Introduction

Introduction

In all ages and in all countries there have been educators who recognized the importance of the physical, and more specifically, of the military element in their schemes of individual and collective teaching. No higher authority in English pedagogical literature of the liberal type, can be named in this connection, than John Milton, who, in his brief but masterly outline of “a virtuous and noble education,” includes this in the means of a complete and generous culture, that is “to fit a man to perform justly, skillfully, and magnanimously all the offices, both private and public, of peace and war.” In the outset he demands that the number of pupils, for whose accommodations a spacious house and grounds were to be provided, should be large enough for “the convenience of a foot company or interchangeably two troops of cavalry,” so that systematic exercise could alternate with the studies and diet. In his general programme he includes studies which shall “stir up their spirits to manly and liberal exercise,” and “inflame their hearts with high hopes of living to be brave men and worthy patriots.” In the enumeration of studies he specifies mathematics, the practical aid of instruments in surveying and engineering, and their application to fortification and navigation. Living in the midst of a civil war like our own, when the preservation of constitutional liberty had summoned troops from the field, the shop, and the study, and placed men in command who had not been trained to the profession of arms, Milton directs or points out the value of studies, the mastery of whose general principles “may at some time or other save an army, and not let the healthy and stout bodies of young men rot away under them for want of this discipline, which is a great pity, and no less shame to the commander.” In treating specially of physical culture, Milton assigns to military drill, and use of sword and other weapons, at least an hour and a half each day, that his pupils may be equally good both for peace and war. “The exercise which I commend first is the exact use of these weapons to guard and strike safely with edge or point. This will keep them healthy, nimble, strong, and well in breath; is also the likeliest means to make them grow large and tall, and to inspire them with a gallant and fearless courage, which being tempered with seasonable lectures and precepts to make them of true fortitude and patience, will turn into a native and heroic valor, and makes them hate the cowardice of doing wrong.” With the use of the sword Milton would associate all athletic sports “wherein Englishmen are apt to excel.” And after the day’s study has been thoroughly done, “with minds in good tune and satisfaction,” he would occupy the “two hours before supper in military motions, under sky, or cover, according to the season, as was the Roman wont; first on foot, then as their age permits, on horseback to all the art of cavalry; that having in spirit, but with much exactness and daily muster, served out the rudiments of their soldiership in the skill of embattling, marching, encamping, fortifying, besieging and battering, with all the helps of ancient and modern strategems, tactics, and warlike maxims, they may, as it were, out of a long war come forth renowned and perfect commanders in the service of their country. They would not then if they were trusted with fair and hopeful armies, suffer them for want of just and wise discipline to shed away from about them like sick feathers, though they be never so oft supplied; they would not suffer these empty and unrecruitable colonels to quaff out or convey into secret hoards the wages of a delusive list and miserable remnant. No, certainly, if they knew aught of that knowledge which belongs to good men or good governors, they would not suffer these things.” To these school studies and practical exercises, Milton would add excursions “to all quarters of the land, learning and observing all places of strength, all material for building, all soil for towns and tillage, harbors and ports of trade. These ways would try all their peculiar gifts of Nature, and if there is any secret excellence among them, would fetch it out and give it fair opportunities to advance itself by.”

The views of Milton in favor of military exercises can not be attributed to any professional bias, for his tastes and his habits of life were in the shaded walks of the academy, “contemplating the serene countenance of truth in the still air of delightful study.”

The example of Switzerland can be cited on the side of their practicality, on a scale as liberal and much more popular than their author at the time contemplated; and quite recently (1871), the Federal war authorities propose that the older boys in the secondary and superior schools shall be instructed in outpost and skirmishing duties.

X. PHYSICAL AND MILITARY EXERCISES IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

A NATIONAL NECESSITY

BY EDWARD L. MOLINEUX

Major and Inspector in New York Militia.

From a long and unexampled period of political and commercial prosperity we suddenly find ourselves called upon to struggle for national existence, and while a noble response from the people to the necessity of the struggle has strengthened the hand of government with an intelligent army, and developed the resources of the country, yet the occasion has laid bare defects which call for correction.

Without a standing army of any magnitude we have found our militia laws defective, and have been obliged to create ourselves a military people by the sufferings and bitterness of an experience bought on the field of active warfare.

Military necessity has compelled the loss of invaluable time in the organizing and preparing of our troops, which would not have been required had we been able to meet the rebellion at the commencement with well trained officers and an experienced and carefully drilled militia.

“The first object” says Daniel Webster, “of a free people is the preservation of their liberty:” a noble truth which must speak home to the heart of every American, and if, as it is asserted, “the future life and character of a nation is to be seen in its system of schools,” then we may well listen with some degree of alarm to the warnings and unmistakable evidences by which we are surrounded, that the American race is physically deteriorating.[22]

[Footnote 22: Miss C. E. Beecher’s “Appeal to American Women,” “Calisthenics,” &c.]

The question arises, has our National system of Education been such as to qualify and prepare us to maintain successfully, the noble inheritance which was won by the physical energies of the men of the Revolution, and with our success in the field of intellectual culture, have we kept the physical advantages possessed by our forefathers?

Let us not mislead ourselves in this matter, but calmly look at the facts, that as a rule, our present system of Public Education is devoted solely to the mental and moral improvement of the scholars, and that the encouragements and rewards held out by committees and teachers, stimulate to the overexertion of the brain, and sacrifice in too many instances, the health and growth of the body.

Although great improvement has been made of late by the shortening of the time devoted to study, and by the introduction of more frequent periods of recreation, yet still little has been attempted for giving exercise and activity to the body; this important training being left to the care of parents or the pupils themselves.

Is it not too true that the increase of ill health, broken constitutions, and early deaths, among the growing portion of our population, especially in cities, warns us, year after year, that the thirst for knowledge, and the restless seeking after mental and intellectual improvement, have been bought at the expense of the vital energies of the great body of youth who throng the colleges and public schools of our land?[23]

[Footnote 23: [We do not share this alarm, or believe that hard study, apart from open or secret vice, has had much, if any thing, to do with such physical deterioration as does exist.-- ED. Am. Jour. of Ed.]]

If any one denies this, let him visit our institutions of learning, and while he may well admire the wisdom and forethought which has established our prosperity on a noble system of National Education, he can not but notice the debility evinced in the frames of so many youthful votaries of intellectual training; the exceptions making the contrast still more strikingly painful. Then let him go to the counting-house or the close confinement of some mechanical employment, where the evils from mental activity, unaccompanied by physical recreation, are yet more strongly developed. These evils assail not only the happiness of families, but the prosperity of the nation and the well-being of the race. Is this right or necessary? Can it be avoided?

The solution of these momentous questions may well engage the serious attention of the reflecting teacher, parent and patriot; and to them we assert that, unless physical exercises are enforced upon our system of Public School education, our intellectual culture will be of little avail, and that our nationality stands in danger of sinking a prey to designing opponents.

That enfeebled races are invariably conquered by those more powerfully developed, is proved by innumerable instances in history. That physical training was an important branch of education among the Greeks and Romans, is well known. The system inculcated by the iron-hearted Lycurgus, among the Spartan youth, was of a nature admirably adapted to fit them for all the sterner realities of life, whilst the athletic games and exercises of the youth of Rome, comprising, as it did, walking, running, wrestling, swimming, and military drill, were the means of improving, to the utmost, their physical powers. Upon reaching manhood, the advantage of this training was indicated by the robustness of form, and the constitutional vigor which enabled them to undertake labor, fatigue and hardship of every kind, with perfect indifference.

The Spartan and the Roman soldiers were by this early training, not only qualified to surmount with ease the various obstacles and difficulties incident to a state of active warfare, but they also became gifted with precision and rapidity in every movement, and each man was likewise endowed with that confidence in himself, and that unbounded reliance upon order, subordination and combined action, which nourish audacity, yet temper it with coolness and steadiness.

Unfortunately this system, by which the vigor and valor of a Spartan or a Roman has passed into a proverb, fell into disuse, and as it was neglected for more intellectual pursuits, so the grand empires founded by its vigor crumbled before the assaults of more athletic barbarians.

The influence of health upon the faculties of the mind is acknowledged by all, and yet how few in this country devote attention to those all important exercises which are necessary to the preservation of health, and without which intellectual power can not be applied to its highest use. The talents, the experience of our best educators of youth, are taxed to devise exercises to develop the mental faculties, forgetting that too close application to study is detrimental to the growth of the body.

But few thoughtful teachers will deny the extent to which this evil has reached, or be unwilling that the strain upon the intellectual powers of children, by absorbing studies, should be counteracted by cheerful and relaxing exercises by which the mind will be relieved and at the same time strengthened. The testimony of physicians, the valuable works on health by Dr. Warren, Miss C. E. Beecher, and many other able writers, furnish incontestable evidence of the necessity of systematic exercise for children. To accomplish this it is absolutely necessary to adopt it in our course of education, for in the majority of cases it can not, or will not, be attended to at their homes.

What then is the most simple, feasible and useful plan to adopt for physical exercises in our Colleges, Normal and Public Schools?

We unhesitatingly say, that the only successful, orderly, and systematic method is, to engraft them upon the course of studies during school hours, and to carry it out under strict military discipline; the exercises being such as are best suited to the age, strength and capabilities of the pupils, namely: calisthenics and walking for the girls and younger children, and military exercises for the elder boys.

Let not the kind hearted parent exclaim against his boy learning the military drill, for fear of his acquiring a taste for warfare; or the lover of peace imagine we would re-establish the stern laws of Lycurgus. We would have moderation, in this respect as in mental studies, and while we would not, as some may imagine, displace the bust of Howard in our school rooms for a Napoleon, yet we would impress upon the minds of boys the image and example of Washington, and in cultivating their intellectual faculties, likewise prepare them in mind and body to develop in manhood those virtues and powers which constitute a true and noble citizen;--a sincere love of country, of national probity and justice, beyond selfish considerations or personal aggrandizement They should be brought up to a sense and knowledge that it will be their honorable duty and privilege to protect their native land, that she fosters and educates them in their youth, and that upon their manhood her nationality depends.

We can never become an aggressive military people; the fields for successful enterprise in art, science, commerce and agriculture, are too broad and inviting to render military pursuits very attractive, and unless we cultivate such exercises and discipline in youth, they will be, as they have been, neglected when engaged in the active pursuits of business. The clear, common sense of the American parent will acknowledge, not only the national necessity, but the moral advantages of this; for what fond mother is there but would prefer to see in her son a manly, patriotic spirit, rather than a timid, mercenary one, which, shunning danger, would sacrifice the honor and greatness of his country to the base love of gain and ease.

We have suggested that the exercises be conducted under strict military discipline, because it is impossible for a large body of children to be exercised in the usual school limits, unless the greatest decorum and order is observed; and if conducted under the supervision of a teacher, dangers and accidents will be avoided, which always occur when children are rash and thoughtless in attempting to accomplish too much. Thus conducted, they will prove an invaluable aid to the teacher in the enforcement of discipline in the school room, and teach that invaluable lesson which it seems so difficult for children to learn,--unhesitating obedience.

For the advantages of this system let us examine the practical testimony afforded in the European schools, where considerable attention has been paid to this important matter.

On the continent the advantages of physical training are appreciated to their fullest extent, especially in the Industrial Reform schools, where the admirable principle has been adopted of teaching “what they will have occasion to use when they become men,”[24] and thus render them useful members of society. To Dr. Barnard’s National Education in Europe, we are indebted for the following extracts and illustrations of this position.

[Footnote 24: Aristippus.]

In the Reform School of Rauhen Haus, near Hamburg, “they are taught to develop their bodily and mental powers in various practical ways; to use the fire engine, to swim, to save persons from drowning, and use remedies to recover them, to climb a mast and handle the sail, of a ship. They act as a jury among themselves. Their chief reward is to be enrolled in the table of honor. In the great fire of Hamburg, their conduct was physically, as well as morally, heroic, and while bravely saving life and property, they steadily refused rewards.” Parents who, perhaps justly owing to the numerous accidents in Gymnasiums, are timid of their children becoming injured by these exercises, should carefully read the system pursued in Fellenberg’s celebrated establishment at Hofwyl. “A great variety of exercises of the body and the senses are employed, so that every boy shall acquire a knowledge of his physical strength, and attain confidence with regard to those efforts of which he is capable, instead of that foolhardiness which endangers the existence of many who have not learned to estimate their own powers correctly.” At Ruysselde, Belgium, the following plan was pursued: In summer, from 5½ to 6½ A.M., Exercises and Manœuvres; from 7½ to 8¾ P.M., Gymnastics. In winter, several hours were devoted to these exercises, and the result found (as in this report,) was, that “rickets, scrofula, want of elasticity in the limbs, difficulty of walking, all rapidly disappeared under the drill, which confirmed the health and increased the strength and activity of the children, and accustomed them to discipline. It predisposed the pupils to sleep, and was an effective safeguard against shameful habits and secret vices. The battalion movements were performed with as much precision as that of the army, a platoon armed with condemned carbines, marched at the head. The bayonet exercises and skirmishing were as good as play to the boys.” A remarkable instance of the moral effects of military discipline upon the lads of the Colonie Agricole, at Mettray, is related by M. Demetz, and was published in Barnard’s Journal, Vol. 1, p. 623. “During the revolution of 1848, a band of workmen came to Mettray, with flags flying and trumpets sounding, and meeting the youths returning, tired from field labor, their pickaxes on their shoulders, thus addressed them:--‘My boys, do not be such fools as to work any longer. Bread is plentiful; it is ready for you without labor.’ The chef, who was conducting the boys, and who behaved with the greatest calmness and tact, immediately cried, ‘Halt! form in line,’ The lads, being accustomed to march like soldiers, immediately formed. The chef then said to the men, ‘My friends, you have learned to labor; you have a right to rest; but leave these lads: let them learn now, and when their turn comes they may rest as you do.’ The men gave way, the youths marched home, and Mettray was saved,--saved, as I believe, by our habit of military discipline.” It was the heroic exertions of these young colons during the inundation of 1856, which won for them the praises of all France. These instances might be multiplied, but are sufficient to show the moral and physical benefits of military exercises and discipline upon boys, even of the lowest class.

The governments of Europe being upheld by the bayonets of large standing armies, and requiring, as they do, in many of the kingdoms, the compulsory service of all young men, renders it unnecessary for the daily public schools to teach military exercises to that extent, which it is well for our Republican government to do. Yet in Europe they watch with the greatest assiduity and care the bodily powers of the children, knowing its great advantage not only in health, but the maintenance of order.

In Great Britain much interest has of late been evinced on this subject, and Mr. Edwin Chadwick becoming convinced that the studies and confinement in their schools were generally prolonged beyond the powers of the children, and in violation of the laws of health, devoted himself to collecting testimony respecting the advantages of the military drill upon the health of children. His investigations have elicited much valuable information, the more interesting to us as they mark its advantages to a nation which, like our own, depends for its defence mainly upon a volunteer force.

The following synopsis of his pamphlet we extract from the N.Y. Evening Post, November 1st:

Mr. Chadwick considers “In a sanitary point of view that a systematized drill is good, and for defective constitutions requisite for the correction of congenital bodily defects and taints, with which the youth of a very large proportion of the population, especially among the poorer town populations, are affected: and that for these purposes the climbing of masts, and other operations of the naval drill, and swimming, are valuable additions to the gymnastic exercises of the military drill, and when properly taught are greatly liked by boys. From a moral point of view, also, this drill will give the pupil an early initiation into all the acquirements of discipline--namely, duty, order, obedience to command, self-restraint, punctuality and patience.”

