Background
John Rodgers was born at Sion Hill near Havre de Grace, Maryland, the fourth child of John Rodgers and Minerva (Denison) Rodgers.
captain commandant Dictator lieutenant naval officer commodore president of the United States Naval Institute
John Rodgers was born at Sion Hill near Havre de Grace, Maryland, the fourth child of John Rodgers and Minerva (Denison) Rodgers.
He spent a year at the University of Virginia where he was engaged in general study.
On April 18, 1828, he was appointed midshipman and saw his first active service on board the Constellation and the Concord in the Mediterranean. On his return he entered the Norfolk naval school preliminary to an examination for passed midshipman, to which he was promoted in 1834.
After a year at the University of Virginia he was ordered to the Coast Survey and then to the Dolphin of the Brazil Squadron. At the end of three years of duty with that squadron, he was employed in surveying the coast of Florida and in cooperating with the army in the Seminole War, first as commander of the Wave and later of the Jefferson. He was promoted lieutenant from January 28, 1840.
From 1842 to 1844 he commanded the Boxer of the Home Squadron. In the latter year he was sent to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to aid in the construction of the steamer Alleghany. He spent the next three years on the coast of Africa and in the Mediterranean.
On his return in 1849 he was three years with the Coast Survey, part of the time in command of surveying vessels. On October 12, 1852, he was ordered to duty in connection with the North Pacific Exploring and Surveying Expedition, which lasted, with a few brief interruptions, until the Civil War. He was second in rank, commanding the John Hancock, but succeeded Cadwalader Ringgold in command of the expedition in the summer of 1854.
At the Liu-Kiu Islands he landed a detachment and forced the natives to guarantee the performance of their obligations under their treaty with the United States. After surveying the Liu-Kius, Ladrones, and other islands, the coast of Japan, and the sea of Okhotsk, he sailed into the Arctic Ocean where he explored unknown regions and obtained information that corrected the Admiralty charts. He next surveyed the Hawaiian and Society islands. In 1856, he returned to the United States and was placed in charge of an office in Washington engaged in preparing for publication the results of the expedition. The reports, however, were never published. During his absence he had been promoted commander from September 14, 1855.
On October 17 he was appointed to command the Flag of the squadron of Admiral Du Pont.
Later he commanded a small fleet of gunboats on the Savannah River.
On April 21, 1862, he was ordered to command the Galena, the flagship of a small fleet operating on the James River. At Drewry's Bluff he encountered obstructions in the river and an action lasting three hours took place, the brunt of which was borne by the Galena at close range, with a loss of twenty-four men.
He was promoted to the rank of captain from July 16 and in November was transferred from the Galena to the Weehawken, one of the new monitors.
In the attack on Fort Sumter on April 7, 1863, the Weehawken headed the line of ships and for two hours received the concentrated fire of the Confederate batteries, being struck fifty-three times. On June 17 in Wassaw Sound, Georgia, she encountered the Atlanta, reputed to be the strongest of the Confederate ironclads, and received her surrender after an engagement of fifteen minutes.
In July he was ordered to command the Canonicus and in November was transferred to the Dictator, in which he saw his last active service in the war. In recognition of Rodgers' services President Lincoln recommended to Congress that he be thanked for his exhibition of "eminent skill and gallantry" in the fight with the Atlanta, and for his "zeal, bravery, and general good conduct" shown on other occasions (Official Records, post, XIV, 184). Congress complied with the President's recommendation, promoting him to the rank of commodore from the date of the battle.
In July he was ordered to command the Canonicus and in November was transferred to the Dictator, in which he saw his last active service in the war.
In September 1865, Rodgers was placed in command of a small fleet, with the Vanderbilt as his flagship, and proceeded with it to the Pacific. On his arrival at Valparaiso early in the following year he found a Spanish squadron threatening to bombard the city. He proposed to join with the English, French, Prussians, and Italians in an armed intervention, but when they declined he refused to act alone. He did what he could, however, to protect peacefully American and neutral interests.
He was commandant of the Boston navy yard from 1866 to 1869. He commanded the Asiatic Squadron as a rear admiral, 1870-72, his promotion to that rank being dated December 31, 1869.
In 1871 he conveyed to Korea, on board the flagship Colorado, Frederick Ferdinand Low, the American minister to China, who was authorized to negotiate a treaty with the Koreans. After anchoring his fleet of five vessels in Seoul or on Han River he sent up the river a surveying party, which was attacked by the Koreans and suffered a loss of two men wounded. Rodgers landed a detachment which destroyed five forts, killed two hundred and forty Koreans, and captured about 500 pieces of artillery, with a loss of three men killed and ten wounded.
No treaty was concluded.
Rodgers was president of the Naval Examining and Retiring boards, 1872-73; commandant of the Mare Island navy yard, 1873-77; superintendent of the Naval Observatory, 1877-82; and chairman of the Light-House Board, 1878-82. He secured for the observatory its present site and made certain its reconstruction on more ample lines. In the last years of his life his eminence led to his selection as president of the United States Naval Institute, of the Transit of Venus Commission, of the First Naval Advisory Board, from which dates the new navy, and of the Jeannette Relief Board. At the time of his death in Washington, D. C. , he was the senior rear admiral on the active list.
He was a charter member of the National Academy of Sciences.
Until the approach of his last illness, Rodgers preserved a remarkable vigor of mind and body, never losing his faculty for initiative.
Independent and straightforward, he was open to argument in preliminary discussion, but was persistent and tenacious in action.
Quotes from others about the person
In recognition of Rodgers' services President Lincoln recommended to Congress that he be thanked for his exhibition of "eminent skill and gallantry" in the fight with the Atlanta, and for his "zeal, bravery, and general good conduct" shown on other occasions (Official Records, post, XIV, 184).
On November 27, 1857, he was married to Ann Elizabeth Hodge of Washington, D. C. , by whom he had three children.