The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1898-05-02
DEWEY HAS SEEN HOT WORK.
He Was on the Mississippi which
Was RiddIed and Blown Up.

Commodore George Dewey whose
fleet of United States warships is now
on its way from Hong Kong, China, to
meet the Spanish fleet from the Philip
pine Islands, is an old warrior of the
navy, who got his christening of fire
aboard the old steam sloop Mississippi,
under Farragut in the early days Of
the civil war. Commodore Dewey is
now about 81 years old He belongs
in Vermont and he was appointed to
the naval academy from that state in
September, 1854. Four years later,
when he was graduated, he was sent
aboard the steam frigate Wabash for
a cruise in the Mediterranean. Dewey
got his commission as lieutenant on
April 49, 1861, eight days after Fort
Sumter was fired upon, and he was i'm
mediately assigned to join the Misss-
sippi and do duty with the West Gulf
squadron. He was on the Mississippi
when she took part with Farragut's
other vessels in forcing an entrance to
the Mississippi river and again when
the fleet ran the gauntlet of fire from
the forts below New Orleans in April,
1862, and forced the surrender of that
city. The ship he was in belonged to
Captain Bailey's division of the fleet
which attacked Fort st. Philip.
The hottest fight that the Mississippi
ever engaged in was her last one, and
this was perhaps as hot as any of the
war. In March, 1863, the fleet tried to
run by the Confederate batteries at
Port Hudson. Some of the ships got
as far as a narrow part of the chan
mel, where they met land batteries al
most muzzle to muzZle, and then they
were forced to retreat. The Misss-
sippi did not get as far as this. A
fOggy day had been chosen for the at
tempt, and this was soon made more
obscure by the smoke of battle, and
amid this the Mississippi lost her bear
ings and ran ashore.
Her officers found that she had struck
just under the guns of a battery in the
middle of the line of Notifications and
one of the strongest of the lot. In half
an hour $50 shots struck the vessel and
she was riddled from end to end. There
was no chance to hold her, and her
crew took to their boats and landed on
the opposite side of the river after set
ting her on fire. Soon, liGhtened by the
loss of the crew and by the fire, she
drifted off, and, blazing and saluting
with bursting shells, she drifted down
lne IlNeTt until lHdly the IRE reached
her magazines, and her career was
ended in one great explosion.
Dewey was next attached To the
steam gunboat Agawan of the North
Atlantic blockading squadron, and he
took part in the two attacks made on
Fort Fisher in December, 1864, and Jan
uary. 1865. In March, 1865, he got his
commission as lieutenant-command
and as such served on the famous old
Kearsarge and on the Colorado, the
flagship of the European squadron, un-
til 1868, when he was sent for service
TO che naval academy, His first COM
mand was in 1870 when he had the
Narragansett doing special service. He
became a commander in April, 1872,
and, still on the Narragansett, was en-
gagged in making surveys Of the Pacific
until 1876, when he was made a light
house inspector and later the secretary
of the lighthouse board. He command
ed the Juniata in the Asiatio station in
lSS2-S9. and in September, 1884. was
made captain and put in charge OF