The evidence furnished by English drill officers shows its national value, and “That at school it maybe taught most economically, as not interfering with productive labor, and that thirty or forty boys may be taught the naval and military drill at one penny farthing (two and a half cents) per week per head as cheaply as one man, and the whole juvenile population may be drilled completely in the juvenile stage, as economically as the small part of it now taught imperfectly on recruiting or in the adult stage; and that, for teaching the drill, the services of retired drill sergeants, and naval as well as military officers and pensioners, may be had economically in every part of the country.

That the middle and higher class schools should have, in addition to the foot drill, the cavalry drill, which the parents of that class of pupils may afford.

That the drill, when made generally prevalent, (without superseding,) will eventually accomplish, in a wider and better manner, the objects of volunteer corps and of yeomanry, which, as interrupting productive occupations now becoming more absorbing, is highly expensive, rendering all volunteer forces dependent in fitful zeal, and eventually comparatively inefficient; that the juvenile drill, if made general, will accomplish better the objects even of the militia; that the juvenile drill will abate diffidence in military efficiency, and will spread a wide predisposition to a better order of recruitment for the public service, will tend to the improvement of the ranks of the regular forces, whether naval or military, and will produce an immensely stronger and cheaper defensive force than by the means at present in use or in public view.

And, finally, that the means of producing this defensive force, instead of being an expense, will be a gain to the productive powers and value of the labors of the country.”

Lieutenant-General Shaw Kennedy, in a letter expressing his high approval of the plan, states, “that the inferences drawn can not be controverted.” He is of opinion that if the measure is carried out it will be the means of bringing two million of men actually under arms in Great Britain alone, that is, excluding Ireland. He conceives that the effects of military drill and exercises, and the use of fire-arms taught at schools, would never be forgotten; that a youth so trained would, at any future period, with a slight degree of practice, renew his knowledge of what he had been taught.

Nor has the training of a better class of seamen been neglected. This is of vital importance to the well-being of a commercial people, and it is well for us to see what steps England is taking in the matter.

For the purpose of giving instruction in the naval drill, old masts and tackle have been obtained for some of the training schools in England, and Mr. Taffnell has received expressions of satisfaction from naval men of the way in which some of the boys have by these means been tutored as seamen in pauper schools. In order to form sailors, it is necessary to have masts and sails rigged in the playground, and a regular seaman must be engaged to drill the boys.

Mr. Baker has observed that the naval drill as given at Greenwich, is highly effective. “He states that he was on board the Ganges and the Conway at a time when many boys came on board who had been taught the naval drill at Greenwich naval schools; and that they proved to be as ready and well trained as man-of-war’s men; they were clean and orderly, and as a class were first-rate seamen, becoming petty and warrant officers in greater proportion than others.”

Of its consequence upon the national health and industry, Professor Owen has stated that even in the best-warmed and ventilated schools, five or six hours’ enforced stillness of growing children is a violation of the primary laws of physiology; whilst Miss Nightingale and others agree that, under the present system, children are placed under conditions which impair good bodily health and generate epidemic disease. Mr. Rahnson, a school commissioner at Amsterdam, states that the physical evils attendant upon the present amount of sedentary confinement in schools, required from young children, is beginning to attract attention in Holland, and that they have under trial a system of exercises for schools advocated by Dr. Schrieber, of Leipsic. ‘The chief question,’ says the latter gentleman, ‘is, How are our children to be brought up? Is it according to the laws of nature? The answer is, No; or we should not see so many children who were rosy and healthy before going to school, become pale and bloodless after school has begun;’ and he prescribes the limitation of the hours of school confinement.

Mr. Robert Rawlinson, civil engineer, gives the following as his opinion of the advantages of school drill in connexion with manual labor:

“In my opinion, based on experience and observation, I think school drilling and training would prove of the utmost consequence to the boys in after life. I may give a few instances. In all engineering and building, tradesmen are frequently required to use their strength in concert, lifting, carrying and drawing; men, to use their joint strength not only effectively but safely, must have confidence in each other. Two trained men will lift and carry more easily and safely than four untrained men. I have frequently seen trained men weed out unskilled men where heavy lifting has been required, because they dare not risk the danger arising from unskilled strength, and few have performed with more safety work which would have been lighter and easier if all had been equally skilled. Men frequently reject the assistance of unskilled men, as there is absolutely danger in having them near. Frequent accidents arise from using men unskilled in lifting, in hoisting, and at capstan work. * * * Boys should not only learn to march, but to lift, carry and pull in concert. There are many necessary feats of strength in all trades, which are more matters of knack and tact than of brute strength. Brute strength frequently fails to do that which comparative weakness can accomplish easily with skill and confident concert. There is no regular system of training in concert to use human strength in the best manner in any trade, so far as I know; acting in concert is a matter of necessity, and practice gives facility and confidence. Drill and training would probably double the effective human power of any establishment, especially if numbers are instructed in joint feats of strength. That which is taught to youth is never forgotten in after life.”

“As regards its fitness as an appendage to the highest branches of education, we have the testimony of experienced examiners at the University of Oxford, England, who state that six hours mental work, instead of ten or twelve, for adults, was the time of the great majority of the prizemen; and it was always found that those who were the foremost in mental labor were commonly the foremost in boat-rowing and physical exercise. The Vice-Chancellor of Oxford testifies that the institution of the systematized exercise of the volunteer drill in that college had been attended by an improvement of the mental labors, and of the whole of the order and discipline, as well as of the health of the University; and that, encouraged by these results, he was considering of making provision for cavalry exercises.”

Mr. Chadwick has also furnished incontestable proofs of the absolute necessity of more active physical training for females and of its bearing upon the future welfare of the race. But this subject has been rendered so familiar to American readers by the able pen of Miss Catherine E. Beecher, that we need not touch upon the European view, except to say that the noble labors of Professors Ling and Branting, of Sweden, have been ably seconded by very many of the governments of Northern Europe, where a method of gymnastics for females, has been systematized and practically adopted. From this brief sketch of the practical working of physical military exercises in Europe, let us turn to what has been accomplished among our own countrymen, whose activity in behalf of public education called forth the compliment from Prof. LeRoy, which we wish was better deserved, especially by the class which he specifies. that “the improvement of schools is, so to speak, the fixed idea, the constant preoccupation of the statesmen of America.”

We have indeed a noble and liberal system of education, but we would see its fostering care so extended as to invigorate the bodies as well as develop the mental faculties and intellectual powers of the pupils. The military exercises would best accomplish this, and at the same time form our public schools into a NURSERY FOR A BRAVE AND EFFECTIVE MILITIA.

Early in October last a communication was addressed by the writer to the different governors, and various other persons connected with the executive departments of the Northern States, in regard to the advantages to be derived from the introduction of infantry drills in the public schools, and by early preparation in school-days to strengthen the militia of the different States. At the same time it was placed before the New York and other City Boards of Education, and referred by them to special committees. The subject was also agitated through the columns of the daily press. The warm responses which have been accorded to these communications, prove the deep interest which is felt in this important matter, and it is to be hoped by the time this article appears in print,[25] some legislative action will have been taken.

[Footnote 25: Written December, 1861. Recommended by Governors Andrew and Morgan in their messages in January.]

In New York, the energetic Judge Advocate General, William H. Anthon, being engaged in a report upon the militia laws, and taking a warm interest in all matters relative to the efficacy of the militia, thus speaks of the importance of some alteration in the present system, in a letter addressed to Mr. Curtis, President of the Board of Education in the city of New York:

“The entire system, in my judgment, needs revision and reform, in order to make the militia what the Father of the Republic intended it should be.

It has been suggested by several persons, and among others Col. Richard Delafield, U.S. A., and Maj. E. L. Molineux, that an excellent foundation for an improved militia system would be the introduction of ‘The Manual of Arms,’ and ‘The School of the Soldier and of the Company,’ into our public schools.

I am disposed to consider these suggestions as valuable, and shall feel obliged to you if you will, as early as may be convenient, inform me how far you deem them practicable, and how they may be most conveniently introduced into the institutions under the charge of your Board.”

Mr. Curtis, whose personal observations on the European school systems, and whose long experience at the head of the Educational Board of the largest city in the Union, renders his views of the greatest value, replied:

“It has been my opinion for years that military instruction should, under certain restrictions, and to a certain extent, be given to the older boys in all the schools and institutions that are supported or draw funds from the public treasury. It is but just to the State whose munificence sustains these schools, that the pupils should be instructed in those branches of knowledge that will make them useful and effective in defending and protecting the State. A well organized militia, receiving from year to year into its ranks the disciplined and instructed youth who have passed through the public schools, and to whom the duties of the soldier are familiar, will always be sustained by the public confidence and esteem.”

Military discipline and exercises are by no means an untried experiment in the annals of American education; some of our best private schools and institutes having long since adopted it, and with a good degree of success as it will be our endeavor now to show.

To the admirable regulations of our National Military and Naval Academies, we need not refer; the systematic course pursued by them for the development of health, for discipline of mind and body, being well known to the majority of our readers.

One instance which came under the writer’s personal observation, will sufficiently illustrate the dependence which can be placed upon well-drilled boys in case of emergency.

In April last, when Washington was defenceless, Baltimore in riot, and all Maryland in a state of revolt, communication being cut off at Annapolis, there was great fear of attack upon that important strategetic point. The pupils were prepared for any exigency, and slept with their loaded rifles over their cots. At an alarm of a night attack, there was no hesitation among those gallant little fellows. They were up directly; fell in their ranks and off at a double-quick for the point of danger, in an almost incredible short space of time. The elder boys dragged their howitzer with them. Had an attack taken place, those pupils would have given a good account of themselves and have stood their ground with courage and steadiness. The secret of this is the discipline, for which they are indebted to the assiduity of their brave and experienced superintendent, Captain Blake of the Navy.

Let us read the opinion of this able officer in respect to the applying of this discipline to public schools:

“My experience at this institution long since impressed me with the importance of this subject, and I intended to have given my views publicly, but you have left nothing more to be said upon it, and I can only hope that those who have the control of our public schools will view the subject as we do. We have received about a hundred and forty acting midshipmen this year, some of them very young, and although they have not been here two months, they present a beautiful example of such results as the system would produce all over the country.”

It must be acknowledged that the States now in rebellion have devoted much more attention to military instruction in special schools, than we have, many of them pursuing the European plan of State Academies devoted to military science. Thus while we have been obliged to create officers from the small nucleus afforded us from West Point, they have had the students from State Colleges to officer their regiments.

For a long time back Virginia has annually expended upon her Military Institute nearly $50,000; South Carolina, $30,000; Kentucky and other States have likewise institutions, founded in whole or part, upon a military basis.

Although several attempts have been made to obtain legislative action for similar institutes in the Northern States, they have not, up to the present time, been successful, owing, we think, to the groundless opinion that it would prove a heavy tax, without a corresponding advantage. We shall endeavor to prove in this article how economically an academy could be supported. It is, therefore, to private enterprise, we are indebted for any experiments which have been made in this respect.

Several of our best boys’ boarding-schools in this portion of the country, have for a long time employed a military instructor for the pupils and been managed on a semi-military organization; they have been well sustained by the patronage of the public. We instance two or three schools of the present time.

Dr. Russell’s Collegiate and Commercial Institute of New Haven, is one which has already been of national advantage to us, for according to Prof. Daniel C. Gilman, “the scholars were of great service in drilling the recruits of Connecticut at the outset of the war, and many of them now hold important posts in the army. The scholars formerly trained as infantry and are now at artillery practices.” Mr. Gilman very justly observes, that in a country like ours with no standing army, every able-bodied man should learn to bear arms, and there can be no cheaper or efficient way of doing this than by teaching boys in schools.

The Eagleswood Collegiate and Military School, near Perth Amboy, N.J., has been recently organized on the military plan. The scholars are formed into a battalion under a superintendent and colonel commanding, the rest of the officers being taken from the scholars. The State of New Jersey has supplied the institute with arms, and the military regulations apply to the conduct of the pupils in their general deportment. The reasons given for employing this discipline are the same that apply in every instance, that it is the most orderly and effective, increases the energy, vigor and manly attitude of the boys, and induces cheerful obedience.

To Major J. P. Prall, Military Instructor, we are under obligations for the following account of Mr. Tracy’s Military Boarding School, at Tarrytown, N.Y.:

“There is no question, in my mind, of the utility of military instruction in schools, and if I had any doubts, they would speedily be removed by the fact that the very exigency you propose to provide for is being developed, only in a less degree, in the volunteer army now fighting our country’s battles. There are a number holding honorable positions in the army of the Potomac, and elsewhere, who have more particularly come under my own observation, that have passed through a course of similar instruction to what you propose, in private military boarding schools, who give evidence of superior knowledge as soldiers, and with a little preparation were ready to assume the duties and responsibilities of the field and camp. They have more particularly distinguished themselves as drill masters and thorough disciplinarians, the very ground you proposed to cover in your articles in the N.Y. Tribune of Nov. 20. I have especially noticed, of late, the facility with which youth acquire military knowledge since the outbreak of the rebellion, when the occasion seems to impress them more strongly with its importance.

Independent of the military availability of youth thus instructed, the promptness and precision that the system induces is apparent. A simple sketch of the routine of duties in a school over the military department of which I have the supervision, may give an idea of its utility, as well as its usefulness. This department is conducted in such a way as to make the military feature an auxiliary to the classical and preparatory. Part of two days in each week is more especially devoted to military drill and instruction, when the flag is raised on the flag-staff on the parade ground with the roll of the drum, and the sunrise gun is fired. At sunset it is lowered with the same ceremony by a file of boys, in charge of an officer, or non-commissioned officer. On other days of the week a drill of about an hour is held, in command of the company officers,--always in presence of the Principal. The utmost strictness is required in all the military features. The “Assembly,” when beaten for drill or parade, occupies one minute--immediately after, “fall in” is given by the orderly, when entire silence is required. Boys being naturally playful, much more care in these particulars is necessary than in grown persons. Tattoo begins at 9 o’clock precisely, when the minute of its duration expires every cadet is required to be in line for “roll call,” and the three squads, each in charge of an officer, are marched by flank to their quarters, (the whole not occupying more than two minutes.) They halt opposite their beds, and salute their officer as he passes out;--in five minutes the lights are extinguished. Their clothing is uniformly arranged, and in such way that if called up at night they can dress without lights and without loss of time. The officer in command of each, being held responsible for the condition of his squad. The military instructor inspects at unexpected times, and directs the chiefs of squads to report the result to the officer of the day, through whom all reports to the Principal must be made at 9 o’clock A.M. each day. Reveille at day break, and they march by squads to wash room, where twenty minutes is allowed for necessary ablutions, blacking boots, &c., and then the march to the Assembly-room for “roll call.” Inspection of boots twice a week, at unknown times.

The squads for the mess-room march in order, filing each side of the tables, face inward, and “sit down” by command; rise, march out and break ranks, observing the same military precision. These various duties are performed with pleasure and pride by the cadets, and the same promptness and regularity is apparent in every movement.

