the actions in Hampton Roads on March 8 and March 9, 1862. In mid-May, he served at Drewry's Bluff when the batteries there were attacked by Union warships. After several months' shore duty, First Lieutenant Parker was sent to Charleston, South Carolina, where he was executive officer of the ironclad CSS Palmetto State and participated in her attack on Union blockaders in January 1863. In October 1863, he became superintendent of the Confederate States Naval Academy, based on board CSS Patrick Henry in the James River, Virginia. He also commanded the ironclad CSS Richmond. In April 1865, as the Confederate capital at Richmond, Virginia was evacuated, he led the Naval Academy's midshipmen as a guard for their failing Government's archives and treasury. Post-war activities Following the end of the American Civil War, William H. Parker was captain of a Pacific Mail steamship and then served as president of Maryland Agricultural College (later known as the University of Maryland at College Park). Parker attempted to institute a Naval Cadet Corps in much the same manner as some other private colleges had done with Army styled groups (see Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets as an example). When the school began dropping in its enrollment, and after Parker attempted to have the name of the college changed, he was asked to resign, which he did reluctantly in 1882. The following summer, Parker was shot in the head by the Apaches. He survived but lost his sight in one eye. The ball was too near his brain for doctors to remove it, so it remained with him the rest of his life. In October 1882 he married Nettie T. Jenkins, the daughter of Admiral Thornton Jenkins at his home, where both Parker and Jenkins would later die. In his later years, Parker suffered from alcoholism, but this did not prevent his being appointed the Minister to Korea (the predecessor title to the United States Ambassador to Korea) in June 1886. Recognized as a "hopeless drunkard" by the chargé d'affaires, George Clayton Foulk, Parker was relieved of his position less than a year later. Parker returned to live in Washington, D.C., where he enjoyed retirement and focused on writing. Death Parker died suddenly, at the age of 70, on December 30, 1896. Naval service record Over a career which lasted 24 years, Parker served in three different navies (the United States Navy, Virginia State Navy,