The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1899-10-02

settled down. The serious side of life APP
pealed to him. He served a year on the
, Waoaf unS sno b 5oen c infse nome he s0f deve faesd
interest in religion. and in a year he was
baptized and was received into the Episco-
something of a model young man and a
great ~favorite with the young women.
1t was not until 1861 that he saw any
started then. and he was commissioned. a
lieutenant and was assigned TO the Missis-
sippi. which was ordered TO join the west
gulf squadron under command OIL Admlrai
Farragut. the last admiral of the American
navy but one before. Dewey earned the
place. The captain of the Mississippi was
fight in which the Mississippi was engaged
after Dewey went on board or her was the
assault of Farragut on the city of New Or
which. by the way. was more like a ferry
boat than a warship. was assigned TO sink
the Confederate ram Manassas. which was
coming down toward the fleet. Captain
Smith on this occasion did exactly what
Dewey did on May /. 1898. 1t was dollars
to cents that the ram was the stronger of
the two boats. Ignoring that fact entirely,
Captain Smith turned his boat and made
at her, and in almost less time than IL takes
TO tell IL, he had rammed the ram. and had
showed her up on the mud. and was pouring
shot into her. To think with Captain Smith
was TO act, and IL was perhaps on that day
that Dewey learned a lesson that. following
always afterward, brought him fame-the
lesson of Think yourself and don't give the
other fellow time to think before you act"
LOSS OF THE MISSISSIPPI.
1t was nearly a year later that Dewey got
into his second big naval fight. and il was
then that his boat was lost. He was the
executive officer of the Mississippi in the
fight at Port Hudson. In the excitement
that attended the trip up the river to the
port the navigating officer of the Mississippi
lost his bearings, and the first thing he
knew the Mississippi had stuck ner nose
deep into the mud and was held fast there
in just the position that made her the best
target for the rebel guns ashore. In this
position her battery on one side was avail
able, and with this battery she fought until
twenty-five of her crew had been killed and
twenty-nine wounded. 1t was suicide then
TO stand by her longer, and the order was
given 10 abandon ship. The cowardice OF
some OF her men, once they were ordered TO
distinguish himself and he took it. The men
were deserving the ship, leaving the
wounded to their fate. Dewey faced them
wounded first. and he and the captain were
the last men to leave the ship. They jumped
TO the ship so that by no possibility could
she fall into the hands of the enemy and
become a prize Of war. On the way to
This time he rescued a ounded sailor who
was drowning. He towed the sailor ashore
Again in the same year Dewey had a
chance 70 distinguish himself. 1t was at
Do~naldsonville. After the loss Of the
Mississippi Dewey was assigned to an old
tub of a boat hardly more than a cookie
shell, and ike Fremont on the dinky tor
pedo boat Porter at the battle OF San Juan,
he kept the boat in the thick of the fight.
popping away with a little gun and in mo-
mentary danger of being sunk by the first
hot of any size that hit her. At the battle
OF Fort Il t tha Go, De%ey w WAS the Wss ex fee u bise
gest ship he had ever been on. She carried
forty guns and a crew Of nearly seven hun,
dred. After the fight Dewey was assigned
to Commander McComb's squadron in the
James river and then to the North Atlantic
blockading. squadron. He served as lieu
wan. At the battle of Fort Fisher, where
the navy performed the part Of the work
that the army, should have performed-that
is. an assault by land-Dewey distinguished
himself along with most Of the other young
officers. and some time after that battle ne
was promoted to the Tank OF LIEUTENANT ,snt
the promotion was for meritorious conduct
at the battle of Fort Fisher. The capture
oil Fort Fisher was practically the last
naval battle CT the war, and 1t was the last
fighting hat Dewey saw for thirty-three
we irs. His whole fighting experience until
May /. 1898, is thus summed up, and it was
in the intervening years that Dewey time
and time again remarked on the briefness
OF the biography he had earned.
After the war was over Dewey was sent
to the Portsmouth navy yard. He was a
hero there. where all naval officers are
heroes, and IL was there that he met Miss
Hampshire's war Governor, Ichabod Good
win. She was.a young woman Of great
beauty and of fine education. and Dewey
fell In love with her and cut out all the
other suitors for her hand. They were mar
ried on Oct. "a, 1867. and were Immediately
separated, for Dewey was assigned again
to the Colorado and spent nearly a year in
Europe. The next year he was assigned to
duty in the Naval Academy. Then he was
placed In command of the Narrigansett Ger
tom at N New 1r e and in a Hpr rh' 1873 S2sp when i he
got his next promotion, that % tue 'ank of
commander, he was again assigned 10 the
only child was born, George Goodwin
W and the young wife died.
HIS LIFE OPPORTUNITY.
There wasn't much of a story in Dewey's
life after that until the preparation of the
war with Spain, in which he was to make
everlasting fame. He settled into the hum
drum life of the ordinary naval officer. He
went to the Pacific on a surveying expedi-
ton In 1873. In 1876 he returned and was
appointed a lighthouse inspector. He served
two years at that and then became secre-
tary of the lighthouse board, a place he
held until 1882. That year 1t was his turn
for sea duty and he was sent to the Asiatic
squadron TO command the Juniata. He was
sick a year then and all but died. His pro-
motion to the rank of captain came i'm
1874, twenty-six years after he had been
graduated from the naval academy. and he
was assigned TO command the Dolphin. The
Dolphin ranks now as a dispatch boat. She
was. nevertheless, one of the first of the
White Squadron of which the American peo-
pie were 80 proud, and Ii is interesting to
note here that she was the only steel ship
that Dewey ever commanded until he went
abord the olympia as the commodore of the
Asiatic squadron. He commanded the PEN
sacola after the Dolphin. In 1889, when he
returned TO America, he became the chief
or the bureau of equipment and recruiting.
AS the chief of this bureau he had the ex-
officio rank Of commodore and IL was i'm
this office, naval officers say, that Dewey
old his best work for the country before
the opportunity came TO smash the Spanish
fleet in the philippines. He attracted the
attention there that later made him the
commander or the Asiatic squadron. While
there was no war In sight and no shadow of
a war. he assumed that there would be one
and did everything that could be done i'm
that department. to prepare for one if il
came.
Roosevelt is a man after the pattern of
Dewey, and when he became assistant sec
rotary OF the navy he was ATTRACTED by
the thoroughness of Dewey's work an1 nv
the energy that he displayed. 1t was Pres
ident Mckinley WHO made Dewey the COM
mander OF the Asiatic squadron: and it was
Senator Redfeld Proctor and Theodore
Roosevelt who were I'm a large measure re-
sponsible for the choice. Senator Proctor
himself appealed to the President to make
Dewey commander OF the squadron and the
President promised.
to say that Dewey was not the man he had
selected for the place. The man he selected
would probably have done as Dewey did and
he might to-day be the hero of the Nation
that Dewey is; but Dewey had been chosen
before the secretary made known his choice.
Tha CnPFQf1rV heartily Rnnnurra6 with The