JOHN G. SPROSTON, LT, USN

John Sproston '52

Date of birth: August 14, 1828

Age: 33

Photographs

via Claude Berube

Biography & Loss

John Glendy Sproston was born in Maryland. He was the eldest son of George Saxon Sproston, a U.S. naval surgeon, and Jane Glendy, a daughter of the Rev John Glendy, former Chaplain of the United States Senate. He was appointed to the Naval Academy in 1846. He subsequently served with the Pacific Squadron during the war with Mexico. In 1854, Sproston voyaged to Japan with the Perry Expedition.
During the Civil War, he served as commanding officer of Powhatan and as executive officer of Seneca. On 1 November 1861, during the Battle of Port Royal, Sproston personally fired many of the 11-inch guns on board Seneca as the crew was new and untrained. Lt. Sproston was killed on 8 June 1862, while on a boat expedition to destroy a Confederate privateer in the St. Johns River in Florida.
Both John Sproston and his father are buried in Green Mount Cemetery in Baltimore, Maryland.

From researcher Kathy Franz:

John began his naval career at the age of 13 when he was on the storeship Lexington with his uncle. In 1851 he was on the St Lawrence taking items to the World’s Fair in London. In 1854 with the Perry Expedition, he kept a journal which is now the book A Private Journal of John Glendy Sproston, U.S.N. John made sketches throughout his journal, and in one, he is the fourth man seated on the left: “in the private audience room, Wm. Portman, interpreter; Capt. Abbott, Capt. Adams, then myself [J.G. Sproston], then the Captain’s son and Young Perry taking notes...Japanese interpreter on the floor. Japanese authorities four in number are on the right.”
From 1858-60 on the steam frigate Mississippi, he traveled to Shanghai and Hong Kong. Captain William C. Nicholson’s memoirs are in the book A Cruise of the USS steam frigate Mississippi.
During the Civil War, on September 14, 1861, at 0330 near Pensacola, Florida, men from the USS Colorado rowed quietly in four boats across the harbor to capture the Confederate schooner Judah. Two cutters with 35 men under the command of John and Midshipmen J. Steece were to land first and disable the Confederate gun. John and Gunner Borton found the gun guarded by a lone sentinel, and Borton shot him just as he “leveled his piece” at John. The gun was disabled within 15 minutes allowing Steece’s boat to go the assistance of the boarding party.
John was on the Seneca during the Port Royal battle of November 1861. On June 8, 1862, he was leading a large party to arrest the privateer George Huston at his house near Black Creek. Upon being asked to surrender, George fired his pistol hitting John in the left breast and killing him instantly. Huston was shot four times and taken prisoner.
Commander Dupont wrote: John was “an able, brave and devoted officer… He had come under my observation on the China Station, in 1858. He was distinguished while in command of one of the boats which destroyed the rebel privateer under the guns of the Pensacola Navy Yard, in September 1861; and his whole conduct during the war has been gallant and meritorious. I consider him a great loss to the fleet and the service.”

John is buried in Maryland. He was appointed to the Naval Academy from Ohio.

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

Obituary

From records of the US Naval Academy Graduates’ Association:

