Captain Ingraham's Stand - 21 June 1853

On June 21st, 1853, a man of Hungarian descent named Martin Koszta was seized in Smyrna, Greece, by a party of armed Greeks who were employed by the Austrian Consul-General. He was then imprisoned onboard an Austrian warship in the port. This man Koszta had been a leader in an attempt to free Hungary from Austrian rule. The attempt obviously failed and the young man fled to escape execution. In 1850 as now, people who yearned for freedom came to our shores. Koszta became an importer by trade and took out his first citizenship papers. On the day that he was seized, his business had taken him to this Mediterranean port. As his good fortune would have it, a small American war sloop was berthed in that same port – the USS St Louis, commanded by CAPT Duncan Ingraham. When CAPT Ingraham heard of the imprisonment of Koszta, he sought intervention by the American Consul. The Consul, who apparently had much in common with his modern day brethren, washed his hands of the incident because Koszta had only taken out his first citizenship papers. Perhaps he was concerned about offending the aggressors. Ingraham, on the other hand, being a courageous and audacious man who fully understood his obligations and responsibilities as a US Navy Officer, believed that under his oath of office he owed this man the protection of our flag. He boarded the much larger Austrian ship and demanded to see the prisoner, and our citizen. He was in chains and badly beaten. He asked Koszta one question: Do you ask the protection of the American Flag? Koszta nodded and the Captain said: “You shall have it” and left the ship. Later that day, three more Austrian ships sailed into Smyrna and it became apparent that the four were preparing to sail. Ingraham sent a junior officer to the Austrian flagship to tell the Admiral that any attempt to leave the harbor with our citizen aboard would be resisted with the appropriate level of force. He then ordered the decks of St Louis cleared for action and all was made ready for an attack on Hussar, which was much superior in size and armament. Suddenly, the ship’s lookout called out that the Hussar was lowering a boat which then rowed Koszta over to the American ship. CAPT Ingraham then went below and wrote out his letter of resignation from the United States Navy saying: “I did what I thought my oath of office required, but if I have embarrassed my country in any way, I resign.” The Senate refused his resignation with these words: “This battle that was never fought may turn out to be the most important battle in our Nation’s history.”

There have been four US Navy ships named after this brave Navy Captain. The latest is USS Ingraham (FFG-61).