Click on image for a better view:

Admiral C. R. P. Rodgers requests his son get leave from West Point! Excellent two page ALS as Superintendent of the U. S. Naval Academy, writing to General Thomas Ruger, who is the Superintendent of West Point.

Written on imprinted "U. S. Naval Academy Annapolis Md." letterhead.

Rodgers, part of a long line of famous family members who served in the Navy, asks Ruger not only to let his son Alexander have leave, but to let him have $20.00 in advance traveling money!
In fine condition, with wear as shown in the scan.

$195.00 plus shipping

REAR ADMIRAL CHRISTOPHER RAYMOND PERRY RODGERS

Rear Admiral Christopher Raymond Perry Rodgers was born in 1819, the son of Commodore John Rodgers’ brother, Captain George Washington Rodgers, U. S. Navy, and Ann Maria (Perry) Rodgers whose brothers included Matthew Calbraith Perry and Oliver Hazard Perry. He was appointed midshipman in 1833, making his first cruise on board the Brandywine in the Pacific, followed by duty on Fairfield with the Brazil Squadron. Rodgers saw action during the Seminole War commanding the schooner Phoenix, before assignments in the anti-slave trade African Squadron on board Saratoga, and in the Mediterranean on board Cumberland. During the Mexican War he participated in the siege of Vera Cruz, and the capture of Tabasco and Tuxpan by Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry. After three years with the Coast Survey he returned to the Brazil Station on board the frigate Congress, followed by duty on the Constitution with the African Squadron, another two years with the Coast Survey and a tour on board the screw-frigate Wabash in the Mediterranean.

Rodgers was named Commandant of Midshipmen at the U.S. Naval Academy as the Civil War loomed, and was instrumental in the relocation of the Academy to Newport, R.I. for the duration of the war. He was then assigned command, successively, of Samuel DuPont’s South Atlantic Blockading Squadron flagships, Wabash and New Ironsides. During the last two years of the war he commanded the screw-sloop Iroquois on an independent world-wide assignment to capture Confederate raiders. After the war Rodgers was promoted to captain, commanded the ship-of-the-line Franklin in the Mediterranean and, promoted to Commodore, assigned as Chief of the Bureau of Yards and Docks. Following promotion to Rear Admiral in 1874 he served twice as Superintendent of the U. S. Naval Academy sandwiched around a two-year tour as Commander of the Pacific Squadron. During his first term as Superintendent he directed and approved the publication of a history of the Academy, specifically for the Department of Education at the 1876 International Exhibit. The history, Historical Sketch of the United States Naval Academy, written by Naval Academy Professor James Russell Soley, was published in the same year as the Exhibit. Rodgers was placed on the Retired List in 1881 and died in Washington, D.C. in 1892.