John Woodward Philip was born in Kinderhook, New York, on 26 August 1840. He was appointed to the U.S. Naval Academy in September 1856, graduated in June 1861 and spent the next year on Civil War service in the Gulf of Mexico as an officer of the sailing warship Marion. During the summer of 1862 Lieutenant Philip was assigned to the gunboat Sonoma, then was Executive Officer of the gunboat Chippewa off South Carolina and was wounded in action in July 1863. He finished his active Civil War service in the steam sloop Pawnee and the monitor Montauk, also in South Carolina waters.
In 1865-1871 Philip, who was promoted to Lieutenant Commander in July 1866, was Executive Officer of the steam sloops Wachusett and Hartford in the Far East and Richmond in European waters. He returned to the Asiatic Squadron in 1872 as Executive officer of Hartford and commanded the gunboat Monocacy in 1873-1874. He received a leave of absence during the next two years to command a Pacific mail steamer and reached the rank of Commander during that time. From 1876 into 1883, Philip commanded the gunboat Adams and led the Earth-circling Woodruff Scientific Expedition. During the next seven years he was Lighthouse Inspector at San Francisco, California, Commanding Officer of the receiving ship Independence at the Mare Island Navy Yard, and a member of the Board of Inspection and Survey. He was promoted to Captain in March 1889.
In the first half of the 1890s command of the cruisers Atlanta and New York were among Captain Philip's assignments. After serving as Captain of the Yard at the Boston Navy Yard in 1894-1897 he became Commanding Officer of the battleship Texas, in which he participated in the capture of Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and the Battle of Santiago during the Spanish-American War. His distinguished war service produced advancement to Commodore in August 1898, and he then was given command of one unit of the North Atlantic Squadron. From January 1899 he was Commandant of the New York Navy Yard and was promoted to Rear Admiral in March of that year. Rear Admiral John W. Philip died at New York on 30 June 1900.
The U.S. Navy has named two destroyers in honor of Rear Admiral John W. Philip: USS Philip (Destroyer # 76, later DD-76), 1918-1940; and USS Philip (DD-498, later DDE-498), 1942-1971.
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Page made 11 July 2003