page_title: George M. Robeson
section_title: Virginius incident and war crisis (1873)
hierarchical_section_title: George M. Robeson / Secretary of the Navy (1869–1877) / Virginius incident and war crisis (1873)
caption_attribution_description: English: "The Spanish butchery" November 29th, 1873 pictorial illustrations from Harper's Weekly on U.S. naval response to Spanish attack on Virginius during the 1868-1878 Cuban Insurrection.
context_page_description: George Maxwell Robeson was an American Republican Party politician, lawyer from New Jersey, a brigadier general in the New Jersey Militia during the American Civil War, Secretary of the Navy appointed by President Ulysses S. Grant, serving from 1869 to 1877, and U.S. Representative for New Jersey, serving from 1879 to 1883.
  Robeson, a native of New Jersey, graduated from Princeton University at the young age of 18. Robeson studied law and passed the bar in 1850. Practicing law, Robeson diligently worked his way through the legal profession and in 1858 he was appointed a public prosecutor for Camden County. During the American Civil War Robeson associated with the Republican Party and was a member of the New Jersey Sanitary Commission. Appointed Brigadier General by Governor Charles S. Olden, Robeson worked to recruit enlistments to fight for the Union. After the war in 1867, Robeson was appointed New Jersey Attorney General by Gov. Marcus L. Ward. Robeson, as Attorney General, gained national attention after successfully prosecuting Bridget Durgan for the brutal murder of Mrs. Coriell.
  Supported by New Jersey Senator A.G.
context_section_description: On October 31, 1873 a Spanish warship, Toronado, ran down and captured Virginius, a U.S. merchant ship that was smuggling in weapons and soldiers to aid Cuba's revolt from the mother country Spain. The American public demanded war with Spain, as shocking news poured into the country that 53 British and American citizens who had joined up to aid the Cuban Insurrection were captured on Virginius and shot to death by Spanish Naval authority. In addition to this incident, a state of the art Spanish warship was in port in New York Harbor, which excelled in lethal military technology compared to American warships. On November 14, 1873, Grant ordered the Navy to be put on war footing. Robeson sent a flotilla of U.S. warships, part of the North Atlantic Squadron, to Key West, Florida, 90 miles from Cuba. However, the response time was slow, as the U.S. fleet finally assembled off Key West in late January 1874. The U.S. Navy, was no match for the modern Spanish warships and navy. One U.S. officer stated that two Spanish warships could have decimated the American flotilla, the best ships the U.S. Navy could offer at the time.
  During the Virginius crisis, Sec. Robeson decided that the primary goal for the Navy was a naval resurgence program to make monitor warships that could compete with foreign navies. Congress, however, refused to make new ships, believing that the technologically revolutionary ironclads made ten years ago somehow remained modern and were good enough for the U.S. Navy.  In a compromise, Robeson and Congress chose to "rebuild" five of the biggest U.S. warships, including an unfinished USS Puritan and four USS Miantonomahs. The ships were contracted out, torn down and scrapped, to be "rebuilt" as new warships by various contractors approved by Sec. Robeson. Work began in 1874, but Congress refused to give Robeson 2.3 million dollars to complete the ships. The almost complete USS Miantonomah was launched on December 6, 1876. Robeson was criticized for scrapping other monitors to pay for the new ones. Secretary of State Hamilton Fish in December 1874 coolly negotiated a peaceful settlement with Spain, and the State Department successfully arbitrated Spanish reparations to the families of the Americans who had been executed. The Virginius incident brought home the realities of having a weak navy and the need for naval resurgence.
caption: The Spanish Butchery: illustrations of the U.S. naval response over the Virginius incident (Harper's Weekly, 1873)
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