(This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of th...)
This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.
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NOTE: NO FURTHER DISCOUNT FOR THIS PRINT PRODUCT --OVERSTOCK SALE-- Significantly reduced list price The book reprints a diary found in the Naval War College archives of Joseph K. Taussig, later a distinguished U.S. naval officer, kept when as a naval cadet (midshipman and junior officer) he participated in the Spanish-American War, Philippine Insurrection, and Boxer Rebellion. The text is supported by helpful editorial notes and introduction, as well as by numerous period photographs and the diarist’s sketches of the scenes and events. In this new volume covering the years 1898 to 1901, Dr. Cherpak has made a significant contribution to American naval history with the publication of these diaries. Vastly different in approach and sophistication of observation from those of more senior officers, these diaries capture the viewpoint and growing professional understanding of a young man during his very first experiences of wartime operations. In the years between 1882 and 1902, the U.S. Naval Academy did not use the titles “Midshipman” or “Passed Midshipman” for officers and naval engineers in training, employing the term “Naval Cadet” until the more traditional title was restored on 1 July 1902. During these years, the Naval Academy’s academic program lasted six years. The first four years were spent at Annapolis, the next two at sea. In part 1 of this book, Taussig writes while still in the first phase of his education at Annapolis. Taussig’s very rough and impressionistic notes of his first experiences of naval operations during the Spanish-American War, in 1898, are interesting for the manner in which they document some of the typical attitudes and interests of a novice, while also providing the modern reader with a fascinating viewpoint on the war. In part 2, Taussig has already finished his Annapolis years (in early 1899) and is beginning his two years of required sea duty before returning to Annapolis to take his final examination and to await a vacancy for promotion to ensign. During the entire period recorded in part 2 Taussig is still a naval cadet and has yet to take hisfinal promotion examination. He does that, but only in mid-1901, after the commanding officer of USS Culgoa (in the final entry printed in this book) allows him to proceed to that step, with the words, “An Excellent Journal. Approved.” In part 2 Taussig’s journals for 1899–1901 contrast with his first journal for 1898, as he records his observations of two more wars, the Philippine Insurrection and the Boxer Rebellion, observations that document his growing professionalism and his increasing interest in and understanding of the naval profession. Taken as a whole, Taussig’s diaries in this volume provide a valuable glimpse of the initial stage of a naval officer’s professional military education just a little over a century ago. When compared and contrasted with the diary that the same man was to keep in 1917, in command of a destroyer during World War I (The Queenstown Patrol), Taussig’s early journals and diaries can be seen as substantively marking the first stages of the development of an officer’s professional understanding. Taussig built on these initial experiences and developed his professional understanding when, as a captain, he became a student at the Naval War College in 1919, staying on for two years as an instructor in tactics in 1920–21. Returning to Newport after two additional periods in command, he became head of the Naval War College’s Strategy Department in 1923–26 and chief of staff to the President, Naval War College, in 1927–30, before becoming a flag officer in 1932. In the light of these further experiences and the advanced professional education that Taussig would eventually acquire, the diaries published in this volume provide insight into the basic professional military education at the entry level in the early twentieth century. Other products produced by the U.S. Navy, Naval War College can be found here: https://bookstore.gpo.gov/agency/621
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Joseph Taussig was born in Dresden, Germany, in August 1877. He was the third of the five sons of Edward David Taussig and Ellen (Knefler) Taussig. While his father, an American naval officer, was serving in the European squadron. A cousin of civic leader William Taussig and of economist Frederick William Taussig, he came of a talented St. Louis, Mo. , family whose members had emigrated in the 1840's from Prague.
After graduating from the Western High School in Washington, D. C. , Joseph Taussig attended the United States Naval Academy, where he was an outstanding athlete, and graduated in 1899.
Early in his service he saw duty in the Boxer Rebellion in China, where, as part of a multinational landing force, he was severely wounded and was advanced in grade for "conspicuous conduct in battle. "
In World War I he commanded the first division of six destroyers sent overseas in May 1917, to help protect the western approaches to England. After a stormy crossing, he reported to his British superior and was asked when his ships would be ready for service. His reply, "I will be ready as soon as fueled, " has become part of U. S. Navy tradition.
