Franklin Buchanan (September 13, 1800-May 11, 1874) was an officer in the United States Navy who became an admiral in the Confederate Navy during the American Civil War, and commanded the ironclad CSS Virginia. Buchanan was born in Baltimore, Maryland. He became a midshipman in 1815, was promoted to Lieutenant in 1825, Commander in 1841 and Captain in 1855. Over the four and a half decades of his U.S. Navy service, Buchanan had extensive and worldwide sea duty.

Josiah Tattnall, Sr. (1762-June 6, 1803) was an American planter, soldier and politician from Savannah, Georgia. He represented Georgia in the U.S. Senate from 1796 to 1799 and was governor in 1801 and 1802. His son, Josiah Tattnall, Jr., served as a Captain in both the U.S. Navy and the Confederate Navy.

Commodore Josiah Tattnall, Jr. (14 June 1794 - 14 June 1871) was an officer in the United States Navy during the War of 1812, the Second Barbary War, and the Mexican-American War. He later served in the Confederate Navy during the American Civil War.

John Taylor Wood (August 13, 1830 - July 19, 1904) was an officer in the U.S. Navy who became a captain in the Confederate Navy during the American Civil War. The son of Robert Crooke Wood, an Army surgeon, and Anne Mackall Taylor, daughter of President Zachary Taylor, Wood was born in Minnesota on August 13, 1830. He became a U.S. Navy Midshipman in 1847 and graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1853. He served at sea during the last part of the Mexican-American War, …

John Mercer Brooke (1826-1906) was a US Navy officer. He was born at Tampa Bay, Florida, on 18 December 1826. He became a lieutenant in 1855. An an expert in maritime surveys, he participated in exploratory missions in the Pacific. He had a role in the counseling and instruction of officers of the nascent Japanese Navy. In Japan, he was a technical adviser aboard the Japanese steamer "Kanrin Maru", and he helped sail the ship to the United States in February 1860.

Commodore Arthur Sinclair (28 February 1780 - 7 February 1831) was an early American naval hero, who served in the U.S. Navy during the Quasi-War with France, the First Barbary War and in the War of 1812. His three sons also served in the Navy; they resigned in 1861, however, to serve in the Confederate Navy. Sinclair was the great-grandfather of novelist Upton Sinclair, author of the novel "The Jungle" (1906).

French Forrest (1796-December 22, 1866) was an American naval officer who served first in the United States Navy and later the Confederate States Navy. His combat experience prior to the Civil War included service in the War of 1812 and the Mexican-American War. Born in Maryland, he became a midshipman on June 9, 1811 and participated in the War of 1812.

Catesby ap Roger Jones (April 15, 1821 - June 20, 1877) was an officer in the U.S. Navy who became a commander in the Confederate Navy during the American Civil War. Jones was born in Fairfield, Virginia, son of Major General Roger Jones and Mary Ann Mason Page. (The "ap" in his name is a Welsh patronymic meaning "son of".) His mother was a lineal descendant of William Byrd of Westover and Robert "King" Carter. This also made her a cousin of General Robert E. Lee.

Irvine Stephens Bulloch (25 June1842 - 7 January1898) was an officer in the Confederate Navy and the youngest officer on the famed warship CSS "Alabama". He fired its last shot before it was sunk off the coast of France at the end of the American Civil War. He was the half-brother of James Dunwoody Bulloch and the sister of Martha Bulloch. Martha was the mother of future U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt and the grandmother of Eleanor Roosevelt.

Charles William "Savvy" Read was an officer in the antebellum United States Navy and then in the Confederate Navy during the American Civil War. He was nicknamed the "Seawolf of the Confederacy" for his exploits and daring.

Washington Duke (December 18, 1820 - May 08, 1905) was an American tobacco industrialist and philanthropist. Duke was born George Washington Duke in Durham County, North Carolina, to Taylor Duke (c1770-1830) and Dicey Jones (born c1780). On August 9, 1842, he married Mary Caroline Clinton (1825-1847) with whom he had two children: Sidney Taylor Duke (1844-1858) and Brodie Leonidas Duke (1846-1919).

Meriwether Jeff Thompson (January 22, 1826 - September 5, 1876) was a brigadier general in the Missouri State Guard during the American Civil War. He served in the Confederate Army as a cavalry commander, and had the unusual distinction of having a ship in the Confederate Navy named for him. Thompson was born in Virginia into a family with a strong military tradition on both sides. He moved to St. Joseph, Missouri in 1847, where he served as the city engineer.

James D. Johnston was an officer in the United States Navy, then served as a commander in the Confederate Navy during the American Civil War. Johnston was born in Kentucky and was appointed from that state as a U.S. Navy Midshipman in 1832. He achieved the rank of Lieutenant in 1843 and had not received further promotion when he resigned from the service in April 1861.

Henry Knox Thatcher (26 May 1806 - 5 April 1880) was an admiral in the United States Navy, who served during the American Civil War. Born in Thomaston, Maine, Thatcher was appointed a cadet in the West Point Class of 1826. He left shortly thereafter, and was appointed as a midshipman on 4 March 1823. He was promoted to lieutenant on 28 February 1833; commander on 14 September 1855; captain in 1861; commodore on 3 July 1862; and to rear admiral on 25 July 1866.

Edwin Maffitt Anderson (d. January 28, 1923) was a Confederate naval officer, serving onboard the shipping raiders CSS "Alabama" and CSS "Sumter" as well as the master of the blockade runner CSS "Owl". Born in Georgia, Anderson entered the Confederate Navy in October 1861, enlisting as a master's mate and being promoted within a month to midshipman. Briefly serving under Captain Raphael Semmes aboard the CSS "Savannah", …

David Porter McCorkle was a Confederate Lieutenant in the American Civil War. He ran the Naval Ordnance Works at New Orleans which also served as a laboratory, principally manufacturing shot and shells, gun carriages for outfitting ships in the Confederate Navy. In March or April 1862, before the city's capture in the Battle of New Orleans, he removed the ordnance and laboratory stores to Atlanta.

Stephen Russell Mallory (January 9, 1834-December 23, 1907) was a U.S. Senator and U.S. Representative from Florida who served as a Democrat. He was the son of U.S. Senator Stephen Russell Mallory. Born in Columbia, Richland County, South Carolina; during the American Civil War entered the Confederate Army in the fall of 1864; appointed midshipman in the Confederate Navy in the spring of 1865 and served until the end of the war; graduated from Georgetown College, …

William W. Kennison (28 February 1828 -) was an officer in the Confederate Navy. Born in Massachusetts, Kennison was appointed Acting Master's Mate 28 August 1861. During the American Civil War he was promoted to Volunteer Lieutenant for gallant conduct in action between the CSS "Virginia" and the USS "Cumberland" 7 March 1862. Following the war, he was honorably discharged 4 May 1866, but was reappointed Acting Master 20 August 1866.

William Phineas Browne, a lawyer by profession, was a leading pioneer in the coal mining business in Alabama, credited with operating that state’s first systematic underground coal mines prior to, and during, the American Civil War. Browne’s coal mines, located near Montevallo, Alabama, were under contract to the Confederate Navy during the Civil War.

Frank M. Faircloth (1820-January 61900) was an American naval officer who served in the Union Navy during the Civil War. Born near Newark, New Jersey, Frank Faircloth became a sailor at an early age. He participated in the Mexican-American War and the Civil War. In the latter conflict, as the captain of the "Boston", he ordered the ship burned to prevent its capture by the Confederate Navy. During the Spanish-American War, Faircloth, at the age of 78, …