APPENDIX
CHRONOLOGICAL OUTLINE
1840. September 27, Alfred Thayer Mahan born at West Point, New York, son of Professor Dennis Hart Mahan of the U. S. Military Academy.
1854–1856. Student at Columbia College in the City of New York.
1856. September 30, entered the third class, U. S. Naval Academy, as acting midshipman. Appointed from the 10th Congressional District of New York.
1859. June 9, graduated as midshipman.
1859–1861, Frigate Congress, Brazil station.
1861. August 31, promoted to lieutenant. Converted steamer James Adger for ten days.
1861–1862. Steam corvette Pocahontas, in the Potomac flotilla; capture of Port Royal, November 7, 1861; South Atlantic Blockading Squadron.
1862–1863. Naval Academy at Newport, Rhode Island. First lieutenant in the Macedonian during the summer practice cruise to England in 1863.
1863–1864. Steam corvette Seminole, West Gulf Blockading Squadron.
1864–1865. James Adger; staff of Rear Admiral Dahlgren, South Atlantic Blockading Squadron; James Adger.
1865–1866. Double-ender Muscoota.
1865. June 7, promoted to lieutenant commander.
1866. Ordnance duty, Washington Navy Yard.
1867–1869. Steam sloop Iroquois, to Asiatic station, via Cape of Good Hope. Detached in 1869; returned via Rome and Paris.
1869. Commanding gunboat Aroostook, Asiatic station.
1870–1871. Navy yard, New York.
1871. Worcester, home station.
1872. Promoted to commander. Receiving ship, New York.
1873–1874. Commanding side-wheel steamer Wasp in the Rio de la Plata.
1875–1876. Navy yard, Boston.
1877–1880. Naval Academy, Annapolis.
1880–1883. Navy yard, New York.
1883–1885. Commanding steam sloop Wachusett, South Pacific Squadron.
1885. Assigned to Naval War College, as lecturer on naval history and strategy.
1886–1889. President of Naval War College.
1889–1892. Special duty, Bureau of Navigation. Member of commission to choose site for navy yard in Puget Sound.
1892–1893. President of Naval War College.
1893–1895. Commanding cruiser Chicago, flagship of Rear Admiral Erben, European station.
1895–1896. Special duty at the Naval War College.
1896. November 17, retired as captain on his own application after forty years’ service.
1896–1912. Special duty in connection with Naval War College.
1898. Member of Naval War Board during Spanish War.
1899. Delegate to Hague Peace Conference.
1906. June 29, rear admiral on the retired list.
1914. December 1, died at the Naval Hospital, Washington.
Academic Honors
D.C.L., Oxford, 1894; LL.D., Cambridge, 1894; LL.D., Harvard, 1895; LL.D., Yale, 1897; LL.D., Columbia, 1900; LL.D., Magill, 1909; President of the American Historical Association, 1902.
PUBLISHED WORKS
1883. “The Gulf and Inland Waters.”
1890. “The Influence of Sea Power upon History, 1660–1783.”
1892. “The Influence of Sea Power upon the French Revolution and Empire, 1793–1812.” Two volumes.
“The Life of Admiral Farragut.”
1897. “The Life of Nelson: the Embodiment of the Sea Power of Great Britain.” Two volumes.
“The Interest of America in Sea Power, Present and Future.”
1899. “Lessons of the War with Spain.”
1900. “The Problem of Asia, and its Effect upon International Policies.”
“The Story of the War with South Africa, 1899–1900.”
1901. “Types of Naval Officers, Drawn from the History of the British Navy.”
1902. “Retrospect and Prospect: Studies in International Relations, Naval and Political.”
1905. “Sea Power in its Relations to the War of 1812.” Two volumes.
1907. “Some Neglected Aspects of War.”
“From Sail to Steam: Recollections of a Naval Life.”
1908. “Naval Administration and Warfare.”
1909. “The Harvest Within: Thoughts on the Life of a Christian.”
1910. “The Interest of America in International Conditions.”
1911. “Naval Strategy, Compared and Contrasted with the Principles and Practice of Military Operations on Land.”
1912. “Armaments and Arbitration: the Place of Force in International Relations.”
1913. “The Major Operations of the Navies in the War of American Independence.”
Uncollected Essays
“Reflections, Historical and Other, Suggested by the Battle of the Sea of Japan,” U. S. Naval Institute, June, 1906; Reprinted in Journal of the Royal United Service Institution, November, 1906.
“The Battleship of All Big Guns,” World’s Work, January, 1911.
“Misrepresenting Mr. Roosevelt,” Outlook, June 17, 1911.
“Importance of Command of the Sea,” Scientific American, December 9, 1911.
“Was Panama a Chapter of National Dishonor?” North American Review, October, 1912.
“Japan among Nations,” Living Age, August 2, 1913.
“Twentieth Century Christianity,” North American Review, April, 1914.
“Macdonough at Plattsburg,” North American Review, August, 1914.
“The Panama Canal and the Distribution of the Fleet,” North American Review, September, 1914.
REFERENCES
There is at present no printed source for the life of Mahan except his autobiographical record “From Sail to Steam,” which is confined almost entirely to the period preceding his retirement in 1896. Aside from book reviews, the more important critical essays and tributes are as follows:
“Mahan’s Counsels to the United States,” G. S. Clarke, Nineteenth Century, Review, February, 1898.
“Mahan on Sea Power,” S. G. W. Benjamin, New York Times Book Review, January 18, 1902.
“La Maîtrise de la Mer,” Auguste Moireau, Revue des Deux Mondes, October, 1902.
“Some American Historians,” Professor H. Morse Stephens, World’s Work, July, 1902.
“Lee at Appomattox and Other Papers,” Charles Francis Adams, 1903, p. 356 ff.
“The Writings of Mahan,” New York Nation, December 10, 1914.
“A Great Public Servant,” Theodore Roosevelt, Outlook, January 13, 1915. See also Outlook, December 9, 1914.
“Alfred Thayer Mahan—In Memoriam,” United States Naval Institute, January–February, 1915.
“The Influence of America’s Greatest Naval Strategist on the War in Europe,” Current Opinion, February, 1915. (Taken from Paris Figaro.)
“Naval History: Mahan and his Successors,” Military Historian and Economist, January, 1918.