1799–1878, American naval officer, b. Baltimore. His active career spanned the years from the War of 1812, in which he served under Decatur, to the end of the Civil War, in which he fought for the Confederacy. In 1854, while commanding the Cyane, he shelled San Juan del Norte, Nicaragua, in retaliation for attacks on American life and property. With a few hastily assembled vessels, he defeated part of the Union blockading squadron of the Mississippi in Oct., 1861. Hollins commanded Confederate naval forces in the heavy fighting on the upper Mississippi in 1862.