Chapter 4

THE TUCKERS--BIRTH OF JOHN RANDOLPH TUCKER. BOYHOOD--APPOINTED A MIDSHIPMAN IN THE UNITED STATES NAVY--FIRST CRUISE--"THE ROARING LADS OF THE BRANDYWINE"--PASSES EXAMINATION FOR PROMOTION--APPOINTED A PAST MIDSHIPMAN--PROMOTED TO THE RANK OF LIEUTENANT--MARRIAGE--MEXICAN WAR. CAPTURE OF TOBASCO--COMMANDS UNITED STATES BOMB-BRIG _Stromboli_--MADE A COMMANDER--COMMANDS UNITED STATES RECEIVING SHIP _Pennsylvania_--ORDNANCE OFFICER AT THE NORFOLK NAVY YARD--RESIGNS ON THE SECESSION OF VIRGINIA

During the first years of the present century John Tucker, of the Island of Bermuda, came to Virginia, where resided many of his kinsmen, a branch of the Tucker family having settled in Virginia prior to the War of the Revolution. The family has produced a number of gifted men who have been honorably prominent in the political and social life of the State, but no member of it has been more distinguished or more esteemed than the subject of the present sketch.

John Randolph Tucker was born on the 31st day of January, 1812, at Alexandria, near Washington, on the Virginia side of the Potomac river, in which city his father had made his home and had there married Miss Susan Douglas, the daughter of Dr. Charles Douglas, an English physician, who emigrated to America soon after the Revolution.

Young Tucker received his early education in the good private schools of his native city, which he continued to attend until he entered the United States Navy as a midshipman on the 1st of June, 1826, being then in the fifteenth year of his age.

The profession upon which he entered was one for which he was by nature peculiarly adapted, and to the end of his days he loved the sea and all that was connected with the life of a sailor. It has been said of a great admiral that he could perform with his own hands the duties of every station on board a ship-of-war, from seaman-gunner to admiral, and the same may be, without exaggeration, said of Tucker.

He was fortunate in beginning his naval career on the Mediterranean Station, where he made his first cruise in the frigate _Brandywine_. Before the establishment of the Naval Academy at Annapolis the best school for training a cadet in the etiquette, spirit and, perhaps, even in the seamanship of the service, was a smart frigate of the Mediterranean Squadron. If we may trust the traditions which have been handed down to us in song and story about "the roaring lads of the _Brandywine_," the training on board the ship in which Tucker first served was well calculated to develop all that was dashing and daring in the young gentlemen of her steerage mess.

After six years' service as a midshipman, Tucker passed the requisite examination for promotion, but he had to wait for his turn to fill a vacancy, and, consequently, was not promoted to the rank of lieutenant until the 20th of December, 1837. As a lieutenant, he made a good deck officer and a very excellent executive or first-lieutenant. In the latter capacity he served on board the bomb-brig _Stromboli_, in the Gulf of Mexico, during the war between Mexico and the United States. The _Stromboli_ was actively employed, and Tucker participated in the capture of Tobasco and other naval operations against the enemy. During the latter part of the war Tucker succeeded to the command of the _Stromboli_ as Lieutenant-Commanding, retaining the command until the cessation of hostilities.

His last cruise whilst belonging to the United States Navy was made as executive officer of the frigate _Cumberland_, the flag-ship of Flag-Officer Stringham, on the Mediterranean Station, thus ending his active service in the United States Navy where it began, after an interval of thirty years.

Soon after his promotion to a lieutenancy Tucker was married, at Norfolk, Virginia, on the 7th of June, 1838, to Virginia, daughter of Captain Thomas Tarleton Webb, of the United States Navy. This union was, uninterruptedly, most happy and harmonious until it was dissolved by the death of Mrs. Tucker in 1858. She left several children, three of whom--Randolph Tucker, of Richmond, Virginia; Tarleton Webb Tucker, of Memphis, Tennessee; and Virginius Tucker, of Norfolk, Virginia--are now living and prospering.

On September 14th, 1855, Tucker received his commission as a Commander, and at the same time was ordered to command the _Pennsylvania_, an old three-decker ship-of-the-line which was in commission as receiving-ship at Norfolk. His next duty was as Ordnance Officer of the Norfolk Navy Yard, and it was whilst he was employed on this duty that the secession of Virginia caused him to forward his resignation to the Secretary of the Navy.

There is no intention of discussing in this biographical sketch the questions which were in controversy between the Northern and Southern States until they were finally settled by the arbitrament of arms; it is sufficient to say that nothing but the sincerest conviction that the highest duty required the sacrifice could have induced an officer in Tucker's position to leave an established and an illustrious navy to enter the service of a people who had neither ships nor sailors.