George Campbell Read (January 9, 1788August 22, 1862) was a United States Naval officer who served on Old Ironsides during the

War of 1812 The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States, United States of America and its Indigenous peoples of the Americas, indigenous allies against the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom ...

and commanded vessels in actions off the Barbary Coast and

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. Read eventually rose to the rank of rear admiral.

Early life

George Campbell Read was born in Ireland and emigrated to the United States at an early age. (Some references give his birthplace as

Glastonbury, Connecticut Glastonbury ( ) is a town in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States, formally founded in 1693 and first settled in 1636. It was named after Glastonbury in Somerset, England. Glastonbury is on the banks of the Connecticut River, southeast ...

.) At the age of 16, Read entered service in the United States Navy as a midshipman on April 2, 1804.Edward W. Callahan, ed. ''List of Officers of the Navy of the United States and the Marine Corps from 1775 to 1900''. New York: L. R. Hamersly, 1901.

Military career

Read first joined the crew of (aka ''Old Ironsides'') in 1806 under the command of his uncle, Captain Hugh G. Campbell. Early in his service, because of his relationship with the captain, he was suspected of being an informant concerning a fight between two lieutenants: Melancthon Taylor Woolsey and William Burrows. For a long time, Woolsey and the other officers shunned Read, who endured the treatment without complaint. When it was eventually learned that it was the

captain's clerk A captain's clerk was a rating, now obsolete, in the Royal Navy and the United States Navy for a person employed by the captain to keep his records, correspondence, and accounts. The regulations of the Royal Navy demanded that a purser serve a ...

and not Read who had informed, Woolsey apologized to him and asked why he remained silent about the real informant. Read replied, "That would have been doing the very thing for which you blamed me, Mr. Woolsey: turning informer." Thereafter, Woolsey referred to this incident as an example of Read's great self-restraint and self-respect.Cooper, James Fennimore, ''Melancthon Taylor Woolsey'', ''Lives of Distinguished American Naval Officers'', 1846, republished 2006 On April 25, 1810, after six years of service, Read was promoted to lieutenant, and he served aboard USS ''Constitution'' under Commodore Isaac Hull during the War of 1812. When ''Constitution'' defeated the British warship on August 19, 1812, he was detailed by Hull to board the English vessel and accept her surrender. Two months later, on October 25, Read was serving under Commodore Stephen Decatur aboard when they defeated the British warship . As a lieutenant, Read commanded the brig during the Algerian War of 1815. He was promoted to commander in 1816, and served in the Mediterranean and off the coast of Africa. After a promotion to captain in 1825, he took command of USS ''Constitution''. From 1838 to 1839 Read took part in retaliatory actions against the pirates and raiders who preyed on American shipping in India. he commanded the

Second Sumatran Expedition The Second Sumatran expedition was a punitive expedition by the United States Navy against inhabitants of the island of Sumatra. After Malay warriors or pirates had massacred the crew of the American merchant ship ''Eclipse'', an expedition of ...

which was undertaken in response to the massacre of the merchant ship ''Eclipse''. From 1839 to 1846, Read commanded the

Philadelphia Naval School The Philadelphia Naval Asylum is a complex of buildings at Gray's Ferry Avenue in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Built in 1827 as a hospital, it later housed the Philadelphia Naval School, served as a home for retired sailors for the United States Na ...

. As commander there, he served on a Naval board with Commodores

Thomas ap Catesby Jones Thomas ''ap'' Catesby Jones (24 April 1790 – 30 May 1858) was a U.S. Navy commissioned officer during the War of 1812 and the Mexican–American War. Early life and education Thomas ap Catesby Jones was born on 24 April 1790 in Westmor ...

Matthew C. Perry Matthew Calbraith Perry (April 10, 1794 – March 4, 1858) was a commodore of the United States Navy who commanded ships in several wars, including the War of 1812 and the Mexican–American War (1846–1848). He played a leading role in the o ...

, and Captains

Elie A. F. La Vallette Elie Augustus Frederick La Vallette (May 3, 1790 – November 18, 1862) was an American military officer who served in the United States Navy from 1812 to 1862. He served during the War of 1812, in the Mediterranean and Africa Squadrons, and ...

and Isaac Mayo for the examination of midshipmen entitled to promotion. He next commanded the

African Squadron The Africa Squadron was a unit of the United States Navy that operated from 1819 to 1861 in the Blockade of Africa to suppress the slave trade along the coast of West Africa. However, the term was often ascribed generally to anti-slavery oper ...

from 1846 to 1847 and the Mediterranean Squadron from 1847 to 1849. When the American Civil War broke out in 1861, Read was again in charge of the

Philadelphia Naval Asylum The Philadelphia Naval Asylum is a complex of buildings at Gray's Ferry Avenue in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Built in 1827 as a hospital, it later housed the Philadelphia Naval School, served as a home for retired sailors for the United States ...

. Read was promoted to rear admiral in July 1862. He died one month later, on August 22, after 58 years of Naval service. He is buried in

Laurel Hill Cemetery Laurel Hill Cemetery is a historic rural cemetery in the East Falls neighborhood of Philadelphia. Founded in 1836, it was the second major rural cemetery in the United States after Mount Auburn Cemetery in Boston, Massachusetts. The cemetery is ...

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

. His wife, Elizabeth, the daughter of Captain

Richard Dale Richard Dale (November 6, 1756 – February 26, 1826) was an American naval officer who fought in the Continental Navy under John Barry and was first lieutenant for John Paul Jones during the naval battle off of Flamborough Head, England again ...

, died on March 1, 1863, and was buried beside him.

USS Commodore Read

The naval patrol ship USS ''Commodore Read'' was named in honor of Read. Formerly a ferryboat, it was purchased by the Navy on 19 August 1863, refitted at New York Navy Yard and commissioned on 8 September 1863. The ship served with the

Potomac Flotilla The Potomac Flotilla, also called the Potomac Squadron, was a unit of the United States Navy created in the early days of the American Civil War to secure Union communications in the Chesapeake Bay, the Potomac River and their tributaries, and to ...

during the American Civil War until 20 July 1865.

Notes

References

*Murrell, William Meacham, ''Cruise Of The Frigate Columbia Around The World Under The Command Of Commodore George C. Read.'' Benjamin B. Mussey, Boston, Mass, 1840. *

Early life

Military career

USS Commodore Read

See also

Notes

References

Further reading