The Gridley Legacy: John P.V. Gridley, USMC
The Gridley Legacy: John P.V. Gridley, USMC
John S. Naylor – November 28, 2025
“I have not yet begun to fight.” – John Paul Jones
“Don’t Give Up the Ship!” – James Lawrence
“We have met the enemy and they are ours.” – Oliver Hazard Perry
“You may fire when ready, Gridley.” – George Dewey
These inspirational expressions are ingrained in the fiber of U.S. Navy history and lore. The stories behind the sayings are well known, but the story behind a Marine bearing the name Gridley may not be.
When Commodore Dewey maneuvered his squadron into Manila Bay for battle with the Armada, he relied on the captain of USS OLYMPIA, Charles Gridley, to initiate and lead the fight. Gridley, as well as the rest of Dewey’s squadron, fought admirably, routing the Spanish fleet, which was just then at anchor off the Cavite Arsenal. This complete victory made news around the world, and more than any other battle heralded the arrival of the modern American Navy.
Charles Gridley was a true salt. Born in 1844, and a native of the Midwest, he took to the sea following his graduation from the United States Naval Academy in 1864. Ensign Gridley served aboard USS ONEIDA during the Civil War, seeing action at the Battle of Mobile Bay. He served aboard BROOKLYN in the South Atlantic, and aboard KEARSARGE in the South Pacific. His career in the moribund Navy of the interwar years took a pleasant turn when he was assigned to USS MICHIGAN, cruising the Great Lakes, and home-ported in Erie, Pennsylvania. The Lieutenant Commander put down roots, marrying Ellie Vincent, the daughter of a local judge. He spent the ensuing twenty years in assignments split between sea duty, and as an instructor at shore stations. One assignment brought him close to home, Ellie, and their three children. “Steve” Gridley spent four years as an Inspector in the 10thLight House District, covering the St. Lawrence, Lake Ontario, the Niagara, and Lake Erie. After that, a tour aboard USS MARION in the Asiatic Squadron granted him familiarity with the waters of Manila Bay before he returned to light house duty on the Great Lakes. Promoted to Captain in 1897, Gridley assumed command of USS OLYMPIA that summer.[1]
OLYMPIA was authorized in 1888 and commissioned in 1895. 344-feet long, with a beam of 53-feet, she displaced 6500 tons. A protected cruiser, she mounted four 8-inch guns in two turrets, one fore, and one aft. She’d served her whole career in the Western Pacific, and had been Dewey’s flagship since January 1898. On May 1, 1898, Gridley commanded OLYMPIA from the battle bridge, a small, poorly ventilated, steel box protecting the crew from fragments and small arms.
USS OLYMPIA
The tale of the Battle of Manila Bay is familiar. In Hong Kong refueling when the U.S. declared war, Commodore Dewey took his squadron to the Philippines in search of battle with the Spanish Armada. After issuing his famous order, “You may fire when ready, Gridley”, Dewey’s squadron obliterated their Spanish opposition then sitting at anchor. The victory allowed the U.S. Navy to effectively take control of the Philippine archipelago after landing only a handful of Marines from the BALTIMORE. Holding the arsenal and docks at Cavite granted the fleet an advanced base thousands of miles away from American shores, where it could refuel and rearm and maintain control of the highways of the Western Pacific. Physical control of the islands themselves had to wait until the Army could muster a corps of troopers in San Francisco and prepare them for the long ocean voyage.
