70 HEREDITY AND DEVELOPMENT OF NAVAL OFFICERS. 



16. GEORGE DEWEY. 



GEORGE DEWEY was born at Montpelier, Vermont, December 26, 1837. 

 He attended schools in Montpelier and Johnson, Vermont, and in 1851 he was 

 admitted to the military academy at Norwich, Vermont. He decided to enter the 

 Naval Academy, to which he was admitted in 1854 and from which he was grad- 

 uated in 1858. He was active in the naval operations of the Civil War, especially 

 as executive officer on the Mississippi, and was commissioned lieutenant com- 

 mander for meritorious conduct in the attack on Fort Fisher. He taught in the 

 Naval Academy, 1868 to 1870; was with the Pacific Survey; was on the lighthouse 

 board; was at the European station in command of a ship, and eventually of the 

 flagship, 1884 to 1888. Commissioned commodore, he was, in 1898, given com- 

 mand of the Asiatic station. When war with Spain broke out, Dewey, at Hong 

 Kong, was cabled to operate against the Spanish fleet at the Philippine Islands. 

 He steered his small fleet of 6 vessels at night through the narrow and mined 

 entrance into Manila bay. At daybreak he destroyed the entire Spanish fleet 

 of 12 vessels, his casualties being only 7 wounded. In the ensuing days and weeks 

 he met such dangerous situations as the acts of the German admiral at Manila 

 bay and the resistance of Aguinaldo with such judgment that the grade of ad- 

 miral (previously held only by Farragut and David D. Porter) was revived in his 

 favor. From 1900 until his death Dewey was president of the general board 

 of the navy. He died at Washington of arteriosclerosis, January 16, 1917. 

 The traits that determined Dewey's career were: 

 Love of adventure. Of his life at the district school he says : 



"I was full of annual spirits and I liked things to happen wherever I was. 

 Probably I had a gift for stirring up other boys to help me in my enterprises. A 

 life of Hannibal which I received as a present fired my imagination. In winter 

 it was easy to make believe that in storming a neighboring hill I was making the 

 passage of the Alps. If there were no other soldiers to follow me, I might draft 

 my sister Mary, who was 2 years my junior. . . . 



"One of my favorite deeds of bravado was descending the old State House 

 steps blindfolded, with the onlookers wondering whether I would slip on the way 

 and take the rest of the flight head first." 



On one occasion he thought it would be a great exploit to drive a horse and 

 wagon across the swollen river; he escaped only by abandoning the wagon and 

 climbing upon the horse's neck. To break his father's punishment he said: "You 

 ought to be glad that I am alive!" At the Norwich Academy, when 17 years of 

 age, he was disciplined for breaking up a service of hymns by standing outside and 

 singing rival melodies. Even at Annapolis the "old faculty of making things 

 happen had given me 113 demerit marks." Two hundred meant dismissal. 



Dewey was excellent at mathematics, good in French and Spanish, but poor 

 in history. "My weakness in history I overcame later in life, when I grew fond 

 of reading." 



He was quick in response. "A cadet who sat opposite me called me a name 

 at mess which no man can hear without redress. I did not lose a second, and 

 springing around the table, I went for him and beat him down under the table 

 before we were separated." When, at Annapolis, a Southern cadet challenged him 

 to a duel he accepted with alacrity. Rear Admiral Aaron Ward says of him: 



