Background
He was born on February 9, 1840 in Palmyra, New York, United States, the eldest of seven children of James and Hannah (Walker) Sampson. His great-grandparents had come to America from northern Ireland.
He was born on February 9, 1840 in Palmyra, New York, United States, the eldest of seven children of James and Hannah (Walker) Sampson. His great-grandparents had come to America from northern Ireland.
With an excellent record in the Palmyra schools, he gained an appointment to the United States Naval Academy, and was graduated first in the class of 1861.
He was awarded an honorary doctorate (LL. D. ) by Yale University in October 1901, during celebrations for the bicentenary of the university.
After duty earlier in the Civil War as instructor at the Naval Academy at Newport, he joined the monitor Patapsco in 1864, as executive officer, and was on her turret when she was blown up while removing mines in Charleston harbor, Jan. 15, 1865, with a loss of sixty lives.
He was made lieutenant in 1862, and lieutenant commander in 1866, while serving in the Colorado of the European Squadron. He was at the Naval Academy from 1868 to 1871, and after service on the European station returned to Annapolis as head of the physics department, 1874-78. He developed in these years of study and teaching an outstanding proficiency in the scientific side of his profession, especially in physics, chemistry, metallurgy, and astronomy.
After commanding the Swatara in the Orient, 1879-82, he was stationed at the Naval Observatory, and in 1884 was a delegate to the International Meridian Conference. He commanded the Newport Torpedo Station from 1884 to 1886 and was also a member of an inter-service board on coast defenses, the naval aspects of which he treated in an article in the Proceedings of the United States Naval Institute, April 1889. From 1886 to 1890 he was superintendent of the Naval Academy. After two years in command of the San Francisco, he became superintendent of the naval gun foundry at Washington and later chief of the ordnance bureau, 1893-97.
During his tenure of this office he was credited with making great advances in guns, explosives, and gunnery practice (Long, post, p. 227). In June 1897 he joined the North Atlantic Squadron in command of the battleship Iowa. He was president of the board of inquiry on the Maine disaster, and was selected to command the squadron on the eve of the war with Spain, when the health of Admiral Montgomery Sicard was judged unequal to the task. This appointment over a dozen capable senior officers gave signal recognition of his high service reputation.
Though the Spanish opposition was not such as to try his leadership to the utmost, he met with notable success the constant tests of judgment and severe mental and physical stress of the extended tropical campaign. In deference to departmental orders not to endanger his ships against shore defenses before meeting the Spanish fleet, he gave up his early design of an attack on Havana, and, at the declaration of war on Apr. 21, 1898, left Key West with twenty-six vessels to establish a blockade of the north coast of Cuba.
Upon receiving news of Cervera's arrival at Martinique on May 12, Sampson hastened westward, and was joined at Key West by the Flying Squadron from Norfolk, under the command of Winfield Scott Schley. This force, now operating under Sampson's orders, was dispatched on May 19 to blockade Cienfuegos, chief southern port of Cuba, where it was expected Cervera would next appear. There was some constraint in the arrangement by which Schley, though two numbers senior to Sampson, was placed under him, and this was increased by Schley's delay in moving eastward from Cienfuegos to Santiago upon receiving news of Cervera's arrival there on May 19, and his still further delay in establishing a close blockade of that port. To the department's anxious query as to when and for how long he could himself blockade Santiago, Sampson replied that he could go at once and blockade indefinitely. He joined Schley at Santiago on June 1, and the combined forces took up their month-long vigil off the port, with ships in close semicircle around the narrow entrance and searchlights at night playing directly upon it. In this blockade Sampson's genius for patient and painstaking organization found full play.
On the morning of July 3, Sampson in his flagship, the New York, had gone about seven miles eastward for a conference with General Shafter. He had signaled, "Disregard movements of flagship, " but had not turned over the command to the next in rank, Schley; he was in sight of the squadron, and probably within signal range of the nearer units. When the suspense was ended by the coming out of Cervera's squadron at 9:35 a. m. , the New York hastened back toward the battle, but though under fire from the entrance forts and in position to control later operations, she did not actually fire on any of the larger enemy ships. Schley, meantime, in the fast cruiser Brooklyn, was conspicuous in the action, and the early newspaper dispatches gave him chief credit for the victory. Sampson's first message - "The fleet under my command offers the nation as a Fourth of July present the whole of Cervera's fleet" (Annual Report of the Navy Department, 1898, post, p. 505) was ridiculed.
Popular opinion made Schley the hero, though the department and the service in general strongly supported Sampson. Politics also entered into the long and bitter controversy which ensued, and the provisional promotions of Aug. 10, 1898, advancing Sampson eight numbers and Schley six, were not confirmed by the Senate. Both became permanent rear admirals by the Personnel Act of 1899, but Sampson, with manifest injustice, never received special recognition for his excellent work throughout the war. Actually, the question of command in the battle was not vital, since no squadron orders of consequence were issued.
Sampson published an article on the Atlantic fleet in the Spanish-American War in the Century Magazine, April 1899. The hostility of the press correspondents was unquestionably due largely to Sampson's austere, uningratiating manner. For a time after the Santiago victory it was planned to send a force under Sampson to the Spanish coast, but the plan was abandoned and after the close of hostilities he brought his fleet on Aug. 20 to New York.
His death from paresis occurred in Washington, D. C.
He participated in American Civil War and Spanish–American War and was promoted to the rank of the Rear admiral. He was known for his victory in the Battle of Santiago de Cuba during the Spanish–American War. Later he was in Cuba with the Puerto Rico Evacuation Commission, and subsequently continued in command of the Atlantic fleet until October 1899. Thereafter until his death he was in charge of the Boston navy yard. Sampson was a companion of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States and the Military Order of Foreign Wars. Admiral Sampson was one of only four members of the United States Armed Forces entitled to wear a medal with his own image on it. The United States Naval Academy's Sampson Hall, which houses the English and History departments, is named in his honor. The United States Navy also authorized a service medal, known as the Sampson Medal, to recognize those who had served under his command during the Spanish–American War. Both the elementary and high school at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base are named in his honor.
He was not a great reader of general literature or a man of wide interests. He was reticent by nature, and gave an initial impression of coldness. With subordinates he was uniformly courteous, and he won their devotion, but he was not quick to praise.
Quotes from others about the person
Admiral Dewey, his shipmate in the Colorado, speaks of Sampson as possessing "a most brilliant mind and the qualities of a practical and efficient officer on board ship, and as being one of the handsomest men he had ever seen" (Autobiography of George Dewey, 1913, p. 139).
He was married in 1863 to Margaret Sexton Aldrich of Palmyra, and in 1882 to Elizabeth Susan Burling of Rochester, N. Y. By his first marriage he had four daughters, and by his second, two sons.
