Charles Wilkes
naval officer and explorer from the United States (1798-1877)
Biography
Charles Wilkes was born in New York City in 1798 and died in 1877. An American naval officer and explorer, he led the United States Exploring Expedition from 1838 to 1842. During the Civil War, he commanded USS San Jacinto and stopped a British Royal Mail ship, forcibly removing two Confederate diplomats in what became known as the Trent Affair, an incident that nearly caused war between the United States and United Kingdom.
Occupation
Charles Wilkes is recorded as a naval officer, a polar explorer, a explorer, a scientific collector, a oceanographer, a botanical collector, a botanist, a geographer, a admiral and a writer, born in New York (1798–1877).
Connections to New York
Charles Wilkes was born in New York City, New York in 1798. Explore other notable figures from New York, historic sites connected to this era, and the full colonial and statehood history of the state using the links below.
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Biographical content adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Source: Wikipedia.
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