SAMUEL W. ARMISTEAD, LT, USN
Samuel Armistead '83
Samuel Wilston Armistead was admitted to the Naval Academy from Portsmouth, Virginia on October 1, 1879 at age 18 years 0 months.
Loss
Samuel was lost on January 27, 1895 when a taut hawser slipped and struck him in the head; this occurred while he was supervising the moving of the dry-dock caisson at the Mare Island Navy Yard in Vallejo, California.
Photographs
Photograph from the collection of the Nimitz Library at the US Naval Academy.
Photograph from the collection of the Nimitz Library at the US Naval Academy.
Other Information
From researcher Kathy Franz:
In 1879 Samuel passed a competitive examination as number one to win admission to the Naval Academy.
In June 1885, Samuel placed second in the official standing of the first 25 members of the class. Having received 85 percent of the multiple in his studies, he was classed as a “star.”
On September, 22, 1885, Samuel married Janie Lindsay, daughter of the Portsmouth postmaster, and they immediately left for Greenwich, England. He was assigned to take a two-year course in marine engineering at the Royal Naval College. In September 1888, Samuel obtained fifth place in an examination and was given a certificate of the second class. Classmate David W. Taylor from the Naval Academy's Class of 1885 obtained first place and was awarded a professional certificate of the first class.
In October 1888, Samuel became assistant in the construction of the new battleship Maine at the New York Navy Yard. In October 1891, he was superintendent of construction of cruiser No. 11 at Harrison Loring's Works in South Boston. She was launched in August 1892 and christened the Marblehead.
He was survived by his wife and three sons; his daughter died in 1892. Samuel is buried in Virginia.
Career
From the Naval History and Heritage Command:
Cadet Engineer, 1 October, 1879. Ensign, 1 July, 1885. Assistant Naval Constructor, 1 July, 1887. Naval Constructor, 14 March, 1892. Died 27 January, 1895.
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 1881
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July 1894
Memorial Hall Error
Memorial Hall lists Samuel's rank as "Master." In the Register of Commissioned and Warrant Officers of the United States Navy and Marine Corps of 1893, and in the 1894 edition, he is listed as a Naval Constructor "with the relative rank of Lieutenant". (His headstone omits this rank and instead lists "Naval Constructor".)
The "category" links below lead to lists of related Honorees; use them to explore further the service and sacrifice of alumni in Memorial Hall.
