Sometimes military heroes are people who may have or have not served on the
front line but servicemen and woman who left a legacy for generations to come.
Prior to the Mexican American War (1846-1848) flogging was an acceptable form
of punishment in the American Navy. Uriah Levy was the man who changed that
policy and was kicked out of the navy (later he was reinstated) for standing up
for the right thing.
Uriah
Phillips Levy was born on April 22, 1792 into a religious Jewish family in
Philadelphia. His grandfather, Jonas Phillips came to the U.S. from Germany,
fought for the patriots in the Revolutionary War and Uriah’s nephew became a
congressman from New York. His family was thoroughly dedicated into giving back
to the country that gave so much for them in particular religious freedom. His
great-great grandfather was one of the few Jews to escape the Spanish
Inquisition to make his way to America via England.
As
well as being loyal patriots, the Levy family was drawn to the sea and Uriah
continued the tradition. He ran away when he was 10 to sail as a cabin boy but
returned to Philadelphia to celebrate his Bar Mitzvah with his family. In 1806,
Uriah gained valuable skills as an apprentice on a family friend’s ship and a
few years later graduated from navigation school.
Levy
was 20 when the War of 1812 against Great Britain broke out, and he volunteered
for military service. The captain of his ship quickly recognized his skills and
he was appointed as a sailing master on the USS
Argus. After dropping off an American minister in France, the Argus sailed to the English Channel and
captured at least 21 ships. Levy was placed in charge of one of these captures,
the Betty, but on August 12, 1813,
the Betty was captured. Two days the Argus was captured by the British ship,
the Pelican, and the entire crew,
including Uriah, was interred in England for the rest of the war.
After
returning to the U.S. he was assigned to the USS Franklin as a second master. Anti-Semitism shown by other
sailors was a problem for Levy and when a drunken officer provoked him, Levy
retaliated. The officer challenged him to a duel. In those days, a man could
not back away from a duel (where the two combatants shoot at each from a
predetermined distance) without shaming his name for a very long time, so Levy
accepted and killed the officer. He was indicted but was found not guilty as
dueling was an acceptable way of settling arguments.
Despite
this black mark on his record, Levy was commissioned as a lieutenant. Aboard
the USS United States, Levy got into
another fight (not a duel this time around) and after a court martial was
dismissed from the navy. The only person that could make this ruling official
was the president and two years later following the advice of the secretary of
the navy, President James Monroe reversed the court’s ruling. He was
subsequently given his first command a gunboat appropriately named the USS Revenge.
In
1925, Levy was the second lieutenant aboard the USS Cyane. He was instrumental in aiding an American forced into
the Brazilian Navy and whose life was in danger. The Brazilian Emperor, Dom
Pedro, was so impressed with Levy that he offered him the rank of captain (the
highest ranks in the navy at the time) in his navy. He refused the offer and
rode a wave of popularity back home in the States.
Since
he was offered a shore job and not another command, Levy decided to become a
private citizen and when into real estate in New York (Jewish real estate
agents have a long history in the U.S.) and became very wealthy. He was still
in navy and in 1938 he was given another command. He developed
his own system of discipline, substituting mild reforms for corporal
punishment. Because of his refusal to inflict corporal punishment on a young
seaman, he was court-martialed and dismissed from the service; however
President Tyler overturned the decision. In 1850, a member of congress took up
the case for anti-flogging and in 1862 it was passed as a law.
Right after the last of the six court-martials against
was overturned and he was reinstated, Levy took command of the warship,
Macedonian, and became commander of the entire Mediterranean Fleet. In 1960,
congress created the rank of Commodore and appointed Levy to the highest rank
in the country.
Levy was an admirer of Thomas Jefferson because he was a
major advocate among the Founding Fathers for the freedom of religion. When
Levy heard that Monticello, Jefferson’s plantation in Virginia, had come upon
hard times and was up for sale, he bought it. Even though his navy duties required
that he be in New York for much of the time, Levy used Monticello as a vacation
home and his family moved there permanently. He fixed up the rundown property
and showed it off to visitors and when he died in 1862, the U.S. government
didn’t want it because it was in the south and had no way to look after it. It
was confiscated by the Confederacy but after the war, it was returned to Levy’s
heirs. His nephew, Congressman Jefferson Levy, bought it out from the other
heirs and spent a lot of his own money for the restoration and preservation
efforts. He sold in 1923 to the Thomas Jefferson Foundation who made into a
museum. The foundation had anti-Semitic members on its board and until the
1980s gave very little credit to the two Levy men that had done so much for the
property. Finally, in 1985 the two were honored in a ceremony and there are
memorials and information on-site about Uriah and Jefferson Levy.
Uriah married his niece in 1853 after both of her parents
died. She was 18 while he was 61. He died in 1862, and buried in a Jewish cemetery in New
York, with both military honors and Jewish traditions. His legacy lives on, as
the USS Levy, a WWII destroyer escort,
was named after him as well as the Jewish chapel in the Norfolk Naval Base. Uriah
P. Levy is best remembered for his role in banning corporal punishment in the
navy and his dedication for the men that served under him making him a hero
behind the lines.
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