Charles Henry Bromedge Caldwell


Charles Henry Bromedge Caldwell was a United States Navy officer during the American Civil War.

Career

He entered the navy as midshipman 27 February 1838, and became lieutenant 4 September 1852.
With a detachment from the Vandalia, he defeated a tribe of cannibals at Wega, one of the Feejee islands, and burned their town, 11 October 1858.
In 1862, he commanded the gun-boat Itasca, of the western gulf blockading squadron, and took part in the bombardment of Forts Jackson and St. Philip.
On the night of 20 April his gun-boat, with the Pinola, was sent on an expedition under the command of Fleet-Capt. Bell, to make a passage for the fleet through the chain obstructions near the forts.
Lieut. Caldwell and his party boarded one of the hulks that held the chains, and succeeded in detaching the latter, in spite of the heavy fire to which they were subjected.
The Itasca was then swept on shore by the current, in full sight of the forts, and it was half an hour before she was afloat again.
She was unable to pass the forts with the rest of the fleet, owing to a shot that penetrated her boiler. Lieut. Caldwell was in the action at Grand Gulf, 9 June 1862, and was promoted to commander on 16 July.
He commanded the iron-clad Essex, of the Mississippi squadron in 1862–63, and took part in the operations at Port Hudson, from March to July 1863, in command of the Essex and the mortar flotilla.
He commanded the Glaucus of the North Atlantic blockading squadron from 1863 till 1864, and the R. R. Cuyler, of the same squadron, from 1864 till 1865.
He became captain, 12 December 1867, chief of staff of the North Atlantic fleet in 1870, and commodore on 14 June 1874.