Taussig was early recognized as a talented officer, but his career was marred by a feud with Assistant Secretary of the Navy Franklin D. Roosevelt over conditions at the Portsmouth Naval Prison, then under the charge of Roosevelt's friend, the prison reformer Thomas Mott Osborne. Osborne's shift of emphasis from punishment to rehabilitation and his policy of returning convicted men to the fleet were resented by senior naval officers as harmful to discipline in wartime. Taussig, as head of the enlisted personnel division of the Navy Department, was the center of the opposition. When this opposition failed, Taussig in 1919 successfully requested transfer to the Naval War College. In January 1920 Roosevelt placed an unsigned article in the Army and Navy Journal praising Osborne's methods and stating that younger officers in destroyers approved the rehabilitation of prisoners. Taussig, in a signed letter, denied this, and further charged that many homosexual convicts had been restored to active duty. Roosevelt's reply implied that Taussig made false statements, whereupon the naval officer requested a court of inquiry to clear his name. Roosevelt attempted to reconcile their differences, but Taussig would accept nothing short of a full retraction. His request for an inquiry was not granted.
Taussig graduated from the Naval War College in 1920, and except for three years in commands at sea, he remained on duty there until 1931, rising to the rank of rear admiral. These were the war college's productive years, when the naval task force concept was formulated and general plans developed for an advance across the Pacific in the event of war with Japan. In 1931 Taussig appeared to be on his way to the top. After command of the battleship Maryland, he was successively chief of staff to the commander, Battle Fleet, and to the commander-in-chief, United States Fleet, and then assistant chief of naval operations (1933 - 1936). Roosevelt, however, was then president, and after 1936 Taussig held only minor flag assignment; in 1938 he was made commandant of the Fifth Naval District at Norfolk, Va. , where he remained until reaching the statutory retirement age in August 1941.
His final and characteristic major professional act was an appearance on April 22, 1940, before a joint House-Senate committee hearing on Pacific fortifications at which he testified that because of the Far East situation he did not see how the United States could avoid being drawn into war with Japan. His statement stirred a worldwide press reaction; it was disavowed by the Navy Department, and he received a letter of reprimand, which was rescinded by presidential order on the day after the Pearl Harbor attack.
Taussig was recalled to active duty in 1943 and served until 1946 as chairman of the naval clemency board.
Despite his failure to receive a top command, Taussig had a cogent impact on the navy. He achieved this through numerous articles in the Proceedings of the United States Naval Institute, the navy's professional journal. His subjects included enlisted personnel, officer promotion, characteristics of ships, naval organization, and, during World War II, rehabilitation of naval prisoners, and were usually connected with the duty he was currently performing. Sincere in conviction and well written, his articles often persuaded his civilian and naval superiors to act on his recommendations. The most notable was a prize essay in the Proceedings of May 1939, "An Organization for the United States Fleet, " in which he recommended establishment of task fleets, a practice followed in the formation of the Third and Fifth fleets of World War II and the Sixth and Seventh fleets in the postwar period. While commandant in Norfolk, Taussig built the the first public housing for navy enlisted men, risking censure by diverting funds for it from pier repairs. Taussig was nevertheless a personable man, a popular officer, and a noted navy raconteur.
He died of a heart attack in 1947 at the Bethesda (Md. ) Naval Hospital. Burial was in Arlington National Cemetery.
The destroyer Joseph K. Taussig (DE-1030) was named in his honor, while Taussig (DD-746) was named in honor of his father. Taussig Blvd. in Norfolk, Virginia, near Naval Station Norfolk, is named in his honor. Taussig Street in Tierrasanta, California in Murphy Canyon Military Housing is named in his honor.
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(This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of th...)
He was short, muscular, and outspoken.
He married Lulie Augusta Johnston of Norfolk, Va. , on October 18, 1911. They had three children: Emily Johnston, Margaret Stewart, and Joseph Knefler. The son followed his father into the navy and was seriously wounded in the Pearl Harbor attack.
