Richardson Clover

Clover was born in Hagerstown, Maryland, son of Lewis Peter Clover and Sarah Ann Ackerman Clover. His father was an artist who later became an Episcopal minister, serving congregations in Virginia, New Jersey, Illinois, and New York. Richardson Clover was appointed to the United States Naval Academy from Missouri in July 1863 and graduated in 1867. His first posting was to the frigate Susquehanna.John Howard Brown, Rossiter Johnson (1904) [https://books.google.com/books?id=MlEDAAAAYAAJ&dq=Navy+Officers+Clover&pg=PT255 "Clover, Richardson"] The Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans unpaged. The Biographical SocietyLewis Randolph Hamersly (1894) [https://books.google.com/books?id=_qoLAAAAIAAJ&q=Clover "Richardson Clover"] The Records of Living Officers of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps, p. 160. L.R. Hamersly Co.

Clover had a varied career in the service including several hydrographic assignments. He served on the Coast Survey steamer {{Ship||Hassler|vessel|2}} on the Pacific coast 1874–77, and had a brief assignment to the Naval Hydrographic Office. He was again assigned to the Coast Survey in 1881, first in the Washington office and then commanding the schooner Palinurus surveying Long Island Sound. He supervised construction of the steamer {{Ship|USC&GS|Carlile P. Patterson||2}} and became her first commander. Under Clover, the Patterson sailed to California by way of the Straits of Magellan and subsequently made surveys in southeastern Alaska in 1885, covering the north shore of Dixon Entrance (except for Cordova Bay), and Clarence Strait as far north as Union Bay. He remained in charge of the Patterson and the Southeast Alaska survey until he was relieved by A.S Snow in March 1886.Lewis Randolph Hamersly (1902) [https://books.google.com/books?id=qv1BAAAAYAAJ&q=Clover&pg=PA83 "Richardson Clover"] The Records of Living Officers of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps, p. 143. L.R. Hamersly Co.The New York Times January 16, 1884, Page 8. [https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1884/01/16/106137376.pdf "The New Coast Survey Steamer.; Launch of a Vessel for the Alaskan Coast survey."][http://www.history.noaa.gov/stories_tales/patterson.html Through the straits of Magellan on the Patterson] NOAABaker, Marcus (1906) [https://books.google.com/books?id=JKoPAAAAIAAJ Geographic Dictionary of Alaska, ed 2] United States Geological Survey Bulletin 299United States Coast and Geodetic Survey. [https://books.google.com/books?id=bnfpAAAAMAAJ&dq=%22Richardson+Clover%22&pg=PA141 Report of the Superintendent of the US Coast and Geodetic Survey Showing the Progress of the Work, Fiscal year 1886] Government Printing Office, Washington, 1887 p 141{{#tag:ref|Clover has been creditedChandonnet, Ann and Don Pitcher (2009) [https://books.google.com/books?id=UfjuKBo0D-0C&dq=%22Richardson+Clover%22&pg=PA10 Alaska's Inside Passage p10] Compass American Guides, Random House, New York with first use of the term Inside Passage, which he applied to a passage connecting Tongass Narrow and Clarence Strait north of Ketchikan in 1885. That passage is still marked on charts and is the only entry for Inside Passage in the 1906 Geographic Dictionary of Alaska. However, the term was used in the broader sense by the New York Times in 1884, and in government reports back to 1868, so that sense is not derived from Clover's usage.{{Cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/33560650/the-new-york-times/ |title=The Wonders of Alaska |newspaper=The New York Times |page=2 |date=October 27, 1884 |access-date=2022-03-02 |via=Newspapers.com}}United States. War Dept (1868)[https://books.google.com/books?id=Gp0dAQAAIAAJ&dq=Inside+Passage+Alaska&pg=PA43 Annual report of the Secretary of War, Volume 1, U.S. Govt. Print. Off., Washington, p 43] |group= n}}

Following a year's leave accompanying his marriage, Clover was posted to the torpedo station at Newport and then attended the Naval War College from September 1887 until January 1888. Subsequently, he was posted as navigator on the {{USS|Pensacola|1859|2}}, then as executive officer on the {{USS|Dolphin|PG-24|2}} from December 1888 to December 1889. During this period Dolphin completed her round-the-world cruise.

