John G. Sproston

Last updated April 12, 2019

John Glendy Sproston (14 August 1828 – 8 June 1862) was an officer in the United States Navy during the Civil War. He was killed in action in a riverine action in Florida.

The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most capable navy in the world and it has been estimated that in terms of tonnage of its active battle fleet alone, it is larger than the next 13 navies combined, which includes 11 U.S. allies or partner nations. with the highest combined battle fleet tonnage and the world's largest aircraft carrier fleet, with eleven in service, and two new carriers under construction. With 319,421 personnel on active duty and 99,616 in the Ready Reserve, the Navy is the third largest of the service branches. It has 282 deployable combat vessels and more than 3,700 operational aircraft as of March 2018, making it the second-largest air force in the world, after the United States Air Force.

American Civil War Civil war in the United States from 1861 to 1865

The American Civil War was a war fought in the United States from 1861 to 1865, between the North and the South. The Civil War is the most studied and written about episode in U.S. history. Primarily as a result of the long-standing controversy over the enslavement of black people, war broke out in April 1861 when secessionist forces attacked Fort Sumter in South Carolina shortly after Abraham Lincoln had been inaugurated as the President of the United States. The loyalists of the Union in the North proclaimed support for the Constitution. They faced secessionists of the Confederate States in the South, who advocated for states' rights to uphold slavery.

Florida had joined the Confederate States of America in advance of the Civil War, as the third of the original seven states to secede from the Union, following Lincoln's 1860 election. With the smallest population, nearly half of them slaves, Florida only sent 15,000 troops to the Confederate States Army. Its chief importance was in food-supply to the south and support for blockade-runners along its long coastline full of inlets that were hard to patrol.

Biography

John G. Sproston was born in Maryland. He was the eldest son of George Saxon Sproston, a U.S. naval surgeon, and Jane Glendy, a daughter of the Rev John Glendy, former Chaplain of the United States Senate.^[1] He was appointed to the Naval Academy in 1846. He subsequently served with the Pacific Squadron during the war with Mexico. In 1854, Sproston voyaged to Japan with the Perry (Matthew Calbraith Perry) Expedition.

Maryland is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east. The state's largest city is Baltimore, and its capital is Annapolis. Among its occasional nicknames are Old Line State, the Free State, and the Chesapeake Bay State. It is named after the English queen Henrietta Maria, known in England as Queen Mary.

The Chaplain of the United States Senate opens each session of the United States Senate with a prayer, and provides and coordinates religious programs and pastoral care support for Senators, their staffs, and their families. The Chaplain is appointed by a majority vote of the members of the Senate on a resolution nominating an individual for the position. The three most recent nominations have been submitted based on a bipartisan search committee although that procedure is not required.

The United States Naval Academy is a four-year coeducational federal service academy adjacent to Annapolis, Maryland. Established on 10 October 1845, under Secretary of the Navy George Bancroft, it is the second oldest of the United States' five service academies, and educates officers for commissioning primarily into the United States Navy and United States Marine Corps. The 338-acre (137 ha) campus is located on the former grounds of Fort Severn at the confluence of the Severn River and Chesapeake Bay in Anne Arundel County, 33 miles (53 km) east of Washington, D.C. and 26 miles (42 km) southeast of Baltimore. The entire campus is a National Historic Landmark and home to many historic sites, buildings, and monuments. It replaced Philadelphia Naval Asylum, in Philadelphia, that served as the first United States Naval Academy from 1838 to 1845 when the Naval Academy formed in Annapolis.

During the Civil War, he served as commanding officer of Powhatan and as executive officer of Seneca. On 1 November 1861, during the Battle of Port Royal, Sproston personally fired many of the 11-inch guns on board Seneca as the crew was new and untrained. Lt. Sproston was killed on 8 June 1862, while on a boat expedition to destroy a Confederate privateer in the St. Johns River in Florida.

The first USS Powhatan was a sidewheel steam frigate in the United States Navy during the American Civil War. She was named for Powhatan, a Native American chief of eastern Virginia. She was one of the last, and largest, of the United States Navy's paddle frigates.

USS Seneca was a Unadilla-class gunboat built on behalf of the United States Navy for service during the American Civil War. Seneca was outfitted with guns for horizontal fire as well as with two howitzers for bombardment of shore targets. With her crew of 84, she was assigned to the Union blockade of the Confederate States of America.

The Battle of Port Royal was one of the earliest amphibious operations of the American Civil War, in which a United States Navy fleet and United States Army expeditionary force captured Port Royal Sound, South Carolina, between Savannah, Georgia and Charleston, South Carolina, on November 7, 1861. The sound was guarded by two forts on opposite sides of the entrance, Fort Walker on Hilton Head Island to the south and Fort Beauregard on Phillip's Island to the north. A small force of four gunboats supported the forts, but did not materially affect the battle.

Both John Sproston and his father are buried in Green Mount Cemetery in Baltimore, Maryland.^[2]

Green Mount Cemetery cemetery in Baltimore, Maryland, United States

Green Mount Cemetery is a historic cemetery in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Established on March 15, 1838, and dedicated on July 13, 1839, it is noted for the large number of historical figures interred in its grounds as well as a large number of prominent Baltimore-area families. It retained the name Green Mount when the land was purchased from the heirs of Baltimore merchant Robert Oliver. Green Mount is a treasury of precious works of art, including striking works by major sculptors including William H. Rinehart and Hans Schuler.

Baltimore is the largest city in the state of Maryland within the United States. Baltimore was established by the Constitution of Maryland as an independent city in 1729. With a population of 611,648 in 2017, Baltimore is the largest such independent city in the United States. As of 2017, the population of the Baltimore metropolitan area was estimated to be just under 2.808 million, making it the 20th largest metropolitan area in the country. Baltimore is located about 40 miles (60 km) northeast of Washington, D.C., making it a principal city in the Washington-Baltimore combined statistical area (CSA), the fourth-largest CSA in the nation, with a calculated 2017 population of 9,764,315.

Namesakes

USS Sproston (DD-173) and USS Sproston (DD-577) were named for him.

USS Sproston (DD-173) was a Wickes-class destroyer built for the United States Navy during World War I.

USS Sproston (DD-577) was a Fletcher-class destroyer of the United States Navy. She was the second ship named for US Naval Lieutenant John G. Sproston, who was killed in action while leading an attack on a Confederate ironclad during the American Civil War.

Notes

↑ Proston family
↑ Details of Sproston's parentage and the location of his grave can be found in the introduction to his memoirs, "A Private Journal of John Glendy Sproston, U.S.N.", first published in 1940. These were written during his voyage to Japan with the Perry Expedition in 1854.

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References

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[1] Proston family

[2] Details of Sproston's parentage and the location of his grave can be found in the introduction to his memoirs, "A Private Journal of John Glendy Sproston, U.S.N.", first published in 1940. These were written during his voyage to Japan with the Perry Expedition in 1854.