{{Infobox military person |birth_date= {{birth date|1810|3|31}} |death_date= {{death date and age|1877|2|6|1810|3|31}} |birth_place= [[Portland, Maine]], US |death_place= [[San Francisco]], California, US |burial_place= [[Eastern Cemetery]], Portland, Maine |burial_label= Place of burial |image=James Alden noaa.jpg |caption= |nickname= |allegiance= [[United States of America]]<br />[[Union (American Civil War)|Union]] |branch= [[United States Navy]]<br />[[Union Navy]] |service_years= 1828–1873 |rank=[[File:USN Rear Admiral rank insignia.jpg|35px]] [[Rear admiral (United States)|Rear admiral]] |commands= |unit= |battles= [[Mexican–American War]]<br />[[American Civil War]] |awards= |other_work= }} '''James Alden Jr.''' (March 31, 1810 – February 6, 1877) was a [[Rear admiral (United States)|rear admiral]] in the [[United States Navy]]. In the [[Mexican–American War]] he participated in the captures of Veracruz, Tuxpan, and Tabasco. Fighting on the Union side in the Civil War, he took part in the relief of Fort Pickens, followed by many engagements on the Lower Mississippi, before being promoted [[Captain (United States O-6)|captain]] of [[USS Brooklyn (1858)|USS ''Brooklyn'']] and assisting in the Union victory in the [[Battle of Mobile Bay]].
==Early career== Alden was born in [[Portland, Maine]], on March 31, 1810,<ref name="BDA1906" /> and was a direct descendant of [[John Alden]], a [[Mayflower]] pilgrim. He was appointed [[United States Navy]] as [[Midshipman#United States Navy (1794–1845)|midshipman]] on April 1, 1828,<ref name="BDA1906" /> and spent the initial years of his naval career ashore at the Naval Station in [[Boston]], Massachusetts, before he served in the [[Mediterranean Squadron (United States)|Mediterranean Squadron]] on board the sloop of war [[USS John Adams (1799)|USS ''John Adams'']]. Promoted to passed midshipman on June 14, 1834, Alden then served at the [[Boston Navy Yard]] until he was assigned to the [[United States Exploring Expedition]] under [[Lieutenant (navy)|Lieutenant]] [[Charles Wilkes]].
During the course of his first voyage (1838–1842), the officers and men of the expedition were transferred freely from one vessel to another; Alden, promoted to lieutenant on February 25, 1841, concluded the cruise as [[Executive officer#United States Navy and United States Coast Guard|executive officer]] of the sloop [[USS Porpoise (1836)|USS ''Porpoise'']]. He saw action at Malolo, in the [[Fiji]] Islands, on July 26, 1840, in the [[punitive expedition]] against the tribe which had murdered Lieutenant Joseph Underwood and Midshipman Wilkes Henry two days before. Henry was a nephew of the expedition's leader.
After another tour of duty at the naval station at Boston, Alden was assigned to [[USS Constitution|USS ''Constitution'']], and circumnavigated the globe in the [[frigate]] during her cruise under Captain [[John Percival|John ("Mad Jack") Percival]]. While serving therein, he commanded a boat expedition that cut out several war junks from under the guns of a fort at Zuron Bay, [[Cochin China]]. Later serving in the [[Home Squadron]] during the [[Mexican–American War]] (1846), Alden, an adept surveyor, participated in the captures of [[Veracruz]], [[Tuxpan]], and [[Tabasco]].<ref name="auto">{{cite book|title=Who Was Who in American History – the Military|date=1975|publisher=Marquis Who's Who|location=Chicago|isbn=0837932017|page=5}}</ref>
==Coast Survey== Following the [[Mexican–American War|war with Mexico]], Alden served as inspector of provisions and clothing at Boston until detached from this duty on May 18, 1849, to go to Washington, D.C., and report to the [[United States Secretary of the Treasury]] for duty with the [[United States Coast and Geodetic Survey|United States Coast Survey]]. From the summer of 1849 to the late winter of 1851, he commanded, in succession, the U.S. Coast Survey steamers ''John Y. Mason'' and ''Walker'' in survey duty off the [[United States East Coast]]. Assigned to duty on the [[United States West Coast]] thereafter, Alden traveled to [[San Francisco]], [[California]], where he replaced [[William Pope McArthur]] as commander of the Coast Survey [[schooner]] ''Ewing''. He arrived in May 1851<ref name=NOAA>{{cite web|url=http://www.lib.noaa.gov/noaainfo/heritage/coastsurveyvol1/BACHE6.html|title=The Frontier Coast|website=NOAA Central Library|access-date=2016-04-10|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171017094132/https://www.lib.noaa.gov/noaainfo/heritage/coastsurveyvol1/BACHE6.html|archive-date=2017-10-17|url-status=dead}}</ref> and surveyed from San Francisco to San Diego, reporting on the expedition from San Francisco on February 17, 1852.<ref>{{cite book|title=Report of the Superintendent of the Coast Survey, Showing the Progress of the Survey during 1852|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WbJOAAAAcAAJ| pages=104–107|last1 = Bache|first1 = Alexander Dallas|year = 1853}}</ref>
===''Active''=== In 1852, he assumed command of the Coast Survey [[Steamship|steamer]] [[USCS Active|''Active'']],<ref name=NOAA/> purchased to replace the wrecked ''[[USRC Jefferson (1845)|Jefferson]]'' <ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.history.navy.mil/research/library/research-guides/z-files/zb-files/zb-files-a/alden-james.html|title=James Alden|website= Naval History and Heritage Command}}</ref> (the ''Ewing'' was temporarily abandoned,<ref name=Davidson>{{cite book|last=Lewis|first=Oscar|title=George Davidson: Pioneer West Coast Scientist|publisher=University of California Press|location=Berkeley and Los Angeles|year=1954|page=25|bibcode=1954gdpw.book.....L }}</ref>) and carried out survey work off the [[United States West Coast]] into 1860. During this time, on September 1, 1855, he was promoted to [[Commander (United States)#Naval|commander]]. Indian disturbances in [[Washington Territory]] in January 1856 highlighted Alden's tour of duty in command of ''Active'', and his ship, joining the sloop-of-war [[USS Decatur (1839)|USS ''Decatur'']] and the steamer [[USS Massachusetts (1845)|USS ''Massachusetts'']], proved "of great service" during those troubled times. ''Active'' operated in the headwaters of [[Puget Sound]], where her presence reassured the settlers. In the summer of 1859, during tensions incident to an American's killing a Britisher's pig on [[San Juan Island]], ''Active''{{'}}s timely arrival at that isle apparently helped to quiet a potentially dangerous situation in what became later known as the "[[Pig War (1859)|Pig War]]."
