Cadwalader Ringgold

Cadwalader Ringgold (August 20, 1802 – April 29, 1867) was an officer in the United States Navy who served in the United States Exploring Expedition, later headed an expedition to the Northwest and, after initially retiring, returned to service during the Civil War.

Life and early career Cadwalader Ringgold was born August 20, 1802, in Washington County, Maryland, at Fountain Rock, the family estate. His mother was Maria Cadwalader (1776–1811), daughter of John Cadwalader (1742–1786), who was a general during the American Revolutionary War. Some sources spell his first name with two "l"s. His father was Samuel Ringgold, a Maryland politician who later served in the U.S. House of Representatives. He had an older brother, Samuel Ringgold, an army officer called "the father of modern artillery" and who died in the Battle of Palo Alto. Cadwalader was the sixth of 11 children, the youngest child of his mother, who then died. His father remarried and had five more children by his second wife.

Ringgold entered the U.S. Navy in 1819 and commanded the schooner in action against West Indies pirates during the late 1820s. He became a lieutenant on May 17, 1828, and that year served on in the Pacific Ocean. He served on the in the Mediterranean.

United States Exploring Expedition During 1838–42, he was third in command of the United States Exploring Expedition in the Pacific, commanding from 1840 at the invitation of the head of the project, Charles Wilkes. He carried out surveys of Antarctica, the South American coast, the Tuamotu Islands, Tonga, New Zealand and the Northwest Pacific coast of North America. Soon afterward, Fijians on the island of Malolo ambushed and killed two popular officers of the expedition, and the Americans took revenge. Wilkes's ship grounded on the north side of the island, but Ringgold led 80 men from the south side. Women and children were spared, but about 87 Fijians were killed before the rest surrendered. Two villages were destroyed.

The expedition visited California that summer. On August 19, 1841, Ringgold led a 60-man party exploring San Francisco Bay watershed for 20 days. The party got about as far as Colusa, California. Ringgold, who returned to New York shortly after the rest of the expedition, had been gone three years and 11 months at sea. He and his crew had sailed and lost only two men.

In 1853 he took command of the five ships in the North Pacific Exploring and Surveying Expedition, also known as the "Rodgers-Ringgold Expedition", with the as his flagship, but while on the expedition, in July 1854, he contracted malaria and was sent home, according to at least one source. John Rodgers was given full command of the expedition and completed it.

A board of naval doctors convened by Perry declared Ringgold unfit for active service, and he was put on the reserve list on September 13, 1855. Ringgold recovered within weeks, and soon petitioned Congress for his return. Unsuccessful there, he appealed to a Court of Inquiry, and eventually succeeded in returning to the active list on January 23, 1858, (retroactive to April 2, 1856), a campaign of more than two years. However, the street in question is spelled as 'Ringold'.

Another namesake was the writer Ring Lardner. Rear Admiral James Lawrence Lardner was a friend of Ringgold's. He named a son "Ringgold Wilmer Lardner", and James' brother gave exactly the same name to his son after the newborn's cousin. Ring Lardner disliked his name and shortened it but "lost the battle" when his son, Ring Lardner Jr. was named after him.

Charles Wilkes the commander of the United States Exploring Expedition named the Ringgold Isles of Fiji after him in 1840.

Family tree