Tunis Craven

Tunis Augustus Macdonough Craven (11 January 1813 – 5 August 1864) was an officer in the United States Navy. <br />His career included service in the Mexican-American War and the Civil War.

Early Life

Tunis Augustus Macdonough Craven was born in Portsmouth, N. H., January 11, 1813. He was the youngest son of Tunis Craven, a Naval Storekeeper, stationed at the Portsmouth Yard, and his wife, Hannah Tingey, daughter of Commodore Thomas Tingey, a longtime commandant of the Washington Navy Yard. His brother, Thomas Tingey Craven would also join the navy, rising to the rank of rear admiral, while another brother, Alfred Wingate Craven (1810–1879), became a noted civil engineer.

In his youth he attended the Columbia College Grammar School in New York, his father having removed his family to Brooklyn, when ordered to duty in the New York Yard. February 2, 1829, Craven was appointed an acting midshipman from New York (warranted November 18, 1831), and was attached to the Boston and St. Louis.

U.S. Navy Service

Promoted to Passed Midshipman in September, 1835, he was on duty in connection with the Coast Survey almost continually until 1843, nearly two years after his promotion to Lieutenant, in September, 1841. In 1838 he married Miss Mary Carter, a member of one of the oldest and most influential families on Long Island, who died in 1843, leaving three children. The same year Lieutenant Craven was ordered to the receiving ship at New York, where he remained until...
Read More