Robert Field Stockton (20 August 1795 7 October 1866) was an United States naval commodore, notable in the capture of California during the Mexican-American War. Stockton was from a notable political family and also served as a U.S. Senator from New Jersey.
Stockton was appointed a midshipman in the U.S. Navy at the age of 16, serving at sea and ashore during the War of 1812. After that conflict, Lieutenant Stockton was assigned to ships operating in the Mediterranean, in the Caribbean and off the coast of West Africa. He was the first naval officer to act against the slave trade and captured several slave ships. Stockton along with Dr. Eli Ayers of the American Colonization Society negotiated a treaty that led to the founding of the state of Liberia. During the later 1820s and into the 1830s, he primarily devoted his attention to business affairs in New Jersey. The birth of his son John P. Stockton, later also a U.S. Senator representing New Jersey, occurred during this time.
In 1838, Stockton resumed active naval service as a captain. He served in the European area, but took leave in 1840 to undertake political work. Offered the post of U.S. Secretary of the Navy by President John Tyler in 1841, he declined the offer, but worked successfully to gain support for the construction of an advanced steam warship with a battery of very heavy guns.
This ship became USS Princeton, the Navy's first screw-propelled steamer. The ship was designed by John Ericsson. Stockton commanded her when she was completed in 1843. Although he was the deviser of a defective gun, Captain Stockton was absolved of responsibility for the February 1844 explosion of the gun, the Peacemaker, on board the ship. The explosion killed two cabinet officers and several others.
He had so much power that he managed to get the whole blame put on Ericsson, even though it was not Ericsson's gun that had missfired.Cleared by the court of any wrongdoing in the explosion incident, Stockton was sent by President James K. Polk to Texas. Stockton carried with him Polk's offer to annex Texas, sailing on the Princeton and arriving in Galveston. Stockton's observations while in Texas made him aware of the looming war with Mexico, a fact he communicated directly to Polk once he arrived back in Washington.
In 1846, with the appointed title of Commodore, Stockton commanded U.S. naval forces in the eastern Pacific Ocean, and was instrumental in taking Alta California from Mexico during the outset of the Mexican-American war. After his command suffered initial defeats at the Siege of Los Angeles, the Battle of Dominguez Rancho and the Battle of San Pascual by the Southern Californio militia, his American forces were victorious at the Battle of Rio San Gabriel and the Battle of La Mesa, resulting in the Treaty of Cahuenga, which ending fighting in Alta California. He served as the first military governor of California.
Stockton resigned from the Navy in May 1850 and returned to business and political pursuits. In 1851 he was elected as a Democrat from New Jersey to the United States Senate, where he sponsored a bill to abolish flogging as a Navy punishment. He resigned on January 10, 1853 to serve as president of the Delaware and Raritan Canal Company, a position he held until 1866.
In 1861 he was a delegate to the unsuccessful conference that attempted to settle the secession crisis. In 1863, he was appointed to command the New Jersey militia when the Confederate Army invaded Pennsylvania. Captain Robert F. Stockton died at Princeton, New Jersey, and is buried in the Princeton Cemetery.
Four U.S. Navy ships have been named USS Stockton in honor of Robert F. Stockton. The cities of Stockton, California and Fort Stockton, Texas are named in his honor, as is Stockton Street in San Francisco, California and Fort Stockton, San Diego, California, which is now a ruin, but was occupied during the Mexican-American War.