Dewey, George (1837-1917)

George Dewey (1837-1917)

Admiral u.s. navy, 1899-1917

Source

The Making of a World Power. The success of Commodore George Dewey’s squadron in the Battle of Manila Bay on 1 May 1898 not only ensured U.S. victory in the Spanish-American War and made Dewey a popular American hero, but it also echoed through history, laying the groundwork for the continued role of the United States in that region of the world for the next century.

Background. Born in Montpelier, Vermont, on 26 December 1837, George Dewey graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1858, and during the Civil War he served as a Union naval officer aboard the Mississippi, one of the ships under the command of Capt. (later admiral) David Farragut in the Battle of New Orleans in 1862. During the naval expansion of the 1880s and 1890s Dewey became chief of the Bureau of Equipment in 1889, president of the Lighthouse Board in 1893, and president of the Board of Inspection and Survey in 1895. The following year he was promoted to the rank of Commodore. In 1897 he assumed command of the Asiatic Squadron in the Pacific.

The Spanish-American War. In February 1898 he received orders from Undersecretary of the Navy Theodore Roosevelt that in the event of war with Spain he should take his fleet to the Philippines and engageé the Spanish navy. In the early morning hours of 1 May, less than two weeks after war was declared, Dewey moved his fleet into Manila Bay. At dawn he attacked the Spanish fleet at anchor. Dewey’s squadron consisted of only four cruisers and two gunboats, but they were all more modem than were the seven Spanish ships. The Spanish fleet, how-ever, was moored behind a minefield and protected by heavy guns mounted on shore. Following a strategy he had learned under Farragut, Dewey kept his ships in a column and steamed back and forth across the Spanish anchorage, always presenting a moving target. After seven hours of fighting, all the Spanish ships were burned, sunk, or abandoned, while Dewey’s fleet escaped practically without damage. With the capture of the naval base at Cavite and the city of Manila under the guns of his ships, he accepted the surrender of the Spanish forces. The stunning victory ended forever Spanish power in the Far East. Two weeks later Congress passed a special resolution increasing by one the number of rear admirals so that Dewey could be promoted.

Naval Hero. Dewey was hailed as a national hero, and in March 1899 Congress created a new rank, Admiral of the Navy, especially for Dewey with the provision that he could choose to remain on active duty for the rest of his life or retire at full pay. When he returned to the United States in September 1899 he was honored with huge parades and other celebrations in New York and Washington, D.C., and the following April some Democrats began a campaign to win him their party’s presidential nomination. Dewey, who had little interest in politics, briefly considered running but withdrew his name from consideration in mid May. From 1900 until his death on 11 January 1917, Dewey, as the highest ranking uniformed officer of the U.S. Navy, served as president of the General Board of the Navy.

Justifying the New Navy. Dewey’s victory at Manila Bay justified, in the eyes of pronavy advocates, the seventeen-year program of building the New Navy, a fleet of modem steel, steam-powered warships. The short naval war with Spain gave immense confidence to the American people regarding the ability of the nation to be a power on the world scene, and at the same time it provided an argument for military readiness. Suddenly the United States had Pacific bases and had become a major power in the Far East.

Source

Ronald Spector, Admiral of the New Empire: The Life and Career of George Dewey (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1974).