He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1848 and was briefly assigned to the Coast Survey and then made a cruise to Brazil in 1849 and served on the New York-West Indies mail line from 1853 to 1856 and then as navigator on the USS Vincennes during explorations of the North Pacific and Arctic Oceans.
Assigned to the Mediterranean Squadron at the end of the 1850s, he returned to the United States for ordnance duty at the Washington Navy Yard just prior to the outbreak of the Civil War.
In 1861, he participated in the effort to prevent Confederate troops from capturing the U.S. ships at Norfolk, Virginia. In September, he led an expedition to Pensacola, Florida, to destroy the Confederate privateer Judah.
He next assumed command of the gunboat USS Kennebec and participated in operations on the Mississippi River as far north as Vicksburg and later in the blockade of Mobile. In 1863 he was commanding the USS Pontiac and returned to ordnance duty in Washington in 1864 and then to the Pacific Squadron where he commanded the USS Cyane (the ship he began his naval career on) 1864 to 1865.
Various duties ashore and afloat, on both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts followed and he completed his service as the Commandant of the Mare Island Navy Yard in San Francisco in 1886. Appointed to the rank of rear admiral on 4 March 1886, he retired on 27 August and resided in Washington, D.C., until his death on 1 April 1897.
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In 1938, the destroyer USS Russell (DD-414) was named in his honor, while the USS Russell (DDG-59) is named in both his and his son's honor.
--Old B-Runner
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