James Alden, Jr.

James Alden Jr. (March 31, 1810 – February 6, 1877) was a rear admiral in the United States Navy. In the Mexican–American War he participated in the captures of Veracruz, Tuxpan, and Tabasco. Fighting on the Union side in the Civil War, he took part in the relief of Fort Pickens, followed by many engagements on the Lower Mississippi, before being promoted captain of USS Brooklyn and assisting in the Union victory in the Battle of Mobile Bay.

Early career Alden was born in Portland, Maine, on March 31, 1810,

Coast Survey Following the war with Mexico, Alden served as inspector of provisions and clothing at Boston until detached from this duty on May 18, 1849, to go to Washington, D.C., and report to the United States Secretary of the Treasury for duty with the United States Coast Survey. From the summer of 1849 to the late winter of 1851, he commanded, in succession, the U.S. Coast Survey steamers John Y. Mason and Walker in survey duty off the United States East Coast. Assigned to duty on the United States West Coast thereafter, Alden traveled to San Francisco, California, where he replaced William Pope McArthur as commander of the Coast Survey schooner Ewing. He arrived in May 1851 and surveyed from San Francisco to San Diego, reporting on the expedition from San Francisco on February 17, 1852.

Active In 1852, he assumed command of the Coast Survey steamer Active, (the Ewing was temporarily abandoned, ) and carried out survey work off the United States West Coast into 1860. During this time, on September 1, 1855, he was promoted to commander. Indian disturbances in Washington Territory in January 1856 highlighted Alden's tour of duty in command of Active, and his ship, joining the sloop-of-war USS Decatur and the steamer USS Massachusetts, proved "of great service" during those troubled times. Active operated in the headwaters of Puget Sound, where her presence reassured the settlers. In the summer of 1859, during tensions incident to an American's killing a Britisher's pig on San Juan Island, Actives timely arrival at that isle apparently helped to quiet a potentially dangerous situation in what became later known as the "Pig War."

U.S. Civil War

The outbreak of the American Civil War in the spring of 1861 found Alden in command of the steamer USS South Carolina, in which he participated in the relief of Fort Pickens. on February 24, 1877.

Namesake The U.S. Navy destroyer USS Alden was named for him.