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David Conner ( 1792 - 1856 )  Category ( Military_Persons ) [suggest a correction]
 

David ConnerBorn in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania to David and Abigail Rhodes Conner, David the younger traveled to Philadelphia as a teen to work for his brother.At age 17 he received an appointment as a midshipman and this appointment anointed a lifelong naval career.

In 1811, Conner began his service aboard the sloop USS Hornet, where he would remain throughout the War of 1812. The Hornet had returned from Great Britain just a month before declaration of war. Within weeks, she saw her first action, capturing the British privateer, Dolphin. Conner was appointed price-master of the captured ship, but he was captured when the British retook the ship. By the end of the year, he had been exchanged and was serving as third lieutenant aboard the Hornet under James Lawrence when she engaged the HMS Peacock on 24 February 1813.

After fifteen minutes, the Peacock, in danger of sinking, surrendered. Conner led a detail to the disabled vessel to supervise her crew's rescue while trying to save the ship itself. He lightened the Peacock by throwing her guns overboard and patched her hull below the waterline; but, it was too late. Conner jumped into the launch just before the Peacock sank, but three of his own men and nine British crewmen perished with the boat.

His performance in the Peacock affair and in future actions earned him promotion to first lieutenant by war's end, a rank he held under Captain James Biddle in the Hornet's final engagement of the war. In a contest against the HMS Penguin, the Americas triumphed in twenty minutes, but Conner received a severe hip wound that would plague him for two years.

He served as a Navy Commissioner in 1841 and 1842, and upon the establishment of the bureau system in the Navy became the first Chief of the Bureau of Construction, Equipment, and Repair. Following the War of 1812, Conner rose steadily in the navy.

On 14 November, 1846, during the Mexican-American War, Conner led a force of six ships and boat parties from five others into the Panuco River on the Mexican Gulf coast. The port of Tampico was occupied without resistance that afternoon. Five vessels, four of which became U.S. gunboats were taken as well. On 19 November, Commander Josiah Tattnall pushed twenty-five miles upstream with the side-wheel steamer Spitfire and schooner Petrel to capture Panuco, where he destroyed a number of Mexican cannons. Between Conner and Tattnall, U.S. forces held Tampico for the remainder of the war.

Conner also commanded the naval forces that blockaded Mexico's Gulf coast and landed General Winfield Scott's invading army in March 1847.

Conner died in Philadelphia in 1856. Although Conner was given the title Commodore, his official naval rank remained unchanged. The title "commodore" added nothing to his pay or to his permanent rank of captain. Not until 1862, six years after Conner's death, did the title commodore come to signify a higher grade or an increased salary.


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