Fleet Surgeon John A. Kearney (d. 27 Aug 1847) {Congressional Cemetery, DC: Range 53 Site 18) |
U.S. Navy, Fleet Surgeon. Died while serving during the Mexican War. |
The National Intelligencer, September 16, 1847 At the Naval Hospital, Island of Salmandina, aged about 53, of yellow fever, on the 27th ultimo, after a few days' illness, Dr. John A. Kearney, Fleet surgeon of the squadron in the Gulf of Mexico, a native of Ireland, and long a resident of this District and Maryland. By the Navy Register it appears that he first entered the service as a surgeon's mate on the 3d of March, 1809; and, from the same source, it appears his present commission bears date July 24, 1813. During the last war with Great Britain he was surgeon of the Constitution at the time of her successful engagement with the Cyane and the Levant; and during the same war he was surgeon of the flotilla of gun boats in the harbor of Newport, (R.I.) under the command of Com. O.H. Perry, so eminently distinguished on Lake Erie. His high grade of professional attainments gave him a claim to the distinguished post he occupied at the time of his death, and his intrepidity during the War of 1812 against our former foes on the deep, was only equalled by the devotion he showed since the fall of Vera Cruz to lend a helping hand in preserving the lives of our countrymen blockading a coast most deleterious to the health of our naval marine. In this grievous affliction of Providence, words are vain to assuage the sorrow of his family, consisting of a wife and several children; yet it should be a source of consolation to them, in the changing scenes of earth, to know that he died in the discharge of his duty, and if professional skill could have been exerted successfully his valuable life would have been extended. |
The National Intelligencer, February 29, 1848 The remains of Fleet Surgeon Kearney and Lieutenant Charles W. Chauncey, of the United States Navy, having arrived from Mexico, they will be re-interred at the Congressional Burial ground. The funeral ceremonies will take place at the Episcopal Church, (Rev. Mr. Bean's,) near the Navy Yard, on Wednesday, March 1, at 12 o'clock. The officers of the Army and Navy, and friends and acquaintances of the families of the deceased, are invited to attend the funeral. Carriages will be in attendance at 11 a.m. at the corner of Pennsylvania avenue and 17th street, near the War Department. |