page_title: James Henry Carpenter
section_title: Civil War
hierarchical_section_title: James Henry Carpenter / Civil War
caption_attribution_description: English: James Henry Carpenter about 1861 or 1862, full image from pension file.
context_page_description: James Henry Carpenter was a 19th-century American engineer and industrialist who founded the Carpenter Steel Company. Born in Brooklyn, New York, he joined the Union Navy as a "cabin boy" at age 15 during the American Civil War, during which he was wounded in action. He was promoted to master's mate in the United States Navy for meritorious conduct and was appointed to the United States Naval Academy at age 16. He resigned from the US Navy in 1865, aged 19, and studied engineering in New Jersey.
  On June 7, 1889, he founded the Carpenter Steel Company of Reading, Pennsylvania, becoming its general manager. Under his management, the company was a successful supplier of armor plating and ordnance to the US Navy.
context_section_description: In May 1861, at the start of the American Civil War, the 15-year-old Carpenter enlisted as a "cabin boy" and was assigned to USS Santee, a recently commissioned 44-gun wooden-hulled three-mast frigate under the command of Captain Henry Eagle. Santee arrived in the Gulf of Mexico in July, headed for Galveston, Texas, for Union blockade duty. 
  Carpenter was present when Santee captured the Confederate States Navy schooner C.P. Knapp off the Florida coast and the CSN brig Delta off Galveston in October. He was selected for a night-time cutting out operation that was intended to capture and burn the Confederate armed steamer General Rusk. After the boats ran aground and it took time to free them, the officer in charge chose a picket boat called the Royal Yacht as an alternate target. They captured it at the cost of two lives, setting fire to it and taking a dozen prisoners. Carpenter was one of the wounded, having been stabbed in the thigh during the hand-to-hand fighting, and was mentioned in dispatches.
  At the end of December 1861, Santee captured the CSN schooner Garonne. Shortly after, Carpenter was made acting master's mate of Santee. (At that time a frigate carried two master’s mates, who were often senior and experienced sailors. In today's US Navy, a similar position is held by the senior chief petty officer). On February 11, 1862, Carpenter was appointed a master's mate and ordered to the flagship, USS Niagara. After evaluation he was appointed on February 21, 1862, as master’s mate to the steamer USS R. R. Cuyler and took part in the capture of several enemy vessels.
  On June 20, 1862, R. R. Cuyler's Captain reported that Carpenter’s good work "justifies the suggestion that he should endeavor to obtain admission to the U.S. Naval Academy". Carpenter left R. R. Cuyler on September 22, 1862, and was assigned to USS Constitution until he was discharged as a sailor on November 28, 1862. He was appointed midshipman the next day.
  The United States Naval Academy (USNA) had been relocated to Fort Adams in Newport, Rhode Island, for the duration of the Civil War. Carpenter started there in December 1862, when he was 16. He lived, worked, and studied on the school ships Constitution and Santee, the latter having recently been decommissioned as a warship and recommissioned as a school ship. During 1863–1865 Carpenter's academic work was generally good and he excelled in the sciences, but later he accumulated many demerits, which brought him restrictions and extra duties.
  Carpenter was one of the cadets who sailed on Santee on August 2, 1865, to return to the USNA at Annapolis, Maryland, where the strict pre-war discipline and decorum of spit and polish was re-instituted. It was harsh change for many cadet midshipmen, like Carpenter, who obtained many new demerits. At the end of his third year, he tendered his resignation. His reasons are unclear, but his father was contacted and no serious effort was made to retain Carpenter at the academy. "Letter No. 49, dated 23 Nov 1865" from Rear Admiral David Dixon Porter "regarding the resignation of James Henry Carpenter, age 19, member of the 3rd class" indicates a deterioration in attitude and commitment. Carpenter was honorably discharged from the USNA on December 18, 1865, aged 19.
caption: Carpenter in 1861 or 1862 in the Union Navy. Full image from his widow's pension file.
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