George Dewey was born on December 26, 1837, in Montpelier, Vermont, directly across from the Vermont State House, to Julius Yemans Dewey, a physician and one of the founders of the National Life Insurance Company, and his first wife, Mary Perrin. He died on January 16, 1917, as the most celebrated naval officer in American history, having achieved the unique rank of Admiral of the Navy, a designation created specifically for him and never held by anyone else before or since. His fame rested primarily on a single morning's work in Manila Bay in 1898, when he destroyed the Spanish Pacific fleet without losing a single American sailor to enemy fire.
His path to naval greatness was not entirely smooth at the outset. His father enrolled him at Norwich University in Northfield, Vermont, at fifteen, but the institution expelled him two years later for drunkenness and the improbable offense of herding sheep into the barracks. Whatever lessons that episode taught him, it did not derail his ambitions. He entered the United States Naval Academy in 1854 at sixteen, part of a small cohort in the conventional four-year program that had only been introduced three years earlier. Out of all the midshipmen who entered with him, only fourteen completed the course. Dewey graduated fifth in his class on June 18, 1858.
At sea as a midshipman he served aboard USS Saratoga on a practice cruise and earned recognition as a cadet officer. He was then assigned to the steam frigate USS Wabash, flagship of the Mediterranean Squadron under Captain Samuel Barron, a posting that allowed him to see the ports of Europe and the Mediterranean world before the Civil War transformed American naval life. He had found a role model in history as well as at sea — as a young man he had read a biography of the Carthaginian general Hannibal, who became something of a personal ideal in his imagination.
When the Civil War began, Dewey was assigned as executive lieutenant of USS Mississippi. He participated in the Union campaign on the southern waterways, most notably in the capture of New Orleans and the Siege of Port Hudson, both of which helped the Union establish control of the vital Mississippi River corridor. By the war's end he had risen to the rank of lieutenant commander, accumulating the experience and professional networks that would serve him in the decades ahead.
The postwar decades were years of patient service and steady advancement. He served on multiple ships, including a tour aboard the storied USS Constitution, and spent time as an instructor at the Naval Academy. He served on the United States Lighthouse Board and the Board of Inspection and Survey, the bureaucratic work of a peacetime navy that lacked both the drama and the promotions of wartime. He was promoted to commodore in 1896 and assigned to the Asiatic Squadron in 1897, a posting that placed him in the right position at the right moment. He understood that conflict with Spain was possible and began making preparations, ensuring his fleet was ready for combat operations.
When war between the United States and Spain was declared in April 1898, Dewey acted immediately. He led his Asiatic Squadron into Manila Bay in the Philippines and on the morning of May 1, 1898, opened fire on the Spanish Pacific fleet anchored there. The battle was over in hours. Dewey sank or captured every Spanish vessel in the bay. American casualties from enemy fire were zero. The Spanish fleet was obliterated. It was one of the most lopsided naval victories in modern history, and it transformed overnight both the strategic situation in the Pacific and Dewey's personal fame.
He was celebrated across the United States as a hero in the fullest sense of the word. Congress created the unique rank of Admiral of the Navy specifically for him, a grade above full admiral, and he received it in 1903. His popular standing was so high that he briefly considered seeking the Democratic presidential nomination for the election of 1900, but he withdrew from the race and ultimately endorsed the incumbent Republican president, William McKinley, who won reelection. Politics was not Dewey's element.
He spent his final years serving on the General Board of the United States Navy, an important policy-making body, from 1900 until his death on January 16, 1917. His third cousin twice removed was Thomas E. Dewey, later Governor of New York and a two-time Republican presidential nominee, but the most enduring legacy was the Admiral's own: the Battle of Manila Bay established American naval power in Asia, accelerated the collapse of the Spanish Empire, and turned the United States into a Pacific power in a single morning.
