One of the basic defects of the Navy, before the year 1845, was the absence of any effectively organized system of education for the young men who had entered the Navy to become officers. What education these candidates for commissions, who were appointed by the President, were able to acquire after they entered the service as acting midshipmen, depended largely upon their own initiative and professional ambition to advance. The period from the beginning of a permanent United States Navy in 1794, when Congress authorized the building of four frigates, until the establishment of the Naval School in Annapolis in 1845 was one of educational neglect. No educational qualifications at all were required of the midshipmen whom Congress authorized the President to appoint. The fitness and suitability of the young men—eight to be selected for each of the four frigates—for officer material were left entirely to the personal judgment of the President. The newly appointed acting-midshipmen found themselves in a service devoid of any organized system of education for their development into welltrained officers. That naval efficiency upon which the supremacy of the sea power of the United States must depend could be assured only through a sound and comprehensive system of naval education was generally not realized. This was no doubt due, in large measure, to the strong prevailing opinion of the master mariners that naval efficiency meant only proficiency in practical seamanship, navigation, and gunnery. The idea that this proficiency could be greatly advanced through a mastery of the underlying theoretical principles of these practical arts was not realized by naval leaders as a whole. Much less was the realization that the understanding and application of these underlying theoretical principles depended in turn upon the development in the young officer of an ability to think clearly. And the effective use of this logical thought process demands a background of educational requisites, such as the ability to speak and to write correctly, to understand the relationship of numbers and positional lines, and to know the history of man's past practices and life. But in this period of naval educational neglect such requisites were in general not recognized.
There was, however, some recognition of the necessity for elementary education as early as 1802, for the naval regulations, then promulgated by the President, directed that the chaplain aboard ship was to "perform the duty of a schoolmaster." But few chaplains were capable even to "instruct the midshipmen and volunteers," as the regulations stipulated, "in writing, arithmetic, and navigation, and in whatsoever may contribute to render them proficients." Though the "schoolmaster." as Professor Soley in his history of the Naval Academy points out, "had for many years been a part of the English naval organization," yet it was not until 1813 that schoolmasters were authorized by Congress, and then only on the 74-gun ships. One schoolmaster was to be assigned to each ship for the twenty midshipmen aboard. But the schoolmaster's salary was so small, only $25 a month, to be paid only when at sea, and their position so inferior, living aboard ship with either the warrant officers or the midshipmen, that none but inferior teachers were drawn into the service. If the ship was not large enough to have a schoolmaster, the chaplain, if one was aboard, would still in theory at least be supposed to conduct classes.
This condition was greatly improved in 1835, when Congress provided that professors of mathematics, serving on a vessel at sea or on a receiving ship in a navy yard, would be paid $1,200 a year. From this time on, the Navy began to draw well-educated men of real teaching ability and character into its service. It was not until 1842, however, that their position on shipboard was improved. In that year, by a special act of Congress, the professors of mathematics were to be quartered and messed with the lieutenants. Though these two marked improvements, increase in pay and proper rating aboard ship, had removed by 1842 the chief obstacles to getting capable men to teach the midshipmen at sea or on receiving ships in the navy yards, yet the absence of any organized school system in the Navy made it impossible for the midshipmen to receive any real benefit from the better teachers now entering the Navy as professors of mathematics. In 1835 there were only three professors of mathematics in the Navy. By 1845 the number had increased to twenty-two.
Though there had been periodic agitation and argument for the establishment of some organized system of naval education, it was not until in the late 1830's that the demands for the establishment of a naval school had reached effective heights. The one person who contributed more than any other to the success of this movement was Lieutenant Matthew Fontaine Maury, the well-known naval scientist. His articles in the Richmond Whig and Public Advertiser and in the Southern Literary Messenger had much weight. He pointed out most strikingly, in his articles in the Southern Literary Messenger, that the conditions in the Navy in the late 1830's were due to the lack of a proper system of education. Under the pseudonym "Lieutenant Harry Bluff," he vividly described in his "Scraps from the Lucky Bag" the impossible conditions aboard ship for carrying out any effective system of education for the midshipmen. Maury declared:
The teacher has no authority whatever over the pupil, nor can he claim the attendance or attention of the latter in the school-room, or to any particular study. The whole-plan is without order. . . But were the teacher under the present system, a sea officer, a Lieutenant or Commander, his opportunities for usefulness would be very little greater than that of the dominic himself. At sea, a midshipman is actually on duty—that is on deck, keeping watch eight hours every day. Besides this he is liable to casual interruptions for duty, such as exercising great guns and small arms—going to quarters—attending to the duties of his division—reefing topsails, etc.; amounting in the aggregate, to a daily average for duty of two hours or more; or amounting in all to constant employment at sea of ten hours a day.
Again Maury wrote:
Under the present arrangement, the duties of the school-room, when one is to be found aboard of a man-of-war, are subordinate to every other duty in the ship. There the Midshipman is practically taught to consider his attendance at school as the matter of least importance in his routine of duties. He is interrupted at his lessons to go on shore for the Captain's pig; or he is called from recitation, to count the duck-frocks and trowsers contained in the wardrobe of Tom Brown, the sailor. I have known a Captain, who forbade the Midshipmen to work out longitude, on the ground that it was a secret of the Captain and the Master; and, therefore, it was exceedingly officious, and unbecoming the character of gentlemen, for Midshipmen to be prying into the rate and error of its chronometer, or to have anything to do with longitude.
