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Franklin Buchanan (September 13, 1800—May 11, 1874) was an officer in the U.S. Navy who became an admiral in the Confederate Navy during the American Civil War.
Buchanan was born in Baltimore, Maryland. He became a midshipman in 1815, was promoted to Lieutenant in 1825, Commander in 1841 and Captain in 1855.
Over the four and a half decades of his U.S. Navy service, Buchanan had extensive and worldwide sea duty. He commanded the sloops of war Vincennes and Germantown during the 1840s and the steam frigate Susquehanna in the Perry expedition to Japan during the 1850s.
In 1845-47, he served as the first Superintendent of the United States Naval Academy, followed by notable Mexican War service. In 1859-61, Captain Buchanan was the Commandant of the Washington Navy Yard. During the Civil War he joined the Confederate forces.
In August 1862, Buchanan was promoted to the rank of Admiral and sent to command Confederate naval forces at Mobile Bay, Alabama. He oversaw the construction of the ironclad CSS Tennessee and was on board her during the Battle of Mobile Bay with Rear Admiral David Glasgow Farragut's Union fleet on 5 August 1864. Wounded and taken prisoner, Admiral Buchanan was not exchanged until February 1865. He was on convalescent leave until the Civil War ended a few months later. Following the conflict, Buchanan lived in Maryland, then was a businessman in Mobile until 1870, when he again took up residence in Maryland. He died there on 11 May 1874.
See USS Buchanan for U.S. Navy ships named in his honor.
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