Hagerstonians in the Civil War

Hagerstonians in the Civil War. Commander Donald McNeill Fairfax, USN. A native of Virginia, Fairfax served 48 years in the U.S. Navy, including service in the Mexican and Civil Wars. He retired as a Rear Admiral in 1881 and lived here at "The Columns". He rests in Rose Hill Cemetery. Highlights of his career include:, 1860 - Executive Officer (second in command but day-to-day commander) of USS Constellation when it captured the slave ship Cora and liberated 705 slaves being transported to the Americas., 1861 - Executive Officer of USS San Jacinto, when Captain Charles Wilkes ordered the British mail ship Trent stopped and boarded. They found John Slidell and James Murray Mason; Confederate diplomats on route to England and France. On Wilkes' order, Fairfax personally arrested the two and took them aboard San Jacinto. Known as the "Trent Affair", this international incident nearly led to war with Britain until the Lincoln Administration apologized for the breach of maritime law and released the diplomats., 1862 - Commanded USS Cayuga on the Mississippi River and fought the Confederate ironclad CSS Arkansas., 1863 - Commanded the ironclad USS Nantucket and USS Montauk in attacks on Charleston and Fort Wagner, South Carolina., Late 1863 to 1865 - Commandant of Midshipmen at the US Naval Academy (temporarily relocated to Newport, Rhode Island for the duration of the War)., Fascinating Fact , Fairfax was a cousin of the famed artist James McNeill Whistler; meaning he was the nephew of "Whistler's Mother"; the subject of the famous painting. When he was stationed at the Navy Yard in Baltimore in 1855, his aunt fell on hard times and lived with Fairfax and his wife in an apartment there.