Benjamin F. Tracy

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Benjamin F. Tracy, 1890

Benjamin Franklin Tracy (April 26, 1830 – August 6, 1915) was a United States political figure who served as Secretary of the Navy from 1889 through 1893, during the administration of U.S. President Benjamin Harrison.

A native of Owego, New York, Tracy was a lawyer active in Republican Party politics during the 1850s. During the Civil War, he served as a Union brigadier general. He was awarded a Medal of Honor for his actions during the Battle of the Wilderness on May 6, 1864. According to the official citation, Tracy "seized the colors and led the regiment when other regiments had retired and then reformed his line and held it."^[1] He reentered the law after the war and became active in New York state politics, serving as a U.S. District Attorney and as an New York State appeals court judge.

Tracy was noted for his role in the creation of the "New Navy", a major reform of the service, which had fallen into obsolescence after the Civil War. Like President Harrison, he supported a naval strategy focused more on offense, rather than on coastal defense and commerce raiding. A major ally in this effort was naval theorist Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan, who had served as a professor at the new Naval War College (founded 1884). In 1890, Mahan published his major work, The Influence of Sea Power upon History, 1660-1783—a book that achieved an international readership. Drawing on historical examples, Mahan supported the construction of a "blue-water Navy" that could do battle on the high seas.

Tracy also supported the construction of modern warships. On June 30, 1890, Congress passed the Navy Bill, a measure which authorized the construction of three battleships. The first three were later named USS Indiana (BB-1), Massachusetts (BB-2), and Oregon (BB-3). The battleship Iowa (BB-4) was authorized two years later.

After leaving the Navy Department, Tracy again took up his legal practice. He also helped negotiate a settlement to the boundary dispute between Venezuela and Great Britain. Tracy died in 1915.

USS Tracy (DD-214) was named for him.

[edit] External links

The Spanish-American War: Historical Overview and Select Bibliography. Michael J. Crawford, Mark L. Hayes and Michael D. Sessions. 30 November 1998. Naval Historical Center. 22 September 2004.
The Navy: The Oceanic Period, 1890-1945. Michael A. Palmer. Naval Historical Center. 22 September 2004.

Copyright notice, from Naval Historical Center website: "Used by permission of Charles Scribner's Sons, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Macmillan from Encyclopedia of the American Military, John E. Jessup, Editor in Chief. Vol. I, pp. 365-380. Copyright c 1994, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1633 Broadway, New York, NY 10019. [The views expressed in this history are those of the author and do not reflect the official policy or position of the Department of the Navy or the U.S. government.]"

Photograph of Tracy as Secretary of the Navy, c. 1890 From the Library of Congress
Secretary of the Navy: Benjamin F. Tracy (1889-1893) Brief biography from AmericanPresident.org
[1] Project Gutenburg link to Mahan's The Influence of Sea Power Upon History, 1660-1783

[edit] References

Cooling, Benjamin F. Benjamin Franklin Tracy, Father of the American Fighting Navy. Hamden, Conn.: Archon Books, 1973.
This article includes public domain text from the Naval Historical Center.