BUCHANAN. 53 



10. FRANKLIN BUCHANAN. 



FRANKLIN BUCHANAN was born at Baltimore, Maryland, September 17, 

 1800. He was appointed midshipman in the navy January 1815, lieutenant in 

 1825, and master commandant in 1841. He organized and was the first super- 

 intendent of the Naval Academy at Annapolis, serving until 1847; he participated 

 in the capture of Vera Cruz and commanded the Susquehanna, flagship of Perry's 

 fleet, on the expedition to Japan. Made captain in 1855, he was assigned to the 

 command of the navy yard at Washington in 1859. In April 1861, believing that 

 Maryland was about to secede, he resigned, but when he found that the State 

 was to remain in the Union he desired to withdraw his resignation, but was not 

 reinstated. So, in September 1861, he entered the Confederate navy as captain. 

 He superintended the construction of the ram Merrimac and commanded her in 

 her destructive work in Hampton Roads, but, as he was wounded, he could not 

 command her against the Monitor, a few days later. In 1863 he was given 

 command of the naval defenses of Mobile and built the ram Tennessee. He com- 

 manded her against Farragut's fleet, August 5, 1864, was compelled to surrender 

 and was taken prisoner. After the war he was president of the Maryland Agri- 

 cultural College and agent for a life-insurance company. He died in 1874. 



Of his fraternity there is McKean Buchanan, who, after two years at the 

 University of Pennsylvania, went into mercantile life, became a warrant clerk 

 in the Navy Department, and in 1826 was commissioned purser (later paymaster) 

 in the navy. He was in the first American man-of-war that cruised around the 

 world ; seven times he rounded Cape Horn and once went around the Cape of Good 

 Hope. He gained the rank of commodore. He was very agreeable, prompt, 

 accurate, and responsible. Another brother, George, was a farmer all his life; 

 he married Sarah G. Miles, daughter of Evan Miles, and both of their sons, who 

 grew up, were killed in action during the Civil War; one as captain in the army 

 and one as a lieutenant commander on the Mississippi. A sister, Mary Ann, born 

 in 1792, married Edward J. Coale, in the diplomatic service, and one of their 

 sons was assistant surgeon in the navy. 



Franklin Buchanan married Ann Lloyd, daughter of Governor Edward 

 Lloyd of Maryland, a gentleman of wealth. Buchanan's only son, Franklin 

 (born in 1827), was the largest rice-broker in Savannah. The latter's sister, Eliza- 

 beth, had a son, Franklin Buchanan Sullivan, born in 1871, who was appointed a 

 naval cadet at large and was the youngest member of his class at Annapolis, being 

 under 15 years of age on admission. 



Franklin Buchanan's father was George Buchanan, a physician, whose father 

 was a brigadier general of the Maryland troops. Franklin's mother was a 

 daughter of Thomas McKean, one of the original revolutionists of Delaware, who, 

 with two others, drew up the address to the House of Commons and boldly 

 denounced the chairman when he refused to sign it. He was active on commit- 

 tees, promoted the Declaration of Independence, and signed it. Then he led a 

 force, of which he was colonel, to General Washington at Perth Amboy, New 

 Jersey, and took part in several skirmishes. Returning, he framed a constitution 

 for Delaware in a single night and under it became president of the State in 1777. 

 From 1777 to 1799 he was chief justice of Pennsylvania and from 1799 to 1808 

 was governor of that State. He died in 1817. Letitia McKean's mother's father, 

 Joseph Borden (born in 1719), was not less notable. He was a member of the 

 first revolutionary convention that met at New Brunswick, July 1774, and was 

 active in the inner circles until war broke out, when he became a colonel of the 



