[1] On 2 June 1828, one month after his promotion to lieutenant, Lynch was married in New Haven, Connecticut, to Virginia Shaw, the youngest daughter of a senior navy officer and sister-in-law of another.

Subsequent service included duty with Commodore David Porter's "Mosquito Squadron" in the West Indies and in the Mediterranean.

[1] In 1847, he proceeded to the Jordan River, transporting overland, by camels, a copper and a galvanized iron boat.

Lynch believed that explorers who "remove the obstruction to Commerce, Civilization and Christianity will become the benefactors of mankind.

He commanded naval batteries at Aquia Creek, Virginia, during their shelling by Union gunboats in May 1861; was in charge of gunboats and the defense of Roanoke Island, North Carolina in February 1862; and led Confederate naval forces at Vicksburg, Mississippi from March to October 1862.