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- (son of Nathaniel Ingraham and Louisa Harriett Hall)
Duncan Ingraham was born December 02, 1752 in Boston, Suffolk County, Massachusetts, USA. and died June 16, 1804 in Greenvale Farm. near Poughkeepsie, New York, USA. He married Susanna Greenleaf July 26, 1774, daughter of William Greenleaf and Mary Brown.
Com. Duncan Nathaniel Ingraham, who distinguished himself in rescuing Martin Koszta, the Hungarian refugee, at Smyma, 4 April 1854, was a nephew of Captain Duncan Ingraham, who was fifth generation from William Ingraham, who came to Boston, Massachusetts, in 1653. He was born at Charleston, S. C., on 2 Dec. 1802, and was the son of Nathaniel Ingraham of the same place. He belonged to a family eminently naval in its character. His father, when but twenty years of age, took part as a volunteer with his intimate friend John Paul Jones, in the engagement of the 'Bon Homme Richard' with the 'Serapis,' off the British coast. His uncle. Capt. Joseph Ingraham, United States Navy, was lost in the old ship'Pickering' which foundered at sea in 1800, and was never heard of. His cousin, William Ingraham, a lieutenant in the navy about 1784, was killed at the age of 24 by the Indians at Nootka Sound on the west coast of Vancouvers Island. The officers and entire crew, except Jewett and Thompson, of the ship 'Boston,' from Boston and bound to Pacific Coast, were massacred on Christmas Day, 1802. Having been invited on shore to a feast, they were betrayed and murdered.
Duncan N. Ingraham was sent at an early age to Boston to be educated in the family of his grandfather, and entered the navy as midshipman in 1812. He served continuously in the navy of his country from that time until the secession of his native State, South Carolina, in 1860. In 1815 he was promoted to a lieutenancy. In 1838 he was promoted to commander, and served two years on the Brig 'Somers,' blockading the Mexican ports. At the capture of Tampico, Captain Ingraham was sent ashore. and receiving the letters of capitulation himself, was sent by Commodore O'Connor with dispatches to Washington.
In 1852 he was ordered to command the Sloop of War 'St. Louis,' in the Mediterranean Squadron. While at Smyma he with great promptness and decision rescued Martin Koszta, a Hungarian refugee, who had become a citizen of the United States, from the Austrians, threatening the Austrian vessels. although greatly outnumbered by them in guns and men. For this brave action the United States Government presented him with a medal. The working classes in England in token of their admiration. presented him with a magnificent chronometer. The Citizens of New York. at a monster mass meeting, presented him with a gold medal
At the breaking out of the Civil War he returned to the United States, and resigned his commission 1 Jan. 1861. He entered the service of the Confederate States in March 1861. and was in action several times in and around Charleston harbor. In 1863 he, with two Confederate ironclads, the 'Palmetto State' and 'Chicora,' broke the blockade of the harbor. In 1865, when the Confederates evacuated Charleston, Commodore Ingraham blew up his fleet and retired with General Johnston, who surrendered his command at Goldsboro, North Carolina.
Commodore Ingraham married Harriott Horry Laurens, granddaughter on the paternal side of the patriot Henry Laurens, President of the Continental Congress. The issue of this marriage was eleven children. Commodore Ingraham died in Charleston 16 November, 1891.
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