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William Nicholson Jeffers
Lieutenant Commander
(March 13-August 15, 1862)
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William
Jeffers, commander of the USS Monitor
From the Collections of The Mariners' Museum
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William Jeffers was born on October 16, 1824, in Swedesboro, New Jersey. The son of a lawyer and a maritime family, he decided in 1840 to enter upon a naval career. As a midshipman he sailed around the Horn on the United States, one of the
oldest ships in the fleet. In 1846, he graduated from the new
Naval Academy. As a midshipman, Jeffers took particular interest
in gunnery and published a manual on the subject.
Jeffers saw sea duty in the action around
Roanoke Island in 1861. On March 12, 1862, he took command of
the Monitor. After commanding the Monitor for
a month, Jeffers wrote his analysis of the ship, noting especially
her faults in the area of gunnery. He proposed many improvements
to the ship, all of them well argued and factual; however, the
Navy Department ignored his suggestions.
Jeffers tried to draw the Virginia
out of the Elizabeth River for battle, but he never succeeded.
The Virginia was finally destroyed by her own crew on
May 10, 1862.
In May, the Monitor was ordered
up the James River to Richmond with the ironclad Galena
and three wooden ships. The ships arrived at Drewry's Bluff
on May 15, 1862. After reaching a blocked narrow point in the
river, the Union flotilla came under the Confederate guns on
Drewry's Bluff. The Monitor moved forward to help but
could not raise her guns to fire up toward the bluff. After
nearly four hours of shelling, the Union gunboats withdrew.
The Galena was badly damaged, but the Monitor
remained unharmed.
Following the battle at Drewry's Bluff,
Jeffers was ordered to return the Monitor to Hampton
Roads, where she remained throughout the summer on blockade
duty. In August 1862, Jeffers was relieved of command of the
Monitor.
Jeffers's service record reports that
due to poor health, he was not given further sea duty. Instead,
he was assigned to the Bureau of Ordinance in Philadelphia and
later in Washington. Following the war, Jeffers was again assigned
to sea duty, this time in command of the Swatara. In
this capacity he returned John Surrat, one of the conspirators
in the Lincoln assassination, to the United States from Italy
to stand trial.
Having attained the rank of Commodore,
Jeffers died in 1883 of kidney disease.
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Life on the Monitor
Go to other documents in this category:
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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