Rear Admiral John Cumming Howell, USN (1819–1892)

Some men are born into the shadow of greatness and spend their lives stepping out of it. John Cumming Howell was born into it and kept walking, straight through four decades of naval service, a civil war, and the command of two fleets, until the shadow was entirely his own.

He was the grandson of Governor Richard Howell and the son of a war hero. He became an admiral, an acting secretary of the navy, and one of the most decorated officers of his generation. And yet, like his grandfather, he remains largely forgotten.

Family#

John Cumming Howell was born on November 24, 1819, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.¹ His father, Richard Lewis Howell (1794–1847), had served as a captain in the United States Army during the War of 1812.² The elder Howell fought at Chrysler’s Farm and Fort George, and was present at the Battle of York in April 1813, where he received Brigadier General Zebulon Pike into his arms after Pike was struck by falling debris from an exploding magazine. Pike died of his wounds shortly after.²

His mother was Rebecca Augusta Stockton, whom Richard Lewis Howell married on September 21, 1818, at Saint Mary’s Church, Burlington, New Jersey.³ The Stockton name carried weight in New Jersey, one of the state’s founding families, and John Cumming Howell inherited connections to both the Howell and Stockton lines.

Naval Career#

Early Service (1836–1860)#

Howell entered the Navy as a midshipman on June 9, 1836.¹ His first assignment was aboard the USS Levant, serving in the West Indies, Mediterranean, and East Indies from 1837 to 1841.⁴ He was promoted to Passed Midshipman in 1842 and continued service aboard the USS Congress in the Mediterranean and the USS Perry in the East Indies.⁴

Between 1846 and 1848, he served as Naval Storekeeper at Macao, the small Portuguese colony on the coast of China that served as a vital American trading post in the Pacific.⁴ He was promoted to Lieutenant in 1849 and spent the 1850s aboard various vessels, including the USS Susquehanna in the Mediterranean and the USS Seminole with the Brazil Squadron.⁴

By the time the first shots were fired at Fort Sumter in April 1861, Howell had spent twenty-five years in the Navy. He was forty-one years old and a seasoned officer. The war that followed would define his career.

Civil War (1861–1865)#

Battle of Hatteras Inlet (August 1861)#

Howell’s war began aboard the USS Minnesota, the flagship of the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron, where he served as Executive Officer.⁵ On August 28–29, 1861, the Minnesota participated in the Battle of Hatteras Inlet Batteries, one of the Union’s first amphibious operations. The attack captured two Confederate forts guarding Hatteras Inlet, North Carolina, securing a crucial foothold on the Outer Banks and tightening the naval blockade of the Southern coast.⁵

USS Tahoma — The Blockade (1861–1863)#

On December 20, 1861, Howell received his first independent command: the USS Tahoma, a gunboat assigned to the East Gulf Blockading Squadron.⁶ For two years, he patrolled the waters off Florida’s Gulf coast, hunting blockade runners, the fast, low-profile ships that carried cotton out and arms and supplies in through the Union cordon.

The work was relentless and unglamorous, weeks of patrol punctuated by sudden pursuits. Under Howell’s command, the Tahoma captured or destroyed multiple runners, including the Uncle Mose, Silas Henry, Margaret, Stonewall, Crazy Jane, and Statesman.⁵ Each capture tightened the economic noose around the Confederacy.

He was promoted to Commander on July 16, 1862.¹

Fort Fisher (December 1864 – January 1865)#

In April 1864, Howell took command of the USS Nereus in the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron.⁵ The assignment brought him to the war’s final major naval engagement: the Battle of Fort Fisher, the massive Confederate fortification guarding the entrance to the Cape Fear River and the port of Wilmington, North Carolina, the last major port open to blockade runners.

The first assault on December 23–27, 1864 failed. The Nereus was part of the bombardment fleet, but the attack was poorly coordinated and the landing force withdrew without taking the fort.⁵

The second assault came three weeks later. On January 13–15, 1865, the largest naval bombardment of the war pounded Fort Fisher while a combined force of sailors, marines, and soldiers stormed its walls. This time, the fort fell. Wilmington was sealed. The Confederacy’s last lifeline to the outside world was cut.⁵

Howell and the Nereus were there for both.

The Admiral (1866–1881)#

The years after the war brought steady promotion and increasing responsibility.⁴

As Chief of the Bureau of Yards and Docks from 1874 to 1878, Howell oversaw the Navy’s shore infrastructure during a period of postwar contraction and modernization.⁴ During this time, he served as Acting Secretary of the Navy on multiple occasions when the Secretary was absent from Washington, placing the grandson of Governor Richard Howell at the head of the entire United States Navy, if only temporarily.⁷

His final sea command was the European Squadron, with his flag aboard the USS Trenton.⁴ He was relieved in September 1881 and retired on November 24, 1881, his sixty-second birthday, under the Navy’s mandatory retirement age.¹

The Cincinnati Connection#

In 1872, Howell was admitted to the Society of the Cincinnati, the hereditary organization founded by officers of the Continental Army at the close of the Revolutionary War.⁸ His membership came through his grandfather, Governor Richard Howell, who had served as a Major in the 2nd New Jersey Regiment. The thread of service that Richard Howell began at the Greenwich Tea Burning in 1774 ran unbroken through his son’s heroism in the War of 1812 and his grandson’s command of fleets.

Death#

Rear Admiral John Cumming Howell died on September 12, 1892, in Folkestone, Kent, England.¹ He had married Mary Stockton, connecting the Howell and Stockton families of New Jersey a second time.⁸

He was seventy-two years old. He had served his country for forty-five years, from midshipman to rear admiral, from the coast of China to the walls of Fort Fisher to the command of fleets in two oceans. Like his grandfather, he gave his career to the republic. Like his grandfather, he deserves to be remembered.

Archival Collections#

The Admiral’s papers are held at two institutions:

• Naval History and Heritage Command, Washington, D.C.: Register of the Papers of Rear Admiral John C. Howell
• U.S. Naval Academy, Nimitz Library, Special Collections: MS 270, John Cumming Howell Papers