George M . Bache George Mifflin Bache ( November 12 , 1840 – February 11 , 1896 ) was an officer in the United States Navy , fighting on the Union side in the American Civil War and continuing to serve for a decade after the war ' s end . Biography . Early life and ancestors . He was born in Washington , D . C . , the son of Lieutenant George Mifflin Bache , USN and Elizabeth Catherine Patterson . He was the grandson of Richard Bache Jr . , who served in the Republic of Texas Navy and was elected as a Representative to the Second Texas Legislature in 1847 and Sophia , the daughter of Arabella Maria Smith and Alexander J . Dallas , who served as the U . S . Treasury Secretary under President James Madison . He was also the great - grandson of Sarah Franklin Bache and Richard Bache , and more notably he was the great - great - grandson of Benjamin Franklin , as well as a nephew of George Mifflin Dallas the 11th Vice President of the United States , serving under James K . Polk . His uncles included Alexander Dallas Bache , Superintendent of the U . S . Coast Survey , and Admiral David Dixon Porter . Education and career . His father was killed in 1846 , swept overboard during a gale while in command of the brig , but despite this Bache joined the Navy in August 1855 , serving as captain ' s clerk aboard the sloop until May 1857 . He then briefly served aboard the Coast Survey schooner , as acting - master ' s mate under the command of Lieutenant Richard Wainwright , another uncle by marriage , before entering the Naval Academy on 19 November 1857 with the rank of acting - midshipman . He graduated on 1 June 1861 , just after the outbreak of the Civil War , with the rank of midshipman . During the war , he first served aboard the . Promoted to lieutenant on 16 July 1862 , he served briefly in the steam sloop before transferring to the squadron on the Mississippi River late in 1862 . On 8 November 1862 , he received orders to assume command of the stern - wheel casemate gunboat . Bache commanded the gunboat during operations leading up to the fall of Vicksburg , Mississippi , early in July 1863 . During those operations , however , his ship was sunk on 27 May 1863 while dueling Confederate batteries defending the river approaches to the city . That summer , he took command of the sidewheel gunboat and led her in a number of engagements with Confederate forces . In 1864 , he returned to the Atlantic blockade as executive officer of " Powhatan " . While assigned to that ship , Bache participated in both the unsuccessful and successful assaults on Fort Fisher , carried out in December 1864 and January 1865 . In the latter attack , he was wounded but not severely . Promoted to lieutenant - commander on 25 July 1866 , he served in until she was destroyed on a reef at the mouth of the Godavari River , Madras , India , on 19 June 1867 . Between 1869 and 1872 , Bache was assigned to the steam sloop on the European Station . After that , he went ashore to ordnance duty at the Washington Navy Yard until his retirement on 5 April 1875 , receiving promotion to commander the same day . Commander Bache died unmarried on February 11 , 1896 at Washington , D . C . The destroyer ( 1942 – 1968 ) was named in his honor .