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Charles Henry Davis was born on August 28, 1845 and brought up in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He was the son of Charles Henry Davis and Harriette Blake (Mills) Davis. Though without similar opportunities for wartime distinction, his career followed closely that of his father, whom he resembled in scientific bent and versatility of mind.
At sixteen Davis entered the Naval Academy, then at Newport, graduating in November 1864.
In winter of 1865 Davis was in the receiving ship at New York, and during the next two years, when he was attached to the Colorado in European waters, we catch glimpses of him at Paris with his elder brother, an art student, and his future brother-in-law, Henry Cabot Lodge.
After ten years of routine assignments, Davis spent two years in astronomical and geodetic work at the Naval Observatory. He then engaged in a series of expeditions (1877 - 85) in the North Atlantic, Far East, and on the west coast of South America, for fixing exact longitude by use of submarine cables, the results of which he published in three volumes, each prepared in collaboration with another officer, on Telegraphic Determination of Longitudes (1880, 1883, 1885).
He also published in 1877 a treatise, Chronometer Rates as Affected by Changes of Temperature and Other Causes. He was promoted to commander in 1885, and his special qualifications were recognized by his appointment, in intervals between sea commands, as chief intelligence officer (1889 - 92), and superintendent of the Naval Observatory (1897 - 1902). This last duty was interrupted by the Spanish-American War, during which he commanded the auxiliary cruiser Dixie in Cuban waters and was in charge of the division which, on July 27, 1898, forced the surrender of Ponce, Porto Rico, preparatory to its occupation by the army.
He was made a rear admiral in August 1904, and thereafter commanded a division and then a squadron of the Atlantic Fleet. Davis's range of interests and attractive personal qualities led to his selection for various special duties, notably as representative of the president at the reception of the Infanta Eulalie on her visit to the United States in 1893, as a member of the joint army and navy board that reported favorably on the Langley flying machine in 1898, of the international commission that met in Paris in 1904-05 to investigate the Dogger Bank dispute between England and Russia, and of the Perry's Victory Centennial Committee in 1912.
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Nervous, irritable, and whimsical at times, Davis was enthusiastic in his pleasures, a delightful companion, thoroughly democratic, and had an extraordinary store of general information. On shipboard he was a strict but just disciplinarian, and drew his men to him by personal affection.
On March 31, 1875, Davis married Louisa, daughter of Dr. John Quackenbush of Albany, N. Y. His elder son, Charles Henry Davis, entered the navy prior to his father's retirement, so that in 1928 there had been one of that name in the navy continuously for 105 years.
