Joseph Taussig

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For his son, the United States Navy officer, see Joseph K. Taussig Jr.
Joseph Knefler Taussig
Rear Admiral Edward D. Taussig (father)
Joseph K. Taussig Jr.
(son)

Joseph Knefler Taussig (30 August 1877 – 29 October 1947) was a

Cuban Pacification, World War I, Second Nicaraguan Campaign, and World War II
.

Biography

The son of German-Jewish parents

European Station (February 1877 – January 1880).[3] One of five sons, he entered the United States Naval Academy (USNA) in 1895. His older brother, Paul Taussig, had been enrolled at the USNA but died the previous July of a sudden onset of acute appendicitis. Joseph Taussig, like his late brother, excelled in athletics at USNA. A football star, he was quarterback for the 1899 Navy team. He also excelled at track and field events and was president of the USNA Athletic Association. He was the second of a four-generational family of United States Naval Academy graduates that served from 1863 to 1970 starting with his father, Rear Admiral Edward D. Taussig (1847–1921), continuing with his son Captain Joseph K. Taussig Jr.
(1920–1999), and ending with his grandson, Captain Joseph K. Taussig USMC (1945–).

Spanish–American War

When the

midshipmen at USNA were known from the latter part of the 19th century until 1902). He was assigned to the flagship of Admiral William T. Sampson, the cruiser New York, and was on board during the bombardment of Aguadores and Santiago and the pivotal naval Battle of Santiago de Cuba on July 3, 1898, where the Spanish fleet was wiped out and Admiral Pascual Cervera
taken prisoner.

Taussig was a prolific and talented journalist and writer during his entire 46-year naval career. In later years, his direct and honest candor earned him the professional disfavor of

New York Navy Yard
after the end of hostilities in August 1898. Taussig's journal includes his pencil sketches of troops, ships, locations, maps, and prints of naval personnel involved in the war. He also wrote numerous letters to his father and brother Charles Taussig, who became a well-known attorney in New York City. Returning to complete his studies at the USNA, Taussig graduated in the class of 1899.

Philippine–American War

Following graduation, he was assigned to the

Mare Island Navy Yard near San Francisco for outfitting and repairs prior to deployment with the Asiatic Squadron. Departing from the West Coast, Newark made stops in Hawaii and Guam in transit to the Western Pacific and arrived in Cavite in November 1899. For the next five months, Newark was station ship at Vigan on the island of Luzon. During that time, Taussig was part of a landing party that embarked at Pamplona to rescue American citizens being held hostage by Insurrectos opposed to U.S. control of the Philippines. However, once there, the landing party was ordered to return to the ship. In December, Newark moved to Aparri where it accepted the surrender of the Insurrectos in the provinces of Isabela, Cagayan and Bataan
.

China Relief Expedition (Boxer Rebellion)

In April 1900,

First Sea Lords
of the Royal Navy.

On June 7, 1900, the 2,100 strong Seymour Relief Expedition set out from

Dowager Empress were allied with the Boxers and joined in the attacks. Just seven days into its rescue mission, the expedition was forced to retreat to Tientsin due to the rail-bed both north and south of Yang Tsun being destroyed by the Boxers, cutting off the force's supply replenishment. During the retreat, Taussig was seriously wounded in the leg during a Boxer attack. He recovered in Japan and was advanced four numbers in grade because of his injury. Forty-three years later he was awarded the Purple Heart
for his combat wounds.

As he had done during the Spanish–American War, Taussig maintained a daily journal of the time he was in the Philippines and subsequently China while attached to

U.S. Naval Institute magazine Proceedings
.

Cuban pacification and inter-war years

Following recuperation from his leg wound, Taussig was assigned to the

service medals
he was awarded, it was the medal that Taussig prized most throughout his life.

After two years as a naval cadet, and having participated in three separate conflicts initiated by native interests opposing foreign intervention by the age of twenty-three, Taussig was commissioned

Charles Vreeland, commander of the 2nd and 4th Divisions of the Atlantic Fleet
.

