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Lot 364
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Admiral David Dixon Porter Readies U.S. Navy for War with Spain
Admiral David Dixon Porter Readies U.S. Navy for War with Spain
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Description:

David Dixon Porter
Washington, DC, December 8, 1873
Admiral David Dixon Porter Readies U.S. Navy for War with Spain
ALS
DAVID DIXON PORTER, Autograph Letter Signed, to Stephen Decatur, December 8, 1873, Washington, D.C. 6 pp., 5" x 8". Expected folds; some toning and staining.

"Geo. Robeson...after a preamble informing me of the condition of the navy which I already knew all about acquainted me with his desire that I should take command of the naval forces in case of hostilities."

In this fascinating letter to his friend Commodore Stephen Decatur, Admiral David Dixon Porter discusses the prospects of war with Spain over the Virginius affair and how he was preparing the U.S. Navy. When the Virginius affair first reached the United States in November 1873, a Spanish ironclad was anchored in New York for repairs. Observers realized that the U.S. Navy had no ship capable of defeating it. This recognition and the war scare over the Virginius led Congress to issue contracts for the construction of five new ironclads and the repair of several more. All five of the new vessels would take part in the Spanish-American War in 1898.

Excerpts
"Geo. Robeson notified me some ten days ago that he would call next day at my house to see me. So next morning at 11. o'clock he entered with his ‘Board of Admirals' (Chiefs of Bureaus) and after a preamble informing me of the condition of the navy which I already knew all about acquainted me with his desire that I should take command of the naval forces in case of hostilities.
"In the meantime he would be obliged if I would go ahead and say what was required in the navy and look after things generally.
"I told him that I expected to take command that it was my right—and since then I have been busily employed making out memoranda of what was to be done and have succeeded in getting every available ship in the navy in the hands of mechanics.
"The vessels are getting off as soon as they can be got ready to Key West where I shall follow in a dispatch vessel as soon as I see that anything is going to turn up. We have six monitors mounting fourteen heavy guns now ready. The ‘Lancaster' is ordered home and all the Mediterranean Squadron ordered to the W. Indies.
"I shall have there in the course of 30 days—450 guns to the Spaniards 360. They have the advantage of six (6) heavy ironclads, but I am having the ‘Tennessee' and ‘Florida' both 15 knot ships fitted as powerful rams and recommended them to buy 17 – 3000 ton steamers—very fast—to carry 8 eleven inch guns each which are also to be fitted as rams.
"I flatter myself it will be a rambunctious affair altogether.
"This will have a good effect for the navy and will show the necessary of being prepared for emergencies. So far Congress hasn't shown any excitement leaving matters in the hands of the executive but the situation looks so bad from day to day that I don't see how hostilities can be prevented.
"I didn't volunteer at all nor offer my services in any way. I determined they should come after me if they wanted me, and I expect it was a pretty bitter pill to Robeson to be obliged to come to my house and offer me the command. I am busily engaged all the time in making my preparations and when the proper time comes I shall have nothing to do but go down and put the fleet in order.
"I have an idea that this trouble will cause a revolution in Spain and the longer we can protract the matter the better we shall be prepared and by the 1st or 10th of January we shall have a pretty respectable squadron in Key West. Besides the above I want to get up a torpedo fleet of thirty (30) powerful vessels and only regret that my torpedo vessel will not be ready in time."

"Confidentially I intend the ‘Franklin' for my flagship. She is about the best of the old fogy frigates and I believe can keep out of the way of anything that happens to be thrown overboard from her."

Historical Background
During the Ten Years' War, a revolution led by Cuban landowners against Spanish rule that began in 1868, an American supporter of the revolutionaries purchased a Scottish-built former Confederate steamer used as a blockade runner. For three years, the Virginius aided the Cuban rebellion by transporting men, munitions, and supplies, and the Spanish made special efforts to capture it.

