COMMODORE-GEORGE

A  CIVIL  WAR  SAILOR

Among the collection of Civil War photographs held by the National Archives in Washington, D.C., is a picture which historians have identified as George William Commodore.  The picture has been published in issues of the Navy Bluejackets Manual as Commodore reportedly served in the Union Navy during the Civil War aboard the USS ADOLPH HUGEL, a schooner which was used as a gunboat in support of the Union Navy blockage of Confederate waterways.  Commodore was born a free man during 1825, in Baltimore, Maryland.  He enlisted in the Navy at Baltimore at age 39 on July 5, 1864 and served until 1867.  He served as a Landsman, a rate given to enlisted men who had little or no prior nautical experience.  Muster records of the ADOLPH HUGEL recorded Commodore as a crewmember during 1864 and 1865.  Following the Civil War he acquired a piece of land across the Potomac River from Washington in Maryland where he lived with his family until his death in 1885.

Submitted by CDR Roy A. Mosteller, USNR (Ret)