The armory and arms are in charge of a detail of four, and are inspected in turn on the roll, each week, and reports are made of disabled pieces, and the general condition of the arms and armory, to the officer of the day, and through him to the Principal. The various reports are embodied into one, by this officer, so that the Principal is not burdened with the details unless he calls for them.

Orders are issued from time to time, by the Military Instructor, and engrossed in a book, which is open for inspection of visitors, announcing promotions, results of inspection, and noting cases of military merit and demerit, &c. This has a tendency to stimulate to exertion, and to efforts to avoid unfavorable notice.

Military classes 1st, 2d and 3d, graduated according to military merit are established, and promotions to them made after strict examinations. All company officers are selected from the 1st class.

A class of Honor, consisting of members of the First class who have escaped being reported for disobedience and improper conduct, is also formed. A given number of military demerits reduces a cadet, and the badge which is worn on the left breast is taken from him. He may, however, be reinstated.

Military demerits are punished by military penalties.

Cadets are taught to observe the position of the soldier when off duty also; the benefit of this is very marked. When the machinery is properly set in motion, the labor generally attending the minutiæ of school duties is greatly reduced, and much more pleasantly and thoroughly performed.

I have not entered into all the details, (and have given the military only) but enough to give a general idea of the plan adopted by this school. There are different modes in use in other schools. Some partaking more of the military, and some less. I think there is danger, often, of too much military being engrafted so as to make it burdensome; great care should be taken in this particular, as the cadet wearies of it when the novelty is past.”

Mr. N. W. Taylor Root, in his admirable book on School Amusements, furnishes practical testimony “that it fosters habits of promptness, exactness, and unanimity of action; teaches implicit obedience to commands, erectness of carriage, a neat and clean appearance, and a gentlemanly and respectful behavior.”

It will thus be seen that a system of military drill has been tested morally and physically, in private schools, and found of decided advantage.

Why should these benefits be denied to the pupils of Public Day Schools?

Why should this vast defensive power be lost to the Government?

As a national military necessity; as a protection to the health and constitutional vigor of American youth; and as a powerful agent upon their moral behavior, their energy, self-reliance and spirit of enterprise, let PHYSICAL TRAINING BE ENGRAFTED ON THE COURSE OF STUDIES FOR ALL THE PUPILS EDUCATED AT THE EXPENSE OF THE STATE. Let us not hesitate at the magnitude of the undertaking, for it is a necessity, and under proper regulations and restrictions can be successfully and economically accomplished.

The greatest difficulty to be surmounted is the successful working of a system at once applicable to the requirements of a small district school, with a limited number of scholars, attending only at certain seasons of the year, and of those of the larger cities, with numerous schools, in which a great number are under instruction.

Let us commence at the foundation, in the Primary Schools.

The moment the child enters the school care should be taken that the mental exercises which are given should be relieved by frequent intermissions for running and playing, under the supervision of the teacher. This we are glad to say is the case in very many of our best primary schools; but it is when the child becomes more advanced, when there are lessons to commit to memory at home, that some simple physical exercises should be taught him every day; exercises calculated to develop the growth and expand the muscles. The calisthenics recommended in Miss Beecher’s work are excellent, simple, and easily fitted to the limits of the school house. The report of Mr. W. H. Wells, Superintendent of Public Schools for Chicago, for 1860, gives some interesting particulars of simple exercises which have been attempted in that city.

There would be but little difficulty experienced in selecting movements and gymnastics suitable for the strength and ability of the classes of younger boys, and girls under instruction, provided the method was established as an imperative duty which must be regularly put in practice, and that no lack of interest on the part of teachers, or laziness of the pupils would be accepted as an excuse for non-compliance with the regulation. We trust if Physical Training is carried out in our system of education, that a carefully prepared Manual of all kinds of exercises, embracing the military drill, will be compiled for the use of schools; in a word, a text-book to which our teachers can turn with confidence to find exercises suitable for all classes of pupils.[26]

[Footnote 26: Such a Manual will soon be published by J. B. Lippincott & Co., Philadelphia.]

From the Girls and Primary, we pass to the Boys Grammar departments, for which we propose military exercises, as being the most economical and advantageous for public schools; for tactics manœuvre large bodies in a small space, in an orderly manner, whereas gymnasiums are too expensive, and can not be made large enough to accommodate many scholars at once. This opens to us our most difficult, but at the same time most useful, field for prompt and energetic action.

Suppose we take for an example one of our large cities. The lower and female departments having simple physical exercises in use, it is wished to introduce military exercises into the grammar schools. Let us see how simply it can be organized, and how far it is possible to extend these studies if desired.

The following interesting letter from the Mayor of Bangor, will show the movement in that city, an example well worthy of being imitated.

CITY OF BANGOR, } Mayor’s Office, Dec. 21st, 1861. }

DEAR SIR:--In reply to yours of the 19th inst., I would say that, upon my recommendation, through a communication I made to our City Council, on the first Monday of the present month, an Order was passed directing the military drill to be introduced into a portion of the Public Schools of this city.

I had given the subject some thought and investigation, and was prepared to recommend the adoption of the drill for the physical training, no less than for the military instruction it might impart. The prevalent idea that education consists in training the intellect only, is gradually becoming superseded by the more rational theory that true education consists in training the moral and physical, no less than the intellectual faculties.

For the physical training of boys, I think the military drill has much to recommend it besides the military instruction it imparts. It will tend to give them a better command of their muscles, and impart a manly gait and bearing. It will also, if properly conducted, teach them self-control, and give them true ideas of order, discipline, and subordination, and whilst it will relieve them from the monotony of their ordinary studies will, by a grateful change, enable them to return to them with renewed interest.

We are entering upon the new experiment with caution, and have commenced by devoting an hour, twice a week, to the drill. We began in the school rooms, but found, after a few lessons, that the space these afforded was too small, and for the present shall use the large Gymnasium Hall. In summer, the grounds in connection with our school houses may be found well adapted for the purpose.

The boys, with scarcely an exception, manifest much interest in their drills, and receive the instruction much more readily than men. Two or three of our public spirited citizens, well qualified for instructors, have generously consented to devote the necessary time for drilling the boys, for the present winter, without compensation.

Some of our teachers are also disposed to qualify themselves for drill masters, and we are thus enabled to try the experiment without much expense.

I have had no communication with Gov. Washburn in relation to this subject, and was quite unaware of your interest in the matter. I however noticed the article in regard to it in the Evening Post of Nov. 8th, and was gratified with the important facts which it contained. I shall be glad to receive any further communication you may make to the public on this important subject, and should you wish, will be pleased to communicate to you the further progress of our experiments.

Yours respectfully, ISAIAH STETSON, Mayor EDWARD L. MOLINEUX, Esq., New York.

To establish thoroughly and economically this military culture, the Board of Education should appoint some competent person as Chief of the Staff to organize and carry out a system of instruction and drill; he to have under him two or three assistant instructors of experience, under whose guidance a teacher, or teachers from each school, should be fully instructed in the tactics, so as to be able to superintend the drill of the boys, which should always take place during school hours, and thereby form a recreation from mental study, and not encroach upon their play time. These are the only persons connected with the department beyond the scholars themselves, as it should be managed on the principle of obtaining the whole working force of the military organization from among the pupils.

The grammar department of each school should be formed into a company, or where the size of the school rendered it necessary, two companies: the officers to be selected from the most deserving and competent boys.

The officers thus selected to be instructed theoretically and practically by extra drills, in their respective duties. This would not occupy much time, and any boy objecting to devote this time would not be worthy of holding his position, and should be replaced by some one more deserving. Every school should possess within its limits space for a parade ground and for a few simple fixtures for gymnastic exercises. In stormy weather the exercises could be carried on indoors; for the drill possesses the advantage of affording exercise to a great number in a small space without disturbance and noise.

No uniform would be required, and the only expense would be the loan or purchase of 500 or 1000 short muskets, which could be used in turn at the different schools for drill or parade. A simple musket can be manufactured very cheaply, which will answer for all purposes.

The care and cleaning of the arms, the escorting and carrying them from school to school, or point to point, as required, should be the military duty of the pupils; thus expense will be saved, and the duty of prudent soldiers to take care of their equipments and do their own work inculcated.

These different school drills, always in charge of the teachers, should be visited in turn by the instructors, who would exercise a close and careful supervision over them.

Every ten companies or schools should be formed into a regiment, officered by those selected as the most capable, and who had passed the necessary examination.

Occasionally on Saturdays the regiments, in rotation, should be exercised by the instructors, in battalion movements, field manœuvres, skirmish drills, camp duties, &c. These Saturday exercises should not be compulsory, but would be eagerly looked for by the boys as an amusement.

In the proper seasons they could be marched to the suburbs for their exercises, and thus a pleasant holiday, with healthy amusements, be given them under proper guidance. Any father will appreciate the advantages of such exercises and enjoyment to his boys.

In the summer season it should be found out which of the boys could not swim, and had no parents able to teach them. All such should be classed together, and means taken to instruct them in this most requisite art.

If found desirable to teach them to move together in large masses, (in which our militia are certainly deficient,) it can be accomplished by organizing two, three, or more regiments, into a brigade, to be commanded by the chief instructor, he selecting for his staff the most intelligent of the scholars who could relieve him of much of the labor which the systematic working of this large military department would render necessary. Thus those assigned to the staff would be learning the technicalities of the department and the duties of aids, secretaries, &c.

These staff officers, and any other of the pupils who showed a decided talent, should be assisted in acquiring knowledge in the military science by means of lectures, &c., from the chief instructor. An orderly system once organized, with the incentive to improvement by promotion for correct deportment, and of military disgrace for ungentlemanly and unsoldierly conduct, would soon render this military instruction of great assistance to teachers in the schools. Let the boys understand that disobedience or improper behavior debarred them from military honors and the whole tone of their conduct would be improved.

Of the exigencies of this war, if complicated by foreign interference, it is impossible to foresee, but every one is aware of the importance of early training upon the destinies of nations, and but few will deny the value of a well-trained battalion of selected elder boys, in case of INVASION or trouble, by their relieving the fatigue of regular troops in mounting guard at the least exposed positions, at the camps, on baggage, or for convoys; likewise to act as drill-masters for the recruits.

The above plan, which was submitted to several Boards of Education last fall, was offered as being the best adapted for immediate use, and is therefore provided for the instruction of the teachers. If, however, the Normal Schools and Colleges would provide systematically for this instruction, it would be far better as they are the proper fields for permanent benefit, as each graduate would there become fully prepared to instruct in these exercises in the public schools.

The views of the Hon. Joseph White, of Massachusetts, respecting military studies in colleges, are well worth noting. He says, “let the drill be regular and compulsory, taking the place of the very irregular and insufficient physical exercises now taken, and our colleges would be vastly improved in their educational power, and the commonwealth would in a short time have a numerous body of educated men well skilled in the military science and art, who will become teachers in our lower grades of schools and in our military companies and associations, and be competent when the alarm is sounded, to lead our citizen soldiers to the field.” New Jersey has just offered a noble example by making an appropriation for military instruction in her State Normal School.

But we must look at the practical working of physical and military training in small district schools. Of necessity they are far behind, in intellectual culture, those in the cities, and owing to the small and uncertain attendance, physical and military drill would also have to be simplified. The duties of a country life are such as not to render these exercises so necessary on the score of health, nor are the pupils wearied by such constant application to study. But how beneficial it would be in smoothing the rough, clownish manners of the country pupil by teaching him the position of a soldier, and correct walking. In respect to this, it should be the duty of the trustees to see that the drill was taught as far as practicable to the boys (calisthenics to the girls) by the teacher himself, who, if he were not already instructed from a Normal School, would find but little difficulty in mastering the details of tactics sufficiently for his purposes. With as small a number as twelve boys, company and skirmish drills could be taught; the latter is admirably suited for country schools, and would be a delight to the boys. If near the water they should be taught to swim.

It is thus we would teach our public school boys when they reach a certain age, to act together as citizen soldiers and be prepared when called upon, to do yeomen service in the country; to make it their pride as well as their duty, to defend the Country and State which so liberally educates them, let us cultivate in them a lofty and noble patriotism, which shall have its effect upon future generations, for it is upon these qualities, their intelligence and enterprise, aided by physical strength and health, that the FUTURE of our country depends.

Although a course of military training in the public schools would soon furnish our State with an intelligent class of soldiers and line officers, yet the art of war in many of its branches, such as artillery, engineering, &c., requires a scientific education, which can not be given in a private institution. Our colleges undoubtedly could, to a certain degree, supply this want. New York city possesses in its Free Academy a college which needs but the addition of two or three professorships to carry out in part this requirement, yet a State Military and Scientific College seems a necessity to which early attention should be given, but to prevent its becoming a tax upon the State, it should be managed somewhat upon the plan of the Polytechnic of France, namely, that pupils at large may be admitted upon passing an examination and paying the annual fee.

Offer inducements in the way of superior education and careful training, and sufficient income would be received from the paying scholars to cover the expense to the State. Thus, from this college, might annually graduate men educated for the most scientific and skillful pursuits of life, and who, in time of war, would richly repay the State for the care devoted to their culture.

As an incentive to the public-school boys, several of the most deserving should annually be sent to this college by the State, and to the National Military and Naval Academies.

There is yet another important matter to be considered in physical exercises for public education, more particularly in sea ports, viz., Naval Training.

A late report of the Shipmaster’s Association has shown us that the reputation of our American vessels is deteriorating so rapidly, that unless something is done, quickly and effectually, to provide a remedy, foreign vessels will supersede ours in freighting. The necessities of our navy are too well known to need notice here, and surely these evils which assail the country at this trying moment of peril, should arrest attention.

In large seaboard cities the naval training school, which has worked so advantageously in England and Belgium, could be established very economically by the fitting up of some hall, at a slight expense, with spars, sails, &c. Here of an evening, lectures and classes for instruction in navigation and seamanship could be formed. This would be the means of improving our sailors and of forming useful citizens from those who now idle away their time around the streets and docks. The expense would be but light, and the advantages obvious to our merchant marine and navy. This would soon improve our class of sailors and officers, reduce the rate of insurance upon American vessels, and relieve us from the stain which is being cast upon us as a commercial and naval power.

The evening schools of New York city cost $73,000 per annum; a small per centage of this sum would place in successful operation an evening nautical school, which would enable, in less than three months, American sailor boys to acquire sufficient knowledge of navigation to aspire to the quarter deck. The handling of heavy guns and the principles of naval gunnery could also be taught. If a war with Great Britain breaks out, are we to be found slumbering in this respect, and must we wait for the first gun before taking active measures!

We are a peace-loving and domestic people, and we have indulged in the delusive fancy that peace was to shine over us forever, until rudely awakened from our dreams by a formidable attack at the very foundation of our nationality. Every family circle is represented in that mighty army which is battling for the Union, and we know that much of the suffering caused to our brothers by this new and unexpected calling, is due to the defects of their physical education, and to the want of a sufficient number of well trained officers. But the war is upon us and we must meet it as may best become a free nation and be better prepared for the future.

It is the proud boast of England that in time of war she is “Ready, aye Ready,” but a much prouder and nobler cry for us would be, the prompt “Here” at the roll-call of our militia when summoned, like the minute men of the Revolution, to the defense of the country. We want no large standing army. In times of peace let our merchants, artisans, farmers, and mechanics, enrich and develop the resources of the country. It needs their industry and will amply repay their toil. But let them be trained and educated from school-days to their military duties, and at the first note of war let that response of “Here” come cheerfully from our rich prairie lands, from our counting-houses, from our machine shops, from the decks of far off vessels and from our public schools,--one mighty cry of POWER and SELF-RELIANCE from a noble militia, possessing a thorough knowledge of its duties; intelligent and earnest in the right; patriotic and strong in its devotion to freedom.

