He studied at Ohio University, but left that institution a year before graduating to accept a warrant as a midshipman, effective March 2, 1839.

Next ordered to Fredonia, he departed New York in that storeship on January 9, 1848, and proceeded to Veracruz where she arrived a week after the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.

His vessel promptly began issuing supplies to the warships of Commodore Matthew C. Perry's squadron and continued such duty until heading home in June.

Leave and a tour of duty in Union, the receiving ship at Philadelphia, ensued before Read reported to the side-wheel steamer Saranac in the autumn of 1853.

Read joined the wardroom of the sloop-of-war Falmouth in the fall of 1854, departed Norfolk, Virginia, in her on December 16, 1854, and cruised through the West Indies unsuccessfully seeking information concerning Albany.

Supply arrived at Pensacola, Florida, on December 7, 1860, just a month and a day after Abraham Lincoln was elected President of the United States, precipitating the secession crisis.

Her success was so remarkable that Flag Officer David Farragut felt that he must hold New London in his new command even though she had been assigned to the eastern group when the Navy divided its force in the gulf into two squadrons.

Read was promoted to lieutenant commander on July 16, 1862, and on April 18, 1863, he led a boat expedition which landed near the lighthouse at Sabine Pass.

While work on New London was still in progress Read was detached from her on June 22 and ordered to relieve Captain Melancton Smith in command of Monongahela.

As its beleaguered riparian fortresses at Vicksburg, Mississippi, and Port Hudson were about to slip from its grasp, the Confederacy was struggling desperately to maintain some hold on the river.