Edward David Taussig (November 20, 1847 – January 29, 1921) was a decorated Rear Admiral in the United States Navy. He is best remembered for being the officer to claim Wake Island after the Spanish–American War, as well as accepting the physical relinquishment of Guam by its Spanish governor following the Treaty of Paris in which Spain ceded Guam to the United States following nearly 300 years of colonial rule. Taussig briefly served as Governor of Guam. He was the first of a four-generational family of United States Naval Academy graduates including his son, Vice AdmiralJoseph K. Taussig (1877–1947), grandson CaptainJoseph K. Taussig Jr. (1920–1999), and great-grandson, Captain Joseph K. Taussig USMC (1945–).
Early sea service
Taussig was born in St. Louis, Missouri, the son of a wool broker, Charles and his wife, Anna (Abeles), who had emigrated from Austria in 1840. His family was Jewish, but he was brought up in the Unitarian Church.[1] He was appointed to the U.S. Naval Academy during the Civil War and entered on July 23, 1863. His education over the next four years included service on the Macedonian. Graduating in June 1867 he served on the steam frigate Minnesota from July to December 1867 and thereafter variously on the Wateree, Powhatan, Onward and Resaca from January 1868 to April 1870. He was commissioned an ensign on 18 December 1868. His early sea service was perhaps most remarkable for his time as a passed midshipman on the gunboatWateree when a tsunami washed her far inland at Arica (then part of Peru), on 13 August 1868. He was decorated for his actions during this event.
Promoted to the rank of commander on 10 August 1898, his first command was the gunboatUSS Bennington(PG-4), which departed San Francisco on 18 September bound for Hawaii, Guam and duty with the Asiatic Squadron, in the aftermath of the 12 August 1898 Spanish–American Wararmistice. Bennington arrived in Hawaii on 27 September 1898 and spent the next three months operating in local waters and conducting surveys, including Pearl Harbor. In December of that year, Taussig was given orders to proceed to Wake Island and claim it for the United States. After ten days passage from Honolulu, he arrived to formally claim the island on 17 January 1899. At one p.m. a flagstaff was placed, and with sailors in dress whites forming two ranks, Taussig called all to witness that the island was not in the possession of any other nation and declared it in possession of the United States. Taussig ordered the American flag raised by Ensign Wettengell and Bennington gave a 21-gun salute when the flag reached the truck. At the time President William McKinley ordering that Wake Island be claimed as a U.S. possession was seen as questionable; however, no other nation had claimed the island and there was no native population. Wake Island was primarily taken for its strategic value as a cable station, midway between Hawaii and the Philippines.
Departing from Wake Island at 5:35 p.m. on 17 January 1899, Bennington arrived at Guam on 23 January 1899. The island previously had been captured on 21 June 1898 by CaptainHenry Glass of the Charleston who had left Francisco Portusach Martínez, an American civilian, in charge of the territory. Captain Glass is reported to have told Martínez, the only American on Guam, to "take care of the island until some other officers or man-of-war might reach Guam." Although this has never been confirmed by the U.S. Navy, it was widely believed to be true. Martínez had been deposed in favor of non-American leadership under José Sisto, the highest ranking Spanish civil official in the island, and then Venancio Roberto, each laying competing claims to governance. Venancio Roberto's claim was rebuked in favor of Sisto by Lieutenant Commander Vincendon L. Cottman, commander of the U.S. Navy collier Brutus that had arrived at Guam on New Year's Day 1899 en route back to the U.S from the Spanish–American War. However Sisto's authority was short-lived.
On February 1, Sisto officially relinquished control of the governmental and administrative affairs of Guam to Taussig and Cottman. The American flag was raised over the Governor's Palace in a ceremony that ended with a 21-gun salute from the Bennington, formally ending nearly 300 years of Guam being part of the Spanish colonial empire. In his short time on Guam, Commander Taussig set up a local council system of temporary government which lasted until the arrival of LieutenantLouis A. Kaiser in July 1899 under orders to conduct navy surveillance of affairs of Guam. Taussig also supervised the establishment of signal stations and a port survey. On April 15, 1899, AdmiralGeorge Dewey cabled the Navy Department in Washington, "Wheeling arrived six days from Guam. Quiet and order there. Most friendly to Americans. Native Government established by Taussig working well. Native soldiers fine body of men. Nanshan (United States Naval Transport) in Guam."