A few words to those who fear the tendency of these exercises to instil a warlike and blood-thirsty spirit, and we will close. To them we say, we would emulate the ancients only so far as we can obtain from them some of their earlier and nobler traits of patriotism, courage, strength, endurance, and health. Let us picture what effect this training would have upon individual character.

Let us take the example of a young lad, entering the public school in the primary department, with perhaps a sickly, indolent disposition, and somewhat careless and slovenly in his appearance.

We know very well from the present system of studies, that his mind will be well cared for, and therefore pass to the effect of the physical training upon him.

The first lesson then is to stand in an erect and commanding attitude, with his chest well expanded, then his careless, slouching steps, with hanging head, are soon changed to the brisk, smart walk of a young gentleman, Calisthenics and exercises proportionate to his strength, and tending to develop his limbs very soon improve his health and impart a youthful vigor and energetic purpose to his motions, which are so much to be admired in young lads and give such rich promise of the future manhood. He soon learns exact and unhesitating obedience, and is taught by precept and example, that no small advantage in appearance is to be derived from a clean face and well brushed clothes. Is it to be denied that he thus learns habits of order, activity and cleanliness which will be invaluable to him in after years?

But his greatest ambition, the goal of all his hopes,--the reward for which he studies diligently, is active and neat in his deportment, docile and obedient to his teachers,--is to be promoted to the grammar department or higher classes, where the boys have military exercises. He looks with longing eyes at their neat, orderly ranks, as they form for drill or parade; their brightly polished shoes, neatly brushed clothes and well kept arms. All this is something to look forward to, and when he has accomplished it, has he not to strive by activity to win his grade and by self-control and obedience prove himself deserving to command others? Manhood, when it arrives, finds him bright, active, self-reliant and ready to become a public spirited member of society.

Let the necessity of military exercises be placed before the boy in a patriotic light and it will induce him not only to take greater care in the execution, but likewise implant a still greater love of country from the very knowledge that some day he may be of use to her,--of use to her in the pulpit, in the legislative forum, in the busy pursuits of industry and the various walks of life. And if the necessity again calls for action, or if the present war is of long duration and tests the strength and perseverance of our national character, let us not shrink from the ordeal, but with a firm reliance upon an Almighty God and a righteous cause, let us go forth in this good fight, we of this generation and our children, and faithfully discharge the duties of Christian soldiers in defense of truth, justice, and our country.

U.S. MILITARY AND COMMERCIAL MARINE SCHOOLS.

NAVY AND NAVAL AFFAIRS.

By the Constitution of 1789, Congress is empowered “to regulate commerce, to provide and maintain a navy, and make rules for the government and regulation of the land and naval forces.” The initiatory steps for establishing and regulating a navy were taken by the Continental Congress in November and December, 1775. The management of naval affairs was first assigned to a Marine Committee of Congress, appointed Dec. 11, 1775, which in 1779 (June 9), was converted into Commissioners, and before the close of that year, into a Board of Admiralty, which consisted of five members, two of whom were members of Congress, with a secretary, who was appointed by Congress. In 1781 (Feb. 7), a Secretary of Marine was created to execute all the duties and powers of the Board of Admiralty. In the condition of the public treasury, and “in the dilatory and parsimonious action of the several States in forwarding funds for the construction of ships, docks, and naval arsenals, and for the support of the naval service,” Congress voted in August, 1783, “that it was not advisable to purchase ships for the present.”

The necessities of a disordered commerce, and of a sufficient naval force to protect the navigation of the country, and repel the first approach of a hostile army from abroad, were among the motives for establishing a more efficient federal government. But until the danger of war with England became imminent, a large party in the country, in and out of Congress, opposed the necessary appropriations for putting the Navy of the United States on a respectable footing.

In constituting the executive departments of the national government under the Constitution, the administration of the navy and naval affairs were committed to the War Department, where it remained till 1798, when (April 30) an Act was passed “to establish an executive department to be denominated the Department of the Navy.”

The Act of March 27, 1794, by which the construction and manning of four ships of 44 guns each, and two of 36 were ordered, was called for by the depredations on our commerce, and particularly in the Mediterranean Sea. In this Act the appointment of eight midshipmen, to rank with the warrant and petty officers, was authorized, and the Navy Register bears the names of only eight officers holding that rank prior to 1800. In 1801 the naval force of the United States consisted of 13 ships, viz.: 4 of 44 guns each (United States, President, Constitution, and Philadelphia); 4 of 36 guns each (Chesapeake, Constellation, Congress, and New York); 5 of 32 guns each (Benton, Essex, Adams, and John Adams); and by an Act of that year all others were ordered to be sold, and the completion of any more in the yards, was suspended. But the insults to our flag and destruction of our commerce by the Barbary powers, and the privateers of England and France, aroused such a feeling in the country that Congress ordered a squadron to be fitted out for the Mediterranean in 1803, which proved to be the school in which the seamanship of the Navy was trained, and the gallantry of its officers signally displayed. In the legislation of this period originated the “gun-boat” policy as an auxiliary means of harbor defense. In 1805 the first vessel of this class was added to the Mediterranean squadron, and in 1806 the President announced that 50 more could be relied on for the naval service. Gun-boats, properly constructed and armed, are now part of the system of harbor defense in all countries.

By an Act of Congress approved April 21, 1806, the whole number of able seamen, ordinary seamen and boys, for the United States Navy was not to exceed 925. March 3, 1807, the President was authorized to employ 500 additionals, increasing the authorized number to 1,425. January 31, 1809, the President was authorized to employ 3,600 able seamen, ordinary seamen and boys, in addition to the number of petty officers, seamen, etc., previously authorized, which increased the number of enlisted men allowed to 5,125.

In 1810 an appropriation was made to test the value of torpedo or submarine explosives, as engines of war, and in 1842 to test the submarine battery ignited by a submerged electric wire, devised by Samuel Colt. The introduction, of these “engines of war” into the defense of Southern harbors, in 1861-65, demonstrated their efficiency and inaugurated a new system of not only harbor defense, but of attack.

March 30, 1812, the President was further authorized to increase the seamen, etc., and as far as necessary to equip the frigates Chesapeake, Constellation, and Adams, any law to the contrary notwithstanding. In this Act provision was made for the appointment of a schoolmaster to each ship having a complement of 12 midshipmen.

March 3, 1813, he was authorized to have built six sloops-of-war, and to have them manned and equipped, and to employ the number of seamen which were necessary for such vessels as were authorized by law to be put in commission.

In 1816, in the appropriation annually of $1,000,000 for eight years to the gradual increase of the Navy by nine 74 gun-ships, and twelve 44 gun-frigates, provision was made to procure the steam-engines and build and equip three steam-batteries for the defense of ports and harbors--the introduction of a new element into the naval service. In 1839 the Secretary was authorized to construct three steam-vessels of war, “according to the best advices that could be obtained.”

In 1837, after strenuous efforts to enlist Congress in some systematic plan for supplying the navy with well instructed and thoroughly disciplined seamen, the Secretary was authorized to enlist under certain conditions, boys between the ages of 13 and 18, who should receive special opportunities for school and professional training.

In 1844, $100,000 was appropriated to build at Pittsburg an iron steamer (the Alleghany); and the appearance and exploits of the Merrimac and the Monitor, in the waters of the Chesapeake, in 1863, introduced a new system of naval construction and armament, not only into our navy, but in less than ten years revolutionized the ship-yards and ordnance foundries of the world.

By Act of March 3, 1845, it was provided “that the whole number of petty officers, seamen, ordinary seamen, landsmen and boys, in the naval service, shall not exceed 7,500 at any one time during the fiscal year,” for which appropriation was then made.

By Act of March 3, 1857, the Secretary of the Navy was authorized to enlist 8,500 men for the Navy, instead of 7,500. During the late civil war the limitation of enlisted men was suspended; and in his annual report, December, 1862, the Secretary states the number of persons employed on board our naval vessels, including receiving ships and recruits, as about 28,000; and in his report of December, 1865, he says the number was increased to 51,500 at the close of the war, which in 1867 had been reduced to 11,900.

In 1864 the Secretary of the Navy revived the system of naval apprenticeship, which was inaugurated under the Act of March 2, 1837, but suspended because the favorable results anticipated from a fair trial were not realized at once, under various disadvantages of a new enterprise, and because Congress, in 1845, by limiting the whole number of persons employed in the naval service, compelled the Department to discharge boys instead of men.

By Act of June 17, 1868, the number of persons enlisted into the Navy, including apprentices and boys, was limited to 8,500--a limitation actually below the maximum which existed prior to the war, and compelled the department to reduce the number of naval apprentices, and finally to again abandon that system.

The number of line officers is now (1871) limited by law to one admiral, one vice-admiral, 10 rear admirals, 25 commodores, 50 captains, 90 commanders; total flag and commanding officers, 177. To these are added 80 lieutenant commanders, 280 lieutenants, 200 masters and ensigns--making the total line officers of all grades, excepting midshipmen (309 including those at Annapolis), 737.

The medical staff consists of 180, viz.: 15 medical directors (captains); 15 inspectors (commanders); 50 surgeons (Lieut.-commanders), and 100 passed assistant and assistant surgeons.

The engineers’ department (total 250) includes 10 chief engineers (captains); 15 do. (commanders); 45 do. (lieut.-commanders); 100 assistants (masters and ensigns). There are 126 paymasters, 13 ranking as captains; 13 as commanders; 50 as lieut.-commanders. The number of chaplains is limited to 24, and of professors to 12.

Although, strangely enough, not under the administration of the Navy Department, the inauguration of the Coast Survey in 1807, and its thorough prosecution since 1844, when the employment of officers of the army and navy in the work was authorized; the recognition of the Naval Observatory at Washington city, and authorizing the making astronomical and meteorological observations, in the Act of August 3, 1848; the assignment of a competent officer of the navy to the preparation of the Nautical Almanac; the institution of the bureau of Hydrography and Ordnance, in 1842; the employment of three suitable vessels of the navy to test and perfect the plans of Lieutenant Maury in his investigations of the winds and the currents of the ocean, by Act of March 3, 1849; the concentration of the teaching staff of the corps of midshipmen preparatory for their examination at the Naval Asylum at Philadelphia, and their removal to separate accommodations at the old military station of Fort Severn, in Annapolis, by order of Secretary Bancroft in 1845, and the formal recognition of the institution as the Naval School, in the appropriations for the navy in 1847--these and other acts of Congress, and the action of the Department under them, are important data in the history of the Navy and Naval Education--especially of their scientific character.

GROWTH IN SHIPS, OFFICERS AND MEN.

The following Tables, prepared by Capt. George H. Preble, U.S.N., which are copied from the Army and Navy Journal for Nov. and Dec., 1871, exhibit in a condensed view the expansion of the military and merchant marine of the United States, from 1816 to 1871 inclusive, as well as its condition in each year from 1816.

TABLE I.--Naval Vessels, Tonnage, Officers, Seamen, and Cost. Tonnage.

[KEY] NV Number of Vessels United States Navy. NG Number of Guns. TV Tonnage of Vessels belonging to the United States Navy. TNO Total Number of Navy Officers, including Midshipmen and Mates. TPO Total Number of Petty Officers, Seamen, etc. Exp Total Expenditures for the Navy and Marine Corps. TT Total Tonnage of U.S. Enrolled, Licensed and Registered.

-----+-----+------+--------+------+--------+------------+---------- Year | NV | NG | TV | TNO | TPO | Exp | TT -----+-----+------+--------+------+--------+------------+---------- 1816 | ... | ... | 40,032 | 838 |unknown.|$3,908,278 |1,372,219 1817 | 111 |1,267 | 39,642 | 954 | ... | 3,314,598 |1,399,911 1818 | 115 |1,383 | 39,682 | 948 | ... | 2,953,695 |1,225,184 1819 | 90 |1,243 | 36,512 | 926 | ... | 3,847,640 |1,260,752 1820 | 88 |1,384 | 38,057 | 895 | ... | 4,387,990 |1,280,166 1821 | 36 |1,017 | 33,851 | 876 | ... | 3,319,243 |1,290,959 1822 | 38 |1,047 | 34,413 | 848 | ... | 2,224,459 |1,324,670 1823 | 45 |1,085 | 36,039 | 812 | ... | 2,503,766 |1,336,566 1824 | 49 |1,122 | 36,338 | 843 | ... | 2,904,581 |1,389,163 1825 | 44 |1,107 | 36,174 | 856 | ... | 3,049,087 |1,423,111 1826 | 46 |1,104 | 39,577 | 859 | ... | 4,218,902 |1,534,190 1827 | 49 |1,163 | 42,708 | 877 | ... | 4,263,878 |1,620,608 1828 | 53 |1,243 | 44,149 | 898 | ... | 3,918,786 |1,741,392 1829 | 52 |1,315 | 40,865 | 996 | ... | 3,988,643 |1,260,798 1830 | 51 |1,287 | 40,865 |1,051 | ... | 3,239,429 |1,191,776 1831 | 50 |1,269 | 41,953 | 990 | ... | 3,856,183 |1,276,846 1832 | 52 |1,292 | 42,147 | 987 | ... | 4,947,718 |1,439,450 1833 | 53 |1,872 | 60,002 |1,022 | ... | 4,274,184 |1,606,149 1834 | 53 |1,872 | 67,804 |1,012 | ... | 4,613,657 |1,758,907 1835 | 53 |1,872 | 66,479 |1,035 | 3,627 | 4,209,836 |1,824,940 1836 | 51 |1,969 | 66,281 |1,044 | 3,804 | 6,252,145 |1,882,685 1837 | 55 |1,982 | 69,043 |1,048 | 5,201 | 6,646,915 |1,886,684 1838 | 55 |1,982 | 69,233 |1,104 | 5,650 | 6,131,581 |1,985,649 1839 | 56 |2,022 | 71,396 |1,157 | 6,932 | 6,182,294 |2,096,479 1840 | 62 |2,106 | 74,776 |1,171 | 7,072 | 6,113,896 |2,180,764 1841 | 67 |2,106 | 72,418 |1,222 | 7,419 | 6,001,077 |2,130,744 1842 | 69 |2,044 | 73,895 |1,482 | 9,784 | 8,397,243 |2,092,391 1843 | 71 |2,022 | 77,031 |1,493 | 10,321 | 3,727,712* |2,158,603 1844 | 74 |2,464 | 78,221 |1,448 | 10,000 | 6,498,199 |2,280,095 1845 | 76 |2,400 | 79,592 |1,434 | 7,500 | 6,297,178 |2,417,002 1846 | 76 |2,345 | 80,992 |1,398 | 7,500 | 6,455,014 |2,562,084 1847 | 81 |2,398 | 86,456 |1,391 | 7,500 | 7,900,636 |2,839,046 1848 | 92 |2,401 | 95,755 |1,425 | 7,500 | 9,408,477 |3,154,042 1849 | 78 |2,380 | 92,391 |1,465 | 7,500 | 9,786,706 |3,334,016 1850 | 77 |2,370 | 91,591 |1,423 | 7,500 | 7,904,725 |3,535,454 1851 | 74 |2,336 | 90,786 |1,416 | 7,500 | 8,880,582 |3,772,439 1852 | 75 |2,346 | 90,992 |1,432 | 7,500 | 8,918,842 |4,138,440 1853 | 75 |2,329 | 91,814 |1,417 | 7,500 |11,067,790 |4,407,010 1854 | 73 |2,115 | 91,787 |1,423 | 7,500 |10,790,096 |4,802,902 1855 | 78 |2,355 |112,715 |1,433 | 7,500 |13,327,095 |5,212,001 1856 | 76 |2,359 |111,803 |1,196 | 7,500 |14,074,835 |4,872,652 1857 | 73 |2,332 |109,224 |1,206 | 8,500 |12,651,695 |4,940,842 1858 | 78 |2,231 |113,765 |1,287 | 8,500 |14,053,265 |5,049,808 1859 | 86 |2,273 |132,489 |1,351 | 8,500 |14,690,927 |5,145,038 1860 | 91 |2,329 |133,832 |1,436 | 8,500 |11,514,650 |5,353,868 1861 | 90 |2,309 |133,842 |1,497 | 10,000 |12,387,157 |5,539,813 1862 |383 |2,876 |284,377 |3,493 | 28,000 |42,674,569 |5,112,165 1863 |449 |2,926 |333,841 |4,613 | |63,211,105 |5,155,055 1864 |617 |4,088 |463,107 |6,170 | 51,500 |85,733,293 |4,986,401 1865 |681 |4,662 |470,362 |7,296 | |116,781,676 |5,096,783 1866 |320 |2,688 |336,874 |2,847 | 13,600 |43,324,526 |4,310,778 1867 |273 |2,235 |313,056 |2,770 | 11,900 |31,034,011 |4,304,486 1868 |229 |1,704 |281,629 |2,420 | 8,500 |20,120,395 |4,351,758 1869 |203 |1,701 |255,217 |1,921 | 8,500 |18,985,165 |4,144,639 1870 |186 |1,443 |183,217 |1,853 | 8,500 |15,870,531 |4,246,507 1871 |177 |1,446 |181,738 |2,020†| 8,500 |19,431,027 |4,111,412

[* Change of the fiscal year.]

