{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2019}} {{Infobox military person | name = Henry Erben | image = Lieut. Henry Erben, USN (cropped).jpg | caption = Erben, {{circa}} 1860–1865 | birth_date = {{Birth date|1832|9|5|df=y}} | death_date = {{Death date and age|1909|10|23|1832|9|5|df=y}} | burial_label = Place of burial | burial_place = | birth_place = [[New York City]], U.S. | death_place = New York City, U.S. | burial_coordinates = <!-- {{coord|LAT|LONG|display=inline,title}} --> | nickname = | allegiance = [[United States of America]] | branch = {{flagicon image|US Naval Jack 30 stars.svg}} [[United States Navy]] | service_years = 1848–1894, 1898 | rank = [[File:USN Rear Admiral rank insignia.jpg|35px]] [[Rear admiral (United States)|Rear admiral]] | unit = | commands = {{Plainlist| * {{USS|St. Louis|1861|6}} * {{USS|Sumter|1863|6}} * {{USS|Tunxis|1864|6}} * {{USS|Pinola|1861|6}} * {{USS|Tuscarora|1861|6}} * [[European Station]] * Patrol Fleet }} | battles = [[American Civil War]]<br/>[[Spanish–American War]] | awards = | relations = | other_work = | signature = Signature of Henry Erben (1832–1909).png }} '''Henry Erben''' (5 September 1832 – 23 October 1909) was a [[Rear admiral (United States)|rear admiral]] of the [[United States Navy]], who served in the [[American Civil War]] and the [[Spanish–American War]]. His father, also named Henry Erben (1800–1884), was a prominent builder of [[pipe organs]].
==Biography== Erben was born in [[New York City]],<ref name="DANFS">{{Cite DANFS |title=USS Erben |url=http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/e4/erben.htm |accessdate=5 August 2013}}</ref> and he entered the Navy as a [[midshipman]] on 17 June 1848.<ref name="DANFS"/> He graduated from the [[United States Naval Academy]] and was promoted to [[passed midshipman]] on 12 June 1855,<ref name="callahan">{{cite web |url=http://www.history.navy.mil/books/callahan/reg-usn-e.htm |title=US Navy Officers: 1775–1900 (E) |work=Naval Historical Center |year=2006 |accessdate=5 August 2013 |archive-date=5 December 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101205163749/http://www.history.navy.mil/books/callahan/reg-usn-e.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> to master on 16 September 1855,<ref name="callahan"/> and to lieutenant on 27 December 1856.<ref name="callahan"/>
At the outbreak of the Civil War he was serving aboard the store ship {{USS|Supply|1846|2}}, which arrived at [[Pensacola, Florida]], on 10 January 1861, the day [[Florida in the American Civil War|the state declared its secession from the Union]], and as the [[Pensacola Navy Yard|Navy Yard]] there was captured by state forces. Union forces under Lieutenant [[Adam J. Slemmer]] still held [[Fort Pickens]], and the next day Erben and men from ''Supply'' broke into [[Fort McRee]], and destroyed some 20,000 pounds of gunpowder and spiked all of the guns.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.flagcollection.com/itemdetails.php?CollectionItem_ID=2213 |title=First Captured U.S. 33 Star Flag, Pensacola, Florida |work=Zaricor Flag collection |year=2013 |accessdate=5 August 2013}}</ref> In April Erben reported aboard {{USS|Powhatan|1850|2}}, and was ordered to the [[Mississippi Flotilla]] on 5 September 1861.<ref name="antietam">{{cite web |url= http://antietam.aotw.org/officers.php?officer_id=956 |title=Lt.Cdr. Henry Erben |first=Brian |last=Downey |work=Antietam on the Web |year=2013 |accessdate=5 August 2013}}</ref> There he commanded the ironclad {{USS|St. Louis|1861|2}} from April to June 1862, and the {{USS|Sumter|1863|2}} from June to July 1862.<ref name="antietam"/> He was promoted to lieutenant commander on 16 July 1862.<ref name="callahan"/> He then served with the naval [[howitzer]] battery which served with the [[Union Army|Army]] during the [[Maryland Campaign|Antietam campaign]] in September 1862.<ref name="DANFS"/>
He commanded the ill-fated monitor {{USS|Tunxis|1864|2}} from her commissioning in July 1864 until September,<ref name="antietam"/> then the gunboat {{USS|Pinola|1861|2}} in the 2nd Division of the [[West Gulf Blockading Squadron]] under Captain [[George F. Emmons]] in the [[Gulf of Mexico]]. On 2 February 1865 he detained the schooner ''Ben Willis'', sailing under British colors, with a cargo of bales of cotton. Suspecting her to be a blockade runner, Erben sent her in to New Orleans. Soon after, on 18 February 1865, boats from ''Pinola'' entered [[Pass Cavallo (Texas)|Pass Cavallo]], Texas, and cut out the 70-ton schooner ''Anna Dale'', which was armed with a 12-pounder Dahlgren howitzer and plentiful [[small arms]]. Attempting to sail her out in the dark the schooner grounded, so the guns were removed, and the schooner burnt. Nine crewmen were taken prisoner, one being her commander Joseph F. Stevenson, who claimed to be a lieutenant of the Confederate Navy, but was suspected by Erben of being a [[Confederate privateer|privateer]].<ref name="OffRecWGBS">{{Cite book |title=Official records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion: West Gulf Blockading Squadron (1865–1866) |publisher=Government Printing Office |location=Washington, D.C. |date=1908 |url=https://ebooks.library.cornell.edu/m/moawar/text/ofre0022.txt |accessdate=5 August 2013}}</ref>
