WARD-JAMES

FIRST  UNION  NAVY  OFFICER  KILLED

IN  ACTION  DURING  CIVIL  WAR

 

James Harmon Ward was born at Hartford, Connecticut, on September 25, 1806.  At the age of 16 he became a Midshipman in the U.S. Navy in March 1823 and served during the following years on board ships in the Mediterranean, off Africa and in the West Indies.  He also took a leave of absence to pursue scientific studies, was an instructor in ordnance and gunnery at the Naval School at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and authored a book on that important subject.  In 1845 then Lieutenant Ward became Executive Officer at the newly opened U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland, also teaching gunnery and steam engineering there.  His later scholarly endeavors included writing a textbook on naval tactics and a popular work on steam engineering.

 

During the last part of the war with Mexico, Ward commanded the frigate USS CUMBERLAND, and in 1848-1850, the steam gunboat USS VIXEN.  During the next decade he had shore duty at the Washington and Philadelphia Navy Yards, was promoted to the rank of Commander, and commanded the sailing sloop of war USS JAMESTOWN off Africa.  At the beginning of the Civil War, Commander Ward planned an expedition to relieve Fort Sumter and was placed in charge of a small squadron operating on the Potomac River.  With USS THOMAS FREEBORN as his flagship, Ward's force engaged the Confederates at Aquia Creek, Virginia, in late May and early June 1861.  In another engagement, at Mathias Point on June 27, Commander Ward was mortally wounded while aiming THOMAS FREEBORN’s bow gun.  He was shot in the abdomen and died within an hour of his wounding, became the first Union Navy officer killed in action during the Civil War and the only fatality of the battle in which he was killed.  He is buried at Old North Cemetery in Hartford, Connecticut.

 

In his honor the USS WARD (DD-139) was commissioned in July 1918.  On December 7, 1941, the WARD was conducting a precautionary patrol off the entrance to Pearl Harbor.  At about 6:37AM she fired and sank a Japanese midget submarine which was attempting to enter Pearl Harbor, thus firing the first American shots of World War II as the Japanese did not attack Pearl Harbor until 1½ hours later.

 

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