A Confederate Navy Man

Confederate Commander Thomas B Huger died from wounds April 25^th 1862 while fighting Union ships near Fort Jackson.

Thomas B Huger was born in South Carolina.  He became a midshipman in the United States Navy in March 1835.  By February 1848 he had become a Lieutenant.  When South Carolina seceded Huger resigned his commission.

In March 1861 Huger was made a First Lieutenant in the Confederate Navy.  He started off with command of a battery on Morris Island just off the coast of South Carolina.  Later that year Huger was appointed the commanding officer of the CSS McRae a steam powered barkentine.  The ship was placed in defense of the lower Mississippi River and New Orleans.

During a battle on April 24^th 1862 with Union ships near Fort Jackson and Fort St Philip, the CSS McRae was damaged by the USS Iroquois and Huger was mortally wounded.  Oddly Huger had been the First Lieutenant on the USS Iroquois before the Civil War started.  He died the next day April 25^th 1862.