JOHN GLENDY SPROSTON, Graduate No. 207.
1846, July 15, appointed an Acting Midshipman and ordered to the Independence, Pacific Squadron. 1847, April 29, granted three months sick leave, having returned to the United States in consequence of ill health. August 16, ordered to the Brandywine, Brazil Squadron. 1848, July 26, warranted as a Midshipman, to take rank from July 15, 1846. 1850, December 6, detached from the Brandywine and granted three months leave of absence. 1851, February 1, ordered to the St. Lawrence, special service, World’s Fair, London. August 14, detached from the St. Lawrence and ordered to the Naval Academy for attendance on the course of instruction, to report the 1st of October following. 1852, June 9, warranted as a Passed Midshipman to take rank from the day previous, detached from the Naval Academy and ordered to the Princeton. November 23, detached from the Princeton and ordered to the Macedonian, East India Squadron. 1855, November 9, warranted as a Master from September 15, 1855. November 12, commissioned as a Lieutenant, to take rank from September 16, 1855. 1856, August 9, detached from the Macedonian and granted three months leave of absence. September 18, ordered to the receiving ship Pennsylvania, at Norfolk, Va. October 21, detached and placed on waiting orders. October 25, ordered to the receiving ship Allegheny at Baltimore. 1857, May 18, detached and placed on waiting orders. June 4, ordered to the Mississippi, East India Squadron, to report July 1st. 1860, January 30, detached and granted three months leave of absence. May 30, ordered to the Naval Rendezvous at Baltimore. 1861, April 22, detached and ordered to the Navy Yard, Washington. May 7; detached and ordered to the Colorado. August 14, ordered to take passage in the Connecticut from Key West to New York, and report his arrival by letter to the Department. October 1, ordered to the Seneca, S. Atlantic Blockading Squadron.
Killed at Mayport Mills, St. John’s River, Fla. June 8, 1862, by George Huston, a rebel officer and guerilla, while endeavoring to effect his capture.
Sea service, 12 years, 7 months; shore duty, 2 years, 3 months; unemployed, 1 year, 1 month; in service, 15 years, 11 months.
Lieutenant John Glendy Sproston was the son of Surgeon Geo. S. Sproston, U.S. Navy, and Jane Glendy Sproston, his mother being the daughter of the Rev. Dr. John Glendy, a Presbyterian divine of great prominence in Baltimore, in the earlier history of the city.
The subject of this sketch was born in Baltimore in August, 1829, and entered the Navy as a Midshipman in 1846, having been appointed from the State of Ohio, where he resided as a lad for one year to entitle him to its citizenship, the quota of his native State being overdrawn at the time. His first cruise was made as an Acting Midshipman on the razee Independence, Captain Lavellette, in the Pacific. Shortly after his return from this cruise he received his warrant as Midshipman and joined the frigate Brandywine, flagship of the Brazilian station; from this ship he was detached and ordered to the Naval Academy, where he graduated in the year’s course for Oldsters, in the class of 46. From the Academy he was ordered to the Macedonian, of the Japanese expedition under Perry, and was a participant in the eventful scenes that opened Japan to intercourse with the civilized world. The Macedonian was also actively engaged, during this cruise, in the suppression of piracy along the Chinese coast. There is a flag at the Naval Academy which was captured by the launch’s crew of the Macedonian, Acting Master Sproston in charge, from a battery at a pirate settlement on Tylo Island, south of Hong Kong, in 1854. His next cruise was on the frigate Mississippi, on the same station, at the close of which, having spent nearly seven years on the China station, he was ordered, on his return to the States, to the Naval Rendezvous in Baltimore, where the outbreak of the Civil War found him in 1861. He received orders to report at once for duty in Washington, and as Baltimore had then been severed from communication with the capital by the State authorities of Maryland, Lieutenant Sproston, with a younger brother, rode to Annapolis Junction in a carriage, where they were enabled to take the railroad for Washington. For a short time Sproston had command of the steamer Pocahontas of the Potomac flotilla, which did good service in preventing the enemy from erecting batteries on the river, and protecting transports in passing up and down; from this duty he was ordered to join the flagship Colorado of the Gulf Blockading Squadron, participating in the different actions when the fleet bombarded Fort Barrancas and the Confederate fortifications in that vicinity. While attached to the Colorado, Lieutenant Sproston performed the first brilliant boat act of the war; on which occasion, with a boat’s crew, he spiked the columbiad of the enemy at the Pensacola Navy Yard, under the guns of the Confederate batteries. On this occasion Lieutenant Sproston made a narrow escape from instant death. While engaged in directing the spiking of the great gun, the enemy’s gunner, who had not deserted his piece, leveled his pistol point blank at him, but at the moment of drawing the trigger he was shot by one of the attacking force.
From the Colorado Lieutenant Sproston was ordered to join the gunboat Seneca as executive officer, Commander Dan’l Ammen being in command. For months this vessel was in active service as one of Admiral Dupont’s squadron. During the bombardment and destruction of the forts at Port Royal and Beaufort, South Carolina, in which the Seneca formed one of the attacking vessels, Lieutenant Sproston showed the same coolness and energy that always characterized him in time of duty and danger, and was complimented by his commanding officer for the precision and rapidity with which the guns were served and the efficient manner in which the vessel was handled. The Seneca was afterwards engaged in Southern waters, in removing torpedoes planted by the enemy to prevent the ingress of the Federal gunboats, in dispersing Confederate field batteries and guerillas, and in assisting the United States land forces in effecting a lodgment on the banks of the several rivers. The ship took part in compelling the evacuation by the enemy of the forts on the Atlantic coast of Florida at Fernandina and St. Augustine, and was in constant action during the time Lieutenant Sproston served on board of her. Lieutenant Sproston met his death suddenly and swiftly while his ship was on patrol duty in the St. John’s River, Florida. The commanding officer of the Seneca learned that a desperado named George Huston, who had caused much destruction of life by firing on the gunboats from masked positions, was secreted in a house not very far removed from the Seneca’s anchorage, and it was determined that his arrest and capture should be attempted, and Lieutenant Sproston was designated to accomplish the arrest. That officer left the ship before daylight with a detachment of forty-six seamen and some marines from the Seneca, augmented by about thirty men from the Pembina, and marching rapidly with this combined force, he reached the domicile of the desperado before sunrise. Surrounding the house with a portion of the command, he led the balance into the house, and passing in advance up the stairs and walking into the room he found the man in bed. Stepping towards him, pistol in hand, Lieutenant Sproston demanded his immediate surrender; without replying, the man, who had a pistol in his bed, fired, the ball entering Lieutenant Sproston’s heart, who fell dead without an exclamation. The marines and sailors, who were immediately in the rear, rushed forward and drove their bayonets into the man and sabred him at the same time. The desperado lived for some hours after he was carried aboard the Seneca, where Lieutenant Sproston’s remains were also taken and embalmed by the surgeon of the vessel, and afterwards sent to his family in Baltimore, where he was buried in Greenmount Cemetery with military honors.
Admiral Dupont reported his death to the Department, with the highest eulogy on his merits and bravery as an officer and his spotless reputation as a gentleman. Geo. S. Sproston

Lieutenant Sproston was an able, brave and devoted officer from the State of Maryland. He had come under my observation on the China station in 1858. He was distinguished while in the command of one of the boats which destroyed the Rebel privateer under the guns of the Pensacola Navy Yard in September, 1861, and his whole conduct during this war has been gallant and meritorious, I consider him a great loss to this fleet and to the service. S.F. Dupont, Flag Officer Commanding South Atlantic Blockading Squadron

Career

From the Naval History and Heritage Command:

Midshipman, 15 July, 1846. Passed Midshipman, 8 June, 1852. Master, 15 September, 1855. Lieutenant, 16 September, 1855. Killed 8 June, 1862.

Namesake

USS Sproston (DD 173) and USS Sproston (DD 577) were both named for John.

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.