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Contookcook, N.H., Vice Admiral Guy H. Burrage, USN Retired,one-time commandant of the Fifth Naval District and the naval operating base at Norfolk, VA died at his summer home yesterday. He was 87. Admiral Burrage headed the Fifth District at the time of his retirement in 1931 after 44 years’ service. In 1919 he was commandant of the Norfolk Navy Yard. He leaves his widow, Mary Burrage, 2 daughters and 9 grandchildren. Funeral services were scheduled for this afternoon at Hopkinton with burial in Congressional Cemetery, Washington, D.C.
Rear Admiral Guy H. Burrage, United States Navy, and president of the Board of Inspection and Survey, Office of Naval Operations, Washington, D.C., was promoted to his present rank June 27, 1920. He had held the rank of temporary rear admiral, having been so commissioned while in command of the battleship Nebraska, which was in the convoy service during the latter part of the World War.
Rear Admiral Burrage was born at Lowell, Massachusetts, June 14, 1867, son of Hamilton and Mary Howe (Davis) Burrage. He was appointed to the United States Naval Academy and was graduated in 1887. During the years he has been in the navy he has risen steadily through the grades to his present rank and has seen the following service: Lieutenant, junior grade, on the Wheeling, Spanish-American War; executive office of the Washington and then on the Connecticut, 1907-10; commanded the Albatross, 1910-12; at Naval War College, Newport, R.I., 1912; on duty U.S. Naval Academy, 1912-14; commandant of midshipmen, Naval Academy, 1914-15; commanded the Nebraska, 1915-19; attached to office of naval operations, Navy Department, Washington, D.C., 1919; commandant, Navy Yard, Norfolk, Virginia, 1919; Navy Department and president of the Board of Inspection and Survey. Commandant of the Navy Yard at Norfolk, 1919-1921. In 1921 Rear Admiral Burrage commanded the destroyer division for the Pacific fleet. Commander of United States Naval Forces in Europe, 1926-1928 and commanded the ship that brought back Lindbergh and the Spirit of St. Louis from Paris, 1927. His final post was Commandant of the Fifth Naval District at Norfolk, Virginia 1928-1931.
On September 4, 1894, he married Mary Ricketts Graham, of California, and has three daughters -- Mrs. W.W. Gwathmey, Jr.; Mrs. Barton Myers, Jr.; and Miss Charlotte Meade Burrage.
He is a member of the Army and Navy Club, Washington, D.C.
Awarded the Navy Cross during World War One (see ribbon bar for citation).
Description The Spanish–American War (Spanish: Guerra hispano-estadounidense or Guerra hispano-americana; Filipino: Digmaang Espanyol-Amerikano) was a conflict fought between Spain and the United States in 1898. Hostilities began in the aftermath of the internal explosion of the USS Maine in Havana harbor in Cuba leading to United States intervention in the Cuban War of Independence. American acquisition of Spain's Pacific possessions led to its involvement in the Philippine Revolution and ultimately in the Philippine–American War.
Revolts had been occurring for some years in Cuba against Spanish rule. The U.S. later backed these revolts upon entering the Spanish–American War. There had been war scares before, as in the Virginius Affair in 1873. In the late 1890s, US public opinion was agitated by anti-Spanish propaganda led by newspaper publishers such as Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst which used yellow journalism to call for war. The business community across the United States had just recovered from a deep depression, and feared that a war would reverse the gains. They lobbied vigorously against going to war.
The US Navy battleship Maine was mysteriously sunk in Havana harbor; political pressures from the Democratic Party pushed the administration of Republican President William McKinley into a war that he had wished to avoid.[9] Spain promised time and time again that it would reform, but never delivered. The United States sent an ultimatum to Spain demanding that it surrender control of Cuba. First Madrid declared war, and Washington then followed suit.
The main issue was Cuban independence; the ten-week war was fought in both the Caribbean and the Pacific. US naval power proved decisive, allowing expeditionary forces to disembark in Cuba against a Spanish garrison already facing nationwide Cuban insurgent attacks and further wasted by yellow fever. Numerically superior Cuban, Philippine, and US forces obtained the surrender of Santiago de Cuba and Manila despite the good performance of some Spanish infantry units and fierce fighting for positions such as San Juan Hill. Madrid sued for peace with two obsolete Spanish squadrons sunk in Santiago de Cuba and Manila Bay and a third, more modern fleet recalled home to protect the Spanish coasts.
The result was the 1898 Treaty of Paris, negotiated on terms favorable to the US which allowed it temporary control of Cuba and ceded ownership of Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippine islands. The cession of the Philippines involved payment of $20 million ($575,760,000 today) to Spain by the US to cover infrastructure owned by Spain.
The defeat and collapse of the Spanish Empire was a profound shock to Spain's national psyche, and provoked a thorough philosophical and artistic revaluation of Spanish society known as the Generation of '98.[ The United States gained several island possessions spanning the globe and a rancorous new debate over the wisdom of expansionism. It was one of only five US wars (against a total of eleven sovereign states) to have been formally declared by Congress.