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Nicholson, Reginald (Reggie), RADM USN(Ret).
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Contact Info
Home Town Washington, DC
Date of Passing Dec 19, 1939
Location of Interment Arlington National Cemetery (VLM) - Arlington, Virginia
Rear Admiral Reginald Fairfax Nicholson, U.S.N. (Ret.) American Civil War, Spanish American War, Great White Fleet, World War I
Commanded: USS Rowan (TB-8), USS Farragut (TB-11), USS Tacoma (CL-20), USS Nebraska (BB-14), Yangtze Patrol, and the United States Asiatic Fleet.
Battles/wars: American Civil War the Union Blockade, Spanish–American War the Battle of Santiago de Cuba, and World War I.
Rear Admiral Reginald Fairfax Nicholson fought in the American Civil War and Spanish-American War, was Commander-in-Chief of the United States Asiatic Fleet, and came out of retirement during World War I to serve as the first U.S. naval attaché to Ecuador and Peru. He retired as the last active-duty U.S. Navy officer to have served in the American Civil War.
Naval career:
Nicholson was born in Washington, D.C., on 15 December 1852, the son of U.S. Navy Commodore Somerville Nicholson (1822-1905) and the former Hannah Maria Jones (1837-1897). His first U.S. Navy service came in 1864, when at the age of 12 he left school to enlist in the Navy as an orderly for his father, Somerville Nicholson, who was the commanding officer of the steamer USS State of Georgia, then operating as part of the Union blockade of the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War. While Nicholson was aboard State of Georgia, the ship blockaded Wilmington, North Carolina, and fought engagements with Confederate fortifications guarding the city. After 30 days, Nicholson left the ship and returned to school.
Five years later, Nicholson was appointed from the District of Columbia as a midshipman on 30 September 1869 and entered the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. He graduated on 31 May 1873 with the rank of midshipman.
Nicholson's first assignment was to the signals office in 1873. Promoted to ensign on 16 July 1874, he served aboard the sidewheel steam frigate USS Powhatan in the North Atlantic Squadron from 1875 to 1877. He then had ordnance duty at the Washington Navy Yard in Washington, D.C., from 1877 to 1878.
From 1878 to 1882, Nicholson was aboard the sloop-of-war USS Portsmouth, then serving as a training ship, and was promoted to master on 22 January 1880. He then performed duty at the United States Hydrographic Office from 1882 to 1885, being promoted while there to lieutenant, junior grade, on 3 March 1883. He returned to sea aboard the new steam sloop-of-war USS Mohican in the Pacific Squadron from 1885 to 1888, and was promoted to lieutenant on 17 January 1886. After leaving Mohican, he reported to the Washington Navy Yard for another tour of ordnance duty in 1888.
Nicholson was assigned to the new monitor USS Monterey in February 1893, and to the steamer USS Thetis in January 1895. He returned to the Washington Navy Yard for a third tour there in December 1895.
In December 1897, Nicholson reported for duty aboard the battleship USS Oregon, and he served as her chief navigation officer during her spectacular voyage from the United States West Coast around Cape Horn to Cuba at the outset of the Spanish-American War in 1898. On 1 October 1898, he was assigned to the new torpedo boat USS Farragut, then fitting out. Promoted to lieutenant commander on 3 March 1899, he became the first commanding officer of the new torpedo boat USS Rowan on 1 April 1899, then took command of Farragut when she was commissioned on 5 June 1899. He remained in command of Farragut until 1901.
Nicholson next served in the Bureau of Navigation and was promoted to commander on 17 September 1902. In 1903 he was assigned to the new protected cruiser USS Tacoma, then under construction at Union Iron Works in Mare Island, California, and became her first commanding officer when she was commissioned on 30 January 1904, remaining aboard her until December 1905. He began another tour of duty in the Bureau of Navigation on 22 June 1906, remaining there into 1907. He was promoted to captain on 1 July 1907.
Nicholson took command of the battleship USS Nebraska in 1907 and commanded her during Nebraska's participation in the 1907-1909 round-the-world cruise of the U.S. Navy's Great White Fleet, which she joined in May 1908. After the conclusion of the voyage in 1909, President William Howard Taft appointed him on 1 December 1909 for a four-year tour as Chief of the Bureau of Navigation in Washington, D.C.
Nicholson was promoted to rear admiral on 19 May 1911. In mid-1911, he was chosen to end his tour at the Bureau of Navigation early and succeed Rear Admiral Joseph B. Murdock as commander-in-chief of the U.S. Asiatic Fleet as of November 1911, but United States Secretary of State Philander C. Knox requested that Murdock be kept on as fleet commander to allow continuity during unrest in China related to the Xinhai Revolution of that year. Meanwhile, United States Secretary of the Navy George von Lengerke Meyer had already selected Nicholson's successor as Chief of the Bureau of Navigation. President Taft explained the situation to Nicholson, who was dispatched to the Asiatic Fleet to command its Yangtze Patrol. In February 1912, with the Chinese crisis having abated, it was again proposed that Nicholson succeed Murdock, but Knox again asked that Murdock stay on as fleet commander-in-chief. On 20 July 1912, Nicholson finally received orders to take command of the fleet, and he relieved Murdock on 24 July 1912.
Relinquishing command of the Asiatic Fleet on 3 May 1914, Nicholson became a member of the General Board of the United States Navy until he retired from the Navy upon reaching the statutory retirement age of 62 on 15 December 1914. At the time, he was the last U.S. Navy officer on active duty to have seen service in the American Civil War.
