John Rodgers ( American Civil War naval officer ) John Rodgers ( August 8 , 1812 – May 5 , 1882 ) was an admiral in the United States Navy . He began his naval career as a commander in the American Civil War and during his Postbellum service became an admiral . Early life and career . Rodgers , a son of the famous Commodore John Rodgers , was born near Havre de Grace , Maryland . He received his appointment as a Midshipman in the Navy on April 18 , 1828 . Service in the Mediterranean on board and opened his long career of distinguished service , and he commanded an expedition of Naval Infantry and Marines in Florida during the Seminole Wars . In the mid - 1850s he succeeded Commander Ringgold in command of the North Pacific Exploring and Surveying Expedition , which added greatly to the knowledge of far eastern and northern waters . Following his promotion to Commander in 1855 , he married and settled to work in the Navy ' s Japan Office in Washington , D . C . , where he was serving when the Civil War broke out . Civil War service . Commander Rodgers ' first war assignment was to go with Commodore Louis M . Goldsborough to Gosport Navy Yard on April 20 , 1861 , where with other officers he was to remove Naval vessels and assets so they could not be used by the Confederates . Virginia had only just declared her secession from the Union . Upon arrival they found the yard in shambles , as Commodore McCauley had already ordered the vessels at Gosport scuttled , including the , since he considered the yard indefensible . Commodore Goldsborough made the decision to destroy the yard , and Commander Rodgers and Army Captain of Engineers Horatio G . Wright were given the job of destroying the drydock . They were thwarted in this attempt when the fuse was extinguished by water in the pumping gallery . Much - cherished rumors that the fuse was deliberately extinguished by a Confederate sympathizer are simply not true . Commander Rodgers and Captain Wright were captured by General William B . Taliaferro of the Virginia State Militia , but since Virginia had not yet joined the Confederate States , and was therefore not at war against the United States , Governor John Letcher returned the two officers to Washington . Commander Rodgers was then sent to the Western Rivers , where he organized the Western Flotilla and supervised construction of the City Class Gunboats , the first ironclad gunboat s on the western rivers . He was relieved by Captain Andrew Hull Foote , a more senior officer being required by the Navy to deal with the prickly Major General John C . Fremont . After blockading operations off of Savannah in command of the , he assumed command of the experimental ironclad in April 1862 , operating with distinction in the James River . He commanded the James River Flotilla , including the USS " Galena " , the ironclad , and the 90 - day gunboat in an expedition up the James River in May 1862 , which was stopped eight miles shy of Richmond by Confederate fortifications at Drewry ' s Bluff . The damage that the " Galena " suffered in the ensuing battle caused him to report , " We demonstrated that she is not shotproof " , and made him disdainful of trying experiments in the fires of war . Thereafter he supported General McClellan ' s Peninsula Campaign with Naval bombardment , preventing Confederate forces from overunning the Army of the Potomac ' s position . John Rodgers was promoted to Captain July 16 , 1862 and took command of the ironclad monitor . After successfully navigating her from Brooklyn to Charleston through the same storm that sank the USS " Monitor " , he distinguished himself during the attack on Fort Sumter in May 1863 , and in capturing the Confederate ram " Atlanta " on June 17 , 1863 . The latter service won him the Thanks of Congress and promotion to Commodore . Unfortunately , this was his last active service in the Civil War . After recovering from an illness , he took command of the ironclad monitor . Design and construction problems with that vessel kept him occupied for the remainder of the war , though he earnestly desired a more active post . Postbellum career . Commodore Rodgers then commanded the Boston Naval Station until 1869 . He was elevated to Rear Admiral in December 1869 and given command of the Asiatic Squadron . In 1871 he commanded the American squadron in the United States expedition to Korea . Returning to the United States , assumed command of Mare Island and was Superintendent of the United States Naval Observatory . While serving in that post , Rear Admiral Rodgers died in Washington , D . C . on May 5 , 1882 . Namesake . Rodgers ' father was Commodore John Rodgers ( 1772 – 1838 ) , and he was the grandfather of pioneering Naval aviator Commander John Rodgers ( 1881 – 1926 ) . Six ships of the United States Navy have been named in their honor ; either as or .