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He took a shot across his chest, then below
his left knee, another through the knee
that put him down, and a fourth that took
off the tip of one of his toes, but he wrote
that he pulled his revolver and engaged the
Confederate sharpshooter that had been
targeting him and shot him through the
throat. In the hospital, his life was in jeopardy,
and a surgeon suggested amputation. Instead
of allowing them to amputate, he drew his
revolver and said he’d kill six men before he’d let them take his leg. This incident was captured in a song composed in his honor upon his death by the Benztown Bard titled “Fighting Bob Evans Gone” which included the lines “Fighting Bob Evans dead? Honor his sword! Fighting Bob Evans gone? How can it be! Weep for him, wailing winds; weep for him, sea! Weep for the noble lad there
at Fort Fisher. Standing the doctors off; coming a swisher With
that old revolver aide dead in their faces, and daring them one
and all to come twenty paces To cut any leg off that he owned!”
He and his leg both survived but the injuries led to him being medically discharged. However, he recovered enough to rejoin
the navy and serve for several more decades. His post-Civil War career took him all over the world. As the commander of the USS Yorktown in the Pacific Squadron, he earned his nickname “Fighting Bob” during the 1891 Chilean Civil War during the USS Baltimore incident that nearly led to war with Chile and coolly managed the situation without escalation. In 1897, he commanded the USS Iowa, including in the action during the Battle of Santiago.
After the Spanish-American War, he remained with the navy and was promoted to rear admiral and commander-in-chief of the Asiatic and then North Atlantic Fleets before serving as commander of the Great White Fleet on its famous international tour. He was
in command on board the USS Connecticut when the fleet of sixteen of battleships embarked from Hampton Roads, Virginia, on December 16, 1907. This sword was presented after the fleet had traveled down and around the Cape of Horn and up to San Diego which they reached on April 14, 1908, the date on the inscription.
In his memoir “An Admiral’s Log” (copy also with the memorbilia in Lot 3093) on page 447 he wrote, “Admiral Thomas received for me the beautiful jewelled box containing the key to the city gates and the freedom of the city, and also the sword presented by the Grand Army posts of southern California and the Morgan Post Confederate Veterans. God bless you, old white heads!
That sword will make me feel a little moist about the eyes as long as I live.” Due to his poor health, Evans was forced to hand over command of the expedition to Rear Admiral Charles S. Sperry in May 1908. He retired later that summer on August 18, his 62nd birthday, after over four decades of service to his country. He passed away less than four years later on January 3, 1912, and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery. His son, Captain Franck Taylor Evans, carried on his father’s legacy as a naval officer and served from 1898 when he completed his studies at the naval academy until 1930.
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