Dewey and Other Naval Commanders | Page 4

his son as alternate, who, as may be understood, secures
the appointment only in the event of the principal failing to pass the
entrance examination. In this case the principal would have passed
without trouble, and, to quote an ordinary expression, George Dewey
would have been "left," had not the mother of the other boy interposed
at the critical moment. Under no circumstances would she allow her
son to enter the navy. He was compelled to give up all ambition in that
direction and to take up the study of theology. At this writing he is a
popular preacher, who will always believe it was a most providential
thing for our country that turned him aside from blocking the entrance
of George Dewey to the Naval Academy at Annapolis.
Our hero entered the institution September 23, 1854. It did not take him
long to discover that the institution, like that at West Point, is
controlled by the most rigid discipline possible. No stricter rules can be
devised than those that prevail at the two institutions. I have heard it
said by a West Point graduate that a cadet cannot sit down and breathe
for twenty-four hours without violating some rule. The fact that a few
men do escape being "skinned"--that is, punished for derelictions of
duty--does not prove that they have not committed any indiscretions,
but that they have escaped detection.
Hard, however, as was the road for Dewey to travel, he never shrank or

turned aside, for he knew the same path had been traveled by all who
had gone before him, and he reasoned that what man had done man
could do, and he did it.
It will be noted that the future Admiral entered the Naval Academy at a
stirring period in the history of our country, over which the coming
Civil War already cast its awful shadow, and, as the months and years
passed, the shadow darkened and grew more portentous until the red
lightning rent the clouds apart and they rained blood and fire and woe
and death.
At the Annapolis Academy the lines between the cadets from the North
and the South were sharply drawn. They reflected the passions of their
sections, and, being young and impulsive, there were hot words and
fierce blows. As might be supposed, George Dewey was prominent in
these affrays, for it has been said of him that there was never a fight in
his neighborhood without his getting into the thickest of it.
One day a fiery Southerner called him a dough-face, whereupon Dewey
let go straight from the shoulder and his insulter turned a backward
somersault. Leaping to his feet, his face aflame with rage, he went at
the Green Mountain Boy, who coolly awaited his attack, and they
proceeded instantly to mix it up for some fifteen minutes in the most
lively manner conceivable. At the end of that time the Southerner was
so thoroughly trounced that he was unable to continue the fight.
It was not long before Dewey had a furious scrimmage with another
cadet, whom he soundly whipped. He challenged Dewey to a duel, and
Dewey instantly accepted the challenge. Seconds were chosen,
weapons provided and the ground paced off. By that time the friends of
the two parties, seeing that one of the young men, and possibly both,
were certain to be killed, interfered, and, appealing to the authorities of
the institution, the deadly meeting was prevented. These incidents attest
the personal daring of Admiral Dewey, of whom it has been said that
he never showed fear of any living man. Often during his stirring career
was the attempt made to frighten him, and few have been placed in so
many situations of peril and come out of them alive, but in none did he
ever display anything that could possibly be mistaken for timidity. He

was a brave man and a patriot in every fibre of his being.
A youth can be combative, personally brave and aggressive, and still be
a good student, as was proven by the graduation of Dewey, fifth in a
class of fourteen. As was the custom, he was ordered to a cruise before
his final examination. He was a cadet on the steam frigate Wabash,
which cruised in the Mediterranean squadron until 1859, when he
returned to Annapolis and, upon examination, took rank as the leader of
his class, proof that he had spent his time wisely while on what may be
called his trial cruise. He went to his old home in Montpelier, where he
was spending the days with his friends, when the country was startled
and electrified by the news that Fort Sumter had been fired on in
Charleston harbor and that civil war had begun. Dewey's patriotic
blood was at the boiling point, and