Even when in port the demands upon a midshipman made a regular system of schooling impossible, for continued Maury:
He is on duty two days, and off one; and this day is his liberty day, when he usually claims the privilege of going on shore for exercise, amusement, relaxation, and the like. Add to this, the interruptions to which the school-room is liable, even on this third day, by general quarters, the exercise of getting underway, reefing and handing, etc.—take also into the account, the official ceremonies and visits of etiquette to the Captain—all requiring the school-room to be vacated—and you may form some idea of the difficulties and drawbacks which even one, who is resolved to study, has to contend with on board ship. But to the great mass, who are ready to excuse themselves from study upon any pretext, how insuperable are these obstacles.
These conditions, Maury felt, would all be corrected if one of the ships "now rotting at Norfolk" was converted into a school-ship to which the midshipmen should be sent upon entering the Navy. This ship, declared Maury, "should be first a school-ship and then the man-of-war." In this way the midshipmen- students could be educated, without constant interruptions, in those subjects so necessary for the efficient performance of their professional duties.
Maury's public pleas for the establishment of an effective system of naval education undoubtedly influenced A. P. Upshur, the Secretary of the Navy, under President William Henry Harrison. In his report on the condition of the Navy in 1842 he wrote:
Little or no attention has hitherto been paid to the proper education of naval officers. Through a long course of years, the young midshipmen were left to educate themselves and one another; and it is creditable to them that they lost few opportunities of doing so. Suitable teachers are now provided for them, but their schools are kept in receiving ships and cruising vessels, in the midst of a thousand interruptions and impediments, which render the whole system of little or no value. Under such circumstances, the foundation of a solid and useful education can rarely be laid. . . .
That abuses exist, and that the public eye is occasionally offended with displays of disreputable behavior is not surprising. . . . The navy is as free from such scandals as any equal number of men in any order of society. It is a matter of just surprise that it should be so. Withdrawn, in a great degree, by the very nature of their pursuits, from the immediate influence of that public opinion, which is the best corrective of manners, and with a most imperfect system of laws and regulations as a substitute for it, what is there but their own sense of propriety to prevent naval officers from falling into the worse excesses? For twenty years the navy has received little more than a stepmother's care. It was established without plan, and has been conducted upon no principle fixed and regulated by law. Left to get along as well as it could, the wonder is that it remains even a remnant of the character which it won so gloriously during the last war.
Maury, too, gives testimony of the character the Navy still had. In his article in the Southern Literary Messenger for January 21, 1841, he wrote:
In viewing the Navy under so many disadvantages, there is one redeeming quality about it to cheer its friends, and to make glad the patriot's heart—and that is its moral condition. The tone of morals among officers in the Navy was never better, or at a higher pitch than it now is.
This point he had stressed in a preceding article in the same magazine:
The experience of every officer will sustain me in the assertion, that for the last fifteen or twenty years, the moral and intellectual condition of the Navy has been steadily advancing.
This was in large measure the result, he believed, of the establishment of ship's libraries, which had been begun in 1821 through the efforts of a Mr. Wood. Through these libraries there had been gradually introduced a very practical means of self-education for the personnel aboard ship. Upshur, however, felt that in almost three decades of neglect there had been permitted to remain in the Navy "some officers who do no credit to their commissions." These he thought could be effectively weeded out by a "system of compulsory furlough, properly regulated, and guarded against abuse." The presence of these undesirable officers in the Navy, Upshur said, was due to the lack of qualifications fixed by law for appointment as midshipmen. It is a "notorious fact," he wrote:
that wayward and incorrigible boys, whom even parental authority cannot control, are often sent to the navy as a mere school of discipline, or to save them from the reproach to which their conduct exposes them on shore. It is not often that skilful officers or valuable men are made out of such material . . . The belief, heretofore prevailing, that an officer of any standing in the navy could not be driven out of it, or at least that he could not be kept out of it, has a strong influence in ruining its discipline and corrupting its morals and manners.
Though no recommendations were made in the reports for the years 1843 and 1844 by the Secretaries of the Navy succeeding Upshur, yet recognition of the urgent need for reform in the method of educating the midshipmen in the United States Navy continued. In 1844 a bill to establish naval schools was introduced in Congress by Senator Bayard, who also presented a petition from the officers of the U.S.S. Vincennes urging that naval schools be organized and the position of professor of mathematics be abolished. In the same year, 1844, Commodore Charles Stewart, in a report to the Secretary of the Navy on the subject of naval organization, recommended a school for instruction in mathematics, languages, international law, and the theory and workings of the steam engine. Interestingly enough it was in the U.S.S. Franklin, 74, then under his command, that the ship's library was first introduced in 1821. And upon the return from a three-year Pacific cruise, Maury notes that Commodore Stewart reported the library had been most beneficial.
But, perhaps, what made George Bancroft, selected by President Polk in 1845 as Secretary of the Navy, most hopeful of being able to establish a permanent naval school with an effective system of education for the midshipmen was the success of the professors of mathematics stationed at the Naval Asylum in Philadelphia. Here was one of the four shore establishments where professors of mathematics were stationed to give instruction to those midshipmen who could and would attend. Established in 1839, it was run so successfully under Professor William Chauvenet's leadership after 1841 that all other instruction ashore was discontinued. Here by 1845 had been ordered besides Professor Chauvenet, Professor Henry H. Lockwood, Lieutenant James H. Ward, and Passed Midshipman Samuel Marcy—all later to be members of the first faculty of the Naval School at Annapolis.
