New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1900-02-03
NEW PUBLICATIONS
A BIOGRAPHY OF REAR ADMIRAL DAVIS.

LIFE OF c., CHARLES HENRY DAVIS, Rear r. A 11ds
mral 1S01-lg77. BY his Captain Charles
NJ Davis. L s " Octave. PIP. Si9 Houghton.
Mif1!n G. Co.
Rear Admiral Davis energetic and skill
full man. broadly cultivated and possessed of re-
markedly sound judgment. He took part in the
Port Royal expedition. and fleet captain and
ohief OF staff to Dupont he had al important
share in formulating the plan Of attack in that
significant enterprise. Later, in command of the
feet on the upper Mississippi, although serving
nominally under the flag OF Foote when that
noble officer had been incapacitated by illness
and was absent. Davis gained brilliant victory
over the enemy. For his gallant conduct and
well earned success at Memphis he received the
thanks Of Congress. in February, 1863 and was
made Rear Admiral All through the war his
advice OF value to the Department Allud-
ing to this period, his biographer remarks:
In reviewing Admiral Davis's services during
the Civil War. there is quality upon which
It is pardonabe TO insist-his total effacement or
self in a passionate devotion to the cause of the
country in the preservation OF the Union he
possessed this trait in common with nearly all
the great leaders which the Civil War produced,
and he possessed it in very marked degree
We have found these pages very interest
ing. Their author has been scrupulous to stay
in the background. and let the subject Of his
biography speak for himself For the period of
the war permitted to read copious eX-
tracts from the correspondence between the Ad
miral and his wife, written, it is perfectly evil
dent. with no thought of publication. These let
tiers, when read between the lines, reveal the
They show the Admiral to have been
frank, generous and high minded. Patience and
self-control are exhibited whea the writer has
occasion to comment upon mistakes. delays and
dIsappointments- One notes the entire absence
Of fault finding or conceit. Throughout there is
cr,iri Of IN
duty. Whenever Rear Admiral Davis speaks Of
brother officers he does in terms that make
one like the man for his nobility of character
and mis- afTectionate disposition, We may cite
in illustration paragraph prefacing a letter
from his friend John Rodgers describing the
capture OF the Atlanta Il send you to-day,
says Davis to his wife. AN Intelligencer' con-
tanning the Secretary's letter 10 John Rodgers
on the occasion of his recent engagement, the
most remarkable of the Nothing not i'm
mediately or nearly concerning myself could have
given me so much real satisfaction and pleas
He is the most accomplished and best in
structed officer in the Navy; and no one, in the
Navy or of it. officer citizen, surpasses
him in courage, loyalty. zeal, promptness. en-
ergy, activity, fidelity. and. lastly, in skill. He
has not been well treated by the Department.
His services and the cheerfuness and modesty
with which he performed them. have not been
God that his patience and unselnshness have
been rewarded at last
Rear Admiral Davis attended two years at
Harvard. He returned in 1910 and took de-
gree. A beautiful stained glass window in
Memorial Hall commentaries the fact that he
the Oldest representative OF the university
and the senior in rank who served during the
Civil War" He left college to go aboard the
frigate United States and learn the rough and
tumble Of p youngsters life in the Navy at that
period In the severe school of experience he
early acquired a readine$s to assume RESPONSE
bility. No officer of the Navy excelled Davis in
scientific requirements. His labors In the Coast
Survey, in the Office of the Nautical Almanac
and at the Naval Observatory were assiduous
of the highest value. Unlike most of the
distinguished officers of the war. Davis contin-
ued after the struggle was over to render in
valuable service. He worked in the harness up
TO the very last moment. We may mention by
she way that he united with other members Of
a board in 1861 to report in guarded terms upon
the build of the Monitor, report which affords
his son an occasion to express to-day similar
distrust of this mode of construction.