I have been writing about this man in my Running the Blockade: Civil War Navy blog and this one as well. This is a part of my Roadtripping Through History approach to these blogs.
From the Spanish-American War Centennial website.
Charles V. Gridley was the commander of the USS Olympia, the flagship of Commodore George Dewey's Asiatic Squadron at the Battle of Manila Bay in the Philippines. Dewey was in command of the whole fleet, but was aboard the Olympia. At the beginning of the battle, Dewey uttered the sentence that became one of the most famous statements in U.S. Naval history and which immortalized the Olympia's ailing commander (he died less than a month after thee battle.)
"You may fire when you are ready, Gridley."
Charles Vernon Gridley was born in Logansport, Indiana, on November 24, 1844. But, when he was three months old, his family moved to Hillsdale, Michigan.
At the age of 16, Gridley received an appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland. However, within a year, the Civil War broke out. The Naval Academy was in dire straits. Many of its students went south to Fight for the Confederacy.
Those that remained stayed with the Union, including the young man who had somehow acquired the name of "Steve" Gridley.
The Academy was deep within the state of Maryland which had a lot of Confederate sympathizers which put it in danger, so, for the duration it was moved to Newport, Rhode Island.
--Cooter
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