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Bruce A. Castleman - Knickerbocker Commodore: The Life and Times of John Drake Sloat, 1781-1867

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Knickerbocker Commodore: The Life and Times of John Drake Sloat, 1781-1867: summary, description and annotation

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Explores the life and times of John Drake Sloat, the US Navy Pacific Squadron commander who occupied Monterey and declared the annexation of California at the beginning of the war with Mexico.


Knickerbocker Commodore chronicles the life of Rear Admiral John Drake Sloat, an important but understudied naval figure in US history. Born and raised by a slave-owning gentry family in New Yorks Hudson Valley, Sloat moved to New York City at age nineteen. Bruce A. Castleman explores Sloats forty-five-year career in the Navy, from his initial appointment as midshipman in the conflicts with revolutionary France to his service as commodore during the countrys war with Mexico. As the commodore in command of the naval forces in the Pacific, Sloat occupied Monterey and declared the annexation of California in July 1846, controversial actions criticized by some and defended by others. More than a biography of one man, this book illustrates the evolution of the peacetime Navy as an institution and its conversion from sail to steam. Using shipping news and Customs Service records from Sloats merchant voyages, Castleman offers a rare and insightful perspective on American maritime history.
Knickerbocker Commodore is a first-rate scholarly biography of John Drake Sloat. In his study, Castleman presents a persuasive assessment of this important naval officer and his role in the controversial early days of the Mexican War in California. John H. Schroeder, author of Matthew Calbraith Perry: Antebellum Sailor and Diplomat
Written by a scholar and a former naval officer, Bruce Castleman has given us not only a well-balanced biography of John Drake Sloat but also a history of the US Navy from the time of the War of 1812 to the Civil War. In addition, his well-researched book provides an important contribution to the war with Mexico and the American conquest of Alta California through the actions and decision making of this Knickerbocker Commodore. Gary F. Kurutz, Curator Emeritus of Special Collections, California State Library
The Mexican-American War of 184647 was a war of foundational importance to the United States. Bruce Castlemans biography of an important but little-known participant deftly captures the critical moment when America defeated its major continental rival. Even better, by thoughtfully tracing the entirety of Sloats life, the book winningly tells the story of the early American Navy from its tremulous beginnings in the Revolution to its steam-powered modernity in the Civil War. Castlemans biography is of more than just a man; it is of an entire time in American history, and all the more useful for it. David J. Silbey, author of A War of Frontier and Empire: The Philippine-American War, 18991902

