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Rear-Admirals Schley, Sampson and Cervera
RearAdmirals Schley Sampson and Cervera Author:James Parker Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER V The "flying Squadron" is Formed To form the squadron that will go down to history as "The Flying Squadron" several ships were taken out of the Nort... more »h Atlantic fleet and sent to rendezvous at Hampton Roads. These were the armored cruiser Brooklyn (Captain Francis A. Cook) ; battleships Texas (Captain John W. Philip; Massachusetts (Captain Francis J. Higginson) ; and armored cruisers Minneapolis (Captain F. M. Wise) ; and Columbia (Captain James H. Sands). The last two were soon sent to the New England coasts, and some smaller vessels and a collier (Sterling) were sent to Hampton Roads in their stead. On March 24 Rear Admiral Sicard broke down under the strain of his greatly increased official labors and anxieties and was relieved from his command. Sicard was a distinguished officer who had served faithfully and with distinction during the Civil War. In command of the gunboat Seneca he took part in the battles of Fort Fisher, North Carolina, and voluntarily—for he was under no obligation of duty to do so—headed the officers and men from his vessel in the naval assault on that fort, January 15, 1865, where he behaved with much gallantry. He had served as chief of bureau in the Navy Department, had commanded the monitor Miantonomoh in the North Atlantic fleet when it was under command of Rear Admiral Francis M. Bunce, and succeeded that able officer in command of that fleet. His detachment left Captain William T. Sampson the senior officer of that station; and on March 27 Captain Sampson published an order in which he announced: "By order of the Honorable Secretary of the Navy I have assumed command of the United States naval force on the North Atlantic Station; and hoisted my pennant on board the armored cruiser New York, at 3.30 P. M. this day." And then aft...« less