Andrew Hull Foote was born on September 12, 1806, in New Haven, Connecticut, to Samuel and Eudocia Foote. His father was a Whig politician who served as a United States Senator and governor of Connecticut. As a child, he expressed an early interest in exploring the world by sea. His father, however, arranged for him to enroll at the United States Military Academy in 1822. He left the academy six months later and joined the navy as a midshipman.

 

Over the next few decades, he served in the Caribbean, the Mediterranean, the Pacific, and along the coast of Africa. He was promoted to lieutenant in 1830, and he circumnavigated the globe aboard the USS John Adams in 1837. He organized a Temperance Society on board the USS Cumberland. The movement eventually spread throughout the navy. In the early 1850s, he helped suppress the transatlantic slave trade, an experience that led him to become an abolitionist.

 

He was promoted to commander in 1856. He served aboard the USS Portsmouth in the East India Squadron. While observing British operations during the Second Opium War, Chinese artillery opened fire on his vessel. In response, Foote led a landing party that destroyed four Chinese forts. He returned to the United States in 1858 and assumed command of the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

 

He was promoted to captain in June 1861, and he spent the following year in command of the Mississippi River Squadron. He was promoted to rear admiral in 1862. He died of Bright’s disease in New York City on June 26, 1863.

 

Image: Andrew H. Foote (courtesy Wikicommons)

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