[† From this number should be deducted 130 mates not permanent officers of the Navy.]

TABLE II. Line Officers--1816 to 1871.

[KEY] Y Year. A Admirals. VA Vice-Admirals. RA Rear Admirals. Cm Commodores. Cp Captains. MC Master Command’ts or Commanders. LC Lieut. Command’rs. Lt Lieutenants. Mr Masters. PM Passed Midshipmen or Ensigns. Mm Midshipmen. Cm Cadet Midshipmen. Mt Mates. TLO Total Line Officers.

-----+---+---+---+---+----+----+----+----+---+----+----+---+--+----- Y | A |VA | RA| Cm| Cp | MC | LC | Lt | Mr| PM | Mm |CM |Mt| TLO -----+---+---+---+---+----+----+----+----+---+----+----+---+--+----- 1815 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 1816 | | | | | 32| 18| | 150| | | 495| | | 695 1817 | | | | | 31| 22| | 157| 87| | 415| | 4| 716 1818 | | | | | 34| 26| | 182| 83| | 404| | 7| 736 1819 | | | | | 35| 23| | 213| 76| | 362| | 7| 716 1820 | | | | | 34| 22| | 202| 76| | 350| | 4| 688 1821 | | | | | 32| 21| | 193| 62| | 364| | 2| 674 1822 | | | | | 31| 31| | 196| 58| | 336| | 1| 653 1823 | | | | | 30| 30| | 183| 53| 75| 249| | 1| 621 1824 | | | | | 28| 30| | 172| 51| 71| 312| | | 664 1825 | | | | | 24| 30| | 228| 48| | 356| | | 680 1826 | | | | | 32| 29| | 209| 43| 15| 361| | | 689 1827 | | | | | 31| 27| | 228| 36| | 374| | | 696 1828 | | | | | 33| 29| | 229| 33| | 392| | | 716 1829 | | | | | 35| 33| | 263| 30| 10| 435| | | 806 1830 | | | | | 37| 39| | 258| 32| 41| 435| | | 842 1831 | | | | | 37| 34| | 255| 31| 54| 377| | | 788 1832 | | | | | 40| 37| | 259| 32| 74| 345| | | 787 1833 | | | | | 37| 41| | 259| 31| 94| 356| | | 818 1834 | | | | | 37| 41| | 259| 29| 133| 317| | | 807 1835 | | | | | 37| 41| | 257| 27| 178| 272| | | 812 1836 | | | | | 38| 40| | 257| 27| 199| 251| | | 812 1837 | | | | | 40| 41| | 258| 27| 200| 241| | | 807 1838 | | | | | 50| 49| | 276| 27| 181| 247| | | 830 1839 | | | | | 52| 55| | 285| 27| 196| 249| | | 844 1840 | | | | | 55| 55| | 290| 29| 191| 231| | | 851 1841 | | | | | 55| 55| | 288| 28| 195| 262| | | 883 1842 | | | | | 68| 96| | 328| 30| 103| 460| | 4|1089 1843 | | | | | 67| 94| | 324| 31| 133| 410| | 7|1066 1844 | | | | | 67| 96| | 324| 30| 147| 356| |12|1032 1845 | | | | | 68| 96| | 327| 31| 159| 314| |11|1006 1846 | | | | | 67| 97| | 326| 28| 181| 264| |11| 974 1847 | | | | | 64| 97| | 324| 31| 206| 240| | 9| 970 1848 | | | | | 67| 97| | 327| 31| 208| 228| | 8| 966 1849 | | | | | 68| 97| | 327| 31| 270| 181| | 8| 982 1850 | | | | | 68| 97| | 327| 32| 208| 152| | 5| 940 1851 | | | | | 68| 97| | 327| 33| 233| 171| | 3| 932 1852 | | | | | 68| 97| | 325| 32| 205| 144| 55| 3| 929 1853 | | | | | 68| 97| | 327| 32| 197| 122| 76| 3| 892 1854 | | | | | 68| 97| | 326| 18| 198| 89| 94| 2| 892 1855 | | | | | 68| 97| | 326| 32| 190| 66|128| 2| 912 1856 | | | | | 68| 97| | 326| 19| | 46|124| 1| 681 1857 | | | | | 64| 96| | 311| 24| 24| 30|145| 1| 696 1858 | | | | | 76| 106| | 319| 1| 23| 45|174| 1| 745 1859 | | | | | 81| 116| | 338| 20| | 47|187| | 789 1860 | | | | | 80*| 114| | 325| 34| | 49|238| | 840 1861 | | | | | 79*| 114| | 321| 36| | 55|267| | 872 1862 | | | 4| 18| 40| 91| 144| 90| | | 67|220| | 664 1863 | | | 4| 14| 37| 72| 144| 96| | 30| 9|382| | 788 1864 | | | 6| 18| 36| 72| 144| 96| | 88| 2|457| | 913 1865 | | 1 | 5| 19| 35| 67| 139| 113| | 53| 31|458| | 931 1866 | | 1 | 4| 19| 35| 71| 142| 90| 11| 39| 84|450| | 946 1867 | 1 | 1 | 10| 24| 46| 90| 165| 22| 53| 54| 72|421| | 959 1868 | 1 | 1 | 9| 24| 49| 90| 136| 45| 29| 52| 157|344| | 937 1869 | 1 | 1 | 10| 25| 50| 89| 171| 46| 80| 154| 77|286| | 990 1870 | 1 | 1 | 10| 25| 50| 90| 180| 64| 99| 160| 74|251| |1103† 1871 | 1 | 1 | 12| 25| 50| 89| 178| 141|151| 69| 69|246| |1256‡ -----+---+---+---+---+----+----+----+----+---+----+----+---+--+-------

[* One senior flag officer.]

[† Including 98 mates, temporary officers not eligible for promotion and not properly belonging to the Regular Navy, and should be classed as Volunteers.]

[‡ Including 130 mates, temporary officers not eligible for promotion and not properly belonging to the Regular Navy, and should be classed as Volunteers.]

TABLE III. Warrant or Forward Officers, and Marine Corps, 1816 to 1871.

[KEY] Y Year. B Boatswains. G Gunners. Cr Carpenters. S Sailmakers. C Colonels. LC Lieut-Colonels. M Majors. Cp Captains. L Lieutenants. SL Second Lieutenants. T Total.

-------------------------------+--------------------------------- Warranted or Forward Officers, | Officers of the United States 1815 to 1871 inclusive. | Marine Corps, | 1815 to 1871 inclusive. -----+----+----+----+----+-----+---+---+---+----+----+-----+----- Y | B | G | Cr | S | T | C |LC | M | Cp | L | SL | T -----+----+----+----+----+-----+---+---+---+----+----+-----+----- 1815 | 28 | 24 | 18 | 12 | 82 | 1 | | 2 | 20 | 21 | 18 | 62 1816 | 28 | 24 | 6 | 2 | 60 | 1 | | 1 | 20 | 21 | 18 | 61 1817 | 28 | 22 | 6 | 2 | 58 | 1 | | 1 | 16 | 19 | 13 | 50 1818 | 22 | 22 | 17 | 11 | 72 | 1 | | | 9 | 23 | 16 | 49 1819 | 22 | 22 | 16 | 11 | 71 | | | | 9 | 23 | 16 | 48 1820 | 19 | 22 | 17 | 12 | 70 | | 1 | | 9 | 24 | 9 | 43 1821 | 14 | 18 | 12 | 8 | 52 | | 1 | | 8 | 24 | 16 | 49 1822 | 16 | 17 | 13 | 10 | 56 | | 1 | | 8 | 21 | 15 | 45 1823 | 16 | 18 | 13 | 11 | 58 | | 1 | | 9 | 24 | 16 | 50 1824 | 15 | 18 | 14 | 12 | 59 | | 1 | | 9 | 24 | 15 | 49 1825 | 16 | 16 | 10 | 10 | 52 | | 1 | | 9 | 24 | 14 | 48 1826 | 13 | 12 | 10 | 9 | 44 | | 1 | | 9 | 23 | 17 | 50 1827 | 15 | 14 | 11 | 9 | 49 | | 1 | | 9 | 24 | 16 | 50 1828 | 14 | 18 | 14 | 11 | 57 | | 1 | | 9 | 24 | 16 | 50 1829 | 17 | 19 | 13 | 14 | 63 | | 1 | | 9 | 24 | 16 | 50 1830 | 18 | 20 | 16 | 16 | 70 | | 1 | | 9 | 24 | 16 | 50 1831 | 18 | 19 | 13 | 17 | 67 | | 1 | | 9 | 24 | 16 | 50 1832 | 21 | 16 | 12 | 18 | 67 | | 1 | | 9 | 24 | 16 | 50 1833 | 16 | 19 | 15 | 13 | 63 | | 1 | | 10 | 24 | 16 | 50 1834 | 18 | 17 | 16 | 14 | 65 | | 1 | | 10 | 24 | 16 | 50 1835 | 18 | 20 | 20 | 19 | 77 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 13 | 20 | 19 | 58 1836 | 21 | 20 | 20 | 19 | 80 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 13 | 20 | 19 | 58 1837 | 22 | 23 | 20 | 19 | 84 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 13 | 20 | 20 | 59 1838 | 25 | 29 | 23 | 24 | 101 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 13 | 19 | 20 | 58 1839 | 32 | 35 | 27 | 26 | 120 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 13 | 20 | 19 | 58 1840 | 32 | 37 | 24 | 25 | 118 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 13 | 20 | 20 | 59 1841 | 29 | 36 | 28 | 27 | 120 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 13 | 20 | 20 | 59 1842 | 32 | 41 | 36 | 33 | 142 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 13 | 20 | 19 | 58 1843 | 37 | 40 | 38 | 35 | 150 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 13 | 20 | 20 | 59 1844 | 32 | 39 | 35 | 33 | 139 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 13 | 20 | 20 | 59 1845 | 30 | 42 | 36 | 34 | 142 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 13 | 20 | 20 | 59 1846 | 31 | 42 | 36 | 34 | 143 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 13 | 20 | 20 | 59 1847 | 32 | 42 | 36 | 31 | 141 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 13 | 20 | 20 | 59 1848 | 38 | 44 | 40 | 29 | 151 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 14 | 23 | 24 | 70 1849 | 39 | 44 | 42 | 33 | 158 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 18 | 24 | 24 | 75 1850 | 39 | 43 | 42 | 34 | 158 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 18 | 23 | 23 | 73 1851 | 43 | 46 | 45 | 37 | 171 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 17 | 23 | 21 | 70 1852 | 41 | 45 | 45 | 38 | 169 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 16 | 21 | 21 | 67 1853 | 44 | 46 | 49 | 41 | 180 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 16 | 20 | 20 | 65 1854 | 38 | 48 | 51 | 41 | 178 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 14 | 20 | 20 | 63 1855 | 37 | 45 | 32 | 40 | 174 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 14 | 19 | 20 | 62 1856 | 39 | 40 | 48 | 39 | 166 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 14 | 20 | 20 | 63 1857 | 38 | 40 | 48 | 39 | 165 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 13 | 19 | 20 | 61 1858 | 38 | 44 | 47 | 42 | 171 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 14 | 19 | 20 | 62 1859 | 40 | 44 | 48 | 41 | 173 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 15 | 20 | 19 | 63 1860 | 41 | 46 | 46 | 42 | 175 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 14 | 20 | 20 | 63 1861 | 43 | 47 | 45 | 40 | 175 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 14 | 20 | 20 | 63 1862 | 54 | 93 | 60 | 46 | 253 | 2 | 2 | 7 | 24 | 30 | 30 | 95 1863 | 53 | 84 | 56 | 45 | 238 | 2 | 2 | 7 | 20 | 28 | 29 | 88 1864 | 49 | 71 | 53 | 40 | 213 | 2 | 2 | 7 | 21 | 30 | 22 | 84 1865 | 46 | 65 | 47 | 36 | 194 | 2 | 2 | 7 | 22 | 30 | 24 | 87 1866 | 39 | 63 | 43 | 32 | 177 | 2 | 2 | 7 | 22 | 30 | 24 | 87 1867 | 52 | 59 | 40 | 30 | 181 | 2 | 2 | 7 | 22 | 30 | 30 | 93 1868 | 52 | 55 | 36 | 31 | 174 | | 2 | 7 | 21 | 30 | 27 | 88* 1869 | 51 | 50 | 32 | 30 | 163 | 1 | 2 | 7 | 22 | 30 | 23 | 86* 1870 | 46 | 52 | 38 | 31 | 167 | 1 | 2 | 7 | 23 | 30 | 26 | 90* 1871 | 46 | 57 | 39 | 34 | 176 | 1 | 2 | 7 | 22 | 30 | 30 | 93* ------------------------------------------------------------------

[* One brigadier-general since 1868. The senior officer has always been styled the lieutenant-colonel-commandant, colonel-commandant, or brigadier-general commandant. Since 1868, in the number of majors and captains is included those of the staff ranking with the line. At present there are three staff officers holding the rank of major, and two that of captain.]