Departing Guam in mid-February 1899, Commander Taussig and Bennington continued on to Manila, where the ship arrived on 22 February 1899 with the mission of supporting the Army's campaigns during the Philippine–American War primarily with patrol and escort duty. In August 1899, Taussig was summarily relieved of command of the Bennington and ordered home by Rear AdmiralJohn C. Watson, commander of the Asiatic Station, following Taussig's dissent from the latter's views concerning campaign plans that were voiced at a staff conference in Manila. According to press reports, Watson resented Taussig's verbal opposition, and a heated argument between the two ensued. Following his return to San Francisco on the hospital ship, Solace, Commander Taussig requested an investigation.
He was assigned to duty with the United States Lighthouse Board as 13th District Inspector in Portland, Oregon from October 1899 to April 1900. However, Commander Taussig did not have to wait long for vindication, when in March 1900, public accounts surfaced of Watson's friction with officers under his command and with the Bureau of Navigation over Watson's choice of Commander C. C. Cornwall as his executive officer, which the Bureau disapproved. Due to health reasons, Watson was himself privately relieved of command months before the public announcement in March 1900 that he was to be relieved by Rear AdmiralGeorge C. Remey. Watson returned home on his flagshipBaltimore in April 1900, the same month that Commander Taussig's duty as lighthouse inspector ended.
The China Relief Expedition (Boxer Rebellion)
In the spring of 1900, Chinese xenophobia, including disdain for the presence of Christian missionaries, fueled by decades of Western economic exploitation, culminated in the Boxer Rebellion. The Society of Righteous and Harmonious Fists, whose members were referred to in the West as "Boxers", besieged the foreign legations at Peking and at Tientsin. An international relief force was hastily assembled and sent to relieve the siege. As part of the United States Navy's force assigned to the campaign, the gunboat Yorktown, sister-ship of the Bennington, was withdrawn from her patrol duties in the northern Philippines to provide assistance to operations off the North China coast. Yorktown departed Manila on 3 April 1900, upon reaching the mainland, her landing force served ashore at Taku Forts. In June, Taussig assumed command of Yorktown and assisted Oregon to back off a reef near Taku. In August, with Yorktown stationed off Chefoo, China, Taussig cabled dispatches of the decisive Battle of Beicang from which the Chinese military never recovered. The gunboat departed Shanghai on 10 September, reaching Cavite on the 17th. In the Philippines, Yorktown resumed her prior cooperation with Army forces, engaged in pacification efforts for the next two years. Commander Taussig was detached from Yorktown in June 1901 and was ordered home to await orders (June – October 1901).
While at Norfolk he was promoted to rear admiral on 15 May 1908. Rear Admiral Taussig was placed on the U.S. Navy retired list on 20 November 1909.
In 1909 he became a companion of the District of Columbia Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States—a military society consisting of officers who had served in the Union armed forces during the American Civil War.
World War I
During World War I, Taussig was recalled to active duty as commandant of the Naval Unit at Columbia University (September – December 1918).
The original service criteria for the Spanish Campaign Medal promulgated in Navy Department Special Order No. 81 of June 27, 1908 required service on specific vessels and time periods for which Taussig's service during the Spanish–American War did not qualify. However, in the early 1920s, the award criteria were relaxed to provide for award of the medal to all those who served in the U.S. Navy or Marine Corps during the Spanish–American War. The first government contract to supply campaign medals to the expanded recipient base with the Bastian Brothers Company was not until 1922. Rear Admiral Taussig died in January 1921 prior to the expanded eligibility period for the Spanish Campaign and so never received the Spanish Campaign Medal.
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United States Navy
Rear admiral
