Waddell, James

Waddell, James (Iredell)

(1824–86) naval officer; born in Pittsboro, N.C. He served in the U.S. Navy (1841–62) and then the Confederate States Navy (1862–65). He commanded the Confederate raider Shenendoah on a 58,000-mile, around-the-globe voyage (1864–65) and decimated the New England whaling fleet in the Pacific Ocean. Following an amnesty, he returned to the U.S.A. and engaged in commercial sailing.

The Cambridge Dictionary of American Biography, by John S. Bowman. Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995. Reproduced with permission.