Goldsborough, Louis Malesherbes

Life Span
to
Full name
Louis Malesherbes Goldsborough
Place of Birth
Burial Place
Birth Date Certainty
Exact
Death Date Certainty
Exact
Gender
Male
Race
White
Sectional choice
North
Origins
Slave State
No. of Spouses
1
No. of Children
3
Family
Charles Washington Goldsborough (father), Catherine Roberts (mother), Elizabeth Gamble Wirt (wife, 1831)
Occupation
Military
Relation to Slavery
White non-slaveholder
Military
US military (Pre-Civil War)
Union Navy
US military (Post-Civil War)

Louis Malesherbes Goldsborough (American National Biography)

Scholarship
Until late in the war Goldsborough performed administrative duties in Washington but without being allowed any role in major decision making. [Navy Secretary Gideon] Welles had a poor opinion of Goldsborough, regarding him as "inefficient" with "no hard courage." Repeated requests for active command were denied Goldsborough on the basis that he could not be spared from his administrative duties. Finally, however, in February 1865, Goldsborough was placed in command of the European Squadron and ordered to locate and destroy any remaining Confederate raiders at sea or seize them if in port. The small squadron was not ready to sail until June, arriving in European waters long after the war had ended. The last Confederate raider at sea--CSS Shenandoah--managed to elude all pursuers and reached England in September. Thus Goldsborough was unable to redeem his reputation as he had hoped by performing a significant action. For the next two years he continued to command the European Squadron.
Norman C. Delaney, "Goldsborough, Louis Malesherbes," American National Biography Online, February 2000, http://www.anb.org/articles/04/04-00421.html.
How to Cite This Page: "Goldsborough, Louis Malesherbes," House Divided: The Civil War Research Engine at Dickinson College, https://hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu/index.php/node/5749.