Carlile Pollock Patterson
Encyclopedia
Carlile Pollock Patterson (1816–1881) (his first name is sometimes spelled Carlisle, with an s) was an American
civil engineer
, superintendent of the United States Coast Survey
. The Patterson Glacier, and the Patterson River that runs from it, located south of Juneau, Alaska, near the town of Petersburg
, a spectacular valley glacier featured in helicopter tours, are named for him.
), the son of Captain Daniel Patterson
, and the brother of Admiral Thomas H. Patterson
and of George Ann Patterson who married Admiral David Dixon Porter
.
in 1830 and served in the Mediterranean Sea
. He graduated from Georgetown College
as a civil engineer in 1838, and was attached to the Coast Survey from 1838–1841. In 1839 he was an officer of the Coast Survey brig when it captured the Spanish slave ship
La Amistad
, which the slaves had taken over, off Montauk, New York
. (This incident became the subject of the film Amistad). Patterson then led a hydrographic expedition to the Gulf of Mexico
in 1845.
, such as the Oregon and the Golden Gate from 1849 to about 1853, primarily running between the West Coast of Panama and San Francisco. His ships sometimes carried as many as a thousand gold-seeking men per voyage north during the California Gold Rush
. He appears frequently as ship-captain in the reports of the newspaper The Daily Alta California
. When California was made a state by Act of Congress, it was Patterson who brought the news to San Francisco, arriving on October 18, 1850, resulting in city-wide celebrations lasting well into the night.
Shortly after this, Patterson moved his wife, Elizabeth Pearson Patterson (daughter of Congressman Joseph Pearson
of North Carolina) and child from Washington, D.C., to Oakland. With James B. LaRue and John R. Fouratt he sought to found one of the first ferry services across San Francisco Bay, fighting all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court to win the right to provide service against a competitor. It is unclear, however, if he and his partners actually started a separate ferry line, and if so, how long it operated before being sold to another operator or shut down. He also engaged in real estate investments in San Francisco and San Diego. Several more children were born during this time in the Bay Area.
"). He remained in that service after the war, eventually becoming superintendent of the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey in 1874.
in mid-1852, when Grant was taking a detachment of troops across Panama for eventual posting in Oregon, and Patterson commanded the steamer that took most of Grant's troops north to San Francisco. It was during that posting in Oregon that Grant eventually, in 1854, decided to resign from the Army. During the Civil War, Grant coordinated with Patterson's brother-in-law, David Dixon Porter
, in the Vicksburg Campaign
, and may have met Patterson's brother, Thomas H. Patterson
, who was a naval officer fighting in the Civil War. As a result of these pre-war and wartime connections, the Pattersons were well-known to Grant and other leading Union officers. From 1861 through the 1880s, the Pattersons occupied the Brentwood Mansion, designed by Benjamin Latrobe
and inherited by Patterson's wife, in Brentwood, Washington, D.C.
, (since demolished), and it became a social center during the administration of President Grant.
Patterson was one of the early members of Washington's Metropolitan Club, which included numerous Union generals, admirals, and other officers. A large oil portrait of Patterson's brother-in-law, David Dixon Porter
, hangs in the first-floor lobby (as of 2007). Many of Patterson's papers can be found in the Manuscript Division of the U.S. Library of Congress.
, and mother, and brother Thomas H. Patterson
, are buried at Congressional Cemetery
, Washington, D.C. His sister George Ann and her husband David Dixon Porter
are buried at Arlington National Cemetery
.