After the battle, sailors carried a debilitated Gridley from his post. The tropical heat fell the 55-year-old skipper, who had been suffering from dysentery and suspected liver cancer before sailing. During the battle, he suffered a rupture when he struck a plotting desk. When he didn’t recover from the physical stress of battle, Commodore Dewey relieved him and attempted to send him home for convalescence. Gridley didn’t make it back to the U.S.; he passed away on June 5th aboard a steamship in Kobe harbor. The Navy cremated his remains and returned them to Erie. Dewey later wrote Gridley’s mother, describing his illness and passing, and praising his service and character.[2]
The victory energized the American public; as Commodore Dewey was showcased in all newspapers, and quoted everywhere, his leading captain, Charles Gridley, became a minor celebrity — unfortunately, his death prevented him from enjoying the fame. His son John, an 18-year-old studying at St. John’s Academy, was eager to serve his country. “Jack” took a temporary commission as a cadet on July 14th, and served aboard USS ST PAUL, USS YANKEE, and finally aboard his father’s old Lake Erie command, USS MICHIGAN, before being discharged on December 6th, 1898. Aboard MICHIGAN, John met the commander of the Marine Detachment, 2nd Lt Hiram Iddings Bearss, one of 43 temporary lieutenants commissioned by the Marine Corps for service during the war.[3]
USS MICHIGAN
Before the Spanish war, in 1896, the Marine Corps had numbered only 76 officers, and 2600 enlisted men, stationed aboard ships of the Navy, and at the Marine Barracks aboard Navy Yards. Congress authorized an expansion of the Corps for the war, increasing the numbers to 119 officers and 4713 enlisted. At the end of 1898, the temporary lieutenants, such as Hiram Bearss, were discharged and sent home, despite increased obligations in the newly acquired territories of Puerto Rico, Guam, Samoa, and the Philippines. The Naval Personnel Bill of 1899 authorized this further expansion to 201 officers and 6062 noncoms and enlisted men which was further expanded to 6812 enlisted in 1902.[4]
After his dismissal from the Navy, and too old to be eligible for an appointment to the Naval Academy, John Gridley applied for a commission in the Marines. In December of 1899, the Pittsburgh Press reported that that President McKinley, and Admiral Dewey had made him their “protégé”, supporting him as he prepared for the exam. On April 14, 1900, Congress approved his appointment as a 2nd Lieutenant, and “Jack” spent the rest of 1900 at the Charleston Navy Yard; one of four lieutenants “under instruction” of Colonel Henry Clay Cochrane, and Captain Lawrence Moses. These six officers were responsible for over 280 Marines guarding the yard and administering the Naval Prison. After a month, Cochrane was transferred to the Philippines, and Colonel Percival Pope assumed command and the responsibility for training the new lieutenants. Besides standing officer of the day duty, the trainees’
“theoretical instruction embraced drill regulations for infantry and artillery, the guard manual, firing regulations for small arms… naval ordnance and gunnery and explosives, security and information, military and naval signals, military field engineering, infantry fire, military topography and sketching.”[5]
This instruction, along with physical exercises and hands on training with naval weapons and the harbor fortifications stood in for training that had been conducted at the School of Application before the war. With the expansion of the Marine Corps, and increased commitments supporting the Navy in newly acquired navy yards and stations, the numbers of Marines “under instruction” swelled in 1900.
In this era, no recruit depots, no “boot camps”, had been established yet. Marines largely learned at the hand of more experienced corporals and sergeants in the Marine Barracks. Optimally, a Marine would spend a year on duty at the barracks before being posted over the seas, or on sea duty. When the Marines at Charlestown had been sufficiently seasoned, they would be transferred to posts overseas. Freshly commissioned officers could expect two years duty in the Philippines following their initial training.
In January 1901, Colonel Cochrane requested an augmentation for his command at Cavite on Manila Bay. Captain Rufus Lane, Lieutenant Gridley, four other lieutenants and 150 Marines traveled by train to San Francisco, where they boarded the Army transport THOMAS, which sailed on the 20th of April, and arrived at Cavite a month later.
In the Philippines, the Army remained fully engaged in suppressing the Filipino rebellion. The Marines, responsible for the security of Navy facilities, conducted small unit and patrolling evolutions to minimize their neighborhood, and performed “special duties”, mostly standing in for civilian administration formerly performed by the Spanish burócratas; port administration, district administration, customs inspections, internal-revenue collections, and provost judges and marshal duties occupied the Marine officers and their men in various districts near Cavite, Olongopo, and Subic on the island of Luzon. Qualifying at the rifle range, section and company drill, and organized athletics populated the training schedule for the companies. Most of these men were new to the Corps; in 1901 nearly as many Marines were serving in the Philippines, on Guam, and aboard ships of the Asiatic Squadron as there were in the entire Marine Corps before the war. The Marine Brigade in the Philippines was composed of the 1st Marine Regiment at Olongopo on Subic Bay, and the 2nd Marine Regiment at San Felipe on the Cavite peninsula.
