RARE! “Civil War Rear Admiral" Francis J Higginson Hand Signed Check From 1903

Description: Up for auction a RARE! "Civil War Rear Admiral" Francis J Higginson Signed Check Dated 1903. ES-3904D Francis John Higginson (July 19, 1843 – September 12, 1931) was an officer in the United States Navy during the American Civil War and Spanish–American War. He rose to the rank of rear admiral and was the last commander-in-chief of the North Atlantic Squadron and first commander-in-chief of the North Atlantic Fleet. Higginson was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on July 19, 1843. He was raised in Deerfield, Massachusetts. Higginson was appointed as an acting midshipman on September 21, 1857 and entered the United States Naval Academy, from which he graduated in 1861, when he was promoted to midshipman. The American Civil War broke out in April 1861, and Higginson's first assignment after graduation was to the screw frigate USS Colorado, which was operating under the command of Captain Theodorus Bailey in the West Gulf Blockading Squadron off the United States Gulf Coast as part of the Union blockade of the Confederate States of America. While aboard Colorado, Higginson was wounded on September 14, 1861 while participating in a raid against Pensacola, Florida, in which a party from Colorado captured and destroyed the schooner Judah or Judith, which was believed to be undergoing conversion for service as a Confederate privateer, and spiked a gun of a Confederate artillery battery at the Pensacola Navy Yard. Detaching from Colorado in 1862, Higginson became signal midshipman and aide to Bailey aboard the gunboat USS Cayuga, and was aboard Cayuga serving in that capacity as Bailey commanded a gunboat division during the Battle of Forts Jackson and St. Philip on the Mississippi River in Louisiana on April 24, 1862. During the battle, the squadron of Rear Admiral David Glasgow Farragut passed Confederate Fort Jackson and Fort St. Philip to break through Confederate defenses on the Mississippi and move up to New Orleans, Louisiana, where Higginson participated in action against the Confederate artillery batteries at Chalmette, Louisiana, and the capture of New Orleans. Promoted to lieutenant on August 1, 1862, Higginson became executive officer of the steamer USS Vixen in the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron and later a watch officer aboard the sidewheel steam frigate USS Powhatan during 1862.[1] He was heavily involved in operations against the defenses of Charleston Harbor in South Carolina. On the night of September 8–9, 1863, he commanded a division of boats in an unsuccessful attack on Fort Sumter by a force of U.S. Navy and United States Marine Corps personnel under the overall command of the commanding officer of the monitor USS Patapsco, Commander Thomas H. Stevens Jr., and United States Army Brigadier General Quincy A. Gillmore commended him for his efficient service in command of picket launches operating at night inside Morris Island between Fort Sumter and Fort Gregg. He was the executive officer of the screw sloop-of-war USS Housatonic when the Confederate submarine H. L. Hunley sank her with a spar torpedo off Charleston, South Carolina, on February 17, 1864, the first time in history that a submarine sank a ship. He was executive officer of the gunboat USS Marblehead when she participated in the search for the Confederate States Navy commerce raider CSS Tallahassee in August 1864. He became executive officer of the monitor USS Passaic, and was aboard her for her bombardment of Fort Sumter in 1865.

Price: 499.99 USD

Location: Fort Lauderdale, Florida

End Time: 2025-01-16T21:05:11.000Z

Shipping Cost: 0 USD