Born in
Elmira, New York, Roe entered the
United States Navy as a
midshipman on October 19, 1841, and graduated from the
United States Naval Academy in
Annapolis,
Maryland in 1848. Roe left the Navy for eleven months, from June 1848 to May 1849, serving aboard the mail steamer SS
Georgia. After he returned to the Navy, he was assigned to the
brigantine and served in an expedition to chart the
North Pacific. Cape Roe on the
Japanese island of
Tanegashima was named for him during this expedition. In 1854, while serving in
Porpoise on the Asiatic Station, he participated in an engagement with 13
Chinese armored
junks off
Macau. Six of the junks were sunk and the others were scattered. Roe received his commission as master on August 8, 1855, and as
lieutenant on September 14 of the same year. From 1857 to 1858 he served in the
United States Coast Survey. During the
Civil War, in April 1862, he was recommended for promotion for gallantry for his actions on board the
screw steamer while serving as executive officer, as that ship led
Admiral David Farragut's starboard column past
Fort Jackson and Fort St. Philip. He was promoted to
lieutenant commander on July 16, 1862, and placed in command of the gunboat on the
Mississippi River. While commanding
Katahdin, Roe defeated
Confederate general John C. Breckinridge's attack on
Baton Rouge,
Louisiana. Roe was ordered to command the
side-wheel steamer on the
North Atlantic Blockading Squadron in September 1863, and captured and destroyed several blockade runners in the sounds of
North Carolina. Eight months later he was again commended for gallantry for engaging the Confederate
ram and capturing the
gunboat on May 5, 1864. After the end of the war, Roe commanded the iron-hulled warship on the
Great Lakes, where he and his crew took action in the
1865 Upper Peninsula miners' strike. He was promoted to
commander on July 25, 1866, and given command of the steamer on a special mission to
Mexico. Roe served as fleet captain for the Asiatic Station from 1868 to 1871. Roe was promoted to
captain on April 1, 1872, and commanded the
screw sloop on the
Brazil Station from 1874 to 1875. He was promoted to
commodore on November 26, 1880, and to
rear admiral on November 3, 1884, while serving as governor of the
Naval Asylum at
Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania. He was transferred to the retired list on October 4, 1885. Roe died in
Washington, D.C., on December 28, 1901, aged 78, and is buried in
Arlington National Cemetery. ==Honors==