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Thomas Oliver Selfridge, Jr.
Lieutenant Commander
(March 10-13, 1862)
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Thomas
Selfridge, commander of the USS Monitor
From the Collections of The Mariners' Museum
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Thomas Selfridge was born on February
6, 1836, in Charlestown, Massachusetts, the son of Captain Thomas
O. Selfridge, Sr., a distinguished naval officer. An 1854 graduate
of the Naval Academy, he was assigned to the Independence.
At the beginning of the Civil War, Selfridge
was stationed on the Cumberland, and participated in
the battle against the Virginia on March 8, 1862. Selfridge
was given command of the Monitor by Secretary of the
Navy Welles, relieving Lieutenant Greene on March 10, 1862.
His command lasted only four days after it was found that Commodore
Goldsborough had already passed the command of the Monitor
to Lieutenant William Jeffers. In his short command, Selfridge
ordered that a new pilot house be built to replace the one destroyed
in battle. On March 13, 1862, Lt. William Jeffers took command
of the Monitor.
For the remainder of the war, Selfridge
saw almost constant action aboard several ships. He is best
remembered for his command of the Union gunboat Cairo,
which was lost to a Confederate torpedo on the Yazoo.
Selfridge retired from the navy in 1898.
He died in 1924.
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Life on the Monitor
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Daily Life of a Monitor Crewman -
George Geer
Photo Identification of the
Officers of the Monitor, July 1862
Biographies of the Crew of the Monitor
Photo Identification of the
Crew of the Monitor, July 1862
Photo Identification of the Monitor,
July 1862
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