To the south of Luzon, on the island of Samar, the Army’s 9th Infantry Regiment was attempting to wrest control of the island from General Vincente Lukban and his rebel forces. On September 28th, Filipino villagers and rebels ambushed Company C of the 9th Infantry Regiment at Balangiga, killing 38 of 76 men at Sunday breakfast in the village square. The massacre enraged the Americans, who had been engaged in a savage counterinsurgency against the Filipinos since 1899.
To assist the Army, the Asiatic Station commander, RAdm Frederick Rodgers, USN, assigned a battalion of Marines, composed of companies from the 1st and 2nd Marine Regiments, to assist Brigadier General J.H. Smith, USA, in exacting retribution on the island of Samar. Major Littleton Waller, and twelve captains and lieutenants, led 300 Marines aboard USS NEW YORK to make the transit to Catbalogan, Samar, where they relieved Army units. After three quiet months at Cavite, John P.V. Gridley was a member of the most forward-based Marine unit in the archipelago.
While at Cavite, Gridley had been assigned to several companies, filling in for departing officers or those on leave, and stood in as brigade paymaster. When Waller’s battalion moved to their Samar base out of the town of Basey, Gridley served as the assistant to the battalion adjutant. On Samar, the Marines engaged the rebels in pitched battle at the Cliffs of Sohoton and terrorized the populace to create pressure on the insurgency. In November, Gridley led a patrol to Iva, engaging the insurrectos, capturing their bolos, a long Filipino knife used as a tool, and a weapon.[6] In December he led a patrol south of Basey during which a Filipino porter attacked his sergeant with a blade, resulting in the porter’s death. These patrols sought to keep the civilian population from supporting the rebels, by burning dwellings, destroying crops, and firing on fishermen who ignored the edict that all boats must be registered with the Americans.[7]
To establish a route to run telegraph lines across the island Major Waller set out on the disastrous March Across Samar, which led to ten Marine deaths. With no maps, and suspect guides, Waller’s column became lost in the jungles of Samar. The march culminated in Major Waller summarily ordering the execution of ten Filipino porters and guides accused of conspiring against the lost column. Gridley was not on the march; he spent this period in Basey, leading patrols in the area against insurrectos. After six months turning the island of Samar into a “howling wilderness”, Waller’s battalion returned to Cavite, where he faced charges for the murder of the eleven Filipinos.[8]
"LANDRUM AND JACK GRIDLEY, CAVITE 1902"
Gridley testified at Major Waller’s court martial in Manila, then was transferred to the Marine Barracks at Olongopo. Waller was found not guilty by the empaneled officers, and eventually all charges were dropped because it was determined the Marines had never been officially transferred to Army control; under the Act for the Better Organization of the United States Marine Corpsenacted in 1834, only the President could assign the Marines to duty with the Army. Jack remained at Olongopo until the following May, when he was transferred back to the U.S. By September 1903, he had returned to the Charlestown Marine Barracks, where he served under Colonel Percival Pope, and passed on his fleet experience to the new lieutenants and privates receiving their on-the-job training in Boston. In October he appeared before the board for promotion to 1st Lieutenant.
In December he reported to the Marine Guard aboard the USS MISSOURI, where he’d be second in command to Captain David Porter, who he’d previously served under at both Boston and in the Philippines. The detachment consisted of one gunnery sergeant acting as first sergeant, three sergeants, four corporals, a drummer, a bugler, and 48-Marines. Their role aboard ship was that of enforcer; Marines walked tours keeping order, served as orderly to the ship’s captain, operated the brig, and stood watches on secured areas. Frederic Wise described duty aboard USS GEORGIA as a daily routine of cleaning and maintenance of berthing areas before breakfast, ship’s muster and inspection, gun drills, abandon ship drills, collision drills, fire drills, and general quarters drills, on top of standard Marine Corps infantry, and close order, drill. When MISSOURI fired her big guns, the Marines acted as gunfire spotters.[9]
USS MISSOURI was the second in the three-ship MAINE CLASS of battleships, built at Newport News. Laid down in February of 1900, and launched in December of 1901, she was commissioned in January of 1903 and was one of the newest ships in the fleet. Smokeless powder gave the class’s 12-inch/40 guns better punch than the 13-inch/35 guns of the preceding ILLINOIS CLASS of battleships. As often occurs with new classes of warship, they were tardy in entering the fleet but introduced new water-tube boilers and stronger Krupp armor. 388-foot long, with a 72-foot beam, she displaced 13,000 tons and was crewed by 34 officers and 614 sailors.