One of the basic defects in the then existing naval organization was the "hump" existing in the grade of passed midshipman. As there was no systematic plan of promotion or even of the appointment of acting midshipmen, a great many young officers remained in the grade of passed midshipman for years, hoping in vain for their expected promotion. This condition, Maury believed, reacted also most unfavorably upon the midshipmen. For, as the passed midshipmen had no regularly prescribed duties, they performed duties aboard ship which really should have been done by the midshipmen, who in consequence carried out only the most unimportant details. So the midshipmen were not given the stimulating opportunity to learn through personal experience how to perform some of the important duties of their profession. This condition of affairs helped to develop a lowering of morale, such as occurred in 1842 on the Somers. In that attempted mutiny, Midshipman Spencer was so involved that he was hanged at the yardarm.
Maury thought the solution lay in a school-ship on which there could be developed a sound system of education for the newly entering midshipmen. To avoid the ever recurrent humps in the lower grade, Maury advocated that the surplus midshipmen would be absorbed into the Merchant Marine, from which they could be drawn in time of emergency to supply the increased personnel needed in vessels of war.
Both Maury and Upshur turned to Congress for action to remedy these conditions. Passed Midshipman Marcy, however, in his report to Secretary Bancroft sensed the danger of failure in such a course. These dangers should be avoided, for there existed, he declared, an "urgent and constantly increasing demand for a perfectly organized and efficient Naval School that will enable our officers to keep pace with the profession." The development of the steam engine as a means of ship propulsion was increasing this need for the midshipmen to be educated in the field of the sciences, and this could not be accomplished at sea.
To keep up with the development of the naval profession, Marcy wisely realized, if done "to its fullest extent," would certainly necessitate "a great change." In this change he saw the "great difficulty of the undertaking." It would mean, he continued,
an increased expenditure and the foundation of another school under the patronage of the government, two circumstances that are sure to provoke opposition, the former by being opposed to the retrenching doctrines of the time and the latter because it has always been considered repugnant to the Spirit of our Institutions . . . But this ought not prevent the attempt to relieve the necessities of a favorite service whose efficiency must always be our chief reliance and the Character of whose officers abroad is ever taken as the true index of that of the country itself.
And, later in his report, he pointed out that the midshipmen enter the service
at an age when habits are most easily formed and take deepest root and upon going on board ship they are thrown among associates much older than themselves to whom they look for their precept & example for guidance in the service. Without the ability to make a proper discrimination they often contract habits that cost them no little time and trouble to correct.
So Marcy suggested that "if instead of making too striking a departure from the present system the ultimate plan is decided upon and silent but well directed efforts are made to accomplish that end it may succeed without any opposition even from predetermined opposers."
This advice Bancroft followed. First he got the approval of both the older and the younger officers for the establishment of a naval school at Annapolis, stressing the question of the location rather than the principle of having a naval school. Then he selected Commander Franklin Buchanan as the Superintendent. The faculty he took largely from those officers and professors who had been successful in their teaching at the Naval Asylum School at Philadelphia: Lieutenant James H. Ward, Professors Henry H. Lockwood and William E. Chauvenet, and Passed Midshipman Samuel Marcy. Marcy's father, the Secretary of War, agreed to turn over Fort Severn to the Navy for use of the Naval School. Bancroft then placed half of the twenty-two professors of mathematics on waiting orders. As they were not paid when on waiting orders, Bancroft was able to use that money for the necessary expenses for repairs and equipment. So the school was begun without recourse to Congress for funds. Such a request would have endangered the whole plan by opening up the entire question to discussion and debate.
Chaplain George Jones was ordered to Annapolis as Professor of English. The first choice for the head of the medical department at the Naval School was Surgeon Edmund L. DuBarry, U. S. Navy, then on duty in Washington. He, however, requested to have his orders changed, for he was much disappointed in the conditions he found existing at Annapolis. These he graphically portrayed in several letters to his son who was then a "plebe" at West Point. In August (undated) 1845, he wrote to his son:
I am now expecting orders not to Phila. but to the Naval School at Annapolis—where I will be more permanently fixed and live much cheaper than either this place or Pha.—Some two years there, will enable me to get clear of all money encumbrances and then I will try for the Pha. Naval Asylum which will then be vacant.
Nothing however is positively settled, when it is I will let you know.
Commander Buchanan will have command of the Naval School at Annapolis. Lt. Ward will be a professor there.
On August 31, 1845, he wrote:
I went down to Annapolis with Mamma the other day and came up so disgusted with the place that I immediately wrote a private letter to the Secretary requesting that he would not order me there, giving my reasons in full—1s. Agues prevail in the Autumn—no schools for small children—houses in a dilapidated condition and the rent risen 100 per cent since the institution of a naval school there, has been decided upon—Servants very bad—and to crown all, the dullest and most horrible place in the U. States—it is very old, and I do not suppose a house has been built there in 40 years—the place is finished and will not improve. —A house that now rents for 150 dollars they ask me 300 dollars for.—As you will sec it does not suit me to bury myself without some object—I thought I might economise there, but I would be at more expense than either here or Phila.—The Scy. will no doubt let me off, but he has not yet decided upon it—I renewed my application for Phila.—. . . .
. . . Mamma is now quite well and says what would Beek do during his vacation at Annapolis? confound the place I hate the thought of it.
So, in Surgeon DuBarry's place, Surgeon John A. Lockwood, a graduate of Dickinson College, was ordered to the Naval School as head of the medical department. The faculty was completed by the appointment from civil life of Arsene Girault as Professor of French. On October 10 the school was formally opened by Commander Buchanan.
