The Biographical Dictionary of America/Ammen, Daniel

AMMEN, Daniel, naval officer, was born in Brown county, O., May 15, 1820. In 1836 he was appointed midshipman and served in various squadrons until 1849, when he was advanced to the rank of lieutenant. He was attached to the coast survey on several expeditions, and aided in the selection of a naval station on the Pacific coast in 1853-'54. He served on the steam frigate Merrimac, which, at the outbreak of the civil war, was in the navy yard at Norfolk, Va., and which was seized by the Virginian state authorities in 1861 and rebuilt as an iron-clad for the confederate service. He was made executive officer of the North American blockading squadron, and soon after, at the battle of Port Royal, as commander of the Seneca, he hoisted the stars and stripes over the conquered forts. In 1863 he commanded the monitor Patapsco in the attack on Fort McAllister, and later distinguished himself at Fort Sumter, and, as commander of the Mohican, at Fort Fisher. In 1864 he won especial praise for his prompt suppression of a mutiny which broke out among two hundred and twenty seamen he was convoying to the Pacific squadron, on board the Ocean Queen, a California passenger ship. He was promoted to a captaincy July 26, 1866, raised to the rank of rear-admiral in 1877, and was placed upon the retired list June 4, 1878. He was a delegate to the Paris canal congress, and favored the construction of the Nicaragua canal. He is the author of "The American Interoceanic Ship Canal Question" (1880); "The Atlantic Coast" (1883), one of the series entitled "The Navy in the Civil War"; "Country Homes and their Improvement" (1885); and "The Old Navy and the New" (1891), the last being autobiographical. He died in Washington, D.C., July 11, 1898.