Bruce A. Castleman: author's other books


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Knickerbocker Commodore John Drake Sloat Braun Research Collection Autry - photo 1
Knickerbocker Commodore
John Drake Sloat Braun Research Collection Autry National Center Los - photo 2
John Drake Sloat. (Braun Research Collection, Autry National Center, Los Angeles; 92.140.1detail.)
Knickerbocker Commodore
The Life and Times of John Drake Sloat, 17811867
BRUCE A. CASTLEMAN
Cover image of Commodore John Drake Sloat unknown artist 1846 Courtesy of - photo 3
Cover image of Commodore John Drake Sloat, unknown artist, 1846.
Courtesy of the Navy Art Collection, Naval History and Heritage Command.
Published by State University of New York Press, Albany
2016 State University of New York
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.
Excelsior Editions is an imprint of State University of New York Press
For information, contact State University of New York Press, Albany, NY
www.sunypress.edu
Production, Diane Ganeles
Marketing, Fran Keneston
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Castleman, Bruce A., author.
Knickerbocker commodore : the life and times of John Drake Sloat, 17811867 / Bruce A. Castleman.
pages cm. (Excelsior editions)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4384-6151-9 (hardcover : alk. paper)
ISBN 978-1-4384-6153-3 (e-book)
1. Sloat, John D. (John Drake). 2. Mexican War, 18461848Biography. 3. Ship captainsUnited StatesBiography. 4. United States. NavyOfficersBiography. 5. Monterrey, Battle of, Monterey, Mexico, 1846. I. Title.
E403.1.S6C37 2016
973.6'2092dc23
[B]2015036645
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To Penny Castleman
Contents
Illustrations
Figures
John Drake Sloat
Table
Preface
L et me state emphatically and unequivocally at the outset that I consider the 18461848 war with Mexico to have been a war of aggression on the part of the United States against a weaker neighbor. This book is in no way intended to justify the Mexican War, even though it is a biography of a United States Navy officer who played an important role in the conquest of Mexican California. By accepting the role of his biographer, I sought to understand how the commodore in command came to be the man that he was, and in so doing, to contribute to the historiography of the antebellum United States and its navy.
Rear Admiral John Drake Sloat is one of those historical actors whose memory has receded from common recognition into the fog of historical recollection. Like a number of my Latin Americanist colleagues who also trained in United States history, I shifted my research focus northward after retiring from university teaching. While reading California history looking for a new research possibility, I came across the controversies surrounding Sloats actions at Monterey in command of the United States Navys Pacific Squadron. I have been fortunate to have had two distinct careers in my adult life, and the first was as a seagoing officer in the United States Navy for twenty years. Commodore Sloat, to use the rank title by which he is more commonly remembered, stood at an intersection of my own background and interests. So I ended up researching the life of a New Yorker whose trail of records is mostly on the opposite coast of the one on which I live.
Because the sources were scattered far and wide, I traveled to many places and piled up a large debt to many people and institutions, only some of whom can be named here. W. Jeffrey Bolster, Michael Crawford, Todd Creekman, Timothy Francis, John Schroeder, and Gene Smith all encouraged me in this work and provided their insights into maritime and navy history. Christine Hunefeldt and Charles Walker encouraged me in this project and helped me to deepen my knowledge of Andean history in the nineteenth century. Cornelia Bush, Ann Roche, Jean Krish, and Pat Schwetje found documents and guided me through records of local institutions of Goshen, New York. Diane Norman did the same for Norwich, Connecticut. Frank Sloat, a distant cousin of the admiral, kindly shared his genealogical research. Robert Chandler pointed me toward sources about antebellum mail steamers. Wayne Franklin, Rochelle Tuck, and Jeff Walker shared their understanding of James Fenimore Cooper. Steven Lubar shared his work on the Naval Lyceum even before it appeared in print. David Pelfrey of the National Park Service cleared up some misconceptions that this steamship sailor had about sailing ship equipment.
A work of this sort could never be done without the help of archivists and librarians, and I have enjoyed the collegial cooperation of so many. Christopher Damiani of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania provided letters of Thomas Truxtun. Eileen Keremitsis and Allison Moore of the California Historical Societys North Baker Research Library, Gina Bardi and Ted Miles of the San Francisco Maritime National Historic Park Research Center, Jennifer Bryan of the U.S. Naval Academy Nimitz Library Special Collections Branch, and Janice Torbet of the San Francisco Public Library all pointed me in the right direction on a variety of topics. I also thank the San Francisco Public Library for its support through its own extensive collections, and for obtaining many necessary books from other libraries. I am also indebted to the staffs of the New York Public Library, the Patricia D. Klingenstein Library of the New-York Historical Society, the Library of Congress, the Bancroft Library, the libraries of the University of California at Berkeley and at Davis, the Episcopal Diocese of New York, and the Athenaeum of Portsmouth, New Hampshire. As a naval officer, John Drake Sloat was a federal person and so most of his paper trail lies in the various branches of the National Archives of the United States. Trina Yeckley of the Northeast RegionNew York branch first showed me how to wend my way through the system. I also benefited from the assistance of the staffs at Archives I and Archives II in Washington, D.C., and the branches in Waltham, Massachusetts; in Philadelphia; and in San Bruno, California.
I also thank the editorial staff of the State University of New York Press and am especially indebted to Amanda Lanne-Camilli and Jessica Kirschner for their support of the wide range of efforts required to bring this book into existence. Each of the two anonymous peer reviewers provided incisive and insightful comments on the manuscript. Of course, I alone bear complete responsibility for any errors or shortcomings that remain.
The illustrations for this book became a sort of extra chapter unto themselves. My thanks go out to Marilyn Van Winkle of the National Autry Center, Claudia Jew of the Mariners Museum, Karen Paige and Keli Skoglund of the California State Library, Tracie Logan of the U.S. Naval Academy Museum, and at the Navy History and Heritage Command, Pam Overmann, curator of the Navy Art Collection, and Lisa Crunk, curator of the NHHC photograph collection.
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