Abner Read

This article deals with the officer Abner Read, for the ships named after him see USS Abner Read

Abner Read (born April 5, 1821 in Urbana , Ohio , † July 8, 1863 in Baton Rouge , Louisiana ) was an officer in the United States Navy . He fell in the Civil War .

Early career

Read graduated from Ohio University , but left the college in 1839 and was hired as a midshipman in the Navy. The first ship on which he served was the schooner USS Enterprise . In 1844 Read studied for a year at the Philadelphia Naval School and then returned to sea. He rose in the service rank, first he was promoted to master and in 1854 to lieutenant . In 1855 the Navy retired Read, but he appealed against this decision and was reinstated in his old rank in 1858. From the autumn of the same year he took part in the naval expedition to Paraguay .

Civil war

Abner Read returned to Pensacola , Florida in December 1860, on the eve of the American Civil War . He was reassigned to a new ship and helped prevent Fort Pickens from falling into Confederate hands in early 1861 . He fell ill and was sent to the north to recover. In October 1861, Read took command of the screw steamer USS New London and was sent to the Gulf of Mexico to block the southern coast. He operated west of the Mississippi estuary and brought up the first freighter in November 1861. In the months that followed, Read took over 30 prizes and earned the recognition of his commanding officer, David Glasgow Farragut . On July 16, 1862, Read was promoted to Lieutenant Commander . On April 18, 1863, when Read led a commando to the lighthouse at Sabine Pass on the Texan coast, he was caught in a Confederate ambush and wounded. Back in Louisiana, Read was given command of the USS Monongahela . He was supposed to protect the city of Donaldsonville on the Mississippi River from troops of the southerners. On the morning of July 7, 1863, Confederate artillery attacked the ship, Read suffered severe wounds in the abdomen from shrapnel. He was taken to the hospital in Baton Rouge, where he died the evening of the next day.

The destroyer USS Abner Read (DD-526) used in World War II was named after Abner Read .

literature

• Biography of Abner Read the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships (English)