Benjamin Stoddert

Benjamin Stoddert (born 1751 in Charles County , Province of Maryland , † December 13, 1813 in Bladensburg , Maryland ) was an American politician ( Federal Party ) and the first Secretary of the Navy in the United States .

During the American Revolution, Stoddert served in the Continental Army and was wounded at the Battle of Brandywine . Thereupon he left the army with the rank of major and worked from 1779 to 1781 as secretary in the Board of War , a committee of the Second Continental Congress for the political control of the Continental Army. As a result, Stoddert withdrew into private life and successfully established Forrest, Stoddert, & Murdock as an international trading company based in Georgetown, Maryland . Over time, he became increasingly involved in land speculation and helped found the Bank of Columbia in 1794 so that financial transactions through this bank could be processed more quickly.

The Department of the Navy was created by federal law on April 30, 1798. US President John Adams appointed Stoddert as Secretary of the Navy in his cabinet . The quasi-war between France and the United States from 1798 to 1800 preoccupied Stoddert from the start. Stoddert saw his main task in the organizational reorganization of the US Navy, which hardly existed after the wars of liberation .

In March 1801 Stoddert left his office. He worked as a businessman again, but was not very successful. He died in December 1813 in Bladensburg and was buried in the Addison Chapel in Seat Pleasant .

The ships USS Stoddert (DD-302) , in service from 1920 to 1935, and USS Benjamin Stoddert (DDG-22) , in service from 1964 to 1991, were named after him in his honor.

Web links

Benjamin Stoddert at the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia (English)

Benjamin Stoddert in the database of Find a Grave (English)

literature

Michael Palmer: Stoddert's War: Naval Operations During the Quasi-War with France, 1798–1801. 2nd, revised edition. Naval Institute Press, Annapolis 2000, ISBN 978-1-55750-664-1 .

Individual evidence

^ Peter Onuf: Benjamin Stoddert (1801) - Secretary of the Navy. ( February 19, 2016 memento in the Internet Archive ) In: millercenter.org, University of Virginia , accessed February 19, 2016.

personal data
SURNAME	Stoddert, Benjamin
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	American politician
DATE OF BIRTH	1751
PLACE OF BIRTH	Charles County , Maryland
DATE OF DEATH	December 13, 1813
Place of death	Bladensburg , Maryland

[1] Peter Onuf: Benjamin Stoddert (1801) - Secretary of the Navy. ( February 19, 2016 memento in the Internet Archive ) In: millercenter.org, University of Virginia , accessed February 19, 2016.