He led his landing party of United States Marines through heavy fire to charge the Confederate defenses.

Evans continued to fight even after his fourth wound, drawing his pistol and threatening to kill any man who attempted to amputate his leg in surgery when he was evacuated.

In 1891 and 1892, commanding Yorktown on the Pacific Squadron, he won great acclaim for his firm and skillful handling of a tense situation with Chile, becoming known as "Fighting Bob" Evans.

Though he evidently took pride in his nickname, his reputation for profanity also led to his being chastised by Leonard Woolsey Bacon, pastor of the Congregational Church in Litchfield, Connecticut, in a letter to The New York Times.

Former President Benjamin Harrison, with a committee from the state of Indiana, presented a set of silver to Evans for the battleship on 16 September 1896 at Tompkinsville, New York.

President Theodore Roosevelt selected Admiral Robley D. Evans to host Prince Heinrich of Prussia, brother of Germany's Kaiser Wilhelm II.

15 February 1902, Admiral Evans, as Commander-in-Chief of a special honor squadron, hoisted his flag on the battleship USS Illinois (BB-7) at the New York Navy Yard.

Sailing through the Suez Canal into the Mediterranean Sea to the port of Naples, Italy, the voyage continued to Gibraltar, coaling at Madeira; the flagship Kentucky arrived at the New York Navy Yard, 23 May 1904.

Admiral Evans returned to his alma mater the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland, on 30 October 1905.

Total time in service – 47 years, 10 months, 28 days This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.