The survey ship , in service from 1884-1919, was named in his honor., and Patterson Street, in Northeast Washington, D.C., near Patterson's Brentwood estate, may also be named for him.
neither signed nor vetoed the bill, but held it ten days and allowed it to become law without his signature. In a message dated June 21, 1884, the President explained "I do not question the constitutional right of Congress to pass a law relieving the family of an officer, in view of the services he had rendered his country, from the burdens of taxation, but I submit to Congress that this just gift of the nation to the family of such faithful officer should come from the National Treasury rather than from that of this District, and I therefore recommend that an appropriation be made to reimburse the District for the amount of taxes which would have been due to it had this act not become a law." A portion of this property later became the subject of a lawsuit that reached the Supreme Court, Winslow v. Baltimore & O R Co, 188 U.S. 646 (1903),, which includes excerpts of the will by which Mrs. Patterson came into the property on the death of her mother, Catherine Worthington Pearson, in 1868. The suit, which the Patterson family won, involved renewal of a lease of some of the land to a railroad.
, and great-uncle of the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Robert Lowell
. The six children of Harriet Patterson and Francis Winslow included Harriet Winslow, longtime owner of the Georgetown mansion at 3051 Q Street, N.W., Washington, D.C., one of Robert Lowell's favorite relatives, for whom Lowell named his daughter Harriet, about whom he wrote the poem Soft Wood, and whose summer home in Castine, Maine
was one of his favorite writing-places. Harriet Winslow was a first-cousin of Lowell's mother Charlotte Winslow, making Lowell Harriet's first cousin once removed. Harriet Winslow, who never married or had children, originally planned to will the Castine house to Lowell, but in light of his recurring mental illness, she changed the will and left the property to Lowell's then-wife, Elizabeth Hardwick, with the intention that Hardwick make the property available to Lowell to use as a writing retreat. Hardwick honored Harriet's intention.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
civil engineer
Civil engineer
A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering; the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructures while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing infrastructures that have been neglected.Originally, a...
, superintendent of the United States Coast Survey
U.S. National Geodetic Survey
National Geodetic Survey, formerly called the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey , is a United States federal agency that defines and manages a national coordinate system, providing the foundation for transportation and communication; mapping and charting; and a large number of applications of science...
. The Patterson Glacier, and the Patterson River that runs from it, located south of Juneau, Alaska, near the town of Petersburg
Petersburg, Alaska
Petersburg is a city in Petersburg Census Area, Alaska, in the United States. According to 2009 Census Bureau estimates, the population of the city is 2,824 full time residents.- History :...
, a spectacular valley glacier featured in helicopter tours, are named for him.
Biography
Patterson was born in Shieldsboro (now Bay St. Louis, MississippiBay St. Louis, Mississippi
Bay Saint Louis is a city located in Hancock County, Mississippi. It is part of the Gulfport–Biloxi, Mississippi Metropolitan Statistical Area. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 8,209. It is the county seat of Hancock County...
), the son of Captain Daniel Patterson
Daniel Patterson
Daniel Todd Patterson was an officer in the United States Navy during the Quasi-War with France, the First Barbary War and the War of 1812.-Biography:...
, and the brother of Admiral Thomas H. Patterson
Thomas H. Patterson
Thomas Harmon Patterson was a rear admiral in the United States Navy.-Early life and career:Patterson was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, the second son of Commodore Daniel Todd Patterson, a War of 1812 U.S. Navy hero, and George Ann Pollock. Patterson saw action in the American Civil War and...
and of George Ann Patterson who married Admiral David Dixon Porter
David Dixon Porter
David Dixon Porter was a member of one of the most distinguished families in the history of the United States Navy. Promoted as the second man to the rank of admiral, after his adoptive brother David G...
.
Navy service
Patterson was appointed midshipmanMidshipman
A midshipman is an officer cadet, or a commissioned officer of the lowest rank, in the Royal Navy, United States Navy, and many Commonwealth navies. Commonwealth countries which use the rank include Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India, Pakistan, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Kenya...
in 1830 and served in the Mediterranean Sea
Mediterranean Sea
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean surrounded by the Mediterranean region and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Anatolia and Europe, on the south by North Africa, and on the east by the Levant...
