David Ambrose Middleton, Part 1

As I noted yesterday I'm trying to put together a piece on Easton's participation in the Civil War Navy, but there are several difficulties. First many of the men who served for Easton do not seem to be Easton residents. When I finally found David Middleton who had gone through school here and was working at the shovel works, the records list his ships, but give all most no information about when he was on them! With soldiers in the Civil War army things are easier.  The regimental histories are well known. If a soldier was in the 7th Massachusetts Infantry like Middleton's brother James you can follow his unit from battle to battle. If the soldier is "lucky" enough to be wounded in a battle you know he was there and not a "horse holder," "coffee cooler" (an officer's aide), or other person on detached service. Even in those cases the daily records available at the Massachusetts archives or a regimental history might provide details.

Chaffin tells us that Middleton served on the "gunboats" Ino, Sea Bird, Hibiscus, Roebuck, and San Jacinto. It turns out Middleton was on a wild variety of ships charged with maintaining the blockade of southern ports none of which really qualify as a gunboat. Middleton's service record shows he actually enlisted in the army on May 25, 1861 and but, according to Chaffin, "took leave July 7, and enlisted in the navy." One of his service records say he actually deserted on July 7, 1861. His brother James, already a father with two small kids, was then in the army in a three year enlistment, and young David was supporting his aging mother so a family decision may have been made to get one of the men into a safer service. At any rate the only other dates we have of Middleton's naval service is October 23, 1864 when he re-enlists (under an alias!) on the Roebuck and September 23, 1865 when he gets his discharge from the San Jacinto.

Putting aside the alias issue-perhaps it was related to collecting a bounty, what can we make of this record? Well, the history of the ships he served on is available and unlike regimental transfers, one would think that two ships have to be in the same place at the same time to exchange sailors so let's start with the Roebuck and San Jacinto. The Roebuck was a two masted clipper ship that displaced 455 tons and had a crew of 69 and four 32 pound cannons. It had a good record of prize captures as a blockader, but late in July, 1864, due to weakened rigging, she was assigned as a storeship in Tampa, Florida. Yellow fever broke out among the crew, and on September 12 it was ordered north to Portsmouth, New Hampshire to recuperate, reaching their on September 28. Surprisingly she was decommissioned (mothballed) on October 17th less than a week before Middleton allegedly joined her crew! Where was his next ship at this time?

The San Jacinto was one of the Navy's first ships to be fitted with a propeller instead of paddle wheels. Launched in 1850 as an experiment to test new propulsion concepts it had been plagued with balky engines and unreliable machinery for years, but managed a distinguished career including precipitating the Trent Affair, a diplomatic crisis with England. It displaced 1,567 tons and had a crew of 278, two 8" guns and four 32 pounders. On January 7, 1864 apparently operating off Florida,  the San Jacinto captured a Confederate schooner called the Roebuck after a two hour chase. In late July 1864 yellow fever struck the ship at Key West and like the USS Roebuck (not the prize ship) it was ordered north to New York where it docked in the quarantine area on August 13, but on the next day it was ordered to coal up and chase a Confederate cruiser. It chased as far north as Halifax, Nova Scotia on the 19th without finding the rebel ship. After that (hooray!!), she put into Portsmouth, New Hampshire for repairs. The San Jacinto was being repaired at Portsmouth when the Roebuck appeared at the end of September. Clearly, Middleton's connection to the Roebuck was a short and dry one. He left Portsmouth with the San Jacinto and reached Key West on December 3 where the ship resumed its duties as the squadron flagship until near the end of the month when she was relieved of duty and sailed for the Bahamas. On New Year's Day, 1865 the San Jacinto struck a reef and sank near Great Abaco Island. The crew managed to save her guns, some equipment, and provisions, but they couldn't salvage the ship. Middleton returned to the United States, but with the war winding down, he was not recalled to service being discharged "from" the San Jacinto nine months after it sank. Well, puzzle solved about Middleton's last year of his four years of service, but not a very heroic story compared to his brother's service in some of the great battles of the war. Can we make anything out of his service earlier in the war? Stay tuned.