Stephen Russell Mallory - Pensacola, FL - Grave of a Famous Person on Waymarking.com

A marker adjacent to his grave reads:

"Born on the island of Trinidad in 1812, Stephen Mallory's family eventually made Key West their home. Mallory studied law, volunteered in the Florida militia during the second Seminole War, and became Inspector of Customs at Key West. In 1830 he met Angela Moreno of Pensacola who would become his wife. He served his country as a United States Senator and Secretary of the Confederate Navy. After the Civil War, Mallory became one of Pensacola's most prominent attorneys."

From Wikipedia:

"Stephen Russell Mallory (c. 1813 – November 9, 1873) served in the United States Senate as, Senator (Democrat) from Florida from 1850 to the secession of his home state and the outbreak of the American Civil War. For much of that period, he was chairman of the Committee on Naval Affairs. This was a time of rapid naval reform, and he insisted that the ships of the United States Navy should be as capable as those of Great Britain and France, the foremost navies in the world at that time. He also wrote a bill and guided it through Congress that provided for compulsory retirement of officers who did not meet the standards of the profession.

Although he was not a leader in the secession movement, Mallory followed his state out of the Union. When the Confederate States of America was formed, he was named Secretary of the Navy in the administration of President Jefferson Davis. He held the position throughout the existence of the Confederacy. Because of indifference to naval matters by most others in the Confederacy, Mallory was able to shape the Confederate Navy according to the principles he had learned while serving in the US Senate. Some of his ideas, such as the incorporation of armor into warship construction, were quite successful and became standard in navies around the world; on the other hand, the navy was often handicapped by administrative ineptitude in the Navy Department. During the war, he was weakened politically by a Congressional investigation into the Navy Department for its failure in defense of New Orleans. After months of taking testimony, the investigating committee concluded that it had no evidence of wrongdoing on his part.

Mallory resigned after the Confederate government had fled from Richmond at the end of the war. Following the final collapse of the Confederacy, he and several of his colleagues in the cabinet were imprisoned and charged with treason. After more than a year in prison, the public mood had softened, and he was granted parole by President Andrew Johnson. He returned to Florida, where he supported his family in his final years by again practicing law. Unable to hold elective office by the terms of his parole, he continued to make his opinions known by writing letters to newspapers. His health began to deteriorate, although he was not incapacitated until the very end. He died on November 9, 1873.

He was the father of Stephen Russell Mallory, a U.S. Representative and Senator from Florida."

Description: See Long Description. Date of birth: 01/01/1812 Date of death: 11/09/1873 Area of notoriety: Politics Marker Type: Headstone Setting: Outdoor Visiting Hours/Restrictions: The cemetery is open daily from 9:00 a.m. until sunset. Fee required?: No Web site: [Web Link]

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