JOHN R. PHELAN, LT, USN

John Phelan '66

Date of birth: September 24, 1846

Date of death: January 24, 1870

Age: 23

Naval Academy Register

John Rogers Phelan was admitted to the Naval Academy from Pennsylvania on April 17, 1862 at age 15 years 8 months.

Photographs

John as an Ensign, sometime after March 12, 1868. Source citation: Phelan-Walker Album, Photo 22 - John Rogers Phelan [1846-1870]; circa 1868, image by S. G. Rogers, Waynesburg, Penna.; item no. WAYN-AN008-0022, Waynesburg University Paul R. Stewart Museum Collection, Greene Connections Archives Project. Located by Candice Buchanan, Volunteer Archivist, Greene Connections.
John as a Midshipman, likely prior to March 1865. Source citation: Phelan-Walker Album, Photo 45 - John Rogers Phelan [1846-1870]; circa 1864-1865, image by Wallace & Craig, Waynesburg, Pa.; item no. WAYN-AN008-0045, Waynesburg University Paul R. Stewart Museum Collection, Greene Connections Archives Project. Located by Candice Buchanan, Volunteer Archivist, Greene Connections.

Loss

John was lost on January 24, 1870 when USS Oneida was sunk following a collision with a British merchant steamer while departing Yokohama harbor, Japan. One hundred twenty-four other officers and men were also lost.

A detailed account of the event is available here.

Other Information

He has a cenotaph in his family's plot at Green Mount Cemetery in Waynesburg, Pennsylvania.

From researcher Kathy Franz:

John was the 5th son born to John and Jane Phelan of Waynesburg, Greene County, Pennsylvania. His brothers were William, Richard, a lawyer like his father, Zadok, a cabinet maker, and Joseph, a printer. Their sister was Mary. Their father was a Democrat, and in 1867 and 1868, he served in the Pennsylvania Legislature from Greene County.
During those two years, John and William Stewart (Class of 1861) were both on the USS Iroquois. She was one of the ships whose crew tried to rescue Rear Admiral Henry Bell and Lieutenant Commander John Reed (Class of 1863) when their boat overturned in the Osaka Bay near Hiogo, Japan. In 1869 John and William both served on the USS Oneida and died when she was sunk in 1870.

Images from Phelan-Walker Family Album

Two photographs of John appear in the Phelan-Walker Family Album, which is archived at the Waynesburg University Paul R. Stewart Museum (Miller Hall, 51 W. College St.; Waynesburg, Pennsylvania 15370). The album was researched and digitized for the Greene Connections: Greene County, Pennsylvania Archives Project in 2023. Personal inscriptions and image captions indicate that the album may have once belonged to John's sister, Mary (Phelan) Hogue [1844/45-1934], Waynesburg College, Class of 1864. The album was likely passed to her daughter, Jane Phelan "Jany" Hogue [1881-1972], Waynesburg College, Classes of 1904 and 1905 (Music), who provided it to her family's alma mater for preservation.

In addition to the two photographs of John, there is an image of Paymaster Thomas Logan Tullock [1845-1870], who was also lost when Oneida was sunk.

Career

From the Naval History and Heritage Command:

Midshipman, 17 April, 1862. Graduated June, 1866. Ensign, 12 March, 1868. Master, 26 March, 1869. Lost on the Oneida, 24 January, 1870.

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.