Background
Uriah Phillips Levy was born on April 22, 1792 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. He was the son of Michael and Rachel (Phillips) Levy.
Uriah Phillips Levy was born on April 22, 1792 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. He was the son of Michael and Rachel (Phillips) Levy.
In 1806 he began a four-year apprenticeship under John Coulter, Philadelphia merchant and shipowner who placed Levy in the "best naval school" of Philadelphia for nine months during the 1808 embargo.
Between the ages of ten and twelve, Levy served, without his parents' consent, as a cabin boy on coasting vessels. After his apprenticeship under John Coulter he served as first mate and made enough money by October 1811 to become part owner of a schooner, the George Washington, of which he took command as master. The schooner was lost the following January through a mutiny off the Isle of May (United States vs. Tully, 28 Fed. , 226), and, war against England having been declared, Levy applied for a position in the United States navy.
He was commissioned sailing master, October 21, 1812, and served on harbor duty until the following June, when, as volunteer acting lieutenant, he joined the Argus, then about to transport the American minister to France. In August 1813, just before the Argus' encounter with the Pelican, Levy was transferred to a prize vessel, was captured, and spent sixteen months in England. Returning to naval duty, for the next ten years his quarrelsome pride, his shipmates' contempt for his having risen from the ranks, and a prejudice against his Jewish ancestry involved him in a series of broils, most of them petty, but one of them culminating in a duel, fatal to his opponent.
Six times court-martialed, he was twice dismissed from the service: the first time (1819) for contempt, but after nearly two years President Monroe's disapproval of the sentence reinstated him; the second time (1842) he was cashiered for the infliction of a bizarre punishment on a subordinate, but the sentence was commuted to twelve months' suspension by President Tyler. Levy's steady rise in rank during these years was evidence both of the pettiness of his squabbles and of his relentless energy, but his appointment as captain (1844) was followed by a decade of vain endeavor to obtain a command, his public service at this period being confined chiefly to an unofficial and indirect assistance in the abolition of flogging from the navy. In 1855 the newly created "Board of Fifteen" dropped him from the navy's rolls. He protested to Congress in a Memorial (New York, 1855), and defended himself before the Court of Inquiry in 1857, with the result that his rank was restored. He received a command of the Mediterranean Squadron in 1860. As a squadron commander he was given the title of commodore, then the highest position in the U. S. Navy. Later he returned to his New York home, and died there.
His admiration for Jefferson led him to purchase "Monticello, " which unforeseen litigation after his death prevented from becoming a public shrine; and at the outbreak of the Civil War he offered his fortune to President Lincoln for his country's use.
Levy was the first Jewish Commodore of the United States Navy. He was instrumental in helping to end the Navy's practice of flogging, and during his half-century-long service prevailed against the antisemitism he faced among some of his fellow naval officers. He also undertook various philanthropic endeavors, many of which were in support of Jewish-American life.
Levy was a courageous and humane officer and a fervid patriot despite his sensitiveness, vanity, and occasional insubordination.
Levy was married to Virginia Levy.
