Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 3.djvu/1170

1094 William Harwar Parker, lieutenant in the Confederate States navy, was a son of Com. Foxhall Parker, U. S. N., grandson of Capt. William H. Parker, of the Revolutionary navy, and great-grandson of Judge Richard Parker, one of the first judges of the court of appeals of Virginia, all of whom were from Westmoreland county. He was appointed midshipman in the United States navy October 19, 1841, and joined the receiving ship North Carolina, at New York. In 1843-44 he served in the Mediterranean and on the coast of Brazil on the line-of-battle ship Columbus, and from 1844 to 1847 was on the frigate Potomac in the West Indies and Gulf of Mexico, while attached to that vessel participating in the coast operations of the Mexican war. He was on shore at the batteries at Brazos, Santiago, during Taylor's first battles, May 8 and 9, 1846; was at the capture of Tampico, served in the naval battery at Vera Cruz March 24, 1847, was present at the capture of Tabasco, and in addition to his gallant services, survived two attacks of yellow fever. Returning home in June, 1847, he was at the naval academy from October following until June, 1848. At this institution he was graduated at the head of a class of 101, and received number two of the entire class of 1841, which was 245 strong when first appointed. In the fall of 1848 he sailed from Boston in the sloop-of-war Yorktown as passed midshipman and sailing master, and was wrecked near the Cape de Verde islands September 5, 1850, afterward returning to America on the John Adams. In 1851 he was attached to the brig Washington on the coast survey; served in the gulf on the Cyane in 1852-53, and was then ordered to the naval academy at Annapolis as instructor in mathematics, a position he retained until October, 1857, when he sailed from Boston in the famous new frigate Merrimac, for the Pacific, in the rank of lieutenant, to which he had been promoted in 1855. Returning in December, 1859, he was stationed at the naval academy as instructor in seamanship, naval tactics and naval light artillery. He resigned his Federal commission and came South, April 19, 1861, and rendered his first services to the new government in organizing a battery of howitzers. Receiving the rank of lieutenant, C. S. N., he commanded the gunboat Beaufort in the naval battle in February, 1862, off Roanoke island, and during the final struggle of Commodore Lynch's flotilla on the Pasquotank, he manned the guns of the battery at Cobb's point, and took part in the fight, sending his boat on to Norfolk. There he again took command of the Beaufort and participated in the naval battles of March 8 and 9, 1862, in Hampton Roads, in the first day's action taking his vessel alongside the Congress to receive her surrender. Subsequently given command of the gunboat Dixie, he burned her when Norfolk was evacuated, and was then assigned to command the Drury at Richmond. This position he resigned to become executive officer of the Palmetto State, an ironclad in Charleston harbor, with which he served when the blockade was broken at that port, and in the first attack on Fort Sumter by the Federal fleet. Later ordered to Richmond, he organized the Confederate naval academy, and served as superintendent until the close of the war, also for a time being in command of the Richmond, of the James river squadron. The Patrick Henry used as schoolship, was usually stationed near Drewry's