Fort Severn, built for coast defense in 1808, was a "circular battery of mason work at the extremity of Windmill Point," which lay just to the southeast of the present natatorium, the intervening land between it and the harbor sea wall having since been filled in. The Fort, after "a careful study of plans and records," was described by Professor Soley as a "stone wall about 14 feet in height, enclosing a space 100 feet in diameter." In the center of the enclosure was a small brick magazine, circular in shape. The guns were mounted en barbelle upon a platform, built between the wall and the magazine, with its conically shaped roof rising above. The furnace for the shot was built outside the wall on the inboard side. At this battery, which, with its accessories, had been left in charge of an army ordnance sergeant when the Fort was turned over to the Navy, the midshipmen held their great-gun drills. After the Naval School was open, the battery at Fort Severn was supplemented by a simulated ship's battery built on the shore of the harbor just south of the fort.
The house that during the occupancy of the Army had been the Commandant's quarters, a brick colonial residence of the Dulany's, built about 1751, was assigned to the Superintendent. Beyond this, but forming a row with it, were four brick houses, built in 1834 as quarters for the officers of the post. "Tho' small" they were "quite elegant—with flower garden in front and yard and garden back." These were now to be occupied by Lieutenant Ward, Professor Chauvenet, Surgeon John A. Lockwood, and Professor Henry H. Lockwood, with whom Passed Midshipman Marcy was to live. But Chaplain Jones, who arrived late, and Professor Girault had to find quarters in town. This row of faculty quarters, which were raised a story and a half in 1846, faced almost west, along the diagonal of the present second battalion wing of Bancroft Hall. Against the western wall of the reservation, just about in front of the present second battalion terrace steps, was a little structure with two rooms and an entrance hall. This was used as quarters for some of the midshipmen, who later dubbed it "The Abbey," called such, said Rear Admiral Franklin who was a midshipman at the Academy in the year 1847-48, "by some elegant fellow who wished to have a high-sounding title to his temporary home." About midway of what now is the front terrace of Bancroft Hall stood what had formerly been the unmarried enlisted men's barracks. The two second-floor rooms of this building were assigned by Commander Buchanan for recitation rooms, and the two first-floor rooms, separated by a hall, were used as the midshipmen's kitchen and mess. It was in this building that the grand ball of January, 1846, was given.
Between this recitation hall and mess and the Fort itself, which stood at the center of the east "L" of the present third battalion wing, there were several buildings which were converted into more midshipmen's quarters. The position of these today would follow, in general, a diagonal line across the first and the third battalion wings of Bancroft Hall. The first of these quarters was a "wretched ramshackle" structure with four apartments, which the Army had used as the married men's quarters. These became known as "Apollo Row." During the first year one of its occupants, Midshipman Edward Simpson, said that rain which beat through the warped doors and windows was more objectionable than snow, for the "temperature" of the "one grate fire was not sufficiently high to melt the snow." Nearer to the Fort was what had formerly been the post hospital, a "rather more pretentious two-story building," in which were housed numerous midshipmen. As "the noisy and boisterous element always congregated there," says Franklin in his Memories, it became known as "Rowdy Row." Incongruous as it may seem, it must have been in this building that Surgeon Lockwood, after Midshipman Mitchell had to be sent to a hospital in Philadelphia, set up a dispensary and adjoining rooms for a sick bay. Between "Rowdy Row" and the Fort was a bakehouse built of brick. This also was converted into midshipmen's quarters, which, in consequence of being occupied by those midshipmen who in the frigate Brandywine had just completed a cruise around Cape Horn, became known as "Brandywine Cottage." East of this, on Windmill Point, was Fort Severn.
Beyond the quarters assigned to the faculty was a small brick structure, formerly used as the quartermaster's office, one end of which formed a part of the southern wall. This was used by the Superintendent for his and for the professors' offices, the loft above them being used to house several of the midshipmen. Beyond this against the wall was "an old Shed occupied as a Carpenter's and Blacksmith's Shop." By January, 1846, the congestion of midshipmen had become so great that Buchanan was forced to convert this old shed into "more comfortable rooms" which would hold eight midshipmen. These quarters became known as the "Gas House" on account of the garrulity of their inmates. During this first year, there was also erected the dummy ship's battery, mounting four 24-pounders, on "a section of a ship built on the shore." This battery was found more suitable than the fort for the great-gun target practice.
Such, during the first year, were the physical conditions at the Naval School, whose brick boundary walls would have roughly followed a line beginning at a point just northeast of Tecumseh on the river shore, which was then at the foot of the terrace beyond the site of the present figurehead, and running along what is now Buchanan Road as far as the line of the old ivy-clad maple trees planted by Buchanan in 1847. From that point, near which was the gate of the School, the boundary wall turned east, running to the harbor shore, along a line which now would be the southwest face of the second battalion wing. The harbor shore was then only about as far out as the southeast end of the fourth battalion wing. The grounds within the walls of the Fort comprised about 10 acres.
The various buildings within the walls of the Fort not only had to be put into condition for the occupancy of both faculty and midshipmen, as well as for recitations and drills, but also had to be equipped and furnished. This was done by gradual degrees. Furniture for the Superintendent's office and for most of the houses of the faculty, a new cooking range for the mess, and matting for the recitation rooms were purchased in Baltimore. Eighty iron bedsteads, at a little over $8.00 apiece, were bought in George Town. Commander Buchanan personally supervised this work, sending his Secretary, Howison, at times to make actual purchases. All the preparations, however, were not completed until some weeks after the school had opened. The midshipmen's rooms were furnished from an expense account of $10,000 allowed the Superintendent for necessary alterations, repairs, and furnishings. This amount was available from the $28,200 "instruction" allotment, as unneeded professors of mathematics were placed on waiting orders. The expenditure of $5,500 needed to furnish, exclusive of "bed and bedding and table furniture," the faculty's quarters was authorized through the Navy Department order of October 20, 1842. For the furnishings of each professor's house, "according to the taste of the occupant," $900 was allotted.
