Captain French Forrest

Captain French Forrest poses in uniform, cradling an elaborately decorated Confederate naval officers sword. The James River Squadrons first commander in 1861, Forrest led the squadron again from 1863 until 1864. The Virginia native was a white-haired sixty-five-year-old when the Civil War began and boasted more than fifty years in the navy and service in two wars. Appointed a midshipman in 1811 just before the War of 1812, he commanded U.S. naval forces during the landing at Vera Cruz during the Mexican War. He was promoted to captain in 1844 and, according to one comrade, literally did not know the meaning of fear. The historian John Coski has commented on Forrests Prince Valiant haircut and a chiseled face that made him look like an old salt from romantic fiction. However, Forrest, who ended the war the Confederacys third-ranking naval officer, saw little real action, dying in 1866.