Guert Gansevoort
| Guert Gansevoort | |
|---|---|
| Born |
June 7, 1812 Gansevoort, New York |
| Died | July 15, 1868 (aged 56) Schenectady, New York |
| Allegiance |
 United States of America
|
| Service/branch |
 United States Navy
|
| Years of service | 1823–1867 |
| Rank |
 Commodore
|
| Commands held |
USS Decatur USS Roanoke |
| Battles/wars | |
Commodore Guert Gansevoort (7 June 1812 – 15 July 1868) was an officer in the United States Navy during the Mexican–American War and the American Civil War.
He was born into an aristocratic Dutch American family in Gansevoort, New York, near Albany. The area was named for his paternal grandfather, Peter Gansevoort, a prosperous businessman who had served in the Continental Army and later become a brigadier general in the United States Army. Guert was the son of Peter's son Leonard. Peter's daughter, Maria, was the mother of author Herman Melville.
Gansevoort was appointed a midshipman in the Navy on 4 March 1823. Subsequently he served in the Mediterranean Sea on board Constitution, North Carolina, and Ohio, receiving promotion to passed midshipman on 28 April 1832, and to lieutenant on 8 March 1837.
In 1842 Gansevoort was serving as first lieutenant aboard the brig Somers, under the command of Alexander Slidell Mackenzie, when a planned mutiny was discovered, led by Midshipman Philip Spencer. On the advice of Gansevoort and the other officers Mackenzie sentenced Spencer, Boatswain's Mate Samuel Cromwell and Seaman Elisha Small to death, and on 1 December the three men were hung from the yardarm. Mackenzie was subsequently court-martialled, but exonerated. Gansevoort's first cousin, Herman Melville, later wrote the novella Billy Budd, inspired by the events.
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