Knickerbocker Commodore chronicles the lifetime of Rear Admiral John Drake Sloat, an enormous yet understudied naval determine in US background. Born and raised by means of a slave-owning gentry relatives in New York’s Hudson Valley, Sloat moved to long island urban at age nineteen. Bruce A. Castleman explores Sloat’s forty-five-year profession within the army, from his preliminary appointment as midshipman within the conflicts with progressive France to his carrier as commodore in the course of the country’s conflict with Mexico. because the commodore accountable for the naval forces within the Pacific, Sloat occupied Monterey and declared the annexation of California in July 1846, debatable activities criticized by way of a few and defended by means of others. greater than a biography of 1 guy, this ebook illustrates the evolution of the peacetime army as an establishment and its conversion from sail to steam. utilizing transport information and Customs carrier files from Sloat’s service provider voyages, Castleman bargains a unprecedented and insightful standpoint on American maritime history.

Bruce A. Castleman served within the US military for 24 years and held the rank of Commander on the time of his retirement. He then expert as a historian and lectured in background at San Diego kingdom collage. he's the writer of Building the King’s street: exertions, Society, and relatives on Mexico’s Caminos Reales, 1757–1804.