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Photo # NH 56075:  Rear Admiral George B. Balch, USN.

Online Library of Selected Images:
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Rear Admiral George B. Balch, USN, (1821-1908)

George Beale Balch was born in Shelbyville, Tennessee, on 3 January 1821. Appointed as a U.S. Navy Midshipman from the state of Alabama in late 1837, his assignments during the next dozen years included several ships, some of them serving with the African and Mediterranean Squadrons. He also took part in combat operations along the Mexican east coast during 1846-1847 and had two periods of duty in Washington, D.C., the last at the Naval Observatory.

Balch was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant in August 1850. In 1851-1855 he was an officer on the sloop of war Plymouth in the Far East. In April 1854, during that tour, he was wounded in action at Shanghai, China. After briefly serving in the Great Lakes' gunboat Michigan in 1855, Lieutenant Balch was assigned to the Washington Navy Yard, D.C. for nearly two years. He went back to sea in Plymouth in 1857, when she was part of the Home Squadron, transferring to the sloop of war Jamestown later in the year. From late 1858 until October 1860 he served in the sloop of war St. Mary's on the Pacific Squadron.

As the political crisis of 1860-1861 developed into Civil War, Lieutenant Balch was ashore, at the Naval Academy and the Naval Observatory. From mid-1861 to mid-1862 he was commanding officer of the steam sloop Pocahontas, an active blockader along the coasts of South Carolina and Georgia, and received promotion to the rank of Commander during this time. He spent most of the rest of the Civil War in command of USS Pawnee, which was also employed along the Confederacy's south Atlantic coast.

While back at the Washington Navy Yard in 1865-1868, Balch was promoted to Captain. He commanded USS Contoocook (renamed Albany 1n 1869) during 1868-1870, then returned to the Nation's Capital for several assignments during the 1870s and in mid-decade was Governor of the Naval Asylum, at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. After attaining the rank of Rear Admiral in June 1878, Balch was Superintendent of the U.S. Naval Academy, at Annapolis, Maryland (1879-1881), then commanded the Pacific Station until retired from active duty in January 1883. Rear Admiral George B. Balch died at Raleigh, North Carolina, on 16 April 1908. He is buried at the U.S. Naval Academy Cemetary.

The Navy has named two destroyers in honor of Rear Admiral George B. Balch: USS Balch (Destroyer # 50, later DD-50), 1914-1935; and USS Balch (DD-363), 1936-1946.

This page features all the views we have concerning George B. Balch.


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Photo #: NH 56075

Rear Admiral George B. Balch, USN
,
(1821-1908)

Photographed circa 1878-1883.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 85KB; 590 x 765 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 67329

Rear Admiral George Beale Balch, USN
,
(1821-1908)

Photographed circa 1879-1881, when he was Superintendent of the U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis, Maryland.

Courtesy of the Naval Historical Foundation, Washington, D.C. Perkins Collection.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 52KB; 560 x 765 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 103741

Rear Admiral George B. Balch, USN
,
Superintentent of the U.S. Naval Academy

Page 1 of a 22 June 1880 letter to Secretary of the Navy Richard W. Thompson, requesting that Assistant Professor William W. Fay be appointed Professor of English Studies, History and Law, and that former Acting Assistant Surgeon Thomas D. Walton be appointed as the Naval Academy's dentist.

Dental Corps Collection, received from Captain H.D. Tow, USN (Dental Corps), 1976.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center.

Online Image: 95KB; 465 x 765 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 103742

Rear Admiral George B. Balch, USN
,
Superintentent of the U.S. Naval Academy

Page 2 of a 22 June 1880 letter to Secretary of the Navy Richard W. Thompson, requesting that Assistant Professor William W. Fay be appointed Professor of English Studies, History and Law, and that former Acting Assistant Surgeon Thomas D. Walton be appointed as the Naval Academy's dentist.

Dental Corps Collection, received from Captain H.D. Tow, USN (Dental Corps), 1976.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center.

Online Image: 48KB; 465 x 765 pixels

 


If you want higher resolution reproductions than the "Online Library's" digital images, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."


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Page made 29 August 2006