==U.S. Civil War== [[File:JamesAlden.jpg|thumb|200px|James Alden Jr.]] The outbreak of the [[American Civil War]] in the spring of 1861 found Alden in command of the steamer [[USS South Carolina (1860)|USS ''South Carolina'']], in which he participated in the relief of [[Fort Pickens]].<ref name="BDA1906" /> Next given the steam sloop [[USS Richmond (1860)|USS ''Richmond'']], Alden commanded her in the passage of [[Fort Jackson (Louisiana)|Fort Jackson]] and [[Fort St. Philip]], and in the engagements with Confederate batteries at [[Chalmette, Louisiana]], twice passing the southern guns at [[Vicksburg, Mississippi]], and in the battle at [[Port Hudson, Louisiana]].
Promoted to captain on January 2, 1863, Alden next assumed command of the steam sloop [[USS Brooklyn (1858)|USS ''Brooklyn'']],<ref name="BDA1906" /> and led that ship in the action with [[Fort Gaines (Alabama)|Fort Gaines]] and [[Fort Morgan (Alabama)|Fort Morgan]] and with the Confederate gunboats in the [[Battle of Mobile Bay]]. While ''Brooklyn'' was being sent north for repairs, she was attached to the naval forces gathering off [[Fort Fisher|Fort Fisher, North Carolina]], and took part in both assaults on that Confederate bastion.
In November 1865, shortly after the war's conclusion, Alden was elected as a veteran companion of the Pennsylvania Commandery of the [[Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States]]. He was assigned insignia number 64.
==Promotion and late career== Promoted to [[Commodore (rank)|commodore]] on July 25, 1866, Alden, over the next two years, commanded, in succession, the steam sloop [[USS Susquehanna (1847)|USS ''Susquehanna'']] and the steam frigate [[USS Minnesota (1855)|USS ''Minnesota'']] before he was made commandant of the [[Mare Island Navy Yard]]. Appointed Chief of the Bureau of Navigation in April 1869 and promoted to rear admiral on June 19, 1871, Alden returned to sea in 1871 with orders to command the naval force on the [[European Station]].<ref name="BDA1906" />
Departing New York in his flagship, [[USS Wabash (1855)|USS ''Wabash'']], on November 17, 1871, Alden relieved rear admiral [[Charles S. Boggs]] at [[Villefranche-sur-Mer|Villefranche]], France, on January 1, 1872. Although placed on the retired list on March 31, 1872, Alden remained on active duty commanding the European Fleet until relieved by Rear Admiral [[A. Ludlow Case]] at Villefranche on June 2, 1873. His last tour of duty afloat completed, he sailed home in his former command, ''Brooklyn''.
Alden died at San Francisco on February 6, 1877,<ref name="auto" /> but was buried in his native Portland's [[Eastern Cemetery]]<ref>{{Cite web |title=Subterranean Celebrities, Spirits Alive at the Eastern Cemetery in Portland, Maine |url=https://www.spiritsalive.org/subterranean-celebrities/index.htm |access-date=2023-04-16 |website=www.spiritsalive.org}}</ref> on February 24, 1877.
==Namesake== The U.S. Navy [[destroyer]] [[USS Alden (DD-211)|USS ''Alden'']] was named for him.
==References== {{Reflist|refs= <ref name="BDA1906">{{harvnb|Johnson|1906|p=70}}</ref> }}
'''Attribution''' * {{cite BDA1906 |wstitle= Alden, James |volume= 1 |page= 70 |short=}} * {{DANFS|http://www.history.navy.mil/research/histories/ship-histories/danfs/a/alden.html}}
{{Authority control}} {{Portal bar|Biography|American Civil War|United States}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Alden, James Jr.}} [[Category:1810 births]] [[Category:1877 deaths]] [[Category:Union navy officers]] [[Category:United States Navy personnel of the Mexican–American War]] [[Category:Military personnel from Portland, Maine]] [[Category:United States Navy rear admirals (upper half)]] [[Category:People of Maine in the American Civil War]] [[Category:Burials at Eastern Cemetery]] [[Category:People of the United States Exploring Expedition]] [[Category:United States Coast and Geodetic Survey personnel]]