. He graduated from Georgetown College
Georgetown College (Georgetown University)
Georgetown College, infrequently Georgetown College of Arts and Sciences, is the oldest school within Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. The College is the largest undergraduate school at Georgetown, and until the founding of the Medical School in 1850, was the only higher education division...
as a civil engineer in 1838, and was attached to the Coast Survey from 1838–1841. In 1839 he was an officer of the Coast Survey brig when it captured the Spanish slave ship
Slave ship
Slave ships were large cargo ships specially converted for the purpose of transporting slaves, especially newly purchased African slaves to Americas....
La Amistad
La Amistad
La Amistad was a ship notable as the scene of a revolt by African captives being transported from Havana to Puerto Principe, Cuba. It was a 19th-century two-masted schooner built in Spain and owned by a Spaniard living in Cuba...
, which the slaves had taken over, off Montauk, New York
Montauk, New York
Montauk [ˈmɒntɒk] is a census-designated place that roughly corresponds to the hamlet with the same name located in the town of East Hampton in Suffolk County, New York, United States on the South Shore of Long Island. As of the United States 2000 Census, the CDP population was 3,851 as of 2000...
. (This incident became the subject of the film Amistad). Patterson then led a hydrographic expedition to the Gulf of Mexico
Gulf of Mexico
The Gulf of Mexico is a partially landlocked ocean basin largely surrounded by the North American continent and the island of Cuba. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States, on the southwest and south by Mexico, and on the southeast by Cuba. In...
in 1845.
Steamer captain
Leaving Naval service for the commercial world, he commanded steamers of the Pacific Mail Steamship CompanyPacific Mail Steamship Company
The Pacific Mail Steamship Company was founded April 18, 1848 as a joint stock company under the laws of the State of New York by a group of New York City merchants, William H. Aspinwall, Edwin Bartlett, Henry Chauncey, Mr. Alsop, G.G. Howland and S.S. Howland...
, such as the Oregon and the Golden Gate from 1849 to about 1853, primarily running between the West Coast of Panama and San Francisco. His ships sometimes carried as many as a thousand gold-seeking men per voyage north during the California Gold Rush
California Gold Rush
The California Gold Rush began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The first to hear confirmed information of the gold rush were the people in Oregon, the Sandwich Islands , and Latin America, who were the first to start flocking to...
. He appears frequently as ship-captain in the reports of the newspaper The Daily Alta California
The Daily Alta California
The Alta California or Daily Alta California was a 19th-century San Francisco newspaper...
. When California was made a state by Act of Congress, it was Patterson who brought the news to San Francisco, arriving on October 18, 1850, resulting in city-wide celebrations lasting well into the night.
Shortly after this, Patterson moved his wife, Elizabeth Pearson Patterson (daughter of Congressman Joseph Pearson
Joseph Pearson
Joseph Pearson was a Congressional Representative from North Carolina; born in Rowan County, North Carolina, in 1776; completed preparatory studies; studied law; was admitted to the bar and commenced practice in Salisbury, North Carolina; member of the State house of commons from Rowan county in...
of North Carolina) and child from Washington, D.C., to Oakland. With James B. LaRue and John R. Fouratt he sought to found one of the first ferry services across San Francisco Bay, fighting all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court to win the right to provide service against a competitor. It is unclear, however, if he and his partners actually started a separate ferry line, and if so, how long it operated before being sold to another operator or shut down. He also engaged in real estate investments in San Francisco and San Diego. Several more children were born during this time in the Bay Area.
Civil War
In 1861, on the outbreak of the Civil War, the family returned to Washington, D.C. and Patterson returned to federal service, this time as a civilian hydrographic inspector in the Coast Survey, preparing charts and other material to aid Naval ships execute the blockade of Southern ports (the strategy known as the "Anaconda PlanAnaconda Plan
The Anaconda Plan or Scott's Great Snake is the name widely applied to an outline strategy for subduing the seceding states in the American Civil War. Proposed by General-in-Chief Winfield Scott, the plan emphasized the blockade of the Southern ports, and called for an advance down the Mississippi...
"). He remained in that service after the war, eventually becoming superintendent of the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey in 1874.
