James Iredell Waddell (July 3, 1824 – March 15, 1886) was an officer in the United States Navy and later in the Confederate States Navy. During the American Civil War, Waddell took command of the CSS Shenandoah, which he used to sail around the globe and launch raids against the U.S. Navy. It was not until August 1865 that he learned the war had ended. He eventually surrendered his vessel to British authorities in Liverpool on November 6, marking the last official surrender of the Civil War. Early life and career Waddell was born in Pittsboro, North Carolina. He joined the United States Navy as a Midshipman in September 1841, and later graduated from the United States Naval Academy. His nearly two decades in the U.S. Navy included early service in USS Pennsylvania, Mexican–American War operations off Veracruz aboard USS Somers, a tour off South America in USS Germantown, an assignment as a United States Naval Academy instructor, eastern Pacific duty in USS Saginaw and a cruise with the East Indies Squadron with USS John Adams. Lieutenant Waddell resigned his commission while returning home in the latter ship late in 1861 at the outbreak of the American Civil War and was dismissed from the U.S. Navy in January 1862. American Civil War In March 1862, Waddell was appointed a Lieutenant in the Confederate States Navy. Sent to New Orleans, he was assigned to the incomplete ironclad CSS Mississippi until her destruction in late April. The next month, while serving as an artillery officer ashore, he participated in the battle between Confederate shore batteries and Federal ironclads at Drewry's Bluff, Virginia. He saw more shore-battery service at Charleston, South Carolina, during the rest of 1862 and into 1863. Sent abroad in March 1863, First Lieutenant Waddell was stationed in England awaiting the availability of a seagoing position. That opportunity finally arrived in October 1864 at sea in the central Atlantic, where he converted the British steam/sailer Sea King to the Confederate cruiser CSS Shenandoah. As her commanding officer, Commander Waddell made a long and productive cruise through the south Atlantic, across the Indian Ocean and into the north Pacific. In the Arctic waters there, he devastated the United States-flagged whaling fleet during June 1865. On June 27, 1865, he learned from a prize, the Susan & Abigail, that General Robert E. Lee had surrendered his Army of Northern Virginia. Her captain