Evans, Robley D. (Robley Dunglison), 1846-1912

Robert Halsey Patchin informs President Roosevelt of the financial loss and embarrassment he would incur if he is not permitted to accompany the Great White Fleet. He tells the president he changed his living arrangements, severed several business connections, and purchased an outfit fitting on a cruise in the tropics after receiving an official letter from Rear Admiral Robley D. Evans and felt free to make these changes because the notification was official.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-12-09

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1900-12-15

Creator(s)

Metcalfe, James B. (James Bard), 1846-1924

Recipient

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

President Roosevelt gives Anna Cabot Mills Davis Lodge an update on his life and family. He laments the end of summer and tells Lodge how each member of the family has spent it, remarking upon how his children are growing up. Roosevelt has been vacationing during the summer months and now looks to his work ahead. He wants to ensure that his plans for the Navy and Panama Canal cannot be undone by his successor.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-09-20

President Roosevelt asks that Lieutenant Commander Andrew T. Long be detailed as an Executive Officer in the Great White Fleet under Admiral Robley D. Evans if it does not do any injustice to someone currently holding the position. Roosevelt also suggests giving Commander Harry Herbert Hosley command of the New Hampshire when it is ready and Long could become Supervisor of the Harbor of New York.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-09-13

President Roosevelt directs the Department of State to refer to the concluding part of his letter of April 10 regarding documentation of the incident with Governor of Jamaica James Alexander Swettenham. Roosevelt instructs that the reports from those involved, including Admiral Robley D. Evans, Rear Admiral C. H. Davis, Father Mathew Carlin Gleeson, the ship surgeon, and all officers, be readied for publication. At some point, the affair “may see the light,” in Great Britain, and Roosevelt wants “immediately to produce our whole case in answer.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-08-24

President Roosevelt believes James B. Connolly is the ideal candidate to accompany the Atlantic Fleet as a journalist representing all newspapers. However, before promising anything, he must first consult with Admiral Willard H. Brownson and Admiral Robley D. Evans.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-08-17

Acting Secretary of the Navy Newberry’s letter helped President Roosevelt better understand the situation. Roosevelt believes the best itinerary for the Great White Fleet to follow is through the Straits of Magellan and returning through the Suez Canal, but he seeks advice from the Chief of the Bureau of Navigation, Admiral Willard H. Brownson. Roosevelt also believes several reporters should accompany the fleet.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-08-10

Admiral Brownson, chief of the Bureau of Navigation, sends President Roosevelt a letter from Admiral Robley D. Evans with information about the Great White Fleet. Brownson comments on Evans’s points about fleet movements, maneuvers, and supplies. He feels it best to have just one journalist accompany the fleet.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-08-19

Senator Lodge informs President Roosevelt of a conversation he had recently showing intrigue among a few officers of the United States Navy. The men in question think Rear Admiral Evans should retire and ‘Harry’ be appointed in his place, and have volunteered that information frequently. His sister-in-law Isa’s health is in rapid decline.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-04-12

Senator Lodge writes to President Roosevelt about the career implications for Admiral C. H. Davis should Atlantic Fleet Commander Admiral Robley D. Evans retire. Lodge feels that Davis deserves the position more than Admiral Caspar F. Goodrich and that Evans’ actions in Jamaica after the 1907 earthquake should not be held against him. Lodge adds that his sister-in-law’s health continues to deteriorate and that according to the doctors she should have died several days before.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-04-09

Commander Beehler sends news to the Navy Department regarding the locations, needs, and plans of Admiral Charles Henry Davis and Admiral Robley D. Evans and their respective ships.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-01-21

Navy Medical Inspector Ames writes a narrative to Admiral Davis relating the events that unfolded when he arrived in Kingston, Jamaica, to provide medical relief after the earthquake. Ames found the city of Kingston to be absolutely demolished, and the populace to be in a “dazed, frightened, and nervous condition.” When Ames offers medical assistance and advice to Governor James Alexander Swettenham, the assistance is refused, and the suggestions denied, with the exception of some limited supplies for which the governor is thankful. Because both Ames and Davis, among others, found that the official city response was lacking, Davis informed Governor Swettenham that the naval medical officers would establish an independent hospital that would serve everyone “irrespective of age, sex, creed, or nationality.” The Jesuit fathers gave their cottage in Winchester Park as the site of the hospital, and they were able to treat many injured people with the help of the Sisters of Mercy. Ames offers comments on the casualties and destruction caused by the earthquake.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-01-20

This article includes pictures from President Roosevelt’s naval review of vessels in the United States Navy from September 2, 1906, to September 4, 1906.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-09-09

President Roosevelt writes his son Kermit about Archie returning home and not looking well. He says they spent Thanksgiving Day with the Rixeys and Cooleys at the du Ponts who own President Madison’s house. Roosevelt talks about horse back riding with Jack Greenway and then gives updates on Ted and Quentin.

Collection

Harvard College Library

Creation Date

1907-11-30

President Roosevelt writes to his son Kermit about his distress over the government in Cuba. He then describes his trip aboard the Mayflower to see Admiral Evans’s fleet at Barnstable with cousin William Emlen Roosevelt, C. Grant La Farge, and Archie. They watched a gunnery exercise on the battleship Missouri (BB-11). Roosevelt ends the letter with updates on Ted and Quentin.

Collection

Harvard College Library

Creation Date

1906-09-30

Admiral Robley D. Evans saluting while leaving the Mayflower.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1906-09-20

President Roosevelt, the Secretary of the Navy, two admirals, and the Presidential secretary during a Naval review

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1906-09-28

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-08-04

Creator(s)

Peirce, Herbert H. D. (Herbert Henry Davis), 1849-1916

Recipient

Barnes, Benjamin F., 1868-1909

President Roosevelt regrets that he is not able to be present at the dinner that Gilbert Hovey Grosvenor and the National Geographic Society are arranging in honor of Admiral Robley D. Evans. Roosevelt praises Evans’s service and accomplishment in conducting the Great White Fleet during the first portion of its circumnavigation of the world.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-11-28

President Roosevelt writes Richard Watson Gilder a lengthy refutation of an article in the Evening Post in which William Garrott Brown misconstrues his actions in the Republican Party. Namely, Brown accuses Roosevelt of neglecting Republicans in the South and of doing a poor job of making nominations to local offices and positions. Roosevelt asserts that where the Republican party is not strong in the South, he has had to appoint Democrats who were quality men, rather than incapable men who are Republicans. Where he believes the party has a chance to compete with Democrats, he does all he can to support it. Roosevelt also writes that he did not use his influence on officers to get William H. Taft the nomination, but rather Taft was nominated because Roosevelt’s policies were popular, and Taft is the man who will continue those policies. Roosevelt believes that Brown is either ignorant or willfully ignorant of a number of facts.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-11-16