The National tribune., 1889-01-10

orS and soldiers TO the
ADMIRAL RODGERS. Navy aud the Army,
and when one recollects that the Slidells and
the Mackenzies and other famous names are
affiliated, l think the reader of this sereed will
understand how deeply reverence the pres
ent head of the famous Rodgers family of
whom ! write. When the writer was a young
Midshipman, in years so long ago that he
hardly cares to tell how many they are he was
deeply impressed with Lieut. Rodgers as he
was then, and besides thinking him the grand
est-lOoking man that ever wore uniform, he
was still more deeply impressed with the fact
that the tall, broad-shouldered and well-pro-
pOrtiOned Lieutenant, who was commandment
of Midshipmen then, was the nephew of that
Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry, that crush
ed the British power aloat in Lake Erie at
Put-in-Bay, and then dispatched to that other
Gen. Harrison who became President, that
I'VE have met the enemy and they are ours"
Born as the writer was on the edge of Lake
Erie, and familiar with the waters where
"On the 10th of September, you all viii remember,
Brave Perry at Putin Bay got his yieto-ree,
as the old song says, the sight of Raymond
Rodgers awed and stimulated the young Mid
shipman to become like him.
Admiral Rodgers was born in New York Nov.
IA, 1919, and is therefore now just past SO years
of age, though few people seeing him would
believe it, for an active and temperate life has
well preserved him. When scarcely IA years
of age he was appointed a Midship mau in the
Fall of 1888 aud in the next year was sent on
q three years cruise in the Pacific. Next, he
was on the Florida coast in 1883, 40, and in
1912, '43 on the Guinea coast where we then
kept vessels watching to suppress the slave
trade. In 1647 he was ordered TO what was
then known as the Home Squadron, and par
ticipated in the war with Mexico at the siege
aud reduction of Vera Cruz and the capture of
Tobasco Meantime, he had been promoted to
passed Midshipman in 1889 and to Lieutenant
in 1914, and that latter rank he held when the
war of the rebellion broke out In 1853, 8 he
WAS First Lieutenant of the flagship Wabash in
the Mediterranean fleet, aud in the latter year
was ordered to the Naval Academy as Com
mandant OF Midshipmen, where he was serv-
ing when the rebellion of 1861 began.
In the Fall of 1861 he was promoted to the
rank of Commander and such was his high
standing in the service that he was selected to
command the frigate Wabash, the hagshipof
Commodore Du Point, in the famous Port Royal
expedition. How Commander Rodgers fought
his ship under the eyes of his fleet commander,
and how that famous commander recognized
and complimented his work at the battle of
Hilton Head and the other batteries defend
ing Port Royal Sound, is public matter of his
tory. In the subsequent operations through
the Deighboring sounds and inlets, Commander
Rodgers was so constantly participating that
he seemed to be off on hazardous expeditions
more than he was commanding his own SPLEEN
did frgate; if he did not command an expe-
ditien of gunboats on special service" he was
sure to accompany the expedition" and was
always heard from.
When in 1863 Rear Admiral Dahlgren as
sumed command of the South Atlantic Block
aiding Fleet, Commander Rodgers was made
Fleet Captain, or Chief of Stat, aud seemed to
have rowing commission. for whenever there
was an expedition of any kind. great OF little
In force, the records show that Rodgers was with
it, and took an important hand. Thus, when
Gen. Gilmore reduced Fort Pulaski, at the
mouth of the Savannah River, Rodgers was at
hand with the gunboats, and he ped by driving
off the rebel force atioat An expedition was
sent to Florida that took St. Augustine nd
Fernandina, and cleared the rebels away for
good from the st. Mary's River, and 9. r. z.
Rodgers had hand in all and received the
surrender of St. Augustine.
In the battles of the feet off Charleston with
the rebel batteries ashore, he did gallant and
prominent service, and III one of those fierce
cannonades was afflicted with the loss of his
| younger brother, Commander George Rodgers,
/ who, while commanding the monitor Cattskill,
| WAS killed by a rebel shell that burst aim ost
at his feet on deck. In 1854 he was placed in
! command Of the swift sloop-of-war Iroquois,
of the vessels selected for special service to
hunt up and fight the rebel cruisers, and the
! war ended with that command. In July 1865
/ he became Captain, aud after service at the
/ Norfolk Navy Yard he commanded the frigate
/ Franklin in IS63-70, when the great Admiral
! Farragut sailed in that good ship as his flag
/ ship in the European cruise, when he received
/ such honors as no other sailor hero ever had
/ before. Just after retiring in the Franklin
| Capt. Rodgers became a Commodore August,
! 1870 and June IA, 1874. was promoted to Rear
| Admiral retiring in November 1881, on becom-
ing 90 years of age. In his later years of serv-
| ice he was Superintendent of the Naval Acade-
fAf of Nr.1,
and freq uently Acting Secretary of the Navy.
As l said above Admiral Rodgers is living
evidence of heredity far as inclination for
military service goes. That gallant and glori-
GUS sailor Rear Admiral John Rodgers, who
died here only few years ago. was the uncle of
the subject of my SKETCH that great sailor,
| Commodore Matthew G. Perry, who opened uD
Japan to outside civilization and progress was
another uncle; that brilliant aud meteoric
soldier, Gen. Randall Slidell Mackenzie who is
| wasting out his days in the confinement of an
asylum, is cousin one Of the most efficient
as well as gallant young officers of the 4th
U. s. Cav. is Capt. Alexander Rodgers, who is
the son of Raymond" Rodgers, and who has
made record already for service in the field
although he only left West Point in 1876
that proves him true Rodgers There are
other Rodgerses in the service alloat and ashore,
but the limits of sketch like this will not per-
NIT me to go further.
ADMIRAL LIE RoY's DEATH.
Very few of the navy veterans of the late war
who have in recent years closed ont their ac-
counts on earth and gone to the great unknown
land beyond this life have been so sincerely
regretted as Rear-Admiral William E. LIE Row,
retired, q. S. N, who died at his home in New
York Dec. 10 from paralysis, and was laid away
to his last rest Dec. 13. So much of his service
in the later years that he remained on the
active list was performed here. that a sketch OF
, him is well beftting these columns Of Wash
ington Gossip. He was born in New York
March "a, 1918, and was appointed a Mid
shipman in the Navy Jan. IL, 1882, before
he was Ia years of age. In June, 1886, he
was promoted to Passed Midshipman and
when the Mexican war broke out in 1876
he had already been for three years a Lieu
} tenant. He had already distinguished him
self, but the Mexican war added to his lau-
rels to such an extent that when the civil war
came on he was one of "the youngsters y
looked to TO become distinguished He be.