General Henry Lockwood of Delaware - Shipmate of Melville, Co-builder of the Naval Academy, Civil War Commander (Hardcover)

This book is the story of the fascinating and accomplished life of a 19th-century Delaware favorite son, Brig. Gen. Henry Lockwood, who sailed aboard the U.S. Navy man-of-war United States with novelist Herman Melville and figures importantly in Melville's novel White-Jacket; who participated in Commodore Thomas ap Catesby Jones's seizure of Monterey from Mexico; who was a progenitor and co-builder of the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis; who pacified the slavery-bound Delmarva peninsula during the Civil War; who distinguished himself as a brigade commander at Gettysburg; and who later commanded Maryland Heights at Harper's Ferry, the Middle Department/8th Corps, and a division at Cold Harbor. All these accomplishments occurred in the face of a stuttering tendency that afflicted him throughout his life. The book also notices important family members such as son Lieut.James Lockwood, who died of starvation during the Greely polar expedition after having reached the furthest point north of any human; brother Navy Surgeon John Lockwood, whose polemical essays in conjunction with Melville's didactic message in White-Jacket were major factors in the outlawing of punitive flogging in the Navy; and son-in-law Adm. Charles Sigsbee, who was in command of the Maine when it blew up in Havana Harbor, thus adding to the cries for war against Spain. Three pivotal events in Lockwood's military career have unjustly detracted from his historical reputation: the failure of the Naval Academy to memorialize him for his seminal role its building; the lack of historical notice of his pacification and reconciliation of Delmarva without a shot being fired; and his relief from division command at Cold Harbor by an unhinged corps commander. For the historical record, Lockwood finally receives vindication in this book.