Edward Weston Carpender

Edward Weston Carpender ( – May 16, 1877) was a United States Navy officer who served in three wars. At age 17, he was commissioned a midshipman on 10 July 1813 during the War of 1812, was promoted to commander on 8 September 1841 and served in the Mexican-American War, and was promoted to commodore and served in the American Civil War.

Military career On January 13, 1825, Carpender was promoted to the rank of lieutenant. In October 1848, while in command of the steamship USS Iris, in rescuing a French ship, the barque L'Eugènie which had struck a bank and become stranded off the anchorage of Antón Lizardo, his initial detention of the ship and crew developed into a diplomatic incident that ultimately involved United States Secretary of State John M. Clayton and French Minister of Foreign Affairs Alexis de Tocqueville.

American Civil War Previously retired under the Act of 1855, On July 16, 1862, he was promoted to the rank of commodore. He served as prize commissioner at Key West, Florida from 1864 to 1865. His age at death was reported by the local New Jersey and Philadelphia newspapers to be 81, placing his birth at ca. 1796.