Charles Carroll Simms

{{Infobox military person

| honorific_prefix = Lieutenant

| name = Charles Carroll Simms

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| image = File:CharlesCarrollSimms.jpg

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| caption = First Lieutenant Charles Carroll Simms, CSN

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| birth_date = {{birth date|1824|03|30}}

| birth_place = Virginia, U.S.

| death_date = {{Death date and age|1884|12|18|1824|03|30}}

| death_place = Georgetown, Washington, D. C., U.S.

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| placeofburial = Rock Creek Cemetery
Washington, D.C., U.S.

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| allegiance = United States (1839–1861) Confederate States (1861–1865)

| branch = Navy

| serviceyears = 1839–1865

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| rank = First Lieutenant

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| spouse = Elizabeth James Nourse

| children = Charles Nourse Simms b. 1 May 1854, Washington, District of Columbia Find all individuals with events at this location, d. 5 Jan 1929, Greenbrier Valley, Ronceverte, West Virginia (Age 74 years)

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Charles Carroll Simms (1824–1884) was a United States naval officer.

A native of Virginia, Simms became a United States Navy midshipman in 1839. He served in the U.S. Navy for more than two decades, achieving the rank of Lieutenant in 1854. He was dismissed from the service in April 1861, after his state left the United States, and briefly was an officer in Virginia's Navy. Commissioned as a First Lieutenant in the Confederate States Navy in June 1861, during that year he commanded the steamer CSS George Page and was assigned to the steamer CSS Rappahannock. Also commanded CSS Appomattox in coastal North Carolina until it was scuttled in February 1862. As an officer of the ironclad CSS Virginia, he took part in her March–May 1862 actions in the vicinity of Hampton Roads. Subsequently, he served in the gunboats CSS Nansemond on the James River, and CSS Selma in Mobile Bay. During the American Civil War's final year, while assigned to the Mobile Squadron, he commanded the ironclads CSS Baltic and CSS Nashville. First Lieutenant Simms surrendered to Federal forces in early May 1865 and was paroled soon afterwards.

Simms was born 30 March 1824 in Virginia to John Douglas Simms and Eleanor Carroll Brent. He married Elizabeth James Nourse{{cite web|title=Elizabeth James Nourse Simms|url=https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/41347517/elizabeth-james-simms|publisher=Find a Grave|access-date=30 April 2018|date=31 Aug 2009}} about 1852 and he died 18 December 1884 in Georgetown, Washington, D.C.{{cite web|title=Colonial Settlers:Charles Carroll Simms|url=http://www.colonial-settlers-md-va.us/getperson.php?personID=I078505&tree=tree1|publisher=Colonial Settlers|access-date=30 April 2018}} He and his wife are buried in Rock Creek Cemetery in Washington, D.C. The Simms family was one of public service. His father, John Douglass Simms, was a Chief Clerk of the Navy Department and Acting Secretary of the Navy in 1841{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/trialandrewjohn03poorgoog|title=Trial of Andrew Johnson: President of the United States, Before the Senate of the United States, on Impeachment by the House of Representatives for High Crimes and Misdemeanors|last1=Johnson|first1=Andrew|last2=Poore|first2=Benjamin Perley|date=1868-01-01|publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office|language=en}} with the resignation of George E. Badger. Col. Charles Simms, grandfather of Charles Carroll Simms, was, among other things, an officer in the American Revolution and Mayor of Alexandria, Virginia.{{Portal|Biography|American Civil War}}