Charles Boarman

Boarman returned to Erie at the end of the war as part of the Mediterranean Squadron and won promotion to lieutenant on March 5, 1817. After a brief time sailing with the West India Squadron on the sloop USS Peacock he was stationed at the Washington Navy Yard.[7][9] On March 21, 1820, Boarman was married to Mary Ann "Nancy" Abell, daughter of John Abell and Sarah Forrest, wealthy Virginian landowners, in Jefferson County.[2] He soon went to sea again seeing service on USS John Adams (1823) and USS Decoy (1824)[8] as part of the U.S. Navy's anti-piracy operations in the West Indies. On July 24, 1824, Boarman temporarily took command of the schooner USS Weazel from Commodore David Porter during which time he was on convoy duty and patrolled for pirates. That summer, Boarman captured a pirate ship off the coast of Crab Island but its crew managed to escape to shore. In September, he escorted three American merchant ships from Havana, Cuba, to Campeachy, and then carried $65,000 from Tampico which was to be shipped to New York. In July 1825, Boarman was one of several officers of the West Indies Squadron which testified at the naval court of inquiry and court martial of Commodore Porter.[11]

Boarman received his first command, USS Weazel (1827), and then transferred to the frigates USS Java (1828) and USS Delaware (1829), both flagships of the Mediterranean Squadron. In 1830, he was made executive officer of the Brazil Squadron's flagship USS Hudson. In September, he took temporary command of USS Vandalia while Captain John Gallagher left to testify in the court martial of fellow Captain Beekman V. Hoffman of USS Boston.[7][12] He went back to Hudson after Gallagher's return and remained on board until 1836 when he was reassigned to the West India Squadron and given command of the schooner USS Grampus. On February 9, 1837, he was made a full commander, and in 1840 captained the sloop USS Fairfield.[9] It was during this period that Solomon H. Sanborn, master-at-arms of Fairfield from 1837 to 1839, accused the ship's officers, including Boarman, of complicity in illegal coltings and floggings with cat o' nine tails by not reporting them in the ship's logbook. He also alleged that Boarman used the discipline tribunal to keep a member of the crew, seaman John Smith, on board past the term of his enlistment with a court martial trial. In 1840, Sanborn published a 40-page pamphlet in New York describing his experiences, however, no charges were ever brought against any officers of Fairfield.[13]

Four years later, on March 29, 1844, Boarman won his captain's commission and assumed command of the Brazil Squadron's flagship USS Brandywine. Boarman held this command throughout the Mexican–American War[9] and, between 1847 and 1850, embarked on a three-year voyage.[6][7][8]

After leaving the Brazil Squadron, Boarman succeeded Captain William D. Salter as commander of the Brooklyn Navy Yard[8] and remained in charge of the facility from October 14, 1852 to October 1, 1855.[6][9][14] In the four-year period he and his family were stationed in Brooklyn one of his daughters, Mary Jane Boarman, began a relationship with William Henry Broome, longtime deputy collector of the New York Custom House; the two may have been introduced through Broome's brother John L. Broome who was serving as a marine lieutenant at the navy yard. They were married in a modest ceremony at the Commandant's House, officiated by Archbishop John Hughes, on October 18, 1853; the family regularly attended Sunday Mass at St. James' Cathedral, in all kinds of weather, where Boarman was a pew holder.[2] Boarman later bought the house and lot that Mary Ann lived at in Brooklyn and, after her husband's death in 1876, left the property to her in his will.[15]

During his tenure at the navy yard Boarman supervised the fitting out of the Japan expedition under Commodore Matthew C. Perry.[7] In May 1855, responding to reports by the Pierce Administration of a possible filibustering expedition being headed by Henry L. Kinney, Boarman used the naval forces under his command to form a blockade around Kinney's ship moored at an East River wharf effectively blocking Kinney and associate Joseph W. Fabens from leaving New York Harbor; the two were subsequently arrested.[16] Four months after this incident, on September 18, 1855, Boarman was placed on the reserve list, less than a month before turning over command of the yard to Captain Abraham Bigelow, holding the rank of captain.[2]

Boarman was recalled to duty upon the start of the American Civil War. Although he was born a southerner, and a longtime resident of Martinsburg, Virginia, he remained with the Union and supported the secession of West Virginia from Virginia proper. Two of his sons-in-law, Robert P. Bryarly and Jeremiah Harris, the latter a member of the famed Ashby's Cavalry, both served in the Confederate Army.[9] In a letter to one of his sons, written at the start of the war, Boarman "declared his steadfast allegiance to the flag of his country, which he had sworn to defend". Technically a slave owner through marriage to his wife, Boarman immediately freed his slaves and "faced bravely the financial hardship that followed this act". Boarman was detained on special duty throughout the war,[9] his "rare executive capacities peculiarly fitting him for such service", and in 1863 was appointed to the U.S. Naval Board in Washington, DC. On March 12, 1867, he was promoted to the rank of commodore.[6] Boarman retired at the rank of rear admiral nine years later.[2][3][8][9]

Boarman eventually returned to Martinsburg where he and his wife spent their final years. Charles and Mary Ann Boarman had originally lived in Maryland before moving to Martinsburg to raise their family; they had 13 children together, however, only 10 survived to adulthood. In March 1870, the couple celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. Mary Ann Boarman died on September 26, 1875. Mary Ann, who converted to Catholicism to marry her husband, was an active member of the local diocese, St. Joseph's Catholic Church, and spent much of her time involved in charities to help the sick and the poor while Charles Boarman was away at sea.[2] Her loss was mourned by the townspeople with one writing: "In her death we lose one of our most charitable citizens; she will be missed by very many of the poor of Martinsburg; she was always seeking the sick and administering to their wants. She was truly an angel of mercy and charity and a strict and consistent member of the church".[7] Boarman was also involved in church activities and, when their children were younger, wrote to a local convent asking the Mother Superior for Nuns to teach the Catholic children of Martinsburg.[15]

Boarman died in Martinsburg on September 13, 1879. Boarman was survived by ten children, four sons and six daughters,[2] including frontier physician Dr. Charles Boarman (1828–1880), who was among the first pioneers to settle in present-day Amador County, California.[8] Two of his daughters also married into prominent families; Susan Martha Boarman married Virginia landowner Jeremiah Harris and Mary Jane Boarman became the wife of William Henry Broome, deputy collector of the New York Custom House.[7][17] His grandson Dr. Charles Boarman Harris (1857–1942), a well known pioneer physician in northwestern Minnesota and the Dakota Territory, helped establish the oldest settlement in the state North Dakota.[18] Andrew "Andy" F. Boarman (1910–1999), a popular banjo and bluegrass musician, was the great-grandson of Charles Boarman.[19]

At the time of his death Boarman had been the longest serving officer in the U.S. Navy Register, with over 68 years of service, and the U.S. Naval Department issued a special general order to recognize his passing.[2][3]