Robley Dunglison Evans
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Rear Admiral Robley Dunglison Evans (18 August 1846 - 3 January 1912), commanded the U.S. Navy's "Great White Fleet" on its world-wide cruise of 1907-1908.
Born in Floyd County, Virginia, Evans was a member of the Naval Academy class of 1864. He was ordered to active duty in September 1863. In the attacks on Fort Fisher, North Carolina, he exhibited great gallantry under fire on 15 January 1865. He led his landing party of Marines through heavy fire to charge the Confederate defenses. Evans continued to fight even after his fourth wound, drawing his pistol and threatened to kill any man who attempted to amputate his leg in surgery when he was evacuated.
Evans held numerous important sea commands during the 1890s. In 1891 and 1892, commanding Yorktown on the Pacific Station, he won great acclaim for his firm and skillful handling of a tense situation with Chile, becoming known as "Fighting Bob" Evans.
During the Spanish-American War he commanded the battleship Iowa in the Battle of Santiago de Cuba. Rear Admiral Evans commanded the Great White Fleet in its passage in 1907 and 1908 from the Atlantic through the Straits of Magellan to the Pacific, where he was relieved of command because of ill health.
He died in Washington, D.C..
Two destroyers, USS Evans (DD-78) and USS Evans (DD-552), were named in his honor.
This article includes text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.
