John Cummings Howell

John Cummings Howell (November 24, 1819 – September 12, 1892) was an officer in the United States Navy during the American Civil War. He rose to the rank of rear admiral and late in his career was commander-in-chief of the North Atlantic Squadron and then of the European Squadron.

Early life

Howell was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on November 24, 1819.

Naval career

Early career

Howell was appointed as a midshipman on June 9, 1836. His first tour of duty was aboard the new sloop-of-war in the West Indies Squadron from 1837 to 1841. He was promoted to passed midshipman on July 1, 1842, and served aboard the new frigate in the Mediterranean Squadron from 1842 to 1844. From 1844 to 1845 he served aboard the brig in the East India Squadron, after which he was Naval Storekeeper at Macao from 1846 to 1848. Under his command, Tahoma enjoyed many successes. On April 26, 1862, she chased a Confederate schooner until it ran aground, then destroyed it. In June 1862, she raided St. Mark's, Florida, where she burned a barracks and destroyed a battery of Confederate artillery. Off Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula, she captured the blockade runner Uncle Mose, a schooner carrying 115 bales of cotton, after Uncle Mose mistakenly sailed up to her on July 7, 1862.

Post-Civil War

Promoted to captain on July 25, 1866, He was promoted to rear admiral during this tour on April 25, 1877. but the Navy had shrunk so dramatically since the conclusion of the Civil War in April 1865 that the squadron consisted of only two ships, Powhatan and the screw sloop-of-war , during his tenure as its commander-in-chief. When an insurrection broke out on the Caribbean island of Santa Cruz in the Danish Virgin Islands (now St. Croix in the United States Virgin Islands), the United States Department of the Navy ordered Howell to intervene with his squadron. Unfortunately, Powhatan was in Postmouth, New Hampshire, and too far away from Santa Cruz to influence events there, and Plymouth was not provisioned and unable to get underway. A French Navy warship got to Santa Cruz first, landed troops, and quelled the rioting there, but not before the rioters had burned the American consulate. Despite the limited means at Howell's disposal – a squadron consisting of only two ships with which to carry out the responsibility for all U.S. Navy operations off eastern Canada, along the entire United States East Coast and United States Gulf Coast, and in the entire Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea – the Department of the Navy reprimanded him for having neither of his ships ready to deploy to Santa Cruz on short notice and in a timely manner.

In January 1879, Howell turned command of the North Atlantic Squadron over to Rear Admiral Robert H. Wyman. He became commander-in-chief of the European Squadron in February 1879, serving in that capacity until relieved by Rear Admiral James W. Nicholson on September 16, 1881. He retired from the Navy upon reaching the statutory retirement age of 62 on November 24, 1881.

Death

Howell died at Folkestone, Kent, England, on September 12, 1892. He is buried at Cheriton Road Cemetery in Folkestone.