[KEY] S Surgeons. PAS Passed Ass’t Surgeons. AS Assistant Surgeons. SM Surgeons’s Mates. PP Pursers or Paymasters. CPT Chaplains, Professors of Mathematics, and Teachers. T Total Staff Officers.

-------------------------------------------------------- STAFF OFFICERS, 1815 TO 1842 INCLUSIVE. -----+---------------------------+------+-------+------- | Medical Dep’t. | | | +---------------------------+ | | Year.| S | PAS | AS | SM | PP | CPT | T -----+------+------+------+------+------+-------+------- 1815 | 43 | | | 44 | 39 | 4 | 130 1816 | 45 | | | 44 | 40 | 4 | 133 1817 | 48 | | | 72 | 53 | 7 | 180 1818 | 44 | | | 44 | 45 | 7 | 140 1819 | 52 | | | 33 | 45 | 9 | 139 1820 | 47 | | | 34 | 44 | 12 | 137 1821 | 47 | | | 46 | 44 | 13 | 150 1822 | 46 | | | 41 | 42 | 10 | 139 1823 | 42 | | | 32 | 40 | 9 | 123 1824 | 35 | | | 38 | 39 | 8 | 120 1825 | 34 | | | 40 | 40 | 10 | 124 1826 | 39 | | | 35 | 42 | 10 | 126 1827 | 40 | | | 40 | 43 | 9 | 132 1828 | 37 | | | 37 | 42 | 9 | 125 1829 | 43 | | 34 | | 41 | 9 | 127 1830 | 39 | | 58* | | 43 | 9 | 149 1831 | 37 | | 46 | | 43 | 9 | 135 1832 | 44 | | 38 | | 42 | 9 | 133 1833 | 44 | | 45 | | 43 | 9 | 141 1834 | 43 | | 46 | | 43 | 8 | 140 1835 | 44 | 15 | 31 | | 43 | 13 | 146 1836 | 43 | 15 | 35 | | 42 | 17 | 152 1837 | 44 | 26 | 23 | | 44 | 20 | 157 1838 | 49 | 20 | 37 | | 45 | 22 | 178 1839 | 60 | 16 | 51 | | 49 | 27 | 193 1840 | 61 | 17 | 53 | | 51 | 30 | 202 1841 | 59 | 17 | 57 | | 53 | 33 | 219 1842 | 69 | 11 | 55 | | 64 | 52 | 251 -----+------+------+------+------+------+-------+-------

[* Sixteen acting assistants.]

[KEY] S Surgeons. PAS Passed Ass’t Surgeons. AS Assistant Surgeons. P Paymasters. PAP Passed Ass’t Paymasters. AP Assistant Paymasters. CE Chief Engineers. 1AE 1st Assistant Engineers. 2AE 2d Assistant Engineers. 3AE 3d Assistant Engineers. Ch Chaplains. PTL Professors and Teachers of Language. T Total Staff Officers

---------------------------------------------------------------- STAFF OFFICERS, 1842 TO 1871 INCLUSIVE. -----+------------+-----------+------------------+---+----+----- | Medical | Pay | Engineer | | | | Dep’t. | Dep’t. | Dep’t. | | | +---+---+----+---+---+---+---+----+----+----+ | | Year.| S |PAS| AS | P |PAP|AP | CE| 1AE| 2AE| 3AE| Ch| PTL| T -----+---+---+----+---+---+---+---+----+----+----+---+----+----- 1843 | 69| 9| 60| 64|...|...| 5| 8| 5| 5| 22| 29| 277 1844 | 69| 26| 39| 64|...|...| 5| 9| 5| 10| 22| 26| 277 1845 | 96| 26| 41| 64|...|...| 5| 11| 9| 11| 23| 25| 286 1846 | 69| 29| 36| 64|...|...| 5| 5| 13| 13| 23| 24| 281 1847 | 69| 33| 34| 62|...|...| 4| 5| 13| 13| 22| 24| 280 1848 | 68| 41| 37| 63|...|...| 6| 9| 18| 24| 24| 23| 308 1849 | 69| 39| 41| 64|...|...| 6| 12| 17| 38| 24| 14| 325 1850 | 68| 37| 43| 64|...|...| 8| 8| 18| 33| 24| 12| 316 1851 | 68| 34| 44| 63|...|...| 9| 7| 17| 35| 23| 12| 313 1852 | 69| 34| 45| 64|...|...| 10| 19| 29| 28| 24| 12| 334 1853 | 69| 40| 37| 63|...|...| 13| 18| 34| 34| 24| 12| 345 1854 | 69| 37| 42| 64|...|...| 11| 24| 25| 44| 24| 12| 353 1855 | 69| 35| 44| 64|...|...| 12| 22| 23| 41| 24| 12| 347 1856 | 69| 36| 43| 64|...|...| 13| 21| 28| 39| 24| 12| 349 1857 | 69| 43| 37| 64|...|...| 17| 24| 20| 35| 24| 12| 345 1858 | 69| 41| 39| 62|...|...| 18| 31| 21| 54| 24| 12| 371 1859 | 69| 41| 39| 64|...|...| 21| 33| 23| 63| 24| 12| 389 1860 | 69| 37| 42| 64|...|...| 24| 36| 23| 92| 23| 11| 421 1861 | 69| 43| 36| 64|...|...| 28| 43| 20| 92| 24| 12| 450 1862 | 80| 2| 118| 62|...| 31| 48| 32| 78| 240|116| 12| 724 1863 | 80| 1| 117| 63|...| 31| 49| 32| 92| 264|118| 12| 759 1864 | 80| 7| 108| 64|...| 32| 52| 48| 149| 252|120| 12| 815 1865 | 78| 22| 108| 63|...| 33| 59| 65| 235| 115|121| 12| 811 1866 | 79| 44| 33| 62|...| 30| 54| 65| 175| 64| 19| 12| 637 1867 | 79| 38| 37| 80| 39| 11| 54| 86| 146| 37| 19| 11| 637 1868 | 80| 42| 38| 80| 39| 26| 50| 88| 131| 21| 18| 11| 617 1869 | 80| 35| 33| 79| 38| 18| 49| 91| 112| 35| 16| 11| 597 1870 | 80| 33| 35| 80| 40| 20| 48| 81| 122| 1| 21| 10| 571 1871 | 80| 32| 38| 80| 39| 20| 56| 98| 93| ...| 23| 9| 575 -----+---+---+----+---+---+---+---+----+----+----+---+----+-----

[* Also one engineer-in-chief and one principal engineer in 1843, ’44, and ’45.]

[† Also one engineer-in-chief 1847 to 1855 inclusive.]

[KEY] LC Acting Lieutenants and Lieut.-Commanders. VL Acting Vol. Lieutenants. E Acting Ensigns. M Acting Masters. MM Acting Master’s Mates and Mates. BG Acting Boatswains and Gunners. T Total.

------------------------------------------------ VOL. OFFICERS, 1862 TO 1871 INCLUSIVE. LINE. -----+-----+-----+-----+-----+------+----+------ Year.| LC | VL | M | E | MM | BG | T -----+-----+-----+-----+-----+------+----+------ 1862 | 14 | 28 | 581 | 60 | 572 | | 1255 1863 | 15 | 50 | 581 | 336 | 754 | 31 | 1767 1864 | 4 | 81 | 516 | 896 | 901 | 47 | 2445 1865 | 14 | 112 | 583 |1280 | 843 | 75 | 2907 1866 | 8 | 39 | 133 | 258 | 192 | 9 | 619 1867 | 4 | 36 | 140 | 251 | 201 | 2 | 634 1868 | 4 | 26 | 114 | 163 | 142 | 2 | 451 1869 | | | 12 | 9 | 79 | | 97 1870 | | 1 | 1 | 1 | | | 3 1871 | | 1 | 1 | 2 | | | 4 -----+-----+-----+-----+-----+------+----+------

[KEY] APAS Acting Passed Ass’t Surgeons. AAS Acting Assistant Surgeons. AAP Acting Assistant Paymasters. ACE Acting Chief Engineers. AAE Acting Assistant Engineers, 1st, 2d, & 3d. ACp Acting Carpenters.

------------------------------------------------------ STAFF. -----+------+------+------+------+-------+-----+------ Year.| APAS | AAS | AAP | ACE | AAE | ACp |Total -----+------+------+------+------+-------+-----+------ 1862 | | 93 | 140 | | 364 | | 597 1863 | | 142 | 217 | 21 | 665 | 16 | 1061 1864 | | 197 | 330 | 44 | 1185 | 23 | 1784 1865 | | 246 | 372 | 55 | 1761 | 28 | 2453 1866 | 12 | 60 | 80 | 14 | 301 | 1 | 408 1867 | 20 | 18 | 18 | 7 | 296 | 1 | 360 1868 | 19 | 16 | 2 | 2 | 205 | | 242 1869 | 7 | 5 | 1 | | 61 | | 74 1870 | 2 | 2 | | | 5 | | 9 1871 | 2 | 7 | | | | | 9 -----+------+------+------+------+-------+-----+------

TABLE V. Sailing Vessels of United States Navy--1817 to 1839.

[KEY] SL Ships of the Line. R Razees. F Frigates. C Corvettes. SW Sloops-of-War. BW Brigs-of-War. Sn Schooners. Gb Gunboats. Ga Galleys. B Barges. SV Store Vessels. BS Block Ships. UV Unarmed Vessels. BV Bomb Vessels. SF Steam Frigates. SG Steam Galliops. EV Exploring Vessels. T Total No. of Vessels.

----+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+---- Year|SL|R |F |C |SW|BW|S |Gb|Ga|B |SV|BS|UV|BV|SF|SG|EV| T ----+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+---- 1817| 5| | 9| 2|13|12|11|11| 8|24| | 1| 9| 5| 1| | |111 1818| 5| |10| 3|11|13|10| 9| 8|34| | 1| 7| 3| 1| | |115 1819| 5| | 9| 3| 5|13|13| 7| 8|21| | 1| 3| 1| 1| | | 90 1820| 5| | 9| 3| 5|13|13| 5| 8|21| | 1| 3| 1| 1| | | 88 1821| 7| | 7| 2| 4| 2| 6| 6| | | 1| | | | 1| | | 36 1822| 7| | 7| 2| 4| 2| 8| 6| | | 1| | | | 1| | | 38 1823| 7| | 8| 2| 4| 2|15| 5| | | 1| | | | 1| | | 45 1824| 7| | 8| 2| 4| 1|13| 5| 5| | 2| | | | 1| 1| | 49 1825| 7| | 8| 2| 5| 1| 8| 5| 5| | 1| | | | 1| 1| | 44 1826|12| |14| 2| 8| 1| 5| | | | 2| | | | 1| 1| | 46 1827|12| |14| 2|13| | 5| | | | 1| | | | 1| 1| | 49 1828|12| |16| |17| | 5| | | | 1| | | | 1| 1| | 53 1829|12| |16| |16| | 5| | | | 1| | | | 1| 1| | 52 1830|12| |16| |16| | 5| | | | 1| | | | | 1| | 51 1831|12| |16| |15| | 5| | | | 1| | | | | 1| | 50 1832|12| |17| |15| | 7| | | | | | | | | 1| | 52 1833|12| |17| |15| | 8| | | | | | | | | 1| | 53 1834|12| |17| |15| | 8| | | | | | | | | 1| | 53 1835|12| |17| |15| | 8| | | | | | | | | 1| | 53 1836|11| 1|16| |15| | 7| | | | | | | | | 1| | 51 1837|11| 1|16| |14| 2| 6| | | | | | | | | 1| 4| 55 1838|11| 1|16| |14| 4| 7| | | | 1| | | | | 1| | 55 1839|11| 1|16| |16| 4| 7| | | | 1| | | | 1| 1| | 56 ----+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+----

TABLE VI. Sailing and Steam Vessels--1840 to 1861.

[KEY] Y Year. SL Ships of the Line. R Razees. F Frigates. SW Sloops-of-War. BW Brigs-of-War. S Schooners. SV Store Vessels. BV Bomb Vessels. PR Perman’t Rec’g Vessels. SV Total Sailing Vessels.

S1 Screw Steam’s, 1st Cl’s. S2 Screw Steam’s, 2d Cl’s. S3 Screw Steam’s, 3d Cl’s. SS Screw Steamers. W1 Side Wheeled, 1st Class. W2 Side Wheeled, 2d Class. W3 Side Wheeled, 3d Class. ST Steam Tenders. TS Total Steam Vessels.

T Total Number of Vessels.

----+-----------------------------++--------------------------++-- | SAILING VESSELS. || STEAM VESSELS. || +--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--++--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--++-- Y |SL|R |F |SW|BW|S |SV|BV|PR|SV||S1|S2|S3|SS|W1|W2|W3|ST|TS||T ----+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--++--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--++-- 1840|11| 1|16|21| 4| 8| 1| | |62|| | | | | 2| 1| 1| | 4||66 1841|11| 1|16|21| 4| 9| 1| | |63|| | | | | 2| 1| 1| | 4||67 1842|11| 1|16|21| 4| 9| 3| | |65|| | | | | 2| 1| 1| | 4||69 1843|11| 1|15|18| 8| 9| 3| | |65|| | 1| | | 2| 1| 2| | 6||71 1844|10| 1|15|22| 7| 9| 5| | |69|| | 1| | | 1| 1| 2| | 5||74 1845|10| 1|14|23| 8| 8| 4| | |68|| | 1| | | 1| 1| 5| | 8||76 1846|11| 1|14|23| 8| 6| 4| | |67|| | 1| | | 1| 1| 6| | 9||76 1847|11| 1|14|22| 5| 9| 6| | |68|| | 1| | | 1| 1|10| |13||81 1848|11| 1|14|22| 6|12| 7| 4| |77|| | 1| | | 1| 1|12| |15||92 1849|11| 1|14|22| 5| 5| 6| | |64|| | 2| | | 4| 1| 7| |14||78 1850|11| 1|14|22| 4| 5| 6| | |63|| | 2| | | 4| 1| 7| |14||77 1851|11| 1|14|21| 4| 3| 5| | |59|| | 1| | 2| 4| 3| 5| |15||74 1852|11| 1|14|21| 4| 3| 5| | |59|| 1| 2| | | 4| 3| 6| |16||75 1853|11| 1|13|21| 4| 4| 5| | |59|| 1| 1| 2| | 4| 3| 5| |16||75 1854|10| 1|13|20| 4| 1| 7| | 2|58|| 1| 2| 2| | 4| 3| 3| |15||73 1855|10| 1|13|20| 4| 1| 7| | 2|58|| 7| 1| 1| | 3| 1| 7| |20||78 1856|10| 1|12|19| 3| 1| 6| | 2|54|| 7| 1| 2| | 3| 1| 5| 3|22||76 1857|10| 1|12|19| 3| 1| 5| | |51|| 7| 1| 2| | 3| 1| 5| 3|22||73 1858|10| |10|21| 3| 1| 3| | 5|53|| 8| 6| 2| 2| 3| 1| 2| 1|25||78 1859|10| |10|21| 3| 1| 3| | 5|53|| 8| 6| 9| 2| 3| 1| 3| 1|33||86 1860|10| |10|21| 3| | 3| | 5|52|| 8| 6| 8| 5| 3| 1| 5| 3|39||91 1861|10| |10|20| 3| | 3| | 6|52|| 8| 6| 8| 7| 4| 1| 4| |38||90 ----+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--++--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--++--

TABLE VII. Sailing and Steam Vessels--1862 to 1871.

