William Alfred Truman Maddox

From the Record

United States Marine Corps officer and namesake of three U.S. Navy destroyers. The Naval History and Heritage Command states that he commanded a volunteer company in the Creek and Seminole Wars in 1836, was appointed a Marine second lieutenant on 14 October 1837, was breveted captain for service as commandant of the Middle District of California and at Santa Clara, and retired in 1880.

The archive's richer service stories remain attributed to Rodney C. Maddox's compilation unless separately verified. His parents and relationship to the connected Maddox tree are unresolved; the annotated lineage chart is retained only as a research hypothesis and no parent link or generation number is assigned.

From the Family Manuscript

• Rodney C. Maddox's supplement assembles a compact family-history account of Marine officer William Alfred Truman Maddox and the three destroyers named for him. Its biographical episodes, ship details, and sponsor relationships are retained as the compiler's account; the separate Naval History and Heritage Command sections provide the verified outline and identify corrections to the archive's hull numbers, dates, names, and Tonkin Gulf interpretation. The supplement's richer service stories remain attributed rather than independently corroborated.

  Supplemental: Captain William A. T. Maddox and Ships, transcript lines 5–84.

• The Naval History and Heritage Command identifies William Alfred Truman Maddox as born in Charles County in 1814, commander of a volunteer company in the Creek and Seminole Wars in 1836, and appointed a Marine second lieutenant on 14 October 1837. Its biography says he was breveted captain for service as commandant of the Middle District of California and at Santa Clara, retired in 1880, and died in Washington, D.C., on 1 January 1889. Census ages as interpreted by the family archive suggest about 1819, a retained conflict; incompatible archive lineage proposals do not establish his parents.

  Maddox I (Destroyer No. 168), transcript biographical preface and Namesake section.

• For the first namesake, NHHC's Maddox I history identifies Destroyer No. 168, later DD-168, laid down on 20 July 1918 and launched on 27 October 1918. Mrs. Clarence N. Hinkamp, Captain Maddox's granddaughter, sponsored the launch. The official transfer chronology is Britain in September 1940, Canada in 1942, and the Soviet Navy in 1944. These designations and dates replace abbreviated or mistaken readings in the older family narrative while preserving the supplement as the archive source that led to the verification.

  Maddox I (Destroyer No. 168), transcript Maddox I ship-history entry.

• NHHC's Maddox II history identifies the second ship as DD-622. Ellen-Venita Browning Wilhoit Gay, Captain Maddox's great-granddaughter, sponsored it. On 10 July 1943 a German bomb detonated its aft magazine off Sicily; it sank within two minutes and 74 crew members were saved. Lt. Cmdr. Eugene S. Sarsfield received the Navy Cross posthumously, and DD-622 earned two World War II battle stars. The official account controls where the archive differs on the hull number, sinking interval, survivor count, or sponsor's name.

  Maddox II (Destroyer No. 622), transcript Maddox II ship-history entry.

• NHHC's Maddox III history identifies DD-731, launched on 19 March 1944 under the sponsorship of Mrs. Harry H. Wilhoit, described there as Captain Maddox's granddaughter, and commissioned on 2 June 1944. It was hit off Formosa on 21 January 1945 and earned four World War II and six Korean battle stars. The 2 August 1964 Tonkin Gulf engagement occurred. The chart's sponsor labels overlap this official history, but its handwritten genealogy is a research hypothesis, not independent proof of parentage, and its addresses are not published.

  Maddox III (DD-731), transcript Maddox III ship-history entry.

Sources for this Record

• birth · Maddox I (Destroyer No. 168), official DANFS biographical introduction; 1814, Charles County.
• birth · Captain William A. T. Maddox: 1880 Philadelphia Census Abstract, transcript lines 7–41; census-age reading of about 1819 retained in source_conflicts.
• death · Maddox I (Destroyer No. 168), official DANFS biographical introduction; died 1 January 1889 in Washington, D.C..
• biography · Maddox I (Destroyer No. 168), official biography and DD-168 history.
• biography · Maddox II (Destroyer No. 622), official DD-622 history.
• biography · Maddox III (DD-731), official DD-731 history.
• biography · Tonkin Gulf Crisis, August 1964 — Summary, official qualification of the 2 and 4 August 1964 events.
• biography · Supplemental: Captain William A. T. Maddox and Ships, transcript lines 5–84; archive narrative, corrected and qualified against NHHC.
• lineage · Annotated Captain William A. T. Maddox Lineage Chart, pages 1–2; provenance-limited research hypothesis, not proof of parentage.

Where the Sources Disagree

• birth year — 1814 (Naval History and Heritage Command, DANFS entries for Maddox I–III) · about 1819 (compiler's reading of ages in the 1870 and 1880 census abstracts) — the chronicle uses 1814.

  The official naval biography supplies the published year. The census-derived estimate is retained as a conflict rather than silently discarded.

• parentage — son of John Maddox Sr. (one archive lineage proposal) · grandson through one of six sons (a competing archive proposal) · Cornelius Maddox line and chart cousin relationships (other archive compilations and annotations) — the chronicle uses unknown parents; no connected-tree lineage.

  The incompatible derivative proposals are retained as research hypotheses, not promoted to parent links.