In October 1873, the Virginius, under the command of Captain Joseph Fry, was in Jamaica with a crew of 52 American and British men and 103 native Cuban soldiers who had just arrived from New York aboard. They took the ship to Haiti where the ship was also loaded with munitions. As they were traveling to Cuba, a Spanish warship overtook and captured the Virginius, taking all on board prisoner and sailing the ship to Santiago de Cuba. The Spanish tried the crew and Cuban soldiers as pirates, found them guilty, and sentenced them to death. The Spanish executed 53 of the crew and Cuban soldiers by firing squad, including Captain Fry, before the arrival of an American warship and a British warship stopped the executions when the commanders threatened to bombard Santiago if the executions did not stop.

American newspapers reacted to the capture of the Virginius with caution, but when word of the executions arrived, several newspapers demanded intervention in Cuba and vengeance on Spain. U.S. Secretary of State Hamilton Fish demanded reparations from the Spanish minister for any victims who were American citizens. By late November the Spanish minister and Fish had reached an agreement that Spain would give up the Virginius and the remaining crew if the United States would investigate ownership of the Virginius. In mid-December, the Virginius, still taking on water, was towed out to the open sea and turned over to the U.S. Navy. It foundered and sank off Cape Hatteras on its return voyage. The 91 crew who survived being held prisoner in Cuba were taken to New York City. Under the terms of an agreement reached in early 1875, the Spanish government paid the United States an indemnity of $80,000 for the Americans who had been executed.

David Dixon Porter (1813-1891) was born in Pennsylvania and began naval service at the age of ten as a midshipman on a ship commanded by his father, Commodore David Porter (1780-1843). He served in the Mexican Navy from 1824 to 1828, when his father was its overall commander. The younger Porter obtained a new appointment as midshipman in the US Navy in 1829, was promoted to lieutenant in 1841, and served in the Mexican War. After the war, he took a leave of absence to command civilian ships. When the Civil War began, Porter returned to active duty. He was promoted to commander and given charge of a flotilla of twenty mortar boats to be used against the forts guarding the entrance of the Mississippi River below New Orleans. They would be a part of the West Gulf Blockading Squadron commanded by Porter's adoptive brother Captain David G. Farragut (1801-1870). In mid-1862, Porter was ordered to Hampton Roads to aid General George B. McClellan in his Peninsula Campaign. By October, he was back on the Mississippi River, now as Acting Rear Admiral in charge of the Mississippi River Squadron. He quickly became friends with General William T. Sherman and later with General Ulysses S. Grant and played a key role in the siege of Vicksburg. Late in the summer of 1864, Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles transferred Porter to command the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron and tasked him with closing the port of Wilmington, North Carolina, the last major port open to blockade runners. Cooperating with General Alfred H. Terry, Porter's fleet successfully captured Fort Fisher, the Confederate fort protecting Wilmington, in January 1865. Porter toured the captured Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia, with President Abraham Lincoln in April 1865. After the war, Porter served as superintendent of the US Naval Academy from 1865 to 1869, where he initiated reforms in the curriculum to increase professionalism. In 1866, he was promoted to vice admiral, and in 1870, he became the second full admiral in US history, behind his adoptive brother Farragut. He served as de facto Secretary of the Navy in the early days of the administration of President Ulysses S. Grant, but his administration led some Congressional leaders to force Secretary of the Navy Adolph E. Borie to resign after only a few months on the job. The new Secretary of the Navy George Robeson curtailed Porter's authority and eased him into semi-retirement.

Stephen Decatur (1814-1876) was born in Newark, New Jersey, a nephew and namesake of the famous Commodore Stephen Decatur (1779-1820). The younger Decatur was appointed a midshipman in 1829 and commissioned a lieutenant in 1841. In 1848, he married Anna Rowell Philbrick (1821-1906), and they had six children. After taking a leave of absence in 1842 because of eye problems, he returned to naval duty in 1851 with service in the East Indies and New York. At the beginning of the Civil War, he was promoted to commander, the rank he held throughout the war. He was promoted to captain in 1867 and to commodore on the retired list in 1869.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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