The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-12-20

In exercising his power of appoint
ment at large for West Point, the
President recently designated as cadets
and alternates, to report at the Mill
tary Academy next June, nineteen
young men, of whom seventeen are
sons of army officers and two sons of
naval officers. The appointments al
ready made for both cadets and mid
shipmen in the various congressional
districts also show the usual number
of sons of officers in both the army
and navy.
Only in the allied military services,
the Army, Navy and Marine Corps,
is there found in this country the
working of an hereditary principle. In
| these services this "heirship" is all the
stronger because it is not artiicia1ly
created by statute or by recognized
class distinctions, but because it
arises from the natural growth of cir
cumstances and environment. In
these services the son-at least, one
of the subsequently, follows the
profession of his father, and marries
the daughter of one of his fathers old
comrades, or the sister of one of his
own. Thus it happens that the navy
is one great family, allied to a con-
siderable extent by marriage with that
other great family, the army.
This is speaking of the officers,
though the hereditary principle is not
wanting. to some extent, among the
enlisted men. sergeant of marines
once boosted on the witness stand, to
the discontinue of a great lawyer now
one of our ambassadors aboard, who
sought to question his knowledge or
the service, that his family for three
generations had been enlisted in the
! United States service.
In the Army or Navy register to-
day can be found the names of many
! officers who date back in the service,
either through the male or female
line. to the War of the Revolution,
many who date back in the same way
| TO the War Of 1872. and still others
whose families came into the service
with the Civil War, but in which the
Young ensign or the young second
| lieutenant now represents the third
generation in the service.
A good example of a service family,
and IL happens to be one which has
| become famous, is that of Porter.
They came into the service in the
War of the Revolution, and have re-
NAMED there ever since. David Porter
| and his brother Samuel were cap
tuTeU ana Ildub III AnbiiNAo III NiC CAN
Jersey prison ship. Samuel died, but
David escaped to fight some more
against England. His son, David, Jr.,
entering the navy in 1898, distinguish
ed himself in the war with Tripoli
and in the War of 1912. David, Jr. s
son, William David, became a COM
modore in the navy, and his son,
David Dixon, became an admiral-the
celebrated Admiral Porter OF the
Civil War. David. Jr.'s, nephew, Fitz-
John Porter. went 10 West Point and
fought in the Mexican and Civil Wars.
Men OF the blood and the family name
still continue in the service. BY mar
rage the Porters are allied TO many
OF the other ancient service families.
John r.. Craven and Thomas Tingey
Craven, both officers OF the navy,
represent a family which dates back
IN continuous service 10 the days 81
the Revolutionary War. Among their
ancestors they number Commodore
Thomas Tingley. who distinguished
himself IN the Revolution and IN the
war with France IN 1893, and Com
mOdOre TruKtOn. who captured the
French frlgate Insurgent, and who
had previously la the war Of The