DAVID A. MCDERMUT, LCDR, USN

David McDermut '47

Date of birth: March 24, 1824

Age: 39

Loss

David was lost on April 18, 1863, when he was shot while leading a reconnaissance party ashore at Sabine Pass, Texas. He was the commanding officer of USS Cayuga (1861).

Other Information

David's middle name was Ames. He was born in, and appointed to the Naval Academy from, New York.

From researcher Kathy Franz:

At the Naval Academy on February 21, 1848, David received demerits for lights on in his room after hours. His roommates were Nicholas H. Van Zendt and Stephen Bleecker Luce.
David's wife Elizabeth Conner died in New York on January 18, 1878. Their daughter Jeannie Ames married William Ainsworth Esselstyn on June 21, 1899. Jeannie was given away by Emily Benham, sister of the late Rear Admiral Andrew E. K. Benham, with whom she lived.
David's father Robert, a merchant and bookseller, died in 1841. His mother was Abigail. His siblings were Mary (Mrs. George Hart,) Robert, and Elizabeth. Isaac Fitz of New York City became their guardian after their father's death.

From Green-Wood Civil War Biographies:

McDERMUT (or McDERMOTT), DAVID A. (1824-1863). Lieutenant commander, United States Navy. A New York native, McDermut began his career in the Navy as a midshipman on November 8, 1841, upon his admission to the United States Naval Academy. He was promoted to passed midshipman on August 10, 1847. He rose to master on March 1, 1855, and to lieutenant on September 14. On July 16, 1862, he was promoted to lieutenant commander.
During the Civil War, McDermut was commander of the USS Cayuga, a gunboat that was part of the West Gulf Blockading Squadron. As of March 26, 1862, the vessel served along the Gulf Coast of Texas and participated in the engagement at Forts Jackson and St. Philip below New Orleans, Louisiana, in April 1862. The Cayuga was intent upon neutralizing the Confederate steamers in Sabine Bay. On April 4, 1863, together with Lieutenant Commander Abner Read of the USS New London, they captured the captain, pilot, second mate and another man of the Josiah Bell without firing a shot.
On April 18, 1863, Read and McDermut, each with a five men and Read with his pilot, ventured again toward the lighthouse at Sabine Bay. Unbeknownst to them, two Confederate officers and at least thirty men were awaiting their arrival. (Read wrote in his report that there were 60-70 men awaiting them.) Three men were captured immediately as Read and McDermut ran back to their boats. McDermut, wounded, could not get his boat off the ground and waved his white handkerchief as a flag of surrender. Read managed to get his boat off the mud but in the fire that followed, lost an eye; all but one of his men were wounded. Read wrote that the enemy directed its rifle fire and buckshot at the New London and that under the circumstances, the boat’s survival was “miraculous.” McDermut, although not believed to have been seriously wounded, died later that day. His crew and boat were taken by the Confederates. Read in his letter to Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy, wrote that upon accepting the remains of McDermut he fully believes that “he was mortally wounded while sitting in his boat after surrender.” McDermut’s involvement in the Civil War is recorded on his tombstone. It notes that he died on April 18, 1863, “while in command of the USS Cayuga off Sabine Pass, Texas.” His funeral took place at Christ Church in New Orleans on April 25, 1863. Interment at Green-Wood was on March 19, 1864. Elizabeth McDermut, who is interred with him, applied for and received a widow’s pension, certificate 1,279.
Two ships have been named for McDermut, the first on August 6, 1918, and christened at Bethlehem Shipyards in Squantum, Massachusetts; the vessel was scrapped in 1931. The second ship was christened by Mrs. Woodrow Wilson on October 17, 1943, at Federal Shipbuilding and Drydock Company in Kearny, New Jersey. The second vessel reported for duty at Pearl Harbor as part of the Pacific Fleet in February 1944, where she won many citations and service medals. Section 60, lot 529.

He is listed on the killed in action panel in the front of Memorial Hall.

Career

From the Naval History and Heritage Command:

Midshipman, 8 November, 1841. Passed Midshipman, 10 August, 1847. Master, 1 March, 1855. Lieutenant, 14 September, 1855. Lieutenant Commander, 16 July, 1862. Killed in action 18 April, 1863.

From Find A Grave:

During the Civil War, he served in Potomac and Marion before assuming command of Cayuga on December 2, 1862.

As a Lieutenant in 1856, while serving aboard the frigate Independence in the Bay of Panama, he faced a court martial on four charges. He was found not guilty of three, but guilty of the fourth (sleeping on watch). He was sentenced to a public reprimand by the commander in chief of the U.S. Naval Forces in the Pacific Ocean. (Details located by researcher Kathy Franz.)

Namesake

USS McDermut (DD 262) and USS McDermut (DD 677) were named for David; the latter ship was sponsored by Mrs. Woodrow Wilson, widow of the 28th President of the United States.

Navy Directories & Officer Registers

The "Register of Commissioned and Warrant Officers of the United States Navy and Marine Corps" was published annually from 1815 through at least the 1970s; it provided rank, command or station, and occasionally billet until the beginning of World War II when command/station was no longer included. Scanned copies were reviewed and data entered from the mid-1840s through 1922, when more-frequent Navy Directories were available.

The Navy Directory was a publication that provided information on the command, billet, and rank of every active and retired naval officer. Single editions have been found online from January 1915 and March 1918, and then from three to six editions per year from 1923 through 1940; the final edition is from April 1941.

The entries in both series of documents are sometimes cryptic and confusing. They are often inconsistent, even within an edition, with the name of commands; this is especially true for aviation squadrons in the 1920s and early 1930s.

Alumni listed at the same command may or may not have had significant interactions; they could have shared a stateroom or workspace, stood many hours of watch together… or, especially at the larger commands, they might not have known each other at all. The information provides the opportunity to draw connections that are otherwise invisible, though, and gives a fuller view of the professional experiences of these alumni in Memorial Hall.