Equipment and apparatus for the various other needs of the School were gradually acquired from different sources. What equipment there was at the Naval Asylum School, Philadelphia, was sent to Annapolis in a sloop. The chronometers, "requiring special care," were brought in person by Professor Chauvenet in a "preparatory visit to the Fort" in September. In 1846 a telescope and six sextants, to replace the three brought from the Naval Asylum School, were requisitioned from the Naval Observatory. A bell, four gun carriages, and the framework, in the form of part of a ship's deck, for the battery, were sent from the Washington Navy Yard. Thirty muskets for infantry drill and the four 24-pounder guns for the battery were sent by the Bureau of Ordnance. Secretary Bancroft had asked the Army, before Fort Severn was turned over: "Be pleased to leave the powder behind." So as the Fort had just recently been repaired and refitted, it seemed best, when the 4th Artillery left for Fortress Monroe, to leave behind for the use of the Naval School the armament and the battery appurtenances.
The importance of an adequate library for the use of the School was early realized. Upon the request of Lieutenant Ward, who had been selected as the Executive Officer, as well as the instructor in ordnance and gunnery, Secretary Bancroft authorized the purchase for the library of certain selected books that would "add much to the value of his [Ward's] course of instruction in gunnery." The total amount to be expended was not to exceed $100. Commander Buchanan's approval of Ward's request furnishes an illuminating commentary upon the character of the work expected to be done at the new School. The library was to be used by the midshipmen in their studies, which apparently were not to be mere textbook courses. "Some of the works I have seen," he wrote, "and consider them very important in the Library of the institution that the students and others may have frequent access to them." In his report in July, 1846, to the Board of Examiners, who had also been constituted as the Board of Visitors to inspect the School, he said:
A small fund of $200 or $300 per annum to be applied to the purchase of standard works and apparatus for the use of the professors in their various lectures is very desirable. The library of the school comprises about 350 volumes; it is very important that the number should be increased.
The use of the reference works of the Library by the midshipmen in their studies, he again refers to in his quarterly report of January, 1847. "Many standard works much needed by the Professors and Mid'" would be added by the $300 just authorized by Bancroft's successor, John Y. Mason. On January 30, 1847, Buchanan wrote to Senator Alfred Pearce asking that one of the "large copies" of Captain Charles Wilkes' Expedition be sent to the Naval School, even suggesting a Senate resolution if necessary. These books with those brought by order of the Navy Department from the collections of books in the navy yards and on men-of-war constituted the School's first Library, of which Chauvenet became the first librarian.
Early in August, at the Secretary of the Navy's request, Commander Buchanan drew up the plan of the Naval School. Section 4 of the plan as approved by the Secretary provided that the "Professors and instructors will be selected, so far as practicable, from officers of the Navy." The selected faculty were ordered to report on October first for the opening of the School on the tenth. Besides the four transferred from the Naval Asylum School, the teaching staff consisted of Arsene Girault, appointed in September as "Agent of the Navy for teaching French," but later made professor; Chaplain Jones, who was to teach English; and Surgeon John A. Lockwood, Professor Henry H. Lockwood's brother, who was to be both medical officer and instructor of chemistry. The students who were sent to the school comprised two main groups: (1) Acting midshipmen. They had had no sea service, having merely a letter of authorization from the Secretary of the Navy to become midshipmen. (2) Midshipmen. They had had several years' sea service. The latter group consisted of those who had had five years' sea service and who would be eligible for promotion after their year's work at the Naval School; and those who had had less than five years' sea service, but who, happening to be on shore, were sent to Annapolis for study until they should be ordered to sea again.
An applicant for admission to the School as acting midshipman had to be of "good moral character," from 13 to 16 years of age, and accepted by the "Surgeon of the Institution" as free from any physical defects or disease or infirmity that "would disqualify him from performing the active and arduous duties of a sea life." The first mental entrance examinations at the Naval School were conducted by Professors Lockwood and Chauvenet in October, 1845, when five candidates were reported to the Secretary of the Navy, on the sixteenth, as qualified in "Reading, Orthography, and the elements of Geography, English Grammar, and Arithmetic." The five successful candidates, John Adams, R. Chandler, J. R. Hamilton, T. T. Houston, and F. B. McKean, were the first to become midshipmen at Annapolis. Only three of these had arrived by October 10. Eleven candidates, in all, were admitted as acting midshipmen before July 10, the end of the first academic year. J. S. Goodloe, W. H. Smith, W. B. Hayes, and Felix Grundy entered in November, 1845, and W. McGunnigle and B. Gherardi in June and July, 1846, respectively.
West Point was naturally turned to as a possible pattern of organization, administration, and curriculum for the planned naval school. So Bancroft sent Professor H. Lockwood back to his Alma Mater in July. So, too, Passed Midshipman Samuel Marcy, the son of the Secretary of War, was sent to West Point to study its system. The greatest weakness, indeed, in the earlier attempts to provide essential educational opportunities and facilities for the Midshipmen had been, as has been pointed out, the lack of any real system of education. Unfortunately Lockwood's report has still to be found. Marcy's, however, has been discovered since the ninetieth anniversary celebration. It throws much light on the marked influence that West Point had in the organization of the Naval School at Annapolis. Secretary Bancroft in drawing up the plan for the naval School followed almost entirely the suggested plan of Commander Buchanan, which, interestingly enough, is very similar to young Marcy's report on the West Point system. Marcy's report is dated July 18 and Buchanan's suggested plan is dated August 14.
In his report Marcy said of the position of the Superintendent of West Point:
The immediate government of the institution is his [the Superintendent's] and he is responsible for its management, directing all the Academic duties and commanding all Professors, Teachers, Academic officers & Cadets.