[KEY] 1R First Rates 2R Second Rates 3R Third Rates 4R Fourth Rates TS Total Sailing TC Total Screws T Total TV Total No. of Vessels in the U.S. Navy

----+------------------------- | SAILING VESSELS. +----+----+----+----+----- Year| 1R | 2R | 3R | 4R | T ----+----+----+----+----+----- 1862| 7 | 10 | 19 | 65 | 101 1863| 4 | 7 | 12 | 83 | 106 1864| 3 | 5 | 16 | 84 | 108 1865| 3 | 6 | 16 | 84 | 109 1866| 1 | 6 | 16 | 19 | 42 1867| 2 | 6 | 15 | 15 | 38 1868| 6 | 9 | 12 | 5 | 32 1869| 6 | 9 | 11 | 5 | 31 1870| | 2 | 17 | 11 | 30 1871| | 2 | 17 | 10 | 29 ----+----+----+----+----+-----

----+-----------------------------------------------------------+---- | STEAM VESSELS | +-------------------+-------------------+-------------------+ | Screws | Iron Clads | Side Wheels | +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ Year| 1R| 2R| 3R| 4R| T | 1R| 2R| 3R| 4R| T| 1R| 2R| 3R| 4R|T | TV ----+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---- 1862| 5| 16| 29| 69|119| 5| 5| 37| 6| 53| 2| 19| 40| 51|112| 383 1863| 6| 15| 24| 96|141| 4| 6| 37| 6| 53| 2| 10| 52| 85|149| 449 1864| 12| 35| 37|129|213| 9| 5| 56| 4| 74| 2| 16| 52|152|222| 617 1865| 23| 32| 42|168|265| 3| 6| 6| 56| 71| 3| 8| 56|160|236| 681 1866| 23| 31| 17| 64|135| 3| 7| 6| 53| 69| 3| 4| 47| 20| 74| 320 1867| 20| 18| 15| 53|106| 3| 6| 6| 47| 62| 3| 4| 43| 17| 67| 273 1868| 19| 21| 17| 43|100| 7| 4| 41| 3| 55| 3| 4| 23| 12| 42| 229 1869| 19| 21| 16| 40| 96| 7| 4| 38| 3| 52| 3| 1| 11| 9| 24| 203 1870| 5| 24| 19| 40| 88| | 6| 5| 40| 51| | 4| 1| 12| 17| 186 1871| 3| 24| 18| 42| 87| | 4| 6| 40| 50| | 4| | 7| 11| 177 ----+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+----

The following Table, prepared from the official Navy Register for January of each year, by Capt. G. H. Preble, U.S. Navy, exhibits the number of midshipmen graduates, and midshipmen attached to the Naval Academy, with their classification and the number of resignations, deaths, and dismissals, from 1851 to 1871, inclusive.

TABLE VIII. Midshipmen in Naval Academy.

[KEY] M Midshipmen 1 First Class 2 Second Class 3 Third Class 4 Fourth Class T Total R Resignations D Deaths Dm Dismissals

-----+-----+----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+---+---- Year | M | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | T | R | D |Dm -----+-----+----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+---+---- 1851 | 171 | | | | | 171 | 14 | 5 | 13 1852 | 144 | | | | 28 | 172 | 7 | | 16 1853 | 122 | | | 28 | 48 | 198 | 17 | 1 | 13 1854 | 89 | 6 | 16 | 30 | 42 | 183 | 9 | 3 | 17 1855 | 66 | 12 | 26 | 16 | 74 | 194 | 23 | 1 | 15 1856 | 47 | 20 | 17 | 38 | 49 | 171 | 31 | 4 | 2 1857 | 30 | 15 | 24 | 28 | 78 | 175 | 34 | 1 | 2 1858 | 45 | 15 | 24 | 35 | 100 | 219 | 38 | | 7 1859 | 47 | 20 | 28 | 56 | 83 | 234 | 30 | | 1 1860 | 49 | 25 | 39 | 57 | 117 | 287 | 22 | | 3 1861 | 55 | 35 | 38 | 70 | 124 | 324 | 33 | 3 | 4 1862 | 67 | 21 | 31 | 120 | 79 | 318 | 112 | 1 | 14 1863 | 9 | 21 | 31 | 118 | 212 | 391 | 45 | 2 | 14 1864 | 2 | 39 | 63 | 137 | 218 | 489 | 20 | 4 | 53 1865 | 31 | 60 | 99 | 133 | 163 | 486 | 74 | | 53 1866 | 84 | 78 | 110 | 115 | 147 | 534 | 70 | 2 | 12 1867 | 72 | 89 | 87 | 98 | 147 | 493 | 68 | 2 | 7 1868 | 157 | 81 | 82 | 88 | 93 | 501 | 57 | 2 | 3 1869 | 77 | 80 | 77 | 76 | 53 | 363 | 25 | 1 | 5 1870 | 74 | 68 | 54 | 37 | 92 | 325 | 45 | 1 | 4 1871 | 69 | 51 | 33 | 48 | 108 | 309 | 42 | 1 | 3 -----+-----+----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+---+----

U.S. NAVAL ACADEMY AT ANNAPOLIS.

I. HISTORICAL NOTICE.

The history of the United States Naval Academy, as an institution, opens October, 1845, but its germ and growth in suggestions, for the practical instruction of midshipmen, dates back to the beginning of the century. A school of the Navy constituted one of the departments, or group of schools, in the plan of a Military Academy drawn up by Alexander Hamilton, as Inspector General of the Army, and submitted to Congress, January, 1800, in the Report of the Secretary of War (James McHenry), whose department was at that time charged with the management of naval affairs.

In 1808, General Williams, in a report on the enlargement of the Military Academy at West Point, of which he was Superintendent, recommended “that nautical astronomy, geography, and navigation should be taught by the professor of mathematics,” and that the plan of the institution should “take in the minor offices of the navy; but also any youths from any of the States who might wish for such an education, whether designated for the army or navy, or neither, and to let these be assessed to the value of their education.” This plan was doubtless suggested by the Polytechnic School of France, and if adopted at the time, would have not only have given to the army and navy a much broader and firmer basis of scientific attainments, but would have hastened the construction of roads, bridges, canals, and railroads, and the development of the mineral and other industrial resources of the country, by turning out every year a number of young men, qualified in scientific culture, to enter on the duties of civil, mining and mechanical engineers, and become superintendents of manufacturing and other corporate enterprises. In the absence of any special school of preparation for such civil services, officers of the army were induced to resign their commissions to superintend the construction of canals and railroads under state and corporate auspices.

In the measures which grew out of the war of 1812, was the act of January, 1813, “to increase the Navy of the United States,” in which authority was given to the Secretary of the Department to employ a schoolmaster for each vessel to which 12 midshipmen were assigned. By these, so far as appears in any published document, was given the first formal employment of this class of officers.

In 1814 the Secretary (William Jones) suggested “the establishment of a Naval Academy with suitable professors, for the instruction of the officers of the Navy in those branches of Mathematics and experimental philosophy, and in the service and practice of gunnery, theory of naval architecture, and art of mechanical drawing, which are necessary to the accomplishment of the naval officer.” This suggestion was renewed by his successor, Smith Thompson, of New York, and a distinct proposition to locate it on Governor’s Island, in the harbor of New York, by Secretary S. L. Southard, in 1824. In a special communication to the Senate in 1825, he says:

The younger officers enter at so early an age, that they can not be accomplished, or even moderately accurate scholars. They are constantly employed on ship-board, or in our navy-yards, where much achievement in learning can not be expected. And yet the American naval officer is, in fact, the representative of his country in every port to which he goes, and by him is that country in greater or less degree estimated. “The science and information requisite for a navy officer,” he repeats in his Report for 1827, “is in no respect inferior to that required by the army officers and engineers, and the interest as well as the honor of the country are not less concerned in the correct performance of their duties.”

President Adams (J. Q.) in his Annual Message, Dec. 5, 1825, remarks that “the want of a Naval School of instruction corresponding with the Military Academy at West Point, for the promotion of scientific and accomplished officers, is felt with daily increasing aggravation.” In his message, Dec. 4, 1827, he returns to the subject “as still soliciting the sanction of the legislature,” adding--

Practical seamanship, and the art of navigation, may be acquired upon the cruises of the squadrons, which, from time to time, are dispatched to distant seas; but a competent knowledge, even of the art of ship-building, the higher mathematics and astronomy; the literature which can place our officers on a level of polished education with the officers of other maritime nations; the knowledge of the laws, municipal and national, which in their intercourse with foreign states and their governments, are continually called into operation; and above all, that acquaintance with the principles of honor and justice, with the higher obligations of morals, and of general laws, human and divine, which constitute the great distinction between the warrior patriot and the licensed robber and pirate; these can be systematically taught and eminently acquired only in a permanent school, stationed upon the shore, and provided with the teachers, the instruments, and the books, adapted to the communication of these principles to the youthful and inquiring mind.

In 1841, Secretary Upshur renewed the recommendation of his predecessors, and a bill to establish a naval school at or near Fortress Monroe, passed the Senate, but was not acted upon in the House.

The nucleus of a school was formed when the midshipmen were first ordered to the Naval Asylums at Philadelphia and other places, to prepare for their examination, and several of the professors of Mathematics repaired there to give instruction.

In 1845 the Secretary of the Navy (George Bancroft), inaugurated and completed in four months an arrangement by which a Naval School, with its corps of professors, was instituted in a suitable location, without any special appropriation, and with only the existing authority of acts of Congress. The original plan is best set forth in Mr. Bancroft’s letter to Commodore Franklin Buchanan, whom he appointed superintendent of the institution.

NAVY DEPARTMENT, August 7th, 1845.

SIR:

The Secretary of War, with the assent of the President, is prepared to transfer Fort Severn to the Navy Department, for the purpose of establishing there a school for midshipmen.

In carrying this design into effect, it is my desire to avoid all unnecessary expense--to create no places of easy service--no commands that are not strictly necessary--to incur no charge that may demand new annual appropriations; but, by a more wise application of moneys already appropriated, and officers already authorized, to provide for the better education of the young officers of the navy. It is my design not to create new officers, but, by economy of administration, to give vigor of action to those which at present are available; not to invoke new legislation, but to execute more effectually existing laws. Placed by their profession in connection with the world, visiting in their career of service every climate and every leading people, the officers of the American navy, if they gain but opportunity for scientific instruction, may make themselves as distinguished for culture as they have been for gallant conduct.

To this end it is proposed to collect the midshipmen who from time to time are on shore, and give them occupation during their stay on land in the study of mathematics, nautical astronomy, theory of morals, international law, gunnery, use of steam, the Spanish and the French languages, and other branches essential, in the present day, to the accomplishment of a naval officer.

The effect of such an employment of the midshipmen, can not but be favorable to them and to the service. At present they are left, when waiting orders on shore, masters of their own motions, without steady occupation, young, and exulting in the relief from the restraint of discipline on shipboard.

In collecting them at Annapolis for purposes of instruction, you will begin with the principle that a warrant in the navy, far from being an excuse for licentious freedom, is to be held a pledge for subordination, industry and regularity,--for sobriety, and assiduous attention to duty. Far from consenting that the tone of the discipline and morality, should be less than at the universities or colleges of our country, the President expects such supervision and management as shall make of them an exemplary body, of which the country may be proud.

To this end you have all the powers for discipline conferred by the laws of the United States, and the certainty that the department will recommend no one for promotion, who is proved unworthy of it from idleness or ill-conduct or continuing ignorance, and who can not bear the test of a rigid examination.

For the purpose of instruction, the department can select from among twenty-two professors and three teachers of languages. This force, which is now almost wasted by the manner in which it is applied, may be concentrated in such a manner as to produce the most satisfactory results. Besides, the list of chaplains is so great that they can not all be employed at sea, and the range of selection of teachers may be enlarged by taking from their number some who would prefer giving instruction at the school to serving afloat. The object of the department being to make the simplest and most effective arrangement for a school; you will be the highest officer in the establishment, and will be intrusted with its government. It is my wish, if it be possible, to send no other naval officer to the school, except such as may be able and willing to give instruction. Among the officers junior to yourself, there are many whose acquisitions and tastes may lead them to desire such situation. For this end the department would cheerfully detach three or four of the lieutenants and passed midshipmen, who, while they would give instruction, would be ready to aid you in affairs of discipline and government. Thus the means for a good naval school are abundant, though they have not yet been collected together and applied.

One great difficulty remains to be considered. At our colleges and at West Point, young men are trained in a series of consecutive years; the laws of the United States do not sanction a preliminary school for the navy; they only provide for the instruction of officers who already are in the navy. The pupils of the naval school being, therefore, officers in the public service, will be liable at all times to be called from their studies and sent on public duty. Midshipmen, too, on their return from the sea, at whatever season of the year, will be sent to the school. Under these circumstances, you will be obliged to arrange your classes in such a manner as will leave opportunity for those who arrive, to be attached to classes suited to the stage of their progress in their studies. It will be difficult to arrange a system of studies which will meet this emergency; but with the fixed resolve which you will bring to the work, and with perseverance, you will succeed.

Having thus expressed to you some general views, I leave you, with such assistance as you may require, to prepare and lay before this department for its approbation a plan for the organization of the naval school at Fort Severn, Annapolis.

The posts to which you and those associated with you will be called are intended to be posts of labor; but they will also be posts of the highest usefulness and consideration. To yourself, to whose diligence and care the organization of the school is intrusted, will belong, in a good degree, the responsibility of a wise arrangement. Do not be discouraged by the many inconveniences and difficulties which you will certainly encounter, and rely implicitly on this department as disposed to second and sustain you, under the law, in every effort to improve the character of the younger branch of the service.

I am, respectfully, your obedient servant, GEORGE BANCROFT.

Com’r FRANKLIN BUCHANAN,

United States Navy, Washington.

Under these instructions the school was duly organized at Fort Severn, Annapolis, and formally opened, October 10, 1846, with 36 midshipmen, appointed in 1840, and who were, before resorting to Annapolis, preparing for examination at the Naval Asylum at Philadelphia; 13 of the date of 1841, who were to remain at their studies until drafted for sea, and 7 acting midshipmen, appointed in 1845. The first staff of instruction consisted, besides Commander Buchanan, of Lieutenant James H. Ward, in gunnery and steam; Surgeon J. L. Lockwood, in chemistry; Chaplain George Jones, in English studies; Prof. Henry H. Lockwood, in natural philosophy; and Prof. Girault, in French.

In 1846, Congress appropriated an amount not exceeding $28,000 for repairs, improvements, and instruction at Fort Severn, Annapolis, Md.; and a like amount in 1847 for the same objects, “including a purchase of land not exceeding 12 acres, for the use of the Naval School.” In the same year (Dec. 1847), Secretary Mason recommended a practice ship.

Down to 1849, the regulations provided for two years’ study at the School, followed by three years’ service at sea, and then two years’ study at the School. This alternation of study and practice--of practice at sea associated with opportunities of study, and of study at school with many advantages of testing principles by experiments and the observations of professors and officers of experience, possessed advantages which still commend it to the minds of many officers over that of longer continuous study at school before practice in earnest is begun. The old system had its shortcomings, but it turned out good seamen and gallant officers, and its best features ought to be again engrafted on the new.

