Winfield Scott Schley

Winfield Scott Schley , 1839-1911, American naval officer, b. Frederick co., Md. After serving with Union naval forces in the Civil War, he held various naval posts. In 1884 he commanded the third, and successful, relief expedition to rescue the arctic explorer Adolphus W. Greely . Schley was promoted to the rank of commodore in 1898 and in the Spanish-American War commanded the "flying squadron," ordered to seek out the Spanish under Admiral Pascual Cervera. There was some ill feeling between Schley and William Thomas Sampson , who had been advanced to chief command. When the battle of Santiago was fought and the Spanish fleet destroyed, Sampson was absent and Schley had command, thus giving rise to a bitter controversy over the credit for the victory. Schley was made a rear admiral and resigned from the navy in 1901. A court of inquiry, requested by Schley to investigate charges leveled against him of negligence and misconduct in the battle of Santiago, was generally adverse toward him but recommended that no action be taken. He wrote The Rescue of Greely (with J. R. Soley, 1895) and also memoirs, Forty-five Years under the Flag (1904).

Schley, Winfield Scott slī (1839–1911) Union naval officer, born in Maryland. Schley early chose the navy as a career. He sided with the Union as the Civil War broke out and participated in the blockade of Charleston (1861), and in numerous other naval engagements. When the war ended, he taught at Annapolis for three years and then returned to sea, participating in a move to seize a Korean fortress after Koreans fired on a U.S. ship. In 1884 he led an expedition to the Arctic to attempt to rescue a team of polar explorers; returning to the United States with the survivors, he was hailed a hero. President Chester Arthur named him to head the Bureau of Equipment and Recruiting, as well as the Bureau of Provisions and Clothing. In 1889 he again returned to sea; many members of his crew were killed by resentful Argentines as the ship patrolled during a civil disturbance in that nation, but Schley was cleared of any wrongdoing. In 1898 he was given command of the Flying Squadron, which patrolled the mid-Atlantic coast. When the Spanish-American War (1898) broke out, he was sent to Cuba under Admiral William T. Sampson. A confusion in orders allowed a Spanish fleet to arrive safely in the harbor at Santiago, Cuba; as the fleet attempted to leave the harbor it was attacked and disabled by Schley's ships while Sampson was temporarily away from the harbor, and a dispute erupted over which officer should properly take credit for the victory. A court of inquiry, convened in 1901, generally sided with Sampson.