The Buchanan-Bancroft Plan gave to the Superintendent of the Naval School, in closely similar phrasing, the same power as the Superintendent had at West Point:
The Superintendent will have the immediate government of the institution, will be responsible for its [entire] management, direct all academic duties, and command all Professors and others connected with the School. He will frame a Code of Rules and Regulations for the internal government of the school; to be submitted to the Secretary of the Navy for his approval.
Marcy reported on the selection of the West Point teaching staff:
The Professors Military Instructors and their Assistants are with but two or three unavoidable exceptions Graduates of the Academy and most of them officers of the Army.
The Buchanan-Bancroft Plan provided:
Professors and Instructors [are to be] will be selected [from the list of Lieutenants, Chaplains, Professors, Passed Midshipmen, and Teachers in the Navy] so far as practicable from officers of the Navy.
Marcy reported that at West Point there was an Academic Board:
Certain of the Professors and Instructors constitute a Board for the transaction of business. They conduct all the examinations, decide on the merits of the Cadets, report on the system of studies and instruction and propose any improvements and alterations that their Experience may justify.
The Buchanan-Bancroft Plan included an Academic Board, too:
Professors, under the orders of the Superintendent, will constitute a Board for the transaction of business, will conduct the examinations during the course, decide on the merits of the midshipmen, report on the system of instruction, and suggest any improvements or alterations which their experience may dictate.
Marcy pointed out that West Point had a Board of Visitors:
A Board of Visitors is annually appointed by the Secretary of War to attend the Examination in June and ascertain the progress and improvement of the Cadets in their Studies, to Examine into the management of the institution in general and to report thereupon to the Secretary.
The Buchanan-Bancroft Plan likewise provided for a Board of Visitors:
The Board annually appointed under the Regulations of the Navy for the examination of [M] midshipmen for promotion, are to inspect generally the management of the institution, and report to the Secretary of the Navy on its condition and the means of improving it.
Marcy set forth both the mental and physical requirements for admission to West Point:
Before the candidates selected by the Department can be admitted as cadets they must be able to read & write well, exhibit a familiarity with the four fundamental rules of Arithmetic also a knowledge of reduction, simple and compound proportion, and vulgar & decimal fractions. They must be between the ages of 16 & 21 years, fully five feet in height and free from any deformity, disease or infirmity which would render them unfit for Military service.
The Buchanan-Bancroft Plan set up as entrance requirements for the Naval School:
Every applicant for [an appointment as acting Midshipman] admission to the school must be of good moral character, not less than [fourteen] thirteen nor more than [seventeen] sixteen years of age, and must be examined by the Surgeon of the institution, to ascertain if he be free from all deformity, deafness, nearness or other defect of sight, or disease(.) or infirmity of any kind which would disqualify him for performing the active and arduous duties of a sea life. He must be able to read and write well, and be familiar with geography and arithmetic. The Academic Board will examine him on these branches, and certify to his capacity for admission into the school.
Marcy quoted the West Point regulation requiring all West Point cadets to pass through a "probationary term":
"No Cadet shall receive his warrant until after the January Examination next ensuing his admission and then only upon the certificate of the Academic Board that he has passed that Examination in a satisfactory manner and that his moral and Military conduct previously thereto has in like manner been satisfactory."
The Buchanan-Bancroft Plan required a probationary period including both attendance at the Naval School and sea service for six months:
When an Acting Midshipman receives his appointment he is to be attached to the Naval School [for one year] subject to the exigencies of the service. [At the expiration of this period, should his conduct and proficiency meet with the approbation of the Superintendent and Academic Board, he will be retained in service and sent to sea.] Semi-annual examinations will be held at the school. Those who shall be found deficient at any examination will be dropped from the lists and returned to their friends. Those whose conduct and proficiency meet with the approbation of the Superintendent and Academic Board will be retained in the service and ordered to sea. After performing sea duty for six months, and receiving a favorable report of his conduct during that time from his commander, he will be entitled to a warrant[.] bearing the date of his acting appointment.
Marcy told, too, of the West Point system of Academic records:
The professors and their assistants are required to keep notes of all the recitations they hear and make weekly reports to the Superintendent of the progress and relative merit of each cadet of the particular sections under their charge. From these weekly reports the Superintendent makes out a monthly return of the progress &c for the use of the Inspector of the Military Academy, who transmits abstracts of it to parents or guardian of each Cadet. These weekly reports are so published that every Cadet can easily learn what progress he has made and exert himself accordingly.
The Buchanan-Bancroft Plan provided very similarly:
The Professors will be required to keep records of all the recitations, and report weekly to the Superintendent the progress and relative merit of the students. From these weekly reports, the Superintendent will make quarterly reports to the Secretary of the Navy.
It is these quarterly reports from the Superintendent to the Secretary of the Navy, which fortunately have been brought to light rather recently, that furnish most valuable information of the subjects studied and the work done by the midshipmen.
The thoroughness of the work and the soundness of the subjects chosen for study, that first year, are clearly evidenced by the explanation of the courses, written on these quarterly reports. This is especially true of the courses in gunnery and steam, natural philosophy, and chemistry. Though a comprehensive analysis of the other three courses is not available, the division of the midshipmen into sections, apparently according to proficiency of the students, in the departments of Mathematics and Navigation, French, and English, reflects the same high character of the work demanded, especially in mathematics and navigation, and French.