Erben was promoted to commander on 6 May 1868 and in late 1874 took over command of the [[USS Tuscarora]] from [[George Belknap]]. As part of this command the ship took soundings of the ocean bottom and discovered a seamount which became known as the Erben seamount, named after its commander. <ref>{{cite news |last=Theberge |first=Albert E. |date=19 May 2016 |title=Mountains in the Sea |url=https://www.hydro-international.com/content/article/mountains-in-the-sea |work=Hydro International |access-date=30 January 2025}}</ref>
Erben was promoted to captain on 1 November 1879<ref name="callahan"/> and served as the superintendent of the [[New York Nautical School]] (now the State University of New York Maritime College) from 1879 to 1882.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.correctionhistory.org/html/chronicl/school-ship/Hart%20Island%20start%20of%20Fort%20Schuyler%20Marine%20Academy6.html |title=Saluting NY Reform School Ship as SUNY Maritime College Ancestor? |work=New York Correction History Society |year=2009 |accessdate=5 August 2013}}</ref>
Promoted to commodore on 3 April 1892,<ref name="callahan"/> he served as the commandant of the [[New York Navy Yard]] until May 1893,<ref name="fleetorganization">{{cite web |url= http://www.fleetorganization.com/1890sflagassignments.html |title=Flag Assignments 1890–1900 |first=Stephen |last=Svonavec |work=fleetorganization.com |year=2013 |accessdate=5 August 2013}}</ref> and was then appointed commander-in-chief of the [[European Station]], serving from June 1893 until August 1894,<ref name="fleetorganization"/> and receiving promotion to rear admiral on 31 July 1894.<ref name="callahan"/>
Rear Admiral Erben retired on 6 September 1894,<ref name="callahan"/> but returned to active duty between April and July 1898<ref name="fleetorganization"/> when he was placed in command of the Patrol Fleet, which guarded the coast of the United States from [[Galveston, Texas]], to [[Bar Harbor, Maine]], during the [[Spanish–American War]].<ref name="DANFS"/> Erben was based at New York City, while his command consisted primarily of eight old iron monitors stationed at various ports.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.history.navy.mil/wars/spanam.htm#anchorn16 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20000816165103/http://history.navy.mil/wars/spanam.htm#anchorn16 |url-status= dead |archive-date= 16 August 2000 |title=War Plans and Preparations and Their Impact on U.S. Naval Operations in the Spanish–American War |first=Mark L. |last=Hayes |work=Early History Branch, Naval Historical Center |date=23 March 1998 |accessdate=5 August 2013}}</ref>
[[Rear admiral (United States)|Rear Admiral]] Erben died in New York City in 1909.<ref name="DANFS"/>
==Namesake== The {{Sclass|Fletcher|destroyer}} {{USS|Erben|DD-631}} (1943–1958) was named in his honor.<ref name="DANFS"/>
==Family== His father, also named Henry Erben (born in New York City in 1800; died there in 1884), was an [[organ (music)|organ]] builder,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://pipeorgandatabase.org/BuilderDetails.php?BuilderID=1900 |title=Henry Erben |publisher=Organ Historical Society |accessdate=23 November 2019}}</ref> apprenticed in 1818 to Thomas Hall, an organ builder. The admiral's grandfather Peter Erben (born in [[Philadelphia]] in 1771; died in New York City in 1863) was an organist. After the death of his father, who was one of the early [[German people|German]] settlers in [[Pennsylvania]], Peter moved to New York City, where he became an organ builder, and was also organist in [[Trinity Church (Manhattan)|Trinity parish]] from 1807 until 1839.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Erben, Peter |work=Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography |location=New York |publisher=D. Appleton |year=1900}}</ref>
== Article by Capt. John M. Ellicott, USN (Ret.), '83 == [https://sites.google.com/view/henryerbenseadog/home Seadog vs. Scholar - The Erben - Mahan Feud]
==References== ;Notes {{Reflist}} ;Bibliography *{{DANFS|http://history.navy.mil/danfs/e4/erben.htm}} *{{Appletons'|wstitle=Erben, Peter|year=1900}}
==External links== *{{commons category-inline}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Erben, Henry}} [[Category:1832 births]] [[Category:1909 deaths]] [[Category:Military personnel from New York City]] [[Category:United States Naval Academy alumni]] [[Category:People of New York (state) in the American Civil War]] [[Category:Union navy officers]] [[Category:Presidents of the State University of New York Maritime College]] [[Category:United States Navy rear admirals (upper half)]] [[Category:United States Navy personnel of the Spanish–American War]]