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Collection Reference Number GLC03479.71
From Archive Folder Documents Relating to the 1910s 
Title Colby Mitchell Chester to Whitelaw Launders regarding a request for a written story of the Civil War
Date 24 May 1918
Author Chester, Colby Mitchell (1844-1932)  
Recipient Launders, Whitelaw  
Document Type Correspondence
Content Description Written by Rear Admiral Chester as Commandant of the Navy ROTC program at Yale University. Replies to a request for a written story of the Civil War. Says he doe not have time "to write a story of the Civil war, during this war." Typed on letterhead of the Headquarters of the Yale Naval Training Unit.
Subjects Military History  Navy  Education  Civil War  Journalism  
People Chester, Colby Mitchell (1844-1932)  Launders, Whitelaw (fl. 1918)  
Place written New Haven, Connecticut
Theme The American Civil War; Naval & Maritime
Sub-collection The Gilder Lehrman Collection, 1860-1945
Additional Information Colby Mitchell Chester, was a United States Navy admiral. He is the only naval officer to have actively served in the Civil War, the Spanish-American War, and World War I. He was born at New London, Conn. in 1844, and graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1863. In 1864, he participated in operations against Mobile. He served in the Navy for 46 more years. He was Commandant of Cadets at Annapolis in 1891-94; commanded the Cincinnati, the flagship of the North Atlantic squadron during the Spanish-American War; became superintendent of the U.S. Naval Observatory in 1902, and retired on February 28, 1906. Chester's active-service record was extended to February 28, 1909 to round out a full 50-year service career with the U.S. Navy. He was recalled to special duty in 1917, during World War I, as the first Commandant of the Navy ROTC units at Yale and Brown Universities. In 1923 he traveled to Turkey at the head of the Americans who participated in an agreement called the Chester concession. He died in Rye, NY, in 1932, and is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
Copyright The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History
Module Civil War, Reconstruction and the Modern Era: 1860-1945