The second quarterly reports for the period ending March 31, 1846, show that, for the Seniors, the midshipmen whose appointments were dated 1840 and 1841, there were two sections in Mathematics, the first with 21 students and the second with 27. In French there were four sections, the first having 19 students, the second 21, the third 8, and the fourth 24. In English there were two sections, the first with 28 students; the second with 46. Both sections were having the same subjects, English grammar and composition, using for texts Smith's English Grammar and a text entitled Progressive Exercises in Composition. A comparison of the records of these two sections for this quarter reveals that, of the 46 students in the second section, 16 had marks higher than the low man in the first section, whose mark was 8.23 out of a possible 10.00. The range of the marks in the second section was from 9.74 to 4.87. For the first quarter, ending December 31, 1845, written compositions were required weekly from the students of both sections. The study of English grammar and composition was apparently carried on for the whole year.
In mathematics, under Professor Chauvenet, distinguished for his unusual ability to impart the subject to his students, the first and second sections during the first quarter ending December 31, 1845, were "instructed thoroughly in algebra," using the same text as at West Point, Davies' Bourdon's Algebra. Rear Admiral Samuel Rhodes Franklin in his Memories of a Rear-Admiral wrote that Professor Chauvenet "had the faculty of imparting what he knew to others in a higher degree than any man I have ever known." Chauvenet had shown marked initiative in improving conditions at the Naval Asylum School in Philadelphia, which he had directed from 1842 to 1845. An unusually brilliant mathematician and the author of several mathematical treatises, he and Professor Henry H. Lockwood were singled out by Rear Admiral Franklin as being "largely instrumental in starting it (the Naval School at Annapolis) with the high character it has ever since maintained."
During the second quarter, ending March 31, 1846, the students in both the first and second sections in mathematics studied Davies' Legendre and Pierce's Trigonometry. The first section had 21 members and the second section 27. For the third quarter, ending June 30, 1846, Professor Chauvenet divided the senior students into three sections, the first and second with 27 members each, and the third with 16 members. The first and second sections studied navigation and nautical astronomy using as the text Bowditch and Maury's Navigation and Nautical Astronomy. The third section, however, studied instead the 4th and 5th books of Davies' Legendre's Geometry and Trigonometry, algebraic fractions, and equations of two or more unknown quantities. This text was used at West Point, too.
In what might be termed the three scientific courses, a much more comprehensive appreciation is gained of the real character of the work in both subject matter and methods. "In this Department, in addition to the usual recitations," runs the explanation of the course in chemistry on the first quarterly report, "the students have been instructed by lectures on Chemical attraction, and laws of combination; lectures and experiments on Oxygen, Hydrogen, and their compounds, chiefly in reference to the principles of steam; the vapor of protoride, of Hydrogen, on water." For the second quarter, the months of January, February, and March, "Lectures and examinations" were given. The subject matter studied comprised "metallic elementary substances in connection with the properties manufacture and constitution of gun powder." The study of metals was taken up first. For the third and final quarter, the report contains no description of the subject matter.
The courses in natural philosophy, gunnery, and steam reflect perhaps more adequately the teaching ability of the professors than do the academic records of any of the other courses for that first year. In the course in gunnery and steam, taught by Lieutenant James H. Ward, the subject was very thoroughly covered and most pertinently related to the naval profession. "Besides recitations," explains the commentary for the first quarter,
the Professor has instructed by lectures on the following subjects: Historical review of artillery, ancient and modern, with an outline of ancient and modern fortifications. Properties of matter—laws of motion—theory of projectiles—atmospheric resistance—ballistic experiment. Guns—their relative qualities—upon what those relations depend—requisites for adaptation to various services—Construction of guns. Iron—smelting and working it—its various characteristics. Upon what circumstances both of nature and of art those characteristics depend. The quality of iron suitable for guns.
For the second quarter, ending March 31, 1846, there were lectures and recitations in which were covered:
Construction and Inspection of guns. Mounting guns on shipboard. Properties and analysis of the ships gun carriage. Newly invented gun carriages. Gunpow[d]er—its properties—theory of explosion—mode of manufacture & cannon charges both full and reduced—their properties and manner of putting them up. Shot—causes of deviation from the line of aim when fired—Properties necessary to accuracy of firing. Inspection and preservation of shot. Implement used in serving guns. The theory and practice of loading fully treated. Wads—these various kinds and uses in loading. The use of grape shot . . . [a part of explanation is covered up in binding these reports]. Evils of using damaged powder. Shells—their preparation—manner of using them. Pointing and sighting guns with disparts and with tangent sights. Theory of the tangent sight and its graduations. The gun exercise and the duties of all persons at quarters in preparing for action.
The midn. are exercised at the battery, both in working the guns and target and firing every Saturday.
For the third quarter, ending June 30, 1846, a very clear picture is given of both the division of time and the subjects covered "in the first six weeks of this quarter," says the report, "the Tuesdays and Thursdays were devoted to the lectures on Tactics, and the Saturdays to exercise on review in Gunnery. In the last five weeks, the Tuesdays and Thursdays were devoted to instruction in steam and the steam Engine; the Saturdays to Gunnery. The delay in commencing the course on steam arose from the non-arrival of the model engine."
Lieutenant James Harmon Ward, the Professor of Gunnery and Steam, was well versed in his field. While at the Naval Asylum School, though gunnery was not a subject required for promotion to passed midshipmen, yet he was able to develop there a lecture course, stressing the importance to the naval officer of the study of science. These lectures were later published as an "Elementary Course of Instruction on Ordnance and Gunnery for Midshipmen." With an added section on steam, this treatise was used as a text at the Naval School. While at Annapolis, Ward also invented a gun carriage, which Buchanan recommended to be tried out.
