Captain Duncan N. Ingraham, USN, CSN

Library of Congress photo.

Captain Duncan Nathaniel Ingraham.

Duncan Nathaniel Ingraham was born at Charleston, South Carolina on 6 December 1802. He was appointed Midshipman 18 June 1812 at the age of 10 and, after distinguished service, was commissioned captain 14 September 1855.

In July 1853, while in command of the sloop-of-war St. Louis in the Mediterranean, he interfered at Smyrna with the detention by the Austrian consul of Martin Koszta, a Hungarian who had declared in New York his intention of becoming an America citizen, and who had been seized and confined in the Austrian ship Hussar. For his conduct in this matter Captain Ingraham was voted thanks and the Congressional Gold Medal with the following citation:

Be it resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the President of the United States be, and he is hereby, requested to cause to be made a medal, with suitable devices, and presented to Commander Duncan N. Ingraham, of the navy of the United States, as a testimonial of the high sense entertained by Congress of his gallant and judicious conduct on the second of July, eighteen hundred and fifty-three, in extending protection to Martin Koszta, by rescuing him from illegal seizure and imprisonment on board the Austrian war-brig Hussar.

Captain Ingraham served as Chief of the Bureau of Ordnance and Hydrographer of the Navy from 1856 until 1860. He resigned from the Navy 4 February 1861 to enter the Confederate States Navy with the rank of captain. He was commandant of the Charleston station 1862 to 1865.

Captain Ingraham died at Charleston on 16 October 1891.

Source: Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships and Civil War Interactive.

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