Charles Henry Davis ( – ) was an American rear admiral of the United States Navy. While working for the U.S. Coast Survey, he researched tides and currents, and located an uncharted shoal that had caused wrecks off of the coast of New York. During the American Civil War, he commanded the Western Gunboat Flotilla, where he won an important engagement in the First Battle of Memphis before capturing enemy supplies on a successful expedition up the Yazoo River. Early life Davis was born in Boston, Massachusetts. He attended the Boston Latin School and entered Harvard College in 1821, but left after two years when he was appointed as a midshipman in the United States Navy on August 12, 1823. Between 1827 and 1828, he served on board the frigate in the Pacific. In 1829, he was promoted to passed midshipman. From 1830 to 1833, he served on the sloop . In 1834, he was promoted to lieutenant and assigned to the . In 1840 to 1841, he served on board the ship . In 1841, he received an honorary Bachelor of Arts degree from Harvard; in 1868, he received an honorary LL.D. from the same institution. Career From 1846 to 1849, he worked in the United States Coast Survey on board the , where he discovered a previously unknown shoal that had caused shipwrecks off the coast of New York. During his service to the Survey, he was also responsible for researching tides and currents and acted as an inspector on a number of naval shipyards. From 1849 to 1855 he was the first superintendent of American Nautical Almanac Office and produced the American Ephemeris and Nautical Almanac. In 1854, he was promoted to commander and given the command of the . On April 30, 1857, he mediated with the Central American forces at San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua, the capitulation of filibuster William Walker and some 300 men, who departed in the St. Mary's for Panama the next day. In 1859, while commanding the St. Mary's, Davis was ordered to go to Baker Island to obtain samples of guano, becoming perhaps the first American to set foot there since it was annexed by the United States in 1857. The guano was necessary as fertilizer. Commodore William Mervine had previously been sent, but he did not land and believed the island to be inaccessible. (From evidence that was later