The comprehensive character of the subject matter taught in the course in natural philosophy and the methods of instruction— lectures, recitations, experiments, and, just before the final examination in June, a "general review of the course with original demonstrations"— point rather conclusively to the recognized teaching ability of Professor Henry H. Lockwood. His realization that the role of a professor was not merely to hear a student recite an assigned lesson and grade him on the accuracy of the recitation but to instruct and to teach is evidenced in his attitude both toward his work and toward his students. In this he showed the high standard of attainment he demanded of his students. When they complained and protested, in December, 1845, that the physics he was requiring them to study was too difficult, the Superintendent, Commander Buchanan, backed him up in the use of the objected-to text. For Buchanan felt that the educational standard at the Naval School should be just as high as at Princeton where the same text was being used.
I cannot discover any good reason why "Peshels [Peschel's] elements of physics" should not be retained as the text book of this School. The want of time to study the work analytically appears to be the only reason assigned by the Midn for wishing a more elementary substitute. . . . Professor Henry of Princeton College has adopted this work for his classes, and I know not why the standard of education at Princeton should be superior to that at the Naval School.
But Lockwood felt the responsibility for the students' acquiring the essential groundwork of the subject. So he suggested a daily study period under his direction. Of this Buchanan approved as he did also of the students' request to have Lardner's Mechanics supplied, too, if Lockwood thought it would help them in gaining a better grasp of the "abler treatise," Peschel's Elements of Physics.
I feel well assured that by adopting the plan you suggest for the advancement of the students [that of assembling them at an early hour to study the subject with you instead of in their rooms] all obstacles will be overcome through your assistance and explanations. As it is my desire to render the midi' every assistance for the advancement of their studies, and not retard them, I have no objection to furnish them with Lardners Mechanics as they desire, if you think it will assist them in comprehending more clearly the abler treatise on that subject.
Further evidence of Professor Lockwood's qualities as a teacher, in the fullest sense, is found in Rear Admiral Franklin's memoirs. As a midshipman, Franklin had been assigned to the U.S.S. United States, on which he made a cruise with Professor Lockwood in 1841. The latter had just been appointed as a professor of mathematics. About fifty years later, these qualities of Lockwood, as a teacher, were vividly recollected by Franklin for he wrote:
He was our Professor of Mathematics, and was most zealous in his efforts to instil into our youthful minds the rudiments of algebra and geometry. He carried us up to analytical geometry, and made those of us who took an interest in his teachings very good navigators. He also taught us history and never lost an opportunity to instruct us in what we ought to know. I have always felt grateful to him for giving me such a good groundwork in mathematics, as it enabled me to take a respectable standing in these studies when I went to Annapolis to prepare for my examination—He taught me all I knew, up to the time I went to the Naval School [Annapolis], and I have always felt under deep obligations to him for the pains and trouble he took to instil into me the rudiments of mathematics, which I afterwards found so useful.
Such were the subjects studied and the professors who directed them under the effective leadership of Commander Buchanan. Thus was laid the firm foundation for one hundred years' successful development of the basic naval education that all midshipmen now entering the Navy must take. Buchanan on the opening day laid down as the school's fundamental objectives: obedience, moral character, and temperance. These he declared to be essential for success in the Navy. His disciplinary action from the very first marked his determination to attain these objectives. Before the year was out two midshipmen had been dismissed and two had their resignations accepted while others were subjected to reprimands. His task was a difficult one, however, for this was the first time that the "oldsters," midshipmen who had seen service afloat for several years, had ever been required to take a regular course of studies.
To make his task more difficult, the courses had to be arranged so that the midshipmen could enter or leave the school at any time the "exigencies of the service" required. The quarterly reports show that the "exigencies of the service" required seven to be sent to sea in November, just a month after the school was open. During the next quarter, ending March 31, 1846, six were detached, and during the third quarter, ending June 30, 1846, eight more. There were two basic divisions of the students: the senior midshipmen who had been to sea for several years and the junior midshipmen who had just received their appointments as acting-midshipmen but who had never been to sea. Those among the seniors who had five years' sea service were to be given, at the end of a year at the Naval School, their examinations for promotion to the grade of passed midshipman. Those other seniors who had less than five years of sea service would be put in the classes for which they were qualified. As they came to the school and left it at any time during the year, the question of class arrangement was very difficult. In French, for example, some were in the section for the juniors, the acting-midshipmen, while others were in the senior sections.
There were eight acting-midshipmen at the Naval School during practically the whole first year, which for them ended in April. One of these, failing to measure up to the standard set, was forced to resign. There were forty-three "oldsters" who qualified in their final test before the Board of Examiners, in June, 1896, for the rank of passed midshipman. Three were recommended to be dropped and three to be given another examination in the fall.
Thus was firmly established a system of organized naval education, which through a hundred years of development and growth has been able to create the most powerful sea force ever known. To Commander Buchanan then, much credit must be given for building such a firm and lasting foundation of the present system of naval education. But his success was due not only to his ability to organize an institution revolutionizing naval education and to administer it by wise disciplinary restraints through the first period of its trying infancy; it was due also to his having an unusually capable faculty with whom and with the midshipmen his effective leadership created at the Naval School an effective spirit of harmony.
A thought of mistrust leads to hesitation. A moment of it will kill the offensive spirit.—Du Picq, Battle Studies
Unity and confidence cannont be improvised. They alone can create that mutual trust, that feeling of force which gives courage and daring. Courage, that is the temporary domination of will over instinct, brings about victory.—Du Picq, Battle Studies.
Note.—The bracketed sections of the Buchanan-Bancroft Plan are the original wordings of Buchanan, transposed, changed, or deleted by Bancroft. The italicized words were inserted by Bancroft.