Friendship with President Grant
Patterson first met Ulysses S. GrantUlysses S. Grant
Ulysses S. Grant was the 18th President of the United States as well as military commander during the Civil War and post-war Reconstruction periods. Under Grant's command, the Union Army defeated the Confederate military and ended the Confederate States of America...
in mid-1852, when Grant was taking a detachment of troops across Panama for eventual posting in Oregon, and Patterson commanded the steamer that took most of Grant's troops north to San Francisco. It was during that posting in Oregon that Grant eventually, in 1854, decided to resign from the Army. During the Civil War, Grant coordinated with Patterson's brother-in-law, David Dixon Porter
David Dixon Porter
David Dixon Porter was a member of one of the most distinguished families in the history of the United States Navy. Promoted as the second man to the rank of admiral, after his adoptive brother David G...
, in the Vicksburg Campaign
Vicksburg Campaign
The Vicksburg Campaign was a series of maneuvers and battles in the Western Theater of the American Civil War directed against Vicksburg, Mississippi, a fortress city that dominated the last Confederate-controlled section of the Mississippi River. The Union Army of the Tennessee under Maj. Gen....
, and may have met Patterson's brother, Thomas H. Patterson
Thomas H. Patterson
Thomas Harmon Patterson was a rear admiral in the United States Navy.-Early life and career:Patterson was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, the second son of Commodore Daniel Todd Patterson, a War of 1812 U.S. Navy hero, and George Ann Pollock. Patterson saw action in the American Civil War and...
, who was a naval officer fighting in the Civil War. As a result of these pre-war and wartime connections, the Pattersons were well-known to Grant and other leading Union officers. From 1861 through the 1880s, the Pattersons occupied the Brentwood Mansion, designed by Benjamin Latrobe
Benjamin Latrobe
Benjamin Henry Boneval Latrobe was a British-born American neoclassical architect best known for his design of the United States Capitol, along with his work on the Baltimore Basilica, the first Roman Catholic Cathedral in the United States...
and inherited by Patterson's wife, in Brentwood, Washington, D.C.
Brentwood, Washington, D.C.
Brentwood is a neighborhood in Northeast Washington, D.C. and is named after the Brentwood Mansion built at Florida Avenue and 6th Street NE in 1817 by Robert Brent, the first mayor of Washington City. He built it as a wedding present for his daughter Eleanor on her marriage as second wife to...
, (since demolished), and it became a social center during the administration of President Grant.
Patterson was one of the early members of Washington's Metropolitan Club, which included numerous Union generals, admirals, and other officers. A large oil portrait of Patterson's brother-in-law, David Dixon Porter
David Dixon Porter
David Dixon Porter was a member of one of the most distinguished families in the history of the United States Navy. Promoted as the second man to the rank of admiral, after his adoptive brother David G...
, hangs in the first-floor lobby (as of 2007). Many of Patterson's papers can be found in the Manuscript Division of the U.S. Library of Congress.
Death and honors
Patterson died in-office in mid-1881. He, along with his wife, mother-in-law, and infant children who died in California, are buried in the Worthington vault of Oak Hill Cemetery, Washington D.C. His father, Commodore Daniel PattersonDaniel Patterson
Daniel Todd Patterson was an officer in the United States Navy during the Quasi-War with France, the First Barbary War and the War of 1812.-Biography:...
, and mother, and brother Thomas H. Patterson
Thomas H. Patterson
Thomas Harmon Patterson was a rear admiral in the United States Navy.-Early life and career:Patterson was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, the second son of Commodore Daniel Todd Patterson, a War of 1812 U.S. Navy hero, and George Ann Pollock. Patterson saw action in the American Civil War and...
, are buried at Congressional Cemetery
Congressional Cemetery
The Congressional Cemetery is a historic cemetery located at 1801 E Street, SE, in Washington, D.C., on the west bank of the Anacostia River. It is the final resting place of thousands of individuals who helped form the nation and the city of Washington in the early 19th century. Many members of...
