Summary of Walter R. Borneman 's The Admirals

Everest Media

Description

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.
Sample Book Insights:
#1 The American battleship Oregon was sent to the Strait of Magellan in April 1898, and as it thundered toward the fabled strait, the air hung thick with rumors of war with Spain.
#2 The Leahy brothers, Michael and John, were both in the 35th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry Regiment during the Civil War. They were both proud of their service, and for the rest of their lives, they regularly attended meetings of veterans’ groups and marched in Fourth of July parades.
#3 The town of Annapolis, Maryland, was the capital of the colony of Maryland and was renamed Annapolis in 1694. It prospered as a trading center until overtaken by growing Baltimore, but it remained a political and cultural center.
#4 The United States Naval Academy was established in 1845. It was not very grand, but it would become the place where the country’s top naval officers were educated.

Sujets

• United States
• 20th century

Informations

• Publié par: Everest Media LLC
• Date de parution: 10 avril 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781669383727
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Insights on Walter R. Borneman's The Admirals
Contents Insights from Chapter 1 Insights from Chapter 2 Insights from Chapter 3
Insights from Chapter 1

#1

The American battleship Oregon was sent to the Strait of Magellan in April 1898, and as it thundered toward the fabled strait, the air hung thick with rumors of war with Spain.

#2

The Leahy brothers, Michael and John, were both in the 35th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry Regiment during the Civil War. They were both proud of their service, and for the rest of their lives, they regularly attended meetings of veterans’ groups and marched in Fourth of July parades.

#3

The town of Annapolis, Maryland, was the capital of the colony of Maryland and was renamed Annapolis in 1694. It prospered as a trading center until overtaken by growing Baltimore, but it remained a political and cultural center.

#4

The United States Naval Academy was established in 1845. It was not very grand, but it would become the place where the country’s top naval officers were educated.

#5

Leahy was a solid but never stellar student at Annapolis. He was content to play tackle on the B squad in football, and he sometimes seemed to float his way through classes. But when the chips were down, he was always the one who could solve the problem.

#6

Theodore Roosevelt, who was assistant secretary of the navy, was one of many Republicans who had canvassed the country in William McKinley’s stead during the 1896 election. He was in charge of promoting increased American naval power.

#7

The rush to war with Spain was also speeded up by public opinion. On April 11, President William McKinley sent a war message to Capitol Hill, and Congress declared war on Spain on April 19.

#8

The Battle of Manila Bay was a great victory for the United States, but it was hardly the greatest naval battle on record. The Oregon’s race around South America was taken as strong evidence for the need to build the Panama Canal.

#9

On the morning of July 3, 1898, the American fleet attacked the Spanish fleet in Santiago harbor. The Spanish fleet was destroyed, with only two American casualties. Six hundred Spanish sailors perished.

#10

The Russo-Japanese War was the result of a surprise attack by Japanese destroyers on the Russian naval base at Port Arthur, China, in 1904. It was a stunning Japanese victory, but diplomatic relations between the two countries were strained.

#11

Ernest King was a builder, and he had a very straightforward and obstinate personality. His father, James Clydesdale King, was a master woodworker for the Royal Navy on the docks of Plymouth, England, before iron-hulled steamships cut into his livelihood. He, too, sought brighter prospects in America and took his wife and four eligible daughters to Cleveland in 1872.

#12

Ernest King was sent to the Naval Academy in 1897, after William D. Leahy graduated and left to serve on the Oregon. He took the usual entrance exams to validate his appointment, and joined eighty-seven classmates in the class of 1901.

#13

King was sent to sea with the San Francisco, a cruiser, as its flagship. The main Atlantic fleet had won its crushing victory at Santiago, and there was little to do but blockade the island’s northern coast.

#14

After his adventure in the war, King returned to Annapolis and became the top cadet commander in his class. He was also known for chasing women and smoking cigarettes. He eventually married another woman, but he was always interested in Mattie Egerton, the most beautiful woman at Annapolis.

#15

King was promoted to captain in 1907, and in 1908 he was assigned to the battleship Illinois, which was the U. S. flagship in European waters. He experienced a grand review of naval might representing sixteen nations off Spithead, England, for the coronation of Edward VII.

#16

King faced a political dilemma when he was assigned to be the commander of the Illinois. He was six months away from taking final exams to be commissioned an ensign, and no less than the captain of Illinois advised him to remain aboard. However, King became aware of a vacancy on the cruiser Cincinnati, and he seized on it because the smaller crew would allow him to command a ship’s division and serve as a watch officer before he was commissioned an ensign.

