GEORGE M. TOTTEN, LCDR, USN

From USNA Virtual Memorial Hall
George Totten '66

Date of birth: March 19, 1847

Date of death: May 27, 1888

Age: 41

Naval Academy Register

George Mansfield Totten was admitted to the Naval Academy from New Jersey on September 27, 1862 at age 15 years 6 months.

Naval Academy Photo Album

1866 Totten 1.jpg

Prior to the publication of the Lucky Bag in 1894, most portraits of officers and midshipmen of the Naval Academy were captured in yearly photo albums. The album for 1866 is available in the collections of the Naval Academy's Digital Collections.

Special thank you to historian Kathy Franz for identifying this resource and then extracting several dozen photographs for this site.

1866 Totten 1.jpg

Prior to the publication of the Lucky Bag in 1894, most portraits of officers and midshipmen of the Naval Academy were captured in yearly photo albums. The album for 1866 is available in the collections of the Naval Academy's Digital Collections.

Special thank you to historian Kathy Franz for identifying this resource and then extracting several dozen photographs for this site.

Loss

Unable to find any details about George's loss, except that it occurred on May 27, 1888 aboard the steamship Tallapoosa (1863) while that ship was in port Montevideo, Uruguay. He was the ship's executive officer; Tallapoosa was the flagship of the South American squadron, and had been in Montevideo since December 1887. (The 1888 Annual Report of the Secretary of the Navy includes ship movement details but does not mention any officers or crew.)

George was buried in Montevideo the following day, May 28. (Researcher Kathy Franz received a response from the cemetery, but it does not have a cause of death either.)

Other Information

From an email from Jennifer Bryan, Ph.D., Head of Special Collections & Archives/Archivist at the Naval Academy's Nimitz library:

I have been unable to find information on the cause of George M. Totten's death. According to the Tallapoosa records, he died on May 27; he was buried on May 28.

Information gleaned from the Tallapoosa's financial records gives the only additional details I could find. Totten was at the Grand Hotel in Buenos Aires from May 8 where he was "undergoing medical treatment on shore" from Passed Assistant Surgeon W. A. McClurg. The medical supplies requisitioned, presumably for Totten's treatment, were 1 bottle of brandy, 2 oz chloroform, 1 dram citrate of caffeine, 1 oz. absorbent cotton, 2 oz. liniment chloroform, 2 bottles extract of beef. Totten was then transferred to Montevideo on May 13--transportation included the hire of a carriage from the hotel to the steamer.

Date of birth from his 1887 application for a passport, which gives a physical description:

  • stature, 5 feet 8.5 inches
  • forehead, medium
  • eyes, gray
  • nose, straight
  • mouth, medium
  • chin, long
  • hair, dark
  • complexion, fair
  • face, oval

Obituary

From The New York Tribune on May 29, 1888:

Lieutenant-Commander Totten was born in the District of Columbia. He entered the Naval Academy In 1862. His first sea service after leaving the Academy was on the Ossipee, of the North Pacific Squadron, to which vessel he was attached from 1867 to 1869. He became an ensign In 1868, a master In 1869 and a lieutenant in 1870. From 1870 to 1871 he was attached to the Colorado, the flag ship of the Asiatic Fleet In 1873 and 1874 he was stationed at the Hydrographic Office in Washington. From 1871 to 1877 he was attached to the Swatara, of the North Atlantic Squadron. His next sea service was as first lieutenant of the Tennessee, flagship of the North Atlantic Squadron, which he Joined In 1879. In [garbled] he was made executive officer of the Tallapoosa, which was sent in that year to the South Atlantic Station. Mr. Totten was an able officer, whose genial manners made friends for him everywhere.

Career

From the Naval History and Heritage Command:

Midshipman, 29 September, 1862. Graduated June 1866. Ensign, 12 March, 1868. Master, 26 March, 1869. Lieutenant, 21 March,1870. Lieutenant Commander, 26 January, 1885. Died 27 May, 1888.

It seems he was a member of the US Naval Institute as of 1874.

Note

There was a LT "George M. Totten" who appears in searches as a designer of a surfboat used for the invasion of Veracruz in 1847. This is a different man.

Navy Directories & Officer Registers

The "Register of Commissioned and Warrant Officers of the United States Navy and Marine Corps" was published annually from 1815 through at least the 1970s; it provided rank, command or station, and occasionally billet until the beginning of World War II when command/station was no longer included. Scanned copies were reviewed and data entered from the mid-1840s through 1922, when more-frequent Navy Directories were available.

The Navy Directory was a publication that provided information on the command, billet, and rank of every active and retired naval officer. Single editions have been found online from January 1915 and March 1918, and then from three to six editions per year from 1923 through 1940; the final edition is from April 1941.

The entries in both series of documents are sometimes cryptic and confusing. They are often inconsistent, even within an edition, with the name of commands; this is especially true for aviation squadrons in the 1920s and early 1930s.

Alumni listed at the same command may or may not have had significant interactions; they could have shared a stateroom or workspace, stood many hours of watch together… or, especially at the larger commands, they might not have known each other at all. The information provides the opportunity to draw connections that are otherwise invisible, though, and gives a fuller view of the professional experiences of these alumni in Memorial Hall.

July 1867
Midshipman, Ossipee

Others at this command:
July 1868
Ensign, Ossipee

Others at this command:
January 1869
Ensign, Ossipee
July 1870
Lieutenant, Colorado

Others at this command:
January 1871
Lieutenant, Colorado

Others at this command:
January 1872
Lieutenant, Colorado
January 1873
Lieutenant, Colorado
January 1874
Lieutenant, Hydrographic Office
January 1875
Lieutenant, Hydrographic Office
January 1876
Lieutenant, Swatara
July 1877
Lieutenant, Swatara
July 1878
Lieutenant, leave of absence
January 1879
Lieutenant, Powhatan

Others at this command:
January 1880
Lieutenant, Tennessee

Others at this command:
July 1881
Lieutenant, Tennessee
January 1882
Lieutenant, Tennessee
January 1883
Lieutenant, leave of absence
January 1884
Lieutenant, Training-ship Minnesota
February 1885
Lieutenant Commander, Special duty Torpedo Service
January 1886
Lieutenant Commander, Tallapoosa
February 1887
Lieutenant Commander, Tallapoosa
January 1888
Lieutenant Commander, Tallapoosa
January 1889
"27 May, 1888, on board Tallapoosa, S. A. Station"

Memorial Hall Error

Illness is not a criteria for inclusion in Memorial Hall.


Class of 1866

George is one of 5 members of the Class of 1866 on Virtual Memorial Hall.

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