, Washington, D.C. His sister George Ann and her husband David Dixon Porter
David Dixon Porter
David Dixon Porter was a member of one of the most distinguished families in the history of the United States Navy. Promoted as the second man to the rank of admiral, after his adoptive brother David G...
are buried at Arlington National Cemetery
Arlington National Cemetery
Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington County, Virginia, is a military cemetery in the United States of America, established during the American Civil War on the grounds of Arlington House, formerly the estate of the family of Confederate general Robert E. Lee's wife Mary Anna Lee, a great...
.
The survey ship , in service from 1884-1919, was named in his honor., and Patterson Street, in Northeast Washington, D.C., near Patterson's Brentwood estate, may also be named for him.
A bill for Patterson's widow
On June 6, 1884, three years after Patterson's death, Congress enacted a private bill, House bill No. 4689, entitled "An act for the relief of Eliza W. Patterson", Patterson's widow, excusing accumulated District of Columbia property taxes on the Patterson land, in light of the fact that Patterson had served as Superintendent without taking a salary and had, through inattention, placed the family finances in jeopardy. President Chester A. ArthurChester A. Arthur
Chester Alan Arthur was the 21st President of the United States . Becoming President after the assassination of President James A. Garfield, Arthur struggled to overcome suspicions of his beginnings as a politician from the New York City Republican machine, succeeding at that task by embracing...
neither signed nor vetoed the bill, but held it ten days and allowed it to become law without his signature. In a message dated June 21, 1884, the President explained "I do not question the constitutional right of Congress to pass a law relieving the family of an officer, in view of the services he had rendered his country, from the burdens of taxation, but I submit to Congress that this just gift of the nation to the family of such faithful officer should come from the National Treasury rather than from that of this District, and I therefore recommend that an appropriation be made to reimburse the District for the amount of taxes which would have been due to it had this act not become a law." A portion of this property later became the subject of a lawsuit that reached the Supreme Court, Winslow v. Baltimore & O R Co, 188 U.S. 646 (1903),, which includes excerpts of the will by which Mrs. Patterson came into the property on the death of her mother, Catherine Worthington Pearson, in 1868. The suit, which the Patterson family won, involved renewal of a lease of some of the land to a railroad.
Descendants
In 1881, shortly after Patterson's death, his daughter, Harriet Livingston Patterson, married Lt. Francis Winslow USN, the brother of Rear Admiral Cameron McRae Winslow, a first cousin once removed of Rear Admiral John Ancrum WinslowJohn Ancrum Winslow
Rear Admiral John Ancrum Winslow was an officer in the United States Navy during the Mexican-American War and the American Civil War...
, and great-uncle of the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Robert Lowell
Robert Lowell
Robert Traill Spence Lowell IV was an American poet, considered the founder of the confessional poetry movement. He was appointed the sixth Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress where he served from 1947 until 1948...
. The six children of Harriet Patterson and Francis Winslow included Harriet Winslow, longtime owner of the Georgetown mansion at 3051 Q Street, N.W., Washington, D.C., one of Robert Lowell's favorite relatives, for whom Lowell named his daughter Harriet, about whom he wrote the poem Soft Wood, and whose summer home in Castine, Maine
Castine, Maine
Castine is a town in Hancock County, Maine, United States and was once the capital of Acadia . The population was 1,343 at the 2000 census. Castine is the home of Maine Maritime Academy, a four-year institution that graduates officers and engineers for the United States Merchant Marine and marine...
was one of his favorite writing-places. Harriet Winslow was a first-cousin of Lowell's mother Charlotte Winslow, making Lowell Harriet's first cousin once removed. Harriet Winslow, who never married or had children, originally planned to will the Castine house to Lowell, but in light of his recurring mental illness, she changed the will and left the property to Lowell's then-wife, Elizabeth Hardwick, with the intention that Hardwick make the property available to Lowell to use as a writing retreat. Hardwick honored Harriet's intention.