Promoted to

Navy Secretary Josephus Daniels when he and several other navy officers, notably Admiral William Sims, were critical of a program that provided for the use of paroled criminals to fill the depleted ranks of enlisted personnel. In 1915, Taussig returned to sea in command of the newly commissioned destroyer Wadsworth and Division 6, Destroyer Force, Atlantic Fleet. The following year, Taussig received promotion to the rank of commander
.

World War I

Taussig (second from right) with officers of the Wadsworth during World War I

In July 1916, after serving in

Queenstown, Ireland
in May 1917, the first group of American destroyers sent abroad during World War I.

After a 9-day Atlantic crossing most of the time in a severe southeast gale, the destroyer division arrived at Queenstown with orders to cooperate with the British Royal Navy. At a dinner in the Americans' honor the night of their arrival, the RN Commander-in-Chief, Coast of Ireland, Vice Admiral Sir Lewis Bayly asked Commander Taussig, "When will you be ready to go to sea?" Taussig replied in the now famous words; "We are ready now, sir, that is, as soon as we finish refueling."[4]

For an attack on a German U-boat on 29 July 1917, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal, at that time the navy's second highest valor award. In December 1917, he returned to the U.S. to take command of the newly commissioned destroyer Little. By May 1918, Little was in Europe, patrolling off the coast of France. The journal that Commander Taussig kept of his service in World War I was published in 1996 by the Naval War College Press under the title, "The Queenstown Patrol, 1917". With the war winding down, he was detached to the Bureau of Navigation in August 1918.

Conflict with Assistant Navy Secretary Franklin D. Roosevelt

Promoted to captain in September 1918, he was assigned to head the Division of Enlisted Personnel of the Bureau of Navigation. Aware of the inadequacies of manpower from his experience in the fleet during World War I, in 1920, he was embroiled in a publicized dispute with Assistant Secretary of the Navy Franklin D. Roosevelt and testified before the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Navy Affairs regarding the personnel shortage in the navy, stating that navy department heads had failed "to take adequate steps to provide personnel necessary for the proper conduct of the navy during the war." For his outspoken views, Taussig earned the lifetime enmity of Roosevelt, who was in a political fight with the Republican Party over his nomination as Vice President, and wrote a sharp letter to the navy subcommittee denying Taussig's charges.

Taussig candidly maintained that, "the Navy was far from being ready for War... and the enlisted personnel was entirely inadequate for the proper manning of our already completed ships on a peace time basis, and was dangerously inadequate should we suddenly be thrown into war." Secretary

Naval Institute
press.

Inter-war years

Taussig as commander of Cruisers, Scouting Force, on board Chicago, 1938 (seated, front row, center)

In 1919 he attended the senior course at the

Order of the Merit of Chile for his efforts in the earthquake relief during 1922. In 1923, he was Assistant Chief of Staff, to Admiral Hilary P. Jones
, Commander-in-Chief, United States Fleet for six months.

From July 1923 to June 1926, he was on the staff of the Naval War College where he was Chairman of the Strategy Department. In 1926, he was given command of the

Fifth Naval District
, a billet his father Edward D. Taussig had filled thirty years earlier.

Another clash with FDR

In May 1940, Taussig again locked horns with now-president Franklin D. Roosevelt, when Massachusetts Senator

Harold R. Stark
convinced Roosevelt to reconsider and Roosevelt took no action; however, Stark publicly stated that Taussig's views were contrary to the Navy Department's and on 23 April 1940, issued a reprimand that was placed in Taussig's file.

World War II

Rear Admiral Taussig was forced to retire in September 1941 due to his age, despite his petition to continue on active duty with the impending international crisis. He was promoted to vice admiral on 22 October 1941 due to his service in the Boxer Rebellion. He had testified to the Senate committee on naval affairs in April 1940 that war with Japan over the Philippines was inevitable without a change in policy. His testimony included accurate predictions on the coming war in the Pacific. According to a May 9, 1940 article by Drew Pearson, Taussig was forced into retirement due to his public prediction that war with Japan was inevitable. In a June 9, 1940 article authored by Drew Pearson and Robert S. Allen, Taussig was referred to as "the star scholar and strategist of the navy."

