Tim Elder

History 424

Blog entry 1

March 2, 2013

Charles Henry Davis

               Charles Henry Davis was a United States naval officer during the American Civil War. One of the most notable battles that Davis took part in during the Civil War was the Battle of Hampton Roads. This battle is more commonly known as the Battle between the USS Monitor and CSS Merrimac. This battle took place March 8–9, 1862.

Charles Henry Davis was born on January 16, 1807 in Boston. Davis was the youngest of thirteen children. He attended Harvard College in 1821, though he did not receive a degree until twenty years later.  His uncle was a Commodore as was a family friend of his father and through these two officers Davis entered the Navy in 1823 as a midshipman.

This started his naval career.  He left home in 1823, and left for a Pacific tour aboard the United States. This ship was one of the first ships to be outfitted with a chain cable instead of hemp cables. The ship had one Chain cable and one hemp cable as sailors were distrustful of the new chain cables.  After severing on the United States, Davis served on the Dolphin in the Pacific.

In the Civil war he had several battles in both the Western and Eastern Theatres of the war. One of his battles in the Western Theatre was Vicksburg. Davis and Flag Ship Officer Farragut were the two naval officers most commonly associated this with battle. Both Davis and Farragut had moved past the lines of operation that was deemed the commanding officer. This attempt by both Farragut and davis failed, but Vicksburg would fall over the next couple of months. 

Charles’s most famous battle came about when the USS Monitor was the first iron clad ship to face another iron clad ship the CSS Merrimac in naval warfare. This battle is historically important because the nature of naval warfare was forever changed as a result of this battle. Though neither ship was destroyed, they were however badly damaged. The age of wooden ships in combat was nearing its end as a result.

Charles was appointed to the Rank of Rear Admiral on February 6, 1863. In 1865 he was appointed to the position of Superintendent of the United States Naval Observatory, in which he served that position until 1867. After Davis served as superintendent he was assigned to the South Atlantic Squadron in 1867.

During a stretch of active duty in Brazil bestowed Davis a Doctor of Laws degree. This was an extremely rare honor for a naval officer. He also took up the position of Superintendent of the United States Naval Observatory again in 1874.  Charles Henry Davis died in 1877 in Washington and was buried in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In his personal life Charles Henry Davis married Harriett Blake Mills. Mills who was a daughter of a United States Senator, one of their daughters ended up marrying a United states Senator. His Son Charles H. Davis Jr. also served for the navy under a role of Chief Intelligence Officer of the Office of Naval Intelligence from 1889 to 1892.

His son Charles H. Davis wrote a book about his father entitled Life of Charles Henry Davis Rear Admiral 1807-1877. In this book his son includes several of his father’s notes and letters from his experience on active duty with the navy. In the final few paragraphs he describes his father as first and foremost a navy man, then a family man. In the book that Davis reached an age when most of his counterparts retired, yet he only took a vacation to Maine and then returned to duty.

Davis, Charles H., Life of Charles Henry Davis Rear Admiral 1807-1877. Riverside Press, Cambridge 1899.