He returned to the Hydrographic Office in 1889. He became acting hydrographer in September 1890 and was formally appointed hydrographer (i.e. head of the office) in May 1891, accompanying his appointment as lieutenant commander. In 1890 Clover was named by President Benjamin Harrison in Executive Order No. 28 as a member of the newly created Board on Geographic Names, where he served as secretary of the board under Thomas Mendenhall, the first chairman of the Board on Geographic Names. He continued as Hydrographer until 1893.{{Cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/96791537/lieut-clovers-promotion/ |title=Lieut. Clover's Promotion |newspaper=The New York Times |page=1 |date=June 4, 1891 |access-date=2022-03-02 |via=Newspapers.com}}Smithsonian Institution, William Jones Rhees [https://books.google.com/books?id=B1tJAAAAYAAJ&dq=%22Richardson+Clover%22&pg=PA1558 "GEOGRAPHIC NAMES December 23 1891 Senate"] The Smithsonian Institution: documents relative to its origin and ..., V 2{{Cite news |url=https://newspaperarchive.com/other-articles-clipping-jan-04-1891-3069041/ |title=How Uncle Sam Will Spell |newspaper=The New York Times |page=20 |date=January 4, 1891 |access-date=2022-03-02 |via=NewspaperArchive}}

Clover served on the Phythian Board on the reorganization of the Navy. Subsequently, he was posted to the cruiser {{USS|Chicago|1885|2}}, serving as executive officer under Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan, author of The Influence of Sea Power upon History. In December 1895, he was appointed to the Board revising Naval Regulations. Subsequently, he commanded the {{USS|Dolphin|PG-24|2}} in 1896-7.The New York Times March 24, 1895 Page 2 [https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1895/03/24/102451717.pdf "The Chicago Home Again; An Eventful Cruise in European Waters by the White Ship"]{{Cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/96792636/herbert-is-determined/ |title=Herbert is Determined; Bureau Chiefs Must Not Assume the Secretary's Duties |newspaper=The New York Times |page=10 |date=December 12, 1895 |access-date=2022-03-02 |via=Newspapers.com}}

File:Richardson Clover Residence.JPG

Clover was appointed Chief Intelligence Officer of the Office of Naval Intelligence from November 1897 to May 1898 and then again from October 1898 to February 1900. While on his first term as Chief Intelligence Officer, then-Cmdr. Clover was also member of the War and Strategy Board established by the Secretary of the Navy John D. Long to provide him with operational and strategic advice. Also on that board was Assistant Secretary of the Navy Theodore Roosevelt. In the period leading up to the Spanish–American War, Clover organized intelligence-gathering efforts to establish the location, condition, and order of battle of the Spanish naval forces. These efforts included espionage as well as the more usual compilation of information from open and diplomatic channels. However, when the war started, Clover left his position to take an active combat position as commanding officer of the gunboat {{USS|Bancroft|1892|2}} from May to September 1898.[https://web.archive.org/web/20110624092451/http://www.history.navy.mil/library/guides/rosters/intelligence%20director.htm Directors of Naval Intelligence] Navy Department Library, Naval Historical Center[https://web.archive.org/web/19980703135454/http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/events/spanam/people/pers-wbd/pers-wbd.htm Members of the Naval War Board] Naval Historical CenterSpencer C. Tucker (2009) [https://books.google.com/books?id=8V3vZxOmHssC&dq=%22Richardson+Clover&pg=PA402 The Encyclopedia of the Spanish–American and Philippine–American Wars: A Political, Social, and Military History, V 1] pp 402, 432. ABC-CLIO {{ISBN|1-85109-951-4}}, {{ISBN|978-1-85109-951-1}}

After his stint on the Bancroft Clover resumed his duties as Chief Intelligence Officer until February 1900, then was reassigned as the Naval Attaché at the U.S. Embassy in London from April 1900 to June 1903 He was promoted to captain on April 11, 1902. After a short hiatus at home he became the commanding officer of the battleship {{USS|Wisconsin|BB-9|2}} from January 1904 to December 1905, while for most of this time also serving as Chief-of-Staff of the Asiatic Fleet. Then after a one-year hiatus he became a member, then the president of the Board of Inspection and Survey from February 1907 to July 1908, during which he was promoted to rear admiral. He retired on July 11, 1908.[https://books.google.com/books?id=64-2aA9c9aYC Register of the Commissioned and Warrant Officers of the Navy of the United States] 1906, 1908 Government Printing Office, Washington[http://www.spawar.navy.mil/fleet/insurv/history.htm History of the Board of Inspection and Survey] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051216164931/http://www.spawar.navy.mil/fleet/insurv/history.htm |date=2005-12-16 }} Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command, U.S. Navy{{Cite news |url=https://inteleviewer.documentation.intelerad.com |title=Admiral Clover Dies on Train in Wyoming |newspaper=The New York Times |page=17 |date=October 16, 1919 |access-date=2022-03-02 |via=Newspapers.com}}

