Charles Henry Davis Charles Henry Davis ( January 16 , 1807 – February 18 , 1877 ) was a Rear Admiral in the United States Navy , serving primarily during the American Civil War , and with the United States Coast Survey . Early life and career . Davis was born in Boston , Massachusetts . He attended the Boston Latin School and entered Harvard College in 1821 but left after two years when he was appointed as a Midshipman in the United States Navy on August 12 , 1823 . Between 1827 and 1828 , he served on board the frigate , in the Pacific . In 1829 , he was promoted to Passed Midshipman . From 1830 to 1833 , he served on the sloop . In 1834 , he was promoted to Lieutenant and assigned to the . In 1840 to 1841 , he served on board the ship . In 1841 he received and honorary Bachelor of Arts degree from Harvard and in 1868 he received an honorary L . L . D . from the same institution . In 1843 he became a member of the Massachusetts Society of the Cincinnati in succession to his grandfather Colonel Constant Freeman ( 1757 - 1824 ) . From 1846 to 1849 , he worked in the United States Coast Survey on board the , where he discovered a previously unknown shoal that had caused shipwrecks off the coast of New York . During his service to the Survey , he was also responsible for researching tides and currents and acted as an inspector on a number of naval shipyards . From 1849 to 1855 he was the first superintendent of American Nautical Almanac Office and produced the American Ephemeris and Nautical Almanac . In 1854 , he was promoted to Commander and given the command of the . On April 30 , 1857 , he mediated with the Central American forces at San Juan del Sur , Nicaragua , the capitulation of filibuster filibuster and some 300 men , who departed in the St . Mary ' s for Panama the next day . In 1859 , while commanding the " St . Mary ' s " , Davis was ordered to go to Baker Island to obtain samples of guano , becoming perhaps the first American to set foot there since it was annexed by the United States in 1857 . The guano was necessary as fertilizer . Commodore William Mervine had previously been sent , but he did not land and believed the island to be inaccessible . ( From evidence that was later found on the island , it had been visited prior to 1857 by whalers . ) Civil War service . In the American Civil War , Davis was appointed to Blockade Strategy Board in June 1861 . On 15 November 1861 , he was promoted to Captain . He was made Acting Flag Officer , in command of the Western Gunboat Flotilla . A day after he took command , the flotilla fought a short battle with Confederate ships on the Mississippi River at Plum Point Bend on May 10 , 1862 . Caught unready for battle , two of the Union ships were badly damaged and had to be run into shoal water to keep from sinking . The Confederate vessels escaped with only minor damage . On June 6 , his ships fought in the Battle of Memphis , which resulted in the sinking or capture of seven of the eight Confederate ships , compared with damage to only one of the Union vessels . In July , he cooperated with Flag Officer David G . Farragut in an attack on Vicksburg , Mississippi , but they were forced to withdraw . In August , he proceeded up the Yazoo River and successfully seized Confederate supplies and munitions there . After this excursion , he was made Chief of the Bureau of Navigation and returned to Washington , D . C . . On February 7 , 1863 , he was promoted to Rear Admiral . After the war he joined the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States ( MOLLUS ) . He was a member of the New York Commandery and received insignia number 1022 . Post - war service . From 1865 to 1867 , he was the Superintendent of the United States Naval Observatory . In 1867 , he was given command of the South Atlantic Squadron and was given the as his flagship . In 1869 , he returned home and served both on the Lighthouse Board as well as in the Naval Observatory . Davis died in Washington , D . C . , and is buried in Cambridge , Massachusetts . Personal life . He married Harriette Blake Mills , the daughter of U . S . Senator Elijah Hunt Mills . One of their children , Anna Cabot Mills Davis , married U . S . Senator Henry Cabot Lodge . His son , Commander Charles H . Davis , Jr . , served as Chief Intelligence Officer of the Office of Naval Intelligence from September 1889 to August 1892 . Namesake . Several ships of the United States Navy are also named in his honor : the torpedo boat , the destroyers and , and the oceanographic research ship A species of sea anemone native to the coasts of New England and Nova Scotia , the " Rhodactis davisii " , is named for Davis .