Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1863-02-25
sketch Of Commodore Ingraham.

Commodore Duncan N. 1ngraham, who
is over sixty years of age, is the son of the
late Nathaniel Ingraham, Esq, Of Charles.
ton, S. c., aud belongs to . family eminent.
ly 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 Homme Richard, in 1779, and fought
with him in the battle with the British
frigate Scraps, one of the most desperate
battles 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 this century. His cousin, William In
graham, was killed at the age of twenty
when Lieutenant in the United States
Navy.
The cole exception in the family was
his uncle, Duncan Ingraham, Esq, from
whom he received his name. He was one
of the most accomplished gentleman of his
day, and though intimate with the leading
political msnsof our country, yet from taste
and early associations he was loyalist in
his views. At the opening of the Revolu.
ton in 1774, he went to Europe, and re.
NAMED there until its close. John Adams,
when Commissioner to France in 1879,
frequently speaks Of him in his diary as his
associate in Paris. He returned, however,
to this country in 1854, gave in his adher-
ence to the Government, and permitted his
son to enter the navy-the Lieut.. William
Ingraham whom we have mentioned as be-
ing killed in the service.
Captain D. N. Ingraham received his
Midshipman's warrant at the age of nine
years on the 18th of June, 1912, during
our last war with Great Britain. Commo-
dore Smith, of South Carolina, the intimate
friend of his father, being about to sail in
the frigate Congress, requested Mr.. lngra-
ham to allow him to take his son witHhim.
aWe shall probably have an engagement"
said he, siard it will do him good" He
accordingly went to sea at once, at that
tender age, and remained in active service
for two years, until the close of the war
He then returned home at the age of eley.
en-, and resumed his education at school
Since then he has most of the time been
employed in active duty. He commanded
the ill-fated Somers in the blockade duty
at Vera Cruz and other parts7of the Gulf
during the whole Of the Mexican war, and
being prostrated by sickness, was sent home
but short time before she was lost. Fol-
two years previous to his sailing for the
Mediterranean, in the St. Louis, he was
attached to the Navy Yard at philadelphia,
the society of which city will long remem'
ber him and his accomplished family,
He was in command of the St. Louis in
1858 in the harbor of Smyrna, when he
made his name so famous in connection
with the Costa exploit while at that port
He bearded the lion in his den, demanding
and obtaining from the Austrian Govern
ment the release of Costa as an American
citizen. On the 18th of September, 1855
he was promoted to Captaincy, and afte,
an interval of inactivity was, on the 10th ol
March, 1856, attached to the Bureau o.
Ordnance as its Chief. He held this posi-
ton at salary of $500 a year when the
rebellion broke out, when he, like many
other traitors, forsook the flag under which
he had so long fought and through which
he had received many honors, to join the
cause of the rebels.
Captain Ingraham married Harriet Rut
ledge, of Laurens, South Carolina, a grane
daughter on the paternal side, of Henry
Laurens, the President of the first Cont
mental Congress, and who afterwards wa'
captured by British frigate while on hi
way to France as American Commissioner
and confined for long time in the Towe
of London. On the maternal side she il
the grand. daughter of Edward Rutledge
one of the siguers of the Declaration of In
dependence. His eldest son, Henry Lau
rens Ipgraham, was Lieutenant ofth'
Marine Corps when the rebellion broke out
1t is curious circumstance, that by in
termarriage with the American family, tn
Ingraham blood flows in the veins of som'
of the most distinguished officers of tn
British Navy. Among those was the lat
Captain Marryatt, G. B., (the author,) ant
Sir Edward Belohar, K. G. B., who com
manded the exploring expedition round tn