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DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER
805 KIDDER BREESE SE -- WASHINGTON NAVY YARD
WASHINGTON DC 20374-5060

Online Library of Selected Images:
-- PEOPLE -- UNITED STATES --

John Branch (1782-1863) --
8th Secretary of the Navy, 9 March 1829 - 12 May 1831

John Branch, Jr., was born in Halifax County, North Carolina, on 4 November 1782, the son of wealthy landowners. Educated as a lawyer, he occupied himself as a planter and civic leader. Branch served in the North Carolina Senate from 1811 to 1817 and as the the state's governor from 1817 to 1820. After further service in the state Senate, he represented North Carolina in the United States Senate from 1823 until 1829 and was a strong supporter of Andrew Jackson.

When Jackson became President, he selected John Branch as his Secretary of the Navy. In that post, Branch promoted several reforms in the Navy's policies and administration, many of which were not implemented until years later. He reduced the resources going to the construction of new ships, while increasing those applied to keeping existing vessels in good repair. Branch also sent the frigate Potomac to the Far East to punish the murderers of a U.S. merchant ship's crew and to generally promote and protect American commerce in the region.

John Branch resigned as Secretary in 1831, during a general reshuffling of Jackson's cabinet. He subsequently was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives and to North Carolina state political offices. In the mid-1830s, he moved to Florida, where he lived for much of the next decade-and-a-half, and was Florida's territorial governor during the middle 1840s. Branch returned to North Carolina in the early 1850s, remaining there until his death on 4 January 1863.

USS Branch (DD-197), 1920-1940, was named in honor of Secretary of the Navy John Branch.

This page features our only images of John Branch.


If you want higher resolution reproductions than the "Online Library's" digital images, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."

Click on the small photograph to prompt a larger view of the same image.

Photo #: NH 54717-KN (Color)

John Branch,
Secretary of the Navy, 9 March 1829 - 12 May 1831

Portrait by U.D. Tenney, 1901, after Anna C. Peale, 1818.

Courtesy of the Navy Art Collection, Washington, D.C.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 67KB; 600 x 765 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 56288

John Branch
,
Secretary of the Navy, 9 March 1829 - 12 May 1831

Engraving by J.B. Longacre, after a miniature portrait by Anna C. Peale.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 117KB; 485 x 765 pixels

 


If you want higher resolution reproductions than the "Online Library's" digital images, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."


Return to Naval Historical Center home page.

9 April 2000