Franklin Buchanan

US naval officer, born in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. He became the first superintendent of the Naval School at Annapolis (1845–7). He was captain of Commodore Matthew Perry's flagship during Perry's mission to Japan (1852–3). He joined the Confederate States Navy (1861) and commanded the Chesapeake Bay squadron, and became a Confederate admiral (1862). Wounded and captured at Mobile Bay (1864), he was released in a prisoner exchange (1865).

Franklin Buchanan (September 13, 1800—May 11, 1874) was an officer in the United States Navy who became an admiral in the Confederate Navy during the American Civil War, and commanded the ironclad CSS Virginia.

Buchanan was born in Baltimore, Maryland.

Over the four and a half decades of his U.S. Navy service, Buchanan had extensive and worldwide sea duty.

In 1845-47, he served as the first Superintendent of the United States Naval Academy, followed by notable Mexican-American War service. In 1859-61, Captain Buchanan was the Commandant of the Washington Navy Yard.

In August 1862, Buchanan was promoted to the rank of Admiral and sent to command Confederate naval forces at Mobile Bay, Alabama. Wounded and taken prisoner, Admiral Buchanan was not exchanged until February 1865. Following the conflict, Buchanan lived in Maryland, then was a businessman in Mobile until 1870, when he again took up residence in Maryland.

See USS Buchanan for U.S. Navy ships named in his honor.