Robley Dunglison Evans was born in Floyd County, Virginia, one of the four children of Samuel Andrew Jackson and Sally Ann (Jackson) Evans. His father, who was a country physician, died when young Evans was ten years of age, and the next year the boy was sent to live with an uncle in Washington, D. C.
He received education in the public schools but was so interested in the sea and shipping that he spent much of his time by the Potomac watching the vessels in the harbor.
He had about decided to run away to sea when William H. Hooper, a friend of his uncle and delegate to Congress from Utah, suggested that he establish a residence in Utah and then be appointed to the naval academy from that territory.
The trip West to accomplish this legality involved perilous adventures with hostile Indians, and at the age of thirteen the boy was in his first fight and incidentally received his first wound. His career at Annapolis was duly begun but was cut short owing to the outbreak of the Civil War. In October 1863 at the age of seventeen, Evans was commissioned acting ensign in the United States navy in spite of family pressure that sought to have him join the Confederate forces. In the second attack on Fort Fisher, North Carlina, in January 1864, Evans was ordered to command a company of marines about to engage in an assault by land. He received four wounds, but while lying wounded he managed to kill off a sniper who was trying to exterminate him. He was invalided out of the service but his fighting qualities were so dominant that he appealed to Congress and gained a reinstatement. In 1876 he perfected a long-distance signal lamp much used in the service. He was made commander on July 12, 1878. He was considered an expert on steel-making, especially steel plates. His influence at Washington was a considerable factor in the decision to build battleships of steel in the future. In 1886-87 he was chief inspector of steel, in which capacity he had charge of determining the quality of material about to be used in constructing the new cruisers. In August 1891 Evans was placed in command of a steel gunboat, the Yorktown, and ordered to Chile, between which country and the United States relations were strained. Here he was called upon to manifest all the tact, diplomacy, and patience that was in him. At the same time, he had to uphold the prestige of his country while defying practically the entire Chilean navy with his little gunboat. The following year, in charge of a flotilla, he proceeded to the Bering Sea to stop abuses in the seal fisheries. Although this assignment was also involved in international complications, it was so well performed that he was especially mentioned by the president in a message to Congress, a rare honor in peace times. Evans attained his captaincy on June 27, 1893, and in 1895 took the New York to the Kiel Canal celebration. In 1898 his ship, the Iowa, fired the first gun at Cervera’s fleet as it came out of Santiago. On Febuary 11, 1901, he was commissioned rear-admiral, and in 1902 he was made commanding officer of the entire Asiatic fleet. While in the Far East, he greatly improved the subcaliber firing practise, and also invented a new loading machine used in the gunnery work. When, in 1907, President Roosevelt decided to send the fleet around the world, Evans was chosen its commander-in-chief. He conducted it through the Straits of Magellan and as far north as Magdalena Bay. Illness overtook him there, however, and he was obliged to retire. In a personal letter, Roosevelt paid him the compliment of stating that the fleet was in better shape when it reached San Francisco than it was when it left Hampton Roads.
In 1871, Evans had married Charlotte Taylor, a sister of his brother officer, Henry C. Taylor. To them three children were born.
