Background
Nathaniel Reilly Usher, the son of Nathaniel and Pamela (Woolverton) Usher and nephew of John Palmer Usher, was born in Vincennes, Indiana.
Nathaniel Reilly Usher, the son of Nathaniel and Pamela (Woolverton) Usher and nephew of John Palmer Usher, was born in Vincennes, Indiana.
He entered the Naval Academy in 1871 and was graduated in 1875.
After two year's duty on the Asiatic Station, Usher was sent to the Paris Exposition of 1878 as a member of the American naval delegation. During the early gold rush days in Alaska, as an officer of the Jamestown, he assisted in maintaining law and order in the Territory.
In 1884 he was sent with Winfield Scott Schley to the Arctic on the Greely Relief Expedition, sailing as watch officer of the Bear but being transferred to the Alert, a ship donated by the British government. In the years 1886-89 he made a cruise around the world in the Juniata.
During the Spanish-American War, Usher commanded the torpedo boat Ericsson and was at Key West with her when the Maine was blown up in Havana Harbor. He is credited with capturing the first Spanish prize taken in the war. While Cervera's fleet lay in Santiago Harbor, Usher volunteered to run in with the Ericsson and torpedo the hostile vessels, but his offer was not accepted.
After the war he held a succession of important posts, including service on the General Board and in the Bureau of Navigation, and the commands of the cruiser St. Louis and the battleship Michigan. He rose rapidly in the service, attaining the rank of rear admiral in 1911. Usher commanded successively three different divisions of the Atlantic Fleet, and soon after the outbreak of the World War was made commandant of the Brooklyn Navy Yard.
Recognizing the fact that the United States would very likely be drawn into the war, he did his utmost to build up and modernize the ships under his command. When war was finally declared he was obliged to commandeer docks, outfit ships, and prepare convoys for the men, munitions, and food that must be rushed to France. It was chiefly because of his monumental energy and organizing ability that the Port of New York was able to ship the major part of all the supplies and eighty percent of all the men that America sent to the aid of her allies. In 1918 Usher was given command of the Third Naval District.
When he retired on April 7, 1919, he was the guest of honor at a dinner at the Waldorf in New York, which was attended by 1, 500 persons. He was a man of commanding presence, the idol of his men, and held in high esteem in the service. After his retirement he lived on his farm at Potsdam, N. Y.
In the battle of Santiago Usher's vessel took a prominent part and his report of the engagement is a model of concise, vivid narrative ("Naval Operations of the War with Spain, " House Document No. 3, 55 Cong. , 3 Sess. , pp. 547-48). During the First World War under his direction, a secret service was organized known as the Commandant's Aide for Information, a mine-sweeping force was developed, and the scout-patrol system was instituted. France, in recognition of his services to the cause of the Allies, bestowed upon him the ribbon of the French Legion of Honor, and he was awarded the Navy Cross by his own government.
Quotes from others about the person
Franklin D. Roosevelt, then assistant secretary of the navy, said of him: "No officer stands higher in his appreciation of the broad needs of this great democratic country in the matter of defence, and no one more tactfully, more forcefully, and more skillfully welded the naval reserve, the civilian, into the trained machine of the regular Navy" (Sun, New York, Apr. 8, 1919).
Usher married Anne Usher of Potsdam in 1891. He left no children.
