He received a gold medal from Congress, and the position of Chief of Bureau of Equipment from President Arthur, afterward being made Captain, for his bravery in rescuing Lieutenant Greeley and six others at Cape Sabine, and carrying them safely home.
He wedded a lovely young woman, Miss Nannie Franklin, at that time the belle of Annapolis. He has two sons, one Frank, an officer in the army, the other, Winfield Scott Schley, Jr., is a physician of great repute in New York City. His daughter, Virginia, is the wife of an Englishman of position.
ENSIGN WORTH BAGLEY.
Life is sweet to all—especially so to the young. And yet it is sweeter to die for one's country; to know that the last throb of the heart beat for the cause of liberty and humanity. Such a fate was that of young Ensign Worth Bagley, the first officer to fall in our late war with Spain. The life of this young man was brief, to have achieved so much; he was only twenty-four years old, having been born in Raleigh, North Carolina, on the 6th of April, 1874. Yet he had known in that short time all of life's experiences—pleasure, pain and honors—all compressed into the few years of his existence. His father was an editor and a lawyer, and enlisted in the first company raised on the Confederate side in the county in which he lived. He fought bravely, and never abandoned the fortunes of the Confederacy until 1864, when he went home on parole, and was elected to the Senate of his State.
His son, young Worth, a fitting name for the boy, had cause to be proud of his ancestry, on both sides, his father's family being well versed in law, politics and business, and his mother's family being originally Quakers. She was the daughter of one of the governors of Virginia.
But Worth Bagley's boyhood engages the attention of the young, most. He grew up under good influences, and as a boy was a model of courtesy and gentlemanly bearing; a favorite in the schoolroom or playground, he loved his home, and was equally beloved within its walls. Possessed of a noble and unselfish nature, how could it be otherwise than that he met appreciation? He was a very apt scholar, learning rapidly, and retaining it as firmly.
His father died when he was twelve, and it is a beautiful record that he became his mother's comfort. He was the oldest son, and seemed to feel that she needed his counsel and protection.
When only ten he entered a classical school, with the intention of preparing for college. He loved the sea, and was appointed a cadet at the naval academy at Annapolis, when he was a little over fifteen, the youngest member of his class. How happy he was when he received the appointment. He was of a sunny temper, full of jests and laughter, writing the most loving letters to his “dearest little mother,” as he called her. He despised anything that took on the character of tattling. “Hazing” was strictly forbidden at the Academy, but he was subjected to it, and when called before the commandant and asked the names of the classmen who had participated in it, he answered firmly that he meant no disrespect, but he considered it dishonorable to tell on his classmates. He was threatened with punishment, unless he would tell, but he still refused, and was sent to a ship which was used as a place of severe discipline for cadets who disobeyed any of the rules. Here he was kept eighteen days in confinement, and possibly he would have remained a good many days longer, had not the cadets who had done the hazing confessed their share in it, and begged for his release.