Melancthon Brooks Woolsey, the son of Captain Melancthon Taylor Woolsey, USN, was born at Sacketts Harbor, New York, on 11 August 1817. His Naval service began as a Midshipman in September 1832 and he rose in rank to Lieutenant by 1847. In September 1855, Lt. Woolsey was placed on the reserve list, but was recalled to active service after the Civil War began in 1861. From late in that year until mid-1862 he commanded the gunboat Ellen during active operations along the Confederate coast from South Carolina to Florida. In July 1862 Commander Woolsey took command of the sloop of war Vandalia and in early 1863 became Commanding Officer of the steam gunboat Princess Royal, in which he served in the Gulf of Mexico until the war ended in 1865.
Captain Woolsey commanded the steam sloop Pawnee and the much larger Guerriere in the south Atlantic during the last years of the decade. Promoted to Commodore in 1871, he was in charge of the South Atlantic Station and, in 1873-1874, of the Pensacola Navy Yard, Florida. He died in of yellow fever at Pensacola on 2 October 1874.
The U.S. Navy has named one destroyer in honor of Commodore Melancthon Brooks Woolsey: USS Woolsey (DD-437), 1941-1974.
This page features the only view we have of Melancthon B. Woolsey.
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Photo #: KN-10908 (Color) Lieutenant Melancthon Brooks Woolsey, USN (1817-1874) Oil on canvas, 30" x 25", by Henry Woodward (active 1848-1852). Painting in the U.S. Naval Academy Museum Collection. Transferred from the U.S. Naval Lyceum, 1892. Official U.S. Navy Photograph. Online Image: 46KB; 580 x 765 pixels Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system as Photo # 428-KN-10908 |
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If you want higher resolution reproductions than the "Online Library's" digital images, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions." |
Page made 14 June 2003