Stoddert, Benjamin, 1751–1813, U.S. government official, b. Charles County, Md. Joining the Continental Army as a captain at the beginning of the Revolutionary War, he attained the rank of major. A severe injury during the Battle of Brandywine ended his military career; he then became secretary of the Continental Board of War (1779–81). Stoddert later acquired land for the federal government in what was to become the District of Columbia. With the establishment of the Department of the Navy, President John Adams named Stoddert, a loyal Federalist, as the country's first secretary of the navy (1798–1801); he successfully handled an undeclared naval war with France, known as the Quasi-War.
See M. Palmer, Stoddert's War (1987).
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