When the United States entered World War I in April 1917, Nicholson was recalled to active duty. He headed a naval mission to Chile and served as the first American naval attaché to Ecuador and Peru from 7 November 1917 to 25 November 1919 before returning to retirement.
Personal life:
Nicholson's first wife was the former Annie Ellen Heap (1855-1889), whom he married on 7 July 1877. They had two children, Mary Jane Nicholson Durell (1878-1962) and Reginald Fairfax Nicholson (1879-1890). After the death of his first wife, Nicholson married the former Elizabeth Code (26 July 1877 - 20 September 1955) on 2 June 1900.
Death:
Nicholson died of a heart attack at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, on 19 December 1939. He is buried with his second wife at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia.
Commemoration:
It was reported in January 1918 that after purchasing the steamer Northland, the Pacific Steamship Company had renamed her Admiral Nicholson in honor of Nicholson.
Other Comments:
Last Naval Officer Of Civil War Dies WASHINGTON, December 19, 1939, UP
Rear Admiral Reginald Fairfax Nicholson, retired, last naval officer surviving from the Civil War, died today at the age of 87. Admiral Nicholson was a youthful captain's clerk in 1864 aboard the USS State of Georgia and later served in both the Spanish-American and World Wars. He was navigator of the Oregon on its famous dash around Cape Horn in 1898 to join the Atlantic squadron and took part in the subsequent battle of Santiago, Cuba. Before his retirement in 1914, Admiral Nicholson was chief of the Navy's Bureau of Navigation and commander-in-chief of the Asiatic Fleet. He was recalled to duty in the World War as naval attache at Santiago Chile, Lima Peru, and Quito Ecuador.
Description The United States of America declared war on the German Empire on April 6, 1917. The U.S. was an independent power and did not officially join the Allies. It closely cooperated with them militarily but acted alone in diplomacy. The U.S. made its major contributions in terms of supplies, raw material and money, starting in 1917. American soldiers under General John J. Pershing, commander of the American Expeditionary Force (AEF), arrived in large numbers on the Western Front in the summer of 1918. They played a major role until victory was achieved on November 11, 1918. Before entering the war, the U.S had remained neutral, though it had been an important supplier to Great Britain and the other Allied powers. During the war, the U.S mobilized over 4 million military personnel and suffered 110,000 deaths, including 43,000 due to the influenza pandemic. The war saw a dramatic expansion of the United States government in an effort to harness the war effort and a significant increase in the size of the U.S. military. After a slow start in mobilising the economy and labour force, by spring 1918 the nation was poised to play a role in the conflict. Under the leadership of President Woodrow Wilson, the war represented the climax of the Progressive Era as it sought to bring reform and democracy to the world, although there was substantial public opposition to United States entry into the war.
Although the United States declared war on Germany on April 6, 1917, it did not initially declare war on the other Central Powers, a state of affairs that Woodrow Wilson described as an "embarrassing obstacle" in his State of the Union speech. Congress declared war on the Austro-Hungarian Empire on December 17, 1917, but never made declarations of war against the other Central Powers, Bulgaria, the Ottoman Empire or the various Co-belligerents allied with the central powers, thus the United States remained uninvolved in the military campaigns in central, eastern and southern Europe, the Middle East, the Caucasus, North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and the Pacific.
The United States as late as 1917 maintained only a small army, smaller than thirteen of the nations and empires already active in the war. After the passage of the Selective Service Act in 1917, it drafted 2.8 million men into military service. By the summer of 1918 about a million U.S. soldiers had arrived in France, about half of whom eventually saw front-line service; by the Armistice of November 11 approximately 10,000 fresh soldiers were arriving in France daily. In 1917 Congress gave U.S. citizenship to Puerto Ricans when they were drafted to participate in World War I, as part of the Jones Act. In the end Germany miscalculated the United States' influence on the outcome of the conflict, believing it would be many more months before U.S. troops would arrive and overestimating the effectiveness of U-boats in slowing the American buildup.
The United States Navy sent a battleship group to Scapa Flow to join with the British Grand Fleet, destroyers to Queenstown, Ireland and submarines to help guard convoys. Several regiments of Marines were also dispatched to France. The British and French wanted U.S. units used to reinforce their troops already on the battle lines and not to waste scarce shipping on bringing over supplies. The U.S. rejected the first proposition and accepted the second. General John J. Pershing, American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) commander, refused to break up U.S. units to serve as mere reinforcements for British Empire and French units. As an exception, he did allow African-American combat regiments to fight in French divisions. The Harlem Hellfighters fought as part of the French 16th Division, earning a unit Croix de Guerre for their actions at Château-Thierry, Belleau Wood, and Séchault.
Impact of US forces on the war
On the battlefields of France in spring 1918, the war-weary Allied armies enthusiastically welcomed the fresh American troops. They arrived at the rate of 10,000 a day, at a time when the Germans were unable to replace their losses. After British Empire, French and Portuguese forces had defeated and turned back the powerful final German offensive (Spring Offensive of March to July, 1918), the Americans played a role in the Allied final offensive (Hundred Days Offensive of August to November). However, many American commanders used the same flawed tactics which the British, French, Germans and others had abandoned early in the war, and so many American offensives were not particularly effective. Pershing continued to commit troops to these full- frontal attacks, resulting in high casualties against experienced veteran German and Austrian-Hungarian units. Nevertheless, the infusion of new and fresh U.S. troops greatly strengthened the Allies' strategic position and boosted morale. The Allies achieved victory over Germany on November 11, 1918 after German morale had collapsed both at home and on the battlefield.
