George H. Wadleigh
Template:Short description Template:Infobox military person Rear Admiral George Henry Wadleigh (September 28, 1842 – July 11, 1927) served in the United States Navy during the American Civil War and the Spanish–American War.
Biography
Wadleigh was born in Dover, New Hampshire,<ref name="NHC">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and entered the United States Naval Academy on September 26, 1860,<ref name="hamersly">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> with the rank of midshipman. He graduated on May 28, 1863, with the rank of ensign.<ref name="callahan"/> He then served during the Civil War in the Gulf of Mexico on the steam sloops Template:USS and Template:USS,<ref name="NHC"/> seeing action at the battle of Mobile Bay, August 5, 1864, and receiving promotion to master on November 10, 1865.<ref name="hamersly"/>
After the Civil War he became a companion of the Massachusetts Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States.
In 1866–1869 Wadleigh was in European, Mediterranean and African waters as an officer of Template:USS,<ref name="NHC"/> and received promotion to the rank of lieutenant on November 10, 1866, and to lieutenant commander on March 12, 1868.<ref name="hamersly"/>
During the following decade he had shore duty at the Naval Academy and several other facilities and was executive officer of the gunboat Template:USS, monitor Template:USS, schoolship Template:USS and sloop Template:USS.<ref name="NHC"/>
Promoted to commander on March 13, 1880,<ref name="callahan">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> in 1881 he commanded Template:USS during an arduous Arctic cruise searching for survivors of the ill-fated Jeannette expedition.<ref name="NHC"/>
Commander Wadleigh spend most of the 1880s in shore positions. He returned to duty afloat in 1889–1891 as Commanding Officer of the Great Lakes gunboat Template:USS.<ref name="NHC"/> Promoted to captain on July 10, 1894,<ref name="callahan"/> he commanded the receiving ship Template:USS until late in that year, then took command of the new cruiser Template:USS, in which he cruised in U.S., West Indian and European waters into 1897.<ref name="NHC"/>
Captain Wadleigh served at the Boston Navy Yard until June 1898, including some very busy months near the end of that tour as the Navy prepared ships for Spanish–American War operations. From July 1898 until December 1901 he was Commanding Officer of the cruiser Template:USS, in the Pacific, and the receiving ship Template:USS at Boston.<ref name="NHC"/>
He achieved the rank of rear admiral in February 1902 and was briefly Commandant of the Philadelphia Navy Yard and President of the Board of Inspection and Survey before retiring from active duty in June of that year. In retirement, Rear Admiral Wadleigh made his home at Dover, New Hampshire. He died on July 11, 1927.<ref name="NHC"/>
Namesake
The destroyer Template:USS was named in honor of Rear Admiral Wadleigh.<ref name="NHC"/>
Gallery
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Wadleigh is third from left in the front row in this photograph of 13 retired U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps flag officers taken ca. 1923.
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Wadleigh is seated in the center in this photo of retired flag officers taken at the 85th birthday party of Rear Admiral George C. Remey on 10 August 1926.
