Image shows Alden in a dark double-breasted frock coat with brush epaulettes.

Image contrast is light. Mount has light surface dirt.

Reverse has a green border and “CAPT. ALDEM U.S.N.” in pencil.

James Alden Jr. was born March 31, 1810 in Portland, Maine. He was appointed midshipman on April 1, 1828 and spent the initial years of his naval career ashore at the Naval Station in Boston, Massachusetts before he served in the Mediterranean squadron on board the USS JOHN ADAMS. Promoted to passed midshipman on June 14, 1834, Alden then served at the Boston Navy Yard until he was assigned to the United States Exploring Expedition under Lieutenant Charles Wilkes.

During the course of this voyage (1838–1842), the officers and men of the expedition were transferred freely from one vessel to another; Alden, promoted to lieutenant on February 25, 1841, concluded the cruise as executive officer of the sloop USS PORPOISE. He saw action at Malolo, in the Fiji Islands, on July 26, 1840, in the punitive expedition against the tribe which had murdered Lieutenant Joseph Underwood and Midshipman Wilkes Henry, the latter a nephew of the expedition's leader, two days before.

After another tour of duty at the naval station at Boston, Alden was assigned to USS CONSTITUTION, and circumnavigated the globe in the frigate during her cruise under Captain John Percival. While serving therein, he commanded a boat expedition that cut out several war junks from under the guns of a fort at Zuron Bay, Cochin China. Later serving in the Home Squadron during the Mexican War, Alden participated in the captures of Veracruz, Tuxpan and Tabasco.

The outbreak of the Civil War in 1861 found Alden in command of the steamer USS SOUTH CAROLINA, in which he participated in the relief of Fort Pickens. Next given the steam sloop USS RICHMOND, Alden commanded that ship in the passage of Fort Jackson and Fort St. Philip, and in the engagements with Confederate batteries at Chalmette, Louisiana, twice passing the southern guns at Vicksburg, Mississippi, and in the battle at Port Hudson, Louisiana.

Promoted to captain on January 2, 1863, Alden next assumed command of the steam sloop USS BROOKLYN, and led that ship in the action with Fort Gaines and Fort Morgan and with the Confederate gunboats in the Battle of Mobile Bay. While BROOKLYN was being sent north for repairs, she was attached to the naval forces gathering off Fort Fisher, North Carolina, and took part in both assaults on that Confederate bastion.

Promoted to commodore on July 25, 1866, Alden commanded, in succession, the steam sloop USS SUSQUEHANNA and the steam frigate USS MINNESOTA before he was given the command of the Mare Island Navy Yard. Appointed Chief of the Bureau of Navigation in April 1869, Alden, promoted to rear admiral on June 19, 1871, returned to sea in 1871 with orders to command the naval force on the European Station.

Departing New York in his flagship, USS WABASH, on November 17, 1871, Alden relieved Rear Admiral Charles S. Boggs at Villefranche, France, on January 1, 1872. Although placed on the retired list on March 31, 1872, Alden remained on active duty commanding the European Fleet until relieved by Rear Admiral A. Ludlow Case at Villefranche on June 2, 1873. His last tour of duty afloat completed, he sailed home in his former command, BROOKLYN.

Alden died at San Francisco on February 6, 1877, but was buried in his native Portland on February 24, 1877.  [ad]

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