Captain Andrew J. Foote was serving as acting commandant of the Brooklyn (New York) Navy Yard. He was born in New Haven, Connecticut in 1806, entered the Navy in 1822, and was commissioned lieutenant in 1830. For two years beginning in 1849, he served as commander of a ship engaged in suppressing the slave trade on the African Coast. Beginning in 1858, he was in charge of the Brooklyn Navy Yard.