Clover died on October 14, 1919, aboard a Union Pacific train, west of Cheyenne, Wyoming{{Cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/96793087/rear-admiral-glover-dies/ |title=Rear Admiral {{sic|Glover|hide=y}} Dies |newspaper=The San Bernardino Sun |location=Cheyenne, Wyoming |agency=Associated Press |page=1 |volume=XLVI |number=46 |date=1919-10-16 |access-date=2022-03-02 |via=Newspapers.com}} while en route from San Francisco, California to Washington, D.C. He is buried with his wife in Arlington National Cemetery.

Clover was married on May 19, 1886, to Mary Eudora Miller. She was the daughter of Senator John F. Miller from California, the wealthy former head of the Alaska Commercial Company. Clover named Dora Bay, Miller Lake, and Mt. Eudora in Alaska, presumably for her, in 1885.Eliza Ruhamah Scidmore (1893) [https://books.google.com/books?id=i4t-eao3nacC&dq=%22Richardson+Clover%22&pg=PA56 Appletons' Guide-Book to Alaska and the Northwest Coast] D. Appleton and Co., New York p 65. The Clovers had two daughters, Beatrice Miller Clover and Mary Eudora Miller Clover. Beatrice married Thomas Holcomb, who served as Commandant of the United States Marine Corps during the early part of World War II.Allan Reed Millett (2004) [https://books.google.com/books?id=Qns8bW_SESYC&dq=%22Richardson+Clover%22+Miller+married&pg=PA257 Commandants of the Marine Corps], Naval Institute Press p257 {{ISBN|0-87021-012-2}}, {{ISBN|978-0-87021-012-9}}. Mary Eudora Miller Clover never married and died October 11, 1954, in San Francisco.{{Cite web|url=https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/VPFY-Z6N?cc=2015582|title=FamilySearch.org|website=FamilySearch }}

Clover Bay and Clover Passage in the Alexander Archipelago, Alaska, are named for him. Clover Deep, an undersea valley at 37N, 137 W off the coast of California, was named for him in 1895. The name changed to Glover Deep as the result of a transcription error, and neither name is in current use.[http://earth-info.nga.mil/gns/html/history.htm Undersea Features History] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120211184523/http://earth-info.nga.mil/gns/html/history.htm |date=February 11, 2012}} National Geospatial intelligence Agency

File:RADM Richardson Clover.JPG|

{{Reflist|group=n}}

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• [https://web.archive.org/web/20110723202243/http://markrshulman.net/documents/navalintell.pdf The Rise and Fall of American Naval Intelligence, 1882–1917] Mark Russell Shulman Intelligence and National Security 8 (2) 214–226, 1993. Posted on author's web site.
• [https://books.google.com/books?id=xAC-btNMvrcC&q=Robert+Phythian&pg=PA405 Waiting for dead men's shoes: origins and development of the U.S. Navy's officer personnel system, 1793–1941] Donald Chisholm; includes coverage of the Phythian Board of 1891 dealing with imbalances of officer numbers and the Navy career path. Lists Clover as "Richardson Glover". Explains what the Phythian Board was trying to accomplish, and the results of their report.
• [https://books.google.com/books?id=8v4qAAAAYAAJ&dq=%22Richardson+Clover%22+Bancroft+Santiago&pg=RA3-PA683 Congressional Serial Set] [https://books.google.com/books?id=8v4qAAAAYAAJ&q=%22Richardson+Clover%22+&pg=RA3-PA683 Congressional Serial Set] Clover's reports – operations of USS Bancroft during Spanish–American War.

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{{succession box | title=Head of the Office of Naval Intelligence
(Chief Intelligence Officer)| before=Richard Wainright | after=John R. Bartlett | years=November 1897 – May 1898}}

{{succession box | title=Head of the Office of Naval Intelligence
(Chief Intelligence Officer)
(reappointed)| before=John R. Bartlett | after=Charles D. Sigsbee | years=October 1898 – February 1900}}

{{s-end}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Clover, Richardson}}

Category:1846 births

Category:1919 deaths

Category:American hydrographers

Category:American military personnel of the Spanish–American War

Category:People from Hagerstown, Maryland

Category:United States Coast and Geodetic Survey personnel

Category:United States Naval Academy alumni

Category:United States Navy rear admirals

Category:Burials at Arlington National Cemetery

Category:Directors of the Office of Naval Intelligence