The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1898-07-28


member that military and naval rank
correspond in this way:
Admiral (when the Office is created)
to general.
Vice admiral (when the office is
created) to lieutenant general.
Rear admiral to major general.
Commodore to brigadier general.
Captain to colonel.
Commander to lieutenant colonel
Lieutenant commander to major.
Lieutenant to captain.
Lieutenant, junior grade. to first
lieutenant.
Ensign to second lieutenant.
Considering only the two highest
grades now actually held, the number
of officers in each since 1882 has been
six rear admirals and ten commodores.
The present rear admirals in order
OF seniority are:
William A. Kirkland, commandant
of the Mare Island Navy Yard. San
Francisco, retires July 8. 1898.
Joseph NJ Miller, commanding Pa
cific station, retires Nov. %. 1898.
Montgomery Sicard. on duty in the
office of the Secretary of the Navy, re-
tires Sept. 80. 1898.
Edmund o. Matthews, president Of
the Naval Examining Eoard. retires
Oct "a. 1898.
Charles S. Norton, commanding
Washington Navy Yard, retires this
year.
Francis M. Bunce, commanding
Brooklyn Navy Yard, retires this year.
oficers of the navy may be retired
on their own application after forty
years service. and those above the
rank Of lieutenant commander must
retire upon their reaching the age Of
81. Those below that rank are re-
tired for physical or mental disability.
The pay Of retired naval officers is
'three-quarters of their sea pay Of the
rank they held at the time of their
retirement. At sea a rear admiral
receives $4,000 a year; on shore duty,
$4,000. and on leave or waiting orders,
$4,000. Commodores are paid $1,000
less in all three lines Of employment.
Retired officers of the navy cannot
be assigned to active duty except in
time of war, and the purpose of the
Administration so far has been not to
assign retired officers in the army or
navy to field or sea duty. but to let
these posts Of danger be held by those
still on the active list. OF course,
such work as the command of the mos
quito fleet along the coast is expected.
This has been given to Admiral Err
ben. who was retired four or five years
ago.
Until the second year of the civil
war the highest naval rank was that
Of captain. though generally the title
of commodore was given to flag Off
Ger who commanded a squadron In
1852 the rank of rear admiral was
created by Congress, and to this grade
were appointed Farragut and three
other active captains, and about a
dozen retired captains. In 1864, for
his capture Of Mobile and subsequent
successes, Farragut was appointed to
the newly created rank of vice admiral,
and later D. D. Porter and Stephen G.
Rowan were given the same rank. AT
ter the war ended, Congress went q
step further, and made the grade of ad-
miral, and to this grade promoted
Farragut and Porter. There was q
special provision of the laws Great
ling admirals and vice admirals which
caused the grades to die with the men
holding them. When Porter and Far
|ragut vacated their commissions as
vice to accept the higher ONCE, it left
Rowan the only holder of the second
place, and upon his death in 1880 the
loffice lapsed. Farragut died in 1879.
leaving Porter sole possessor of the
commission Of full admiral, and upon
his death in 1891 both grades were
vacated until Congress shall revive
them. perhaps. for the heroes of this
war.
- tt-f-