On 8 December 1941, President Roosevelt ordered the reprimand removed from Taussig's personnel file, after his son, Ensign Joseph K. Taussig Jr. was severely wounded and lost his leg, earning a Navy Cross while serving on the Nevada during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

Taussig's request to return to active duty was ultimately granted in 1943 and he served in the office of the

Secretary of the Navy
on the Naval Clemency and Prison Inspection Board, the Naval Discipline Policy Review Board, and the Procurement and Retirement Board, until 1 June 1947, only a few months before his death.

Vice Admiral Taussig died on 29 October 1947 at

Bethesda Naval Hospital
. He was one of a very few individuals who served in the Spanish-American War, World War I and World War II.

His survivors then included his wife of 38 years,

George Philip Jr.
until his death in 1945.

Decorations and awards

Bronze star
Navy Distinguished Service Medal Legion of Merit Silver Life Saving Medal
Purple Heart Medal
 Sampson Medal Spanish Campaign Medal
Philippine Campaign Medal China Relief Expedition Medal
Cuban Pacification Medal
World War I Victory Medal with "Destroyer" clasp Second Nicaraguan Campaign Medal American Defense Service Medal
American Campaign Medal
World War II Victory Medal
Order of Saint Michael and Saint George
U.K.

Navy Distinguished Service Medal Citation

The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Navy Distinguished Service Medal to Captain Joseph Knefler Taussig, Sr., United States Navy, for exceptionally meritorious service in a duty of great responsibility as Commanding Officer of the U.S.S. WADSWORTH, engaged in the important, exacting, and hazardous duty of patrolling the waters infested with enemy submarines and mines, in escorting and protecting vitally important convoys of troops and supplies through these waters, and in offensive and defensive action, vigorously and unremittingly prosecuted against all forms of enemy naval activity; and especially for a successful attack upon an enemy submarine on 29 July 1917.[5]

Namesake

Miscellaneous

  • His granddaughter is married to radio talk show host and lawyer Hugh Hewitt.[6]

Published works

  • Our Navy, A Fighting Team (1943) Whittlesey House – co-authored by Harley F. Cope

Publications

  • "Sees U.S. Involved in Far East War, Admiral Taussig Testifies that Japan Aims at Domination – Navy Disclaims His Views" New York Times April 23, 1940, page 1.
  • Three Splendid Little Wars: The Diaries of Joseph Knefler Taussig, 1898–1901 [edited by Evelyn M. Cherpak] (January 2009) Naval War College Press.
    ISBN 978-0-16-082792-1
  • The Queenstown Patrol, 1917: The Diary of Commander Joseph Knefler Taussig, U.S. Navy (June 1996) Naval War College Press.
    ISBN 978-1-884733-07-9
  • Vaughn, Stephen L. Encyclopedia of American Journalism. CRC Press, 2008, p. 384 includes Drew Pearson's reporting on Taussig's "retirement".

See also

References

  1. ^ "Burial detail: Taussig, Joseph K". ANC Explorer. Retrieved March 31, 2023.
  2. ^ Comment on Current Events ... 1942. Retrieved 2020-01-20.
  3. ^ "Book Review – Three Splendid Little Wars: The Diary of Joseph K. Taussig 1898–1901 | Naval Historical Foundation". Navyhistory.org. Retrieved 2020-01-20.
  4. ^ See Massey, "Castles of Steel."
  5. ^ "Joseph Taussig - Recipient -". valor.militarytimes.com. Retrieved 31 March 2023.
  6. ^ "The McCain Service To America Tour". Archived from the original on 2011-07-22. Retrieved 2011-05-23.

External links

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