DEWEY, GEORGE. 



his case. The old doctor, like many of his genera- 

 tion, was conscientiously if not constitutionally an 

 early riser, and he usually succeeded in enforcing 

 his principles upon the rest of the family, so that 

 all hands were usually afoot at an early hour. 



George was sent first to the Washington County 

 Grammar School in Montpelier. and there he came 

 under the stern government of Major Z. K. Pang- 

 born, now editor of the " Jersey City Journal." It 

 was a species of revolution, in which young Dewey 

 took a conspicuous part, that brought down upon 

 him the vengeance of Major Pangborn's good 

 right arm and forever put a stop to the spirit 

 of insurrection in that school. Young Dewey, 

 when the smart of the justly administered thrash- 

 ing passed away, had sense enough to consider 

 judicially the rights and wrongs of the case, and 

 instead <>f cherishing enmity in his heart against 

 the nmn who had corrected him, as a smaller na- 

 ture would have done, he became sincerely attached 

 to his teacher, and when Major Pangborn went 

 to Johnson, Vt., to establish a private academy, 

 George was sent there at his own request, and there 

 completed the first period of his education, going 

 thence at fifteen years of age to the Norwich Mili- 

 tary Academy. There for the first time the attraction 

 of discipline" made an impression upon the boy's 

 mind. Prior to that time he had occasionally seen 

 training days in the country when the county 

 militia disported itself upon the village green; but 

 this miscellaneous training had made but small im- 

 pression on his mind. At Norwich he developed a 

 strong taste and aptitude for military affairs and, 

 greatly against his father's wishes, he evinced a fixed 

 purpose of entering the Naval Academy at Annap- 

 olis. After combating his son's expressed wish as 

 long as he deemed prudent, the doctor discreetly 

 yielded, for it was not according to his theory of 

 education to oppose what appeared to be the serious 

 convictions of his children. 



So it came to pass that an appointment was se- 

 cured, and in 1854 George Dewey reported for duty 

 at Annapolis. He was seventeen years of age, an 

 athletic boy of medium height, with such meager 

 knowledge of nautical affairs as could be picked up 

 through the navigation of a flat-bottomed scow 

 along his native river and an occasional voyage of 

 discovery on Lake Champlain. Beyond this his 

 nautical knowledge extended merely to Cooper's 

 novels and the various pirate stories that were 

 available at that day. Boys who came to the Naval 

 Academy were not expected to know one end of a 

 boat from the other until after they had been there 

 long enough to pick up the rudiments ; so the sub- 

 ject of our sketch was neither better nor worse off 

 than most of his comrades. But he entered the 

 academy at a momentous period, and there were 

 many among his mates whom he was destined 

 to face in active service before many years had 

 passed. North and South at that perio'd were fast 

 drifting into the political and sectional conditions 

 that leu to an actual rupture in 1861 ; and then, as 

 now, it was customary for the cadets to settle per- 

 sonal differences with the weapons that Nature had 

 given them. The leader of the Southern faction 

 very soon took occasion to give George his opinion 

 of Yankees in general and of George in particular, 

 and was promptly provided with a black eye for his 

 pains. A challenge to mortal combat followed, 

 which George cheerfully accepted; seconds were 

 appointed, and a hostile "meeting according to the 

 articles of the "code of honor" would doubtless 

 have taken place hail not some of the more peace- 

 ably minded cadets informed the authorities in 

 time to have the proceedings stopped and the 

 principals put upon their word of honor to preserve 

 the peace. This, however, was not the end of it, and 



there was bad blood between the representatives of 

 the two sections throughout Dewey's academic 

 career. 



When he was graduated in 1858 he stood number 

 five in his class, and he was presently assigned to 

 duty as a midshipman on board the steam frigate 

 " Wabash," under the command of Capt. Samuel 

 Barron, of Virginia, afterward a commodore in the 

 ill-fated Confederate navy. The " Wabash " cruised 

 in European waters, visiting many ports of the 

 Mediterranean, and as she was a fine type of the 

 steam frigate of the day she attracted much atten- 

 tion from the naval authorities at the ports that 

 she visited. The Americans at this time, in the 

 early stages of steam as applied to war ships, had 

 evolved a type of frigate as much superior to those 

 in vogue in European navies as was the " Constitu- 

 tion " and her sister ships to those of 1812. As 

 the fine ship lay at Malta, in the midst of the 

 British Mediterranean squadron, one day a hand- 

 some steam yacht came in from sea and anchored 

 near the stern of the " Wabash." It was presently 

 whispered about that she was the property of a 

 distinguished nobleman, one of the few first-class 

 steam yachts then afloat, and some curiosity natu- 

 rally arose among the officers of the American frig- 

 ate regarding her equipment and her owner. A 

 day or two afterward a general invitation was given 

 out to visitors, and many of the officers and their 

 families from the garrison of Malta and from the 

 British and other men-of-war at anchor in the port 

 came to inspect the formidable man-of-war from 

 across the Western ocean. With his fellow-midship- 

 men young Dewey was on duty to do the honors, 

 and with his usual enterprise and good luck was 

 fortunate enough to touch his cap to a kindly 

 looking gentlemen who, with a small party, came 

 up the gangway and saluted the quarter-deck with 

 the air of an old sailor. Dewey, who was a hand- 

 some boy and self-possessed withal, asked this gen- 

 tleman if he could be of any service, and being 

 told that he would like to see what was to be seen, 

 proceeded without more ado to show him over the 

 ship, from quarter-deck to engine room, wherever 

 visitors were allowed to go. It was not until the 

 tour of the ship had been nearly completed that 

 Dewey became familiar enough to tender his own 

 card by way of introduction, and to receive a simi- 

 lar courtesy from him whom he now regarded as 

 his guest. The gentleman extracted a card from 

 a stout wallet, and Dewey read thereon one of the 

 most distinguished names in the British peerage. 

 " Yes," his lordship remarked, " that is my little 

 ' teakettle ' anchored under your quarter. I am 

 afraid she'll look rather cramped after we go aboard 

 of her from this." Dewey's official conscience began 

 to trouble him as soon as he found out who his 

 guests were, so he insisted upon taking them to 

 his commanding officer and turning them over to 

 the proper authorities, although, as he foresaw, 

 his own presence as an insignificant little mid- 

 shipman in a roundabout jacket was thereafter 

 totally ignored. 



In 1860 George returned to the academy for his 

 examination as passed midshipman, and he was 

 on leave at home in Montpelier when the first 

 shot of the civil war was fired in Charleston har- 

 bor. A few days afterward, in the hurried expan- 

 sion of our naval resources, he was commissioned 

 lieutenant and assigned to the old steam sloop of 

 war " Mississippi." This vessel, with Capt. Me- 

 lancton Smith in command, was ordered to the 

 western Gulf, and early in 1862 Farragut was 

 assigned to the squadron as flag officer. He imme- 

 diately began preparations for ascending the Mis- 

 sissippi, reducing the forts at the head of the 

 passes, and securing possession of New Orleans. 



