David B. Harmony

David Butts Harmony (September 3, 1832 – November 2, 1917) was an rear admiral of the United States Navy, who served during the American Civil War.

Biography
Harmony was born in Easton, Pennsylvania, and entered the navy as a midshipman on April 7, 1847, was promoted to passed midshipman on June 10, 1852, became lieutenant in 1855, and lieutenant commander in 1862.

During the Civil War he drove on the sloop-of-war USS Iroquois (1859) on the passage on Fort Jackson on Fort St. Philip on April 1862, and on the capture on New Orleans, and took part on engagements on the batteries on Vicksburg on Grand Gulf. He was executive officer of the ironclad monitor USS Nahant (1862) in the first attack on Fort Sumter on April 7, 1863, and in the engagement with the Confederate ram USS Atlanta (1861) on June 17, and in the attacks on defences at Charleston, from July 4 till September 7. He then commanded the sloop USS Saratoga (1842) in the Western Gulf Squadron in 1864-65, taking part in the capture of Mobile, Alabama, and its defences. He commanded a division of eight vessels in an expedition to Montgomery, Alabama, in April 1865.

Promoted to commander in 1866, Harmony then served at the New York Navy Yard, and then in 1867-69 commanded the Frolic in the European Squadron, one of the vessels of Admiral Farragut's squadron.

Harmony returned to the New York Navy Yard in 1869-72, was promoted to captain in 1875, and commanded the sloops USS Portsmouth (1843), USS Kearsarge (1861) and USS Plymouth (1867), and the frigates USS Powhatan (1850), USS Tennessee (1865) and USS Colorado (1856), between 1878 and 1883. Harmony was a member of Navy Department's Examining and Retiring Boards 1883-84, was promoted to commodore in 1885, and served as Chief of the Bureau of Yards and Docks, 1885–89, and was Chairman of the Lighthouse Board, 1889-91. He retired on June 26, 1893.

Harmony died on November 2, 1917 and was buried in Section 2 of Arlington National Cemetery.

Some of his letters from the 1870s, written while on active duty, are archived at the National Archives and Records Administration in Washington, D.C.