Henry Thatcher Henry Knox Thatcher ( 26 May 1806 - 5 April 1880 ) was a rear admiral in the United States Navy , who served during the American Civil War . Biography . Early life and career . He was born in Thomaston , Maine to Ebenezer Thatcher and Lucy Flucker Knox , the daughter of Major General Henry Knox . Appointed to the U . S . Military Academy at West Point in 1822 , Thatcher was absent on sick leave for most of the first year and resigned in April 1823 . He then received an appointment as a midshipman in the Navy on 4 March 1823 . Thatcher spent most of the next four years on board the frigate in the Pacific . He became a passed midshipman on 4 March 1829 , and in 1830 - 1831 served in the schooner and sloop of war in the West Indies . He was promoted to lieutenant on 28 February 1833 and served aboard the schooner in Chesapeake Bay . He then served on the frigate in the Mediterranean Squadron in 1834 - 35 ; had special duty in 1837 ; and returned to the Mediterranean in the frigate in 1840 . He served aboard the receiving ship at Boston in 1843 - 46 , then in the sloop - of - war , part of the Africa Squadron in 1847 - 50 . After duty at Boston Navy Yard in 1851 , he commanded the storeship in 1852 . Promoted to commander on 14 September 1855 , while serving as Executive Officer of the Naval Asylum at Philadelphia , Thatcher then commanded the small sloop of war in the Pacific in 1857 - 59 . He was Executive Officer of the Boston Navy Yard from November 1859 to November 1861 , and thus played a role in the vast expansion of the Navy that began with the outbreak of the Civil War in April 1861 . Civil War . He was promoted to captain in 1861 , and while commanding the large sloop of war in the Mediterranean , attained the rank of commodore on 3 July 1862 . He commanded the screw frigate in the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron in 1864 - 65 , and a division of Admiral Porter ' s Squadron at the two battles of Fort Fisher in December 1864 and January 1865 . Thatcher was then appointed to command of the Western Gulf Squadron , immediately commencing operations in co - operation with General Canby , commander of the Army of West Mississippi , in the capture of Mobile , Alabama . After a brief and vigorous bombardment Spanish Fort and Fort Blakely were captured by the Union Army on 9 April 1865 . With the key defences of the city lost , the Confederate troops evacuated Mobile on the 12th . A formal surrender was demanded by General Granger and Acting - Rear Admiral Thatcher , and possession taken of the city . On 10 May , the Confederate naval forces in the Gulf surrendered to Thatcher . Sabine Pass and Galveston , the only remaining rebel - held fortified points on the Gulf Coast capitulated on 25 May and 2 June . Post - war career . Thatcher remained in command in the Gulf of Mexico until May 1866 , receiving promotion to rear admiral on 25 July 1866 , and commanded the North Pacific Squadron in 1867 - 68 . There he was presented with a medal and made a Knight of the Order of Kamehameha I by King Kamehameha V of the Hawaiian Islands , an honor that he was permitted to accept by virtue of a special Act of Congress . Though put on the retired list on 26 May 1868 when he reached the age of 62 , Thatcher served as Port Admiral at Portsmouth , New Hampshire , in 1869 - 70 . By right of his descent from his grandfather , Major General Henry Knox , Thatcher was a member of the Massachusetts Society of the Cincinnati . Thatcher and his family settled in Winchester , Massachusetts , where he spent the remaining nine years of his life . Rear Admiral Thatcher died at his home on 5 April 1880 .