On April 14, 1904, USS MISSOURI was conducting gunnery practice in the Gulf of Mexico, off the beaches of Pensacola. After firing thirteen rounds from the aft turret, all to leeward, with a round in the chamber, the powder in the chamber and in the charge on the loading tray ignited, engulfing the aft turret in flames and toxic gases. The fire expanded from the turret to the handling room below. Four officers and fourteen men died of asphyxia in the turret, and one officer and eleven men died in the handling room below. Four men escaped the conflagration, but one died from injuries suffered fighting the fire.[10] Investigators reported that the failure to evacuate hot gases from the barrel, and wind blowing down the barrel led to the chain reaction igniting the powder; in ensuing years accidents such as this would continue to occur, until fire hazards were engineered out of the loading and firing processes.
I do not know why Lieutenant John P.V. Gridley, USMC was in this area when the fire started. MISSOURI carried sixteen 6-inch/50 in her secondary batteries, and six 3-inch/50 guns for torpedo defense; these secondary batteries were what Marines of the shipboard detachment manned during battle stations.
Four years after earning his commission, John Gridley died at sea. His remains were transported back home, to Erie, Pennsylvania, where he was laid to rest near his father’s memorial. His service was typical of Marine officers of the era. Truncated training in Navy Yards at the foot of Civil War veterans, and service overseas, primarily in the Philippines, or Panama and hot spots around the Caribbean. After a decade and a half of service, many of Gridley’s cohort wound up being company grade and staff officers in France, or occupying Haiti. They would become the officers who experimented in the ways of amphibious landings in the teens, twenties, and thirties, becoming the general officers who fought the war across the Pacific. Jack Gridley’s fate was not among theirs, and but for sharing his name with his father, the hero of Manila Bay, his service, and tragic death might have been quietly forgotten.
[1] https://www.spanamwar.com/Gridley.htm
[2] Kansas City Journal. October 18,1898.
[3] George B. Clark. Hiram Iddings Bearss, U.S. Marine Corps – Biography of a World War I Hero. McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers. 2005.
[4] The size of the Marine Corps expanded to 354 officers and 10727 enlisted before the Great War, which saw expansion of officers and men on hand grow to 2474 and 70489. Robert Debs Heinl, Jr. Soldiers of the Sea – The United States Marine Corps, 1775-1962. United States Naval Institute. 1962.
[5] Report of the Commandant of the United States Marine Corps. 1900.
[6] January 25. Lieut. Gridley, with detachment of Marines, defeated the insurgents at Iba.(https://www.history.navy.mil/content/history/nhhc/research/library/online-reading-room/title-list-alphabetically/o/operations-of-the-navy-and-marine-corps-in-the-philippine-archipelago.html)
[7] George Clark recounts the time when in pursuit of Filipino rebels, Gridley set up a machine gun and field piece on the beach to fire on fishing boats in the bay. Once Gridley informed Captain Hiram Iddings Bearss that the guns were loaded and in position, Bearss did what anyone would do, which was utter “You may fire when ready, Gridley.” George B. Clark. Hiram Iddings Bearss, U.S. Marine Corps – Biography of a World War I Hero. McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers. 2005.
[8] Gridley brought fever and illness back to Cavite with him. His muster reports show repeated hospital stays throughout his career; newspapers recount he caught “the fever”, possibly malaria, during the war with Spain, and that he suffered lung damage rescuing a Marine from a structure fire during his posting to Boston.
[9] Frederic M. Wise and Meigs O. Frost. A Marine Tells It To You. J.H. Sears & Company, Inc. New York. 1929.
[10] Annual Reports of the Navy Department – The Year 1904. Report of the Secretary of the Navy.
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