#17

The Russo-Japanese war did not go well for Russia. Its remaining capital ships fought minimal sea engagements in the neighboring waters with only limited success. Japan invaded Korea and laid siege to Port Arthur. As Russia struggled to stay in the conflict, a major problem was supplying its ships and armies by rail across Siberia.

#18

The Battle of Tsushima Strait was a victory for Japan, and Admiral Togo became a godlike hero. King was impressed with Japan’s naval performance, but he also noted the empire’s proficiency in putting out a steady stream of propaganda claiming victory at every turn.

#19

The return of the Great White Fleet was an exclamation point on Theodore Roosevelt’s foreign policy. The goals he had set for the navy were now triumphant before him.

#20

William Halsey, Jr. , was born in 1882. He was a lieutenant in the United States Navy, and he wanted to attend the Naval Academy. He wrote a letter to President-elect William McKinley asking for a presidential appointment.

#21

Bill Halsey was not destined for academic stardom at the Naval Academy, but he applied himself just enough to make respectable marks. He was sworn into the class of 1904, the last incoming academy class of fewer than 100 cadets.

#22

Halsey was a big fan of football, and he enjoyed the summer training cruises. He was also a member of the Lucky Bag, an associate editor, and the Class German Committee. He was assigned to the battleship Missouri in 1904, and he enjoyed his sea duty.

#23

Halsey’s progression from one Missouri to the other is a graphic example of the evolution of American naval might. He served aboard the Mizzy for two years, and his cruise was not without incident. A column of flame shot several hundred feet into the air from the top hatch of the 12-inch after turret.

#24

The Great White Fleet was a demonstration of American power, and it traveled from San Francisco to Honolulu to Auckland to Sydney to Melbourne to Manila, anchoring in Manila Bay near the site of Admiral Dewey’s triumph a decade earlier.

#25

The American fleet visit Japan in 1908 was a model of courtesy and decorum. The Japanese forced an apparent American snub of China, by only sending half of the battleships to visit Shanghai rather than China itself.

#26

The Nimitz family, who were German, immigrated to South Carolina in the early 1800s. In 1844, they moved to Texas and founded Fredericksburg. Many of the younger settlers promptly anglicized their given names.

#27

Charles Henry Nimitz, the son of a settler, married Sophia Dorothea Mueller, the daughter of a fellow settler, in 1848. They had twelve children together. Charles served briefly in the Texas Rangers, but in 1852 he started the Nimitz Hotel on the east end of Fredericksburg’s Main Street.

#28

Chester Nimitz was a naval cadet in 1901, and he was sworn in as a naval cadet on September 7, 1901. He was determined that his lack of a high school diploma would not hinder his advancement, so he continued his West Texas habit of rising early to get in extra study time.

#29

Nimitz was a hardworking and even-tempered cadet who got along easily with his peers and superiors. He was the eighth man, the stroke, on the rowing team, and he took good care of himself.

#30

The court case and beer party incident were two lessons Nimitz learned from his time at the Naval Academy. The first was that the navy should not be made a public spectacle. The second was that first offenders should be treated with leniency when they appeared before him as a commanding officer.

#31

The class of 1905 graduated at the end of January instead of in the traditional first week in June. Nimitz was assigned to the new battleship Ohio, and the ship departed San Francisco for its assignment as flagship of the Asiatic Squadron.

#32

After a year in the Western Pacific, Ohio returned to the United States without Nimitz. He stayed in Manila and was briefly assigned to the cruiser Baltimore, an aging relic of Admiral Dewey’s squadron, while he passed the examinations to receive his commission as an ensign.

#33

The incident with the Decatur and the mudflat was a major embarrassment for Nimitz, but he was able to keep his command and was sent to report on the situation in submarines.

#34

In 1909, Leahy was assigned to the armored cruiser California. He was promoted to lieutenant junior grade, and he missed the birth of his son in October 1904 but happened to be in the Harrington house in San Francisco when the great earthquake of 1906 struck.

#35

By 1910, Leahy was a lieutenant commander and the gunnery officer for the entire Pacific Squadron. He was a strong taskmaster, but he also had a realist attitude. He was unable to correct apparent faults, but he was slowly becoming exposed to those who did have rank and influence.

#36

After leaving the cruiser Cincinnati in the Far East, Ernest King was almost assigned to a lowly gunboat, but he quickly asked to see the chief of the Bureau of Navigation, hoping for a better assignment. The chief turned out to be King’s old commanding officer from the battleship Illinois, who advised King to stay aboard the Alabama.

#37

King spent three years on staff at Annapolis, and then went to sea again with Osterhaus as his admiral. He spent a year with Osterhaus in the Atlantic, and was then assigned to the New Hampshire as its engineering officer.

#38

King was promoted to lieutenant commander in 1913, and in the following spring it looked like there might be a war with Mexico. King went to Wash