DANIEL CARROLL, MIDN, CSN

Daniel Carroll '63

Date of birth: 1843

Age: 18

Naval Academy Register

Daniel Carroll was admitted to the Naval Academy from Maryland on November 29, 1859 at age 16 years 2 months. He resigned on April 20, 1861.

Loss

From NC Civil War Sailors Project:

Daniel Carroll, born Maryland, 1843; previous service in the United States Navy, as midshipman; later served as acting midshipman, Confederate States Navy, 1862; killed in action at Drewry's Bluff, James River, Virginia, May 10 or 15, 1862, after having lost one of his thighs, close to his body. [1860 U.S. Census; Register 1862; Daily Morning News (Savannah, Georgia) dated Tuesday, May 20, 1862; Confederate Navy subject file N - Personnel; NA - Complements, rolls, lists of persons, etc.; Lists and Registers, page 330.]

He is listed on the killed in action panel in the front of Memorial Hall.

Biography

From researcher Kathy Franz:

Daniel Carroll was from Baltimore, Maryland, and he attended Georgetown College (now Georgetown University.) In the 1858-1859 school year, he was in the Class of First Humanities, and at year-end, he had won two academic prizes. His name was listed after the word Accesserunt (i.e., honorable mention) for his class, and he won the top silver medal for French. The next school year, he was listed in the Class of Poetry, but he left to enroll in the Naval Academy in November 1859.
Daniel resigned on April 20, 1861, to enlist in the Confederacy. He was assigned to the Patrick Henry commanded by Captain John Randolph Tucker. After the fall of Norfolk in May 1862, she traveled up the James River. At Drewry’s Bluff, the Union ships closed in, and bombarding commenced. Captain Drewry’s artillery force fired from the land. The Union’sGalena was damaged by an eight-inch solid shot from the Patrick Henry. On fire, she and the other Union vessels retreated. Seven Confederates died in the action including Daniel.

His burial location is unknown.

Photographs

Graduation

Note: Though Daniel is listed in the Register of Alumni as a graduate, he resigned on April 20, 1861 ahead of his class's early graduation in May.

Confederates in Memorial Hall

This alumni is included on this site because he is listed in Memorial Hall. Pursuant to Section 377 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021, the Naming Commission found, per Part II of their final report to Congress, that "Due to the limited factual nature of [Memorial Hall], the Commission believes it may remain as structured."

Navy Directories & Officer Registers

The "Register of Commissioned and Warrant Officers of the United States Navy and Marine Corps" was published annually from 1815 through at least the 1970s; it provided rank, command or station, and occasionally billet until the beginning of World War II when command/station was no longer included. Scanned copies were reviewed and data entered from the mid-1840s through 1922, when more-frequent Navy Directories were available.

The Navy Directory was a publication that provided information on the command, billet, and rank of every active and retired naval officer. Single editions have been found online from January 1915 and March 1918, and then from three to six editions per year from 1923 through 1940; the final edition is from April 1941.

The entries in both series of documents are sometimes cryptic and confusing. They are often inconsistent, even within an edition, with the name of commands; this is especially true for aviation squadrons in the 1920s and early 1930s.

Alumni listed at the same command may or may not have had significant interactions; they could have shared a stateroom or workspace, stood many hours of watch together… or, especially at the larger commands, they might not have known each other at all. The information provides the opportunity to draw connections that are otherwise invisible, though, and gives a fuller view of the professional experiences of these alumni in Memorial Hall.