Oscar Walter Farenholt
Rear Admiral Oscar Walter Farenholt was an officer in the United States Navy during the American Civil War, the SpanishAmerican War and is the first enlisted man in the Navy to reach flag rank.
Farenholt was born to German immigrants in San Antonio, Texas, who had settled on a ranch on the Salado River 1842, not far from the famous Alamo Mission. Speaking only German until the age of eight, he was sent to New Orleans to a French school where he learned English for the first time. He continued his schooling until twelve years of age, entering a preparatory school, near Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Farenholt eventually broke off his studies believing dismissal from this institution to be in short order due to a boyish scrape, traveled to New Orleans, and shipped out to New York aboard the American sailing ship Saint Charles. He continued sailing as a merchant sailor until the outbreak of the American Civil War.
Source: Wikipedia