PARKER. 151 



46. WILLIAM HARWAR PARKER. 



WILLIAM H. PARKER was born in 1827. As a boy he read Marryat's 

 novels, was always fond of adventure, of hearing and telling stories, and of fun. 

 He entered the navy as a midshipman in October 1841, at the age of 14 years, and 

 was ordered to the Carolina, one of Matthew C. Perry's squadron, where he studied 

 navigation. In 1846 he was on the Potomac, sent to Port Isabel to support General 

 Taylor. In 1847-1848 he studied at Annapolis. After passing his examination 

 and in search of adventure, he selected a sloop-of-war going to Africa rather than 

 a fine frigate for the Mediterranean. When an American brig dragged ashore 

 in a storm, young Parker rowed over to her in a gale and helped save her. In 

 1853 to 1857 he was an instructor in mathematics at the Naval Academy and after- 

 wards in navigation and astronomy, then in seamanship and naval tactics. In 

 April 1861 he resigned his lieutenant's commission and joined the Confederates 

 and was attached to the Beaufort squadron. He participated in the battle of 

 Roanoke island and the weak defense of Elizabeth City. In command of the 

 Beaufort, he participated in the battle between the Merrimac and the Cumberland 

 and Congress the day before the Monitor arrived in Hampton Roads. He was 

 called on for the examination and classification of midshipmen in the Confederate 

 Navy and, in July 1863, he organized the Confederate Naval Academy, of which 

 he was superintendent until the fall of the Confederacy. At the fall he and his 

 naval men guarded the coin chest of the Confederacy for over 30 days. He was 

 in the service of the Pacific Mail Company from 1865 to 1874, and for a time the 

 captain of a steamer running between Panama and San Francisco. He was the 

 author of several works on naval tactics and in 1883 published his entertaining 

 "Recollections of a naval officer." He died suddenly in 1896. 



Captain Parker had 4 brothers: (1) Robert. (2) Foxhall Alexander, who 

 was executive officer at the Washington navy yard at the outbreak of the Civil 

 War and did much to protect Washington in the early days of the war; he became 

 a commodore in the United States navy, and chief signal officer ; commanded the 

 Boston navy yard in 1877-1878, and was superintendent of the Naval Academy at 

 Annapolis at the time of his death in 1879. Like his brother William, he had 

 literary gifts. He wrote two books on tactics and two on the howitzer, all of 

 which are used as text-books in the Naval Academy. A son, William H., is in 

 the navy. (3) Richard, who was a young man of fine intellect, became master 

 in the United States volunteer navy. (4) Daingerfield, who entered the army in 

 1861 and was breveted for gallantry at Gettysburg; he became a colonel of infan- 

 try and retired in 1896. Thus this was a fraternity of fighters and administrators, 

 with a preference, on the whole, for the sea. 



The father of William H. Parker's fraternity was Foxhall Alexander Parker, 

 who rose to the highest rank (commodore) of his day in the United States navy. 

 The mother was Sara, daughter of General Robert Bogardus, of New York City, 

 who was colonel of the Forty-first regiment of infantry in the War of 1812. The 

 father's father was William Harwar Parker (born in 1752), who was an officer 

 in the Virginia navy. Two of the latter's sons became brilliant lawyers, one a 

 United States senator. In his fraternity all the males were fighters. These are 

 all descended in the male line from George Parker, who early settled in Accomac 

 county, Virginia, from whom also are descended the Parker-Upshurs. 



