porter, hangs in the first-floor lobby (as of 2007). Many of Patterson's papers can be found in the Manuscript Division of the U.S. Library of Congress.

Death and honors

Patterson died at home in mid-1881. His unexpected death was a heavy blow to the Survey and led to the appointment of J.E. Hilgard as his successor; Hilgaard's term ended in controversy a few years later. Patterson, along with his wife, mother-in-law, and infant children who died in California, are buried in the Worthington vault of Oak Hill Cemetery, Washington D.C. His sister Eliza Catherine was also interred at Oak Hill Cemetery, while there is a

cenotaph A cenotaph is an empty tomb or a monument erected in honour of a person or group of people whose remains are elsewhere. It can also be the initial tomb for a person who has since been reinterred elsewhere. Although the vast majority of cenot ...

Congressional Cemetery The Congressional Cemetery, officially Washington Parish Burial Ground, is a historic and active cemetery located at 1801 E Street, SE, in Washington, D.C., on the west bank of the Anacostia River. It is the only American "cemetery of national m ...

for her husband George Mifflin Bache, who was lost at sea. Patterson's father, Commodore Daniel Patterson, and his mother and brother, Thomas H. Patterson, were buried at Congressional Cemetery. Another sister, George Ann, and her husband David Dixon Porter were interred at

Arlington National Cemetery Arlington National Cemetery is one of two national cemeteries run by the United States Army. Nearly 400,000 people are buried in its 639 acres (259 ha) in Arlington, Virginia. There are about 30 funerals conducted on weekdays and 7 held on Sa ...

. The survey ship , in service from 1884-1919, was named in his honor. The Patterson Glacier, and the Patterson River that runs from it, located south of Juneau, Alaska, near the town of Petersburg, a spectacular valley glacier featured in helicopter tours, are named for him. Patterson Street in northeast Washington, D.C., near his Brentwood estate, may also have been named for him.

A bill for Patterson's widow

On June 6, 1884, three years after Patterson's death, Congress enacted a private bill, House bill No. 4689, entitled "An act for the relief of Eliza W. Patterson", Patterson's widow, excusing accumulated District of Columbia property taxes on the Patterson land, in light of the fact that Patterson had served as Superintendent without taking a salary and had, through inattention, placed the family finances in jeopardy. President

Chester A. Arthur Chester Alan Arthur (October 5, 1829 – November 18, 1886) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 21st president of the United States from 1881 to 1885. He previously served as the 20th vice president under President James ...

neither signed nor vetoed the bill, but held it ten days and allowed it to become law without his signature. In a message dated June 21, 1884, the President explained "I do not question the constitutional right of Congress to pass a law relieving the family of an officer, in view of the services he had rendered his country, from the burdens of taxation, but I submit to Congress that this just gift of the nation to the family of such faithful officer should come from the National Treasury rather than from that of this District, and I therefore recommend that an appropriation be made to reimburse the District for the amount of taxes which would have been due to it had this act not become a law." A portion of this property later became the subject of a lawsuit that reached the Supreme Court, Winslow v. Baltimore & O R Co, 188 U.S. 646 (1903), which includes excerpts of the will by which Mrs. Patterson came into the property on the death of her mother, Catherine Worthington Pearson, in 1868. The suit, which the Patterson family won, involved renewal of a lease of some of the land to a railroad.

Descendants

In 1881, shortly after Patterson's death, his daughter, Harriet Livingston Patterson (1859-1923), married Lt. Francis Winslow USN (1851-1908), who had previously served under Patterson in the U.S. Coast Survey. They had six children, including Mary Nelson Winslow. Lt. Winslow was the brother of Rear Admiral Cameron McRae Winslow, a first cousin once removed of Rear Admiral

John Ancrum Winslow John Ancrum Winslow (19 November 1811 – 29 September 1873) was an officer in the United States Navy during the Mexican–American War and the American Civil War. He was in command of the steam sloop of war during her historic 1864 action off C ...

, and great-uncle of the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Robert Lowell. Patterson's grandson and namesake Carlile Patterson Winslow (1884-1960) was an engineer and head of the USDA

Forest Products Laboratory The Forest Products Laboratory (FPL) is the national research laboratory of the United States Forest Service, which is part of USDA. Since its opening in 1910, the FPL has provided scientific research on wood, wood products and their commercial us ...

at Madison, Wisconsin 1917-1946.