Washington sentinel. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1853-1855, 1853-10-25
Commander Ingraham.

We have been favored from reliable source
with biographical sketch of Commander In
graham, whose late gallant conduct in com
mand of the st. Louis, in the harbor Of Smyrna,
has given him world wide reputation.
Commander Duncan N. Ingraham is the son
of the late Nathaniel Ingraham, esq, ofCharles
ton, South Carolina, and belonged to family
eminently naval in its character. All Of them,
with one exception, were officers in the navy
His father, being the intimate friend of Captain
Paul Jones, volunteered under his command
when he left France in the Bon Homne Rich
ard, in l779, and fought with him in the battle
with the British frigate Scraps, one Of the
most desperate actions in the annals of naval
warfare. His uncle, Captain Joseph Ingraham,
United States navy was lost in the United
States ship Pickering, which went down at sea-
and was never heard of at the beginning Of
the century. His cousin, William Ingraham
was killed at the age of twenty, when q lieu
tenant in the United States navy.
The sole exception in the family was his un-
Gle, Duncan Ingraham, esq.,, from whom be re-
ceived his name He was one of the most ac-
complished gentlemen of his day, and though
intimate with the leading political men of our
country, yet, from the taste and early associa-
tons, he was q loyalist in his views AT the
opening of the revolution in l774, he went to
Europe, and remained there until its close
John Adams, when commissioner to France, in
l779, frequently speaks of him in his Diary
lately published, as his associate in Paris. He
returned, however, to this country, in 1884, and
gave in his adherence to the government, and
permitted his son to enter the navy-the Lieu
tenant William Ingraham, whom we have men
toned as being killed in the service.
Captain Ingraham received his midshipman's
warrant at the age of nine years, during the last
war with Great Britain. Commodore Smith, Of
South Carolina, the intimate friend of his father
being about to sail in the frigate Congress, re.
quested MIR. Ingraham to allow him to take his
son with him. We shall probably have an en-
gagement" said he, "and it will do him goodn
He accordingly went to sea at once, at that ten
der age, and remained in active service for two
years, until the close of the war. He then re-
turned home at the age of eleven, and resumed
his education at school. Since then he has, most
of his time, been employed in active duty He
commanded the illfated Somers, in blockade
duty, at Vera Cruz and other parts of the gulf,
during the whole Of the Mexican war, and be-
ing Frustrated by sickness was sent home but
short time before she was lost. For two years
previous to his sailing for the Mediterranean,
in the st. Louis, he was attached to the navy
yard ct Philadelphia, the society of which city
will long remember him and his accomplished
family.
Captain Ingraham married Harriet Rutlege
Laurens, of South Carolina, granddaughter,
on the paternal side, of Henry Laurens, the
president of the first Continental Congress, and
who afterwards was captured by British fri
gate, while on his way to France as American
Commissioner, and confined for long time in
the tower Of London. On the maternal side
she is the granddaughter of Edward Rutlege,
one of the signers Of the Declaration of Inde-
pendence. His eldest son, Henry Laurens In
graham, is now a midshipman at the Naval
Academy, at Annapolis.
1t is curious circumstance that, by inter
marriage with the American family, the Ingra-
ham blood flows in the veins of some of the
most distinguished officers in the British navy.
Among these was the hate Captain Marryatt,
G. B., 1.-THE author,) and Sir Edward Belcher,
X. G. B., who lately commanded the exploring
expedition round the world, and who now COM
mands the Arctic expedition, lately sent out by
the British Admiralty, in search Of Sir John
Franklin. The grandmother Of both these Of
6cers was an Ingraham, the near relative Of
Commander Ingraham. NJ z. Times.