Curious Crockers of Barnstable: Captain Alexander Crocker (1843-1890) - A Man Shot Four Times and Lived to Tell the Tale

By Jeffrey D. Crocker

Captain Alexander Crocker (1843-1890) was the son of Deacon Timothy and Harriet (Alexander) Crocker.  He resided at 358 Sea Street in Hyannis.

Captain Alexander Crocker House at 358 Sea Street in Hyannis

He was one of many Barnstable men who heeded the call to support the Union forces during the Civil War.  At the age of nineteen, in 1862, he served in the Union Army’s transport service on the James River in Virginia.

During the Civil War, specifically in July 1862, the James River played a crucial role in transportation and logistics during the Peninsula Campaign.  That campaign, launched by Union Major General George B. McClellan, aimed to capture the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia.

Military Transport Vessel on the James River. Source: Library of Congress

We have the following account from The Barnstable Patriot of his amazing adventure and survival on the James River where he sustained serious wounds from four bullets from Confederate forces:

Mr. Alexander Crocker, a son of Mr. Timothy Crocker of Hyannis, returned from the

James River a day or two since, where he had been in a vessel in the transport service.

With three other men he went in a boat from the vessel to the shore to secure some oars which had been lost. When in the boat they heard firing on shore and soon saw a party of rebels aiming their rifles at them. Mr. Crocker was wounded by four balls, and two of the other men were also seriously wounded. Two of the balls it is believed still remain in him, one in the thigh and another in an arm. . .. It is hoped that Mr. Crocker's wounds may not prove fatal. The sails of the boat in which he was were completely riddled with bullets. Most fortunately there were ballast sandbags in the boat at the time, and with these the party partly shielded themselves from the flying bullets, otherwise all would probably have been killed.

(The Barnstable Patriot, Serious Accident, July 15, 1862). 

Captain Alexander Crocker survived this attack, returned to Barnstable, and lived 28 more years, until 1890.

Later in life, according to Donald Trayser, he was master of both deep water and coasting vessels, including the schooners New York, Bay State, and Western Star; the barques Sara Hobert, and Alice; and the yacht Rambler. Trayser also notes that he took his wife, Lucy Allen (Bearse) Crocker, with him on a voyage to Zanzibar and on other world-wide sailing trips:

Lucy Allen Bearse ... married Captain Alexander Crocker, brother of Captain William Crocker. She voyaged with him in the barque, Alice, to Zanzibar, as far off a port as one can think of. She made many other voyages, too. Someone recalls a party Captain Crocker and his wife gave at a Boston hotel just before leaving on a long voyage. And why not? There would be many days before there could again be entertaining.

(Trayser, p. 314)

Sadly, Captain Alexander Crocker would be destined to die by a bullet, when he took his own life in 1890 while suffering from a severe illness.  We have the following account of this from the Barnstable Patriot:

Death of Capt. Alexander Crocker: The death of Capt. Alexander Crocker occurred on Wednesday at his residence in Hyannis, from the effects of a pistol wound at his own hands. He had been confined to his house most of the time since about the first of January, the result of an attack of La Grippe. During this period he had at times suffered excruciating pains in the head, an attack of which he had during the night previous to his death, and it is supposed that it was during one of those moments of intense suffering that he put the pistol to his head and fired, which resulted in his death. The effect of his recent illness, together with insomnia with which he had suffered for about two years, has caused his friends at times much uneasiness, and knowing this and his peculiar temperament, there is no doubt but that his reason had departed here he committed his final act. 

(The Barnstable Patriot, Death of Captain Alexander Crocker, April 8, 1890)

Sources:

The Barnstable Patriot. Death of Captain Alexander Crocker (April 8, 1890).

The Barnstable Patriot. Serious Accident (July 15, 1862).

Leonard, Andrea. A Crocker Genealogy, Vol. 1. Heritage Books (1995).

Massachusetts Historical Commission Historic Site Survey BRN.607: Captain Alexander Crocker House.

Trayser, Donald. Barnstable: Three Centuries of a Cape Cod Town. F.B. & F.P. Goss (1939).