Ralph Chandler, USN-- Part 3: Civil War and Post-War Service

From 1855 to 1859, he was involved in coast survey and the survey of the Parana River and was serving on the sloop Vandalia when the Civil War began.  He was on her at the Battle of Port Royal in November 1861.  The next year he was assigned to the steam-sloop San Jacinto of the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron.

Chandler was present at the engagement of the Sewell's Point batteries and the capture of Norfolk.  On 25 July 1862, he was promoted to lieutenant-commander and commanded the screw steamer USS Huntsville in the East Gulf Blockading Squadron.  Later he was transferred to command the USS Maumee in the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron and fought at Fort Fisher  and the capture of Wilmington.

For two years after the war, he commanded the steamer USS Don and was on ordnance duty at  the Brooklyn Navy Yard in 1868.  The next year he commanded the USS Tallapoosa.  Promoted to captain in  1874 and commodore in 1884 and served as commandant of Brooklyn Navy Yard.

On 6 October 1886, he was commissioned as read admiral and ordered to relieve Rear Admiral John L. Davis (also at Fort Fisher) in command of the Asiatic Squadron.  He died of apoplexy in Hong Kong February 9, 1889, and is buried there.

--Old B-Runner