The Army’s General Order No. 43 issued on April 4, 1900, authorized the naming of the Army post under construction at Point Wilson after Rear Admiral John Lorimer Worden, USN. The honor was in recognition of his heroism during the Civil War sea battle in the waters off Virginia (Hampton Roads) between the USS Monitor and the CSS Virginia (Merrimack) on March 9, 1862. Worden commanded the little Monitor and was seriously wounded during the action.

American Army posts named for sailors are a very rare thing. Since our nation’s founding in 1789, only two have this distinction. Fort Preble in Portland, Maine and the other Fort Worden. The first was named for Commodore Edward Preble (1761-1807), one the country’s first naval heroes and a native son of Falmouth (now Portland), Maine. When construction began in 1807, city leaders petitioned to name the fort in his honor which was an appropriate and routinely approved request.

The naming of Fort Worden ninety years later remains a mystery though, since the Army’s naming policy for its forts was not followed. Army orders specify the naming of its fortifications after Army or Navy officers, or prominent civilians from the local area where the Army post is situated. Unlike Preble, Admiral Worden was not a local boy. In fact, during his half century of naval service, none of his sea or shore duty assignments were in the Pacific Northwest.

Although Worden didn’t meet the local citizen requirement for having a fort named for him, his naval exploits certainly did. Worden was born in 1818, in Westchester County, New York. In 1834, not yet sixteen, he went to sea. His 52-year career would include saving a Federal fort from Confederate hands, becoming the Civil War’s first prisoner of war, the command of two monitor class warships in four major naval engagements, and a pivotal role in the Navy’s technological future as Superintendent of the Naval Academy (1869-74).

With no connection to the community, who advocated on Worden’s behalf? One theory points to Rear Admiral Samuel R. Franklin, USN. He was Worden’s chief of staff when Worden commanded the Navy’s European Squadron (1875-77). Franklin noted in his memoirs two items that hint at his involvement. First, he writes about his visit to Port Townsend in 1866. (He notes that it was expensive.) And second, Franklin lavishly praises Worden as one of the finest officers he ever knew. In addition, both officers were members of Washington D.C.’s elite Metropolitan Club. This private organization’s membership roster was the “who’s who” in the nation’s capital, including Secretary of War Elihu Root, who signed General Order #43. Worden and Franklin both served a term as the club’s president, and maintained a lasting friendship until Worden’s passing in 1897.

It is possible that Franklin, with his connections through the Metropolitan Club and his knowledge of Port Townsend, lobbied for the fort to be named after his old friend Worden. Regardless of who initiated the honor, the uniqueness of the fort today echoes the unique circumstances surrounding the naming of an Army post for a sailor with no known connection to Port Townsend.