William McCarty Little
(1845-1915)
William McCarty Little (6 September 1845 – 12 March 1915) was a United States Navy officer of the late 19th century. He is most noted for his contributions to the development of naval wargaming at the United States Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island.
Biography
William McCarty Little (often referred to as "McCarty Little") was born in New York City on 6 September 1845 and entered the United States Naval Academy on 11 March 1863. For the duration of the American Civil War the Naval Academy had been relocated to Newport, Rhode Island, where Little and his wealthy parents had become accustomed to spending their summers. While at the academy, he met Lieutenant (later Rear Admiral) Stephen B. Luce who was to have a great influence in Little's life. Luce regarded Newport's Narragansett Bay as uniquely suitable for naval training, and with Little campaigned to have the Naval Academy remain there after the civil war.
Little was, apparently, a very bright student as he was allowed to graduate from the Academy in June 1866 after only three of the usual four years of study. After graduation, he served on the USS Macedonian, USS Saco and the famous sail racing yacht America—which was being used as a training ship by the Academy.
He was granted three months leave in Europe and, in 1867, reported for duty on the USS Colorado, the flagship of the European Squadron.
Little was commissioned as an ensign on 12 March 1868 and was assigned as a flag lieutenant (aide) to Commodore Pennock, the commander of the European Squadron.
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This entry incorporates text from “William McCarty Little” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.