In 1849, a board of officers was directed by the Secretary of the Navy to consider the organization of the school at Annapolis, and report to the department. This was done, and new regulations were matured, and ordered to go into effect on the first of July, 1850. The teachers’ staff was enlarged, and a practice ship, the Preble, a sloop-of-war of the third class, was attached for the purpose of a summer cruise, and the institution was henceforth styled in Acts of Congress and Reports of the Secretary, the Naval Academy. The course of instruction was arranged for four years, with an interval of two or three months in the summer devoted to a practice cruise for two of the classes. The President was authorized to appoint a Board of Visitors, whose functions were “to witness the examinations of the several classes, and examine into the police, discipline, and general management of the Academy.”

The new system began in October, 1850, under Commander C. K. Stribling, as Superintendent, who was relieved in 1853 by Commander L. M. Goldsborough, who was in turn relieved by Captain George S. Blake, in 1857, who continued in the superintendence till 1867, when Admiral Porter was assigned to the position, which he held till 1870, when Commodore J. L. Worden succeeded him.

The first or lowest class in the four years’ course, entered in October, 1851, and graduated in June, 1854, having had two summer cruises of practice, and a long period of continuous study.

The necessities of the War, which as early as April, 1861, had made Annapolis the seat of military operations, caused the removal of the Academy--its professors, students, library and apparatus--in the month of May, to Newport, first to Fort Adams, and afterwards to the Atlantic House in the town, and to the Constitution and other ships, which were not fit for active service, in the inner harbor. All the members of the three highest classes were ordered into active service, and with the fourth class, and 200 newly appointed, the system of instruction went on as in times of peace.

Course of Studies in 1864.

In the organization of the Naval School at Annapolis, in 1845, the ordering of the course of studies was left practically with Prof. William Chauvenet, a graduate of Yale College, who had been commissioned professor of mathematics in 1841, and had acted as such in the instruction of midshipmen in the Naval Asylum at Philadelphia. The following is substantially the arrangement proposed by him for the classes when fully organized--the main deviation in the course as followed in 1864 was in the assignment of text-books.

FIRST CLASS--FOURTH YEAR.

Department of Practical Seamanship, Naval Gunnery and Naval Tactics.--Seamanship, Naval Tactics. Naval Gunnery; Simpson’s Ordnance and Gunnery. Simpson’s Translation of Page’s Theory of Pointing. Dahlgren’s Boat Howitzer.

Department of Astronomy, Navigation and Surveying.--Theory of Navigation. Practical Astronomy. Marine Surveying.

Department of Natural and Experimental Philosophy.--Lardner on Heat. Wells’ Chemistry. Main & Brown on the Steam-Engine.

Department of Ethics and English Studies.--Constitution U.S.; Kent on International Law, Vol. I.

Department of Spanish.--Ollendorff.

SECOND CLASS--THIRD YEAR.

Department of Practical Seamanship, Naval Gunnery and Naval Tactics.--Seamanship. Simpson’s Naval Gunnery.

Department of Mathematics.--Smyth’s Analytical Geometry. Smith’s Differential and Integral Calculus.

Department of Astronomy, Navigation and Surveying.--Davies’ Surveying. Herschel’s Astronomy. Bowditch’s Navigation.

Department of Natural and Experimental Philosophy.--Lardner’s Optics, Acoustics, Electricity, and Magnetism. Smith’s Mechanics.

Department of Field Artillery and Infantry Tactics.--Hardee’s Light Infantry Drill. Instruction in Field Artillery.

Department of Ethics and English Studies.--Wayland’s Moral Science.

Department of French.--Girault’s French Student’s Manual. Dumas’ Vie de Napoleon. Manesca’s Reader.

THIRD CLASS--SECOND YEAR.

Department of Practical Seamanship, Naval Gunnery and Naval Tactics.--Seamanship.

Department of Mathematics.--Davies’ Legendre’s Geometry. Chauvenet’s Trigonometry. Davies’ Mensuration.

Department of Ethics and English Studies.--Eliot’s History U.S. Quackenbos’ Rhetoric. Composition.

Department of French.--Girault’s French Student’s Manual. Girault’s Vie de Washington.

Department of Drawing and Draughting.--Line Drawing.

FOURTH CLASS--FIRST YEAR.

Department of Mathematics.--Greenleaf’s Arithmetic. Davies’ Algebra. Davies’ Legendre’s Geometry.

Department of Ethics and English Studies.--Bullions’ English Grammar. Cornell’s Geography. Worcester’s and Lord’s History. Composition.

Department of Drawing and Draughting.--Sketching.

CONDITION IN 1864.

The following Report, drawn up by the author of this Treatise, after a residence of several weeks in the institution, as one of the Board of Visitors, exhibits its condition in 1864, and contains suggestions on the educational improvement of the military and commercial marine, which met the approbation of the Board.

Report of the Board of Visitors to the Secretary of the Navy.

SIR:--The Visitors, appointed “to witness the examination of the several classes and to examine into the state of the police, discipline, and general management of the Naval Academy,” for 1864, report as follows:--

I. THEIR OWN PROCEEDINGS.

The regular session of the Board, although several members were in attendance earlier, commenced on Monday, the 20th of May, and continued from day to day until Friday, June 10th. Their investigations as a Board, embraced--

First.--A thorough inspection of the buildings, ships, and material equipment provided by the Department for the residence, subsistence, health, and instruction of the several classes.

Second.--An attendance of the whole or a portion of the Visitors, for a brief period at least, on the examination conducted by the Academic Board, of one or more sections of each class in each study professedly attended to during the year.

Third.--An exhibition of the professional knowledge and skill attained, including the parade, evolutions, tactics, and drill as a military corps--the uses of the rapier, cutlass, musket, and cannon, great and small--the handling of ropes, sails, spars, boats, and everything included in practical seamanship in harbor, afloat, and in action.

Fourth.--Inquiries into the mode of conducting the entrance examination, and the results--the classification and programme of studies for each class--Scholarship and conduct rolls--causes of failure to graduate, and system of punishment--chapel exercises, morality, manners, and personal habits of the midshipmen--the accounts and vouchers for the expenditure of government appropriations, including payments made for the use of the cadets--in fine, into the police, discipline, and general management of the institution.

A committee of the Board was authorized and requested to attend the entrance examination of the new class, as well as the final examination of the graduating class, in order that the report required of the Visitors might cover the operations of the Academy for the year 1864.

Every facility for prosecuting their investigations was extended to the Visitors by the Superintendent, Officers, Professors, and Students.

II. CONDITION OF THE NAVAL ACADEMY IN 1864.

In presenting some details of the condition of the Naval Academy as they found it, and in offering suggestions for its improvement, which the submitting of a report implies, the Visitors are not unmindful that the institution is not at present furnished with permanent buildings and equipments in all respects adapted to its purpose;--that even such as are furnished were selected with reference to a smaller than the present number of pupils;--that its staff of instructors and course of instruction have been disturbed by the pressing exigencies of a great war, calling off into actual service some of its most experienced teachers;--that the education which it aims to give is not general but special, not covering the whole ground of a generous culture, but particularly adapted to make accomplished seamen and midshipmen;--and, moreover, that in an educational field so wide and subjects of inquiry so numerous as attach themselves to the details of such a school, a brief visit, made while the institution is not following its usual daily routine, is not in all respects the most favorable to the formation of just and reliable opinions. They at the same time believe that the government and people expect that the liberal appropriations in its favor will be expended with a judicious economy, and that the knowledge imparted will be accurate, thorough, and professional, and that its graduates will be really fitted for that rank of the service for which they are professedly trained. They recognize the fact that the school is yet in the youth of its development, and also that its purpose is not only to perpetuate naval science as it has been taught, but to maintain a progressive course of instruction, engrafting thereon all necessary or possible improvements.

Organization for Administration and Instruction.

The Visitors find the Naval Academy, subordinate to the direct supervision of the Department, under the immediate government of a Superintendent, Commodore George S. Blake, who is held responsible for its discipline and management. He is assisted as chief executive officer by the Commandant of Midshipmen, Commander Donald M. Fairfax, who resides in the Academy building on shore, and is also head of the department of Seamanship, Naval Gunnery, and Naval and Infantry Tactics. The Commandant is assisted in the different departments of his duty on ship and shore by three senior assistants and eleven assistants, nine of the latter being of the rank of lieutenant, and the remainder lieutenant-commanders. Two of the senior assistants have charge of the Practice-ships Marion and Macedonian, and also assist in instruction; six of the assistants are engaged in executive duty on board the School-ships Constitution and Santee, while the others, as well as these, are charged with certain branches of instruction in the department of which the Commandant is chief.

There are also attached to the Academic Staff one Professor of Astronomy, Navigation, and Surveying; two Professors of Mathematics, with six assistants in the same department; one Professor of Natural and Experimental Philosophy, with two assistants; one Professor of Ethics and English Studies, with nine assistants; one Professor of the French language, with an assistant; one Professor of the Spanish language; one Professor of Drawing and Draughting, with an assistant; one Sword-master, with an assistant; and one Librarian, who acts also as assistant in Mathematics, and Ethics and English studies. The officers not attached to the Academic Staff include a Paymaster, a Surgeon, with two assistants, a Chaplain, (with three, who are engaged as instructors,) a Commissary, Storekeeper, Secretary, Treasurer, and clerks to the Superintendent and Commandant.

The Academic Board is composed of the Superintendent, the officers in charge of the Practice and School-ships, and the professors, except that the professors of French, Spanish, and Drawing take part only upon matters pertaining to their own departments. The Board is required to conduct and regulate all examinations of candidates and students, preparing the necessary papers and reports in connection therewith, to prescribe the order and times of instruction, to recommend text-books for the approval of the Naval Department, and books, instruments, and other necessary material for instruction, to recommend at pleasure the restoration or farther trial of students that have been dismissed or found deficient in scholarship, to grant certificates of graduation, and to report from time to time, on the system of studies and instruction pursued, and propose such improvements as experience may suggest.

Buildings and Material Equipment.

The material arrangements for the accommodation of the Academy, for the lodging, subsistence, and comfort of the pupils in health and sickness, and for study and instruction, both scientific and professional, although made on a sudden emergency, for temporary occupancy, and for a smaller number, are far from being insufficient in extent, or particularly objectionable, when compared with similar arrangements for other great schools. The main building on shore is of wood, originally intended to lodge and board a large number of guests, and as adapted to the uses of the Academy, accommodates about half of the classes as well as most boarding schools provide for their pupils. The arrangements are not as convenient or as safe from fire as those at Annapolis; but they are too good to be complained of, even if they do require a strict observance of regulations, or special organization and diligence to protect from fire, which would carry mourning into many homes. Good discipline and good recitations, and a large amount of military and naval knowledge are secured under the difficulties such as they are, which the Department, be they great or small, will, doubtless, remove at the earliest possible moment. In any permanent or temporary arrangement, on ship or shore, while the privacy and comfort of separate lodgings for pupils should as far as practicable be secured, the Visitors recommend that convenient halls be provided, properly ventilated, warmed and lighted, and supplied with the best dictionaries, encyclopedias, and naval histories and biographies--to be occupied for study at certain hours by such pupils as have not acquired the power of concentrating attention, and the habit of solitary study--a power and habit of the highest importance, but very rarely attained. The same rooms might be open to the pupils at certain hours every day for the purpose of reading naval histories and biographies, and for consulting the encyclopedias and other books of reference. The formation of right habits of study and the habit and mode of reading such books to the best advantage should be made a matter of special and frequent inculcation by the head of each department of study.

The lack of suitable buildings for lodging, subsistence, and study, for a portion of the pupils, is supplied by an extension of the School-ship System, first inaugurated on board of the “Plymouth,” at Annapolis, in 1849, in our system, although always the main feature in the French system of naval education. The old “Constitution” and the “Santee,” properly moored in the harbor of Newport and adapted, are used for the residence and study of the younger classes, which are in this way brought more readily into the daily routine of the school and the service without the vulgar annoyances, to which the youngest classes are almost universally subjected, when lodged in the immediate neighborhood of the next older class. If School-ships are to constitute a permanent, integral feature of the Academy, the details of arrangements for separate lodging and class study require additional attention. For the present, recitations are attended in suitable buildings on Goat Island, near which the ships are moored and reached by covered passages. On this island is sufficient room for all sorts of athletic sports, military drill, and target practice.

The “Macedonian” and “Marion” are used for practice in the evolution of guns and other naval tactics by the several classes. To these are added, at least for the purposes of the summer cruise, the screw steamer “Marblehead” and the yacht “America.”

Number of Pupils--Entrance Examination.

The number of pupils belonging to the Naval Academy in the year closing June, 1864, was 458, distributed into four classes, generally according to the period of their connection with the institution, with a staff of 57 officers and instructors. This is an astonishing development of the Academy in respect to pupils, as well as in the number of the teaching staff, and equipment for professional training, since Oct. 10th, 1845, when the Academy found a location at Fort Severn in Annapolis, or since January 1st, 1846, when it was reported to have 36 midshipmen and six professors and instructors, including the Superintendent. To judge of the progressive development of the institution, and of the results of the annual examination which they were appointed to witness, the Visitors deemed it necessary to ascertain the average condition of each class as to age and attainments, at the time of becoming connected with the Academy, and with the general results of the entrance examination--this examination being the only check on the admission of unqualified candidates--no previous examination being held in the districts or States from which they come.

By law and regulations governing the admission of candidates into the Academy, the maximum number of pupils is limited to 526, viz., two for every Congressional district or territory, appointed on the nomination of the member or delegate, from actual residents of the district, if such nomination is made to fill a vacancy duly notified, prior to the first day of July in any year, and if not so made, by the Secretary of the Navy; and twenty-five more appointed by the President, two for and from the District of Columbia, ten from the country at large, ten from the sons of officers of the army and navy, and three from the enlisted boys of the navy. All candidates who receive notice of their provisional appointment must present themselves to the Superintendent for examination between the 20th and 31st of July, or September in case of second appointments. The examination is twofold; first, before a medical board, consisting of the surgeon resident and two other medical officers designated by the Department; and second, before the Academic Board. The candidate must be found, according to the law of 1864, to be between the ages of fourteen and eighteen years--of good moral character--physically sound, well formed, and of robust constitution--and pass a satisfactory examination in reading, writing, spelling, arithmetic, geography and English grammar.

The requisition as to age was advanced from 16 in 1861, to its present maximum in 1864, while the Board was in session, and conforms in that respect to the age which they had decided to recommend. The traveling expenses of the successful candidates are paid.

The Visitors were furnished on application with tables exhibiting the statistics of these entrance examinations from 1851 to 1863 inclusive. From these tables it appears that out of 1,522 candidates, nominated and appointed conditionally, but afterwards examined, 313 or one-fifth of the whole were rejected as unqualified, although the attainments required were such as any graduate of a common school should possess. Of the number (1,209) admitted, 466, more than one-third, failed on the first year’s course. Out of the number who failed at the earlier examinations, three hundred and thirty-one were turned back for a second trial, and after floundering along in the lower sections, only a very small per cent. succeeded in graduating. Of the whole number admitted, (1,209,) only 269 graduated, including 93 who were received into the service from 1861 to 1864 before completing their studies.

From another table, covering the entrance examinations from 1860 to 1864 inclusive, it appears that out of 1,093 candidates who presented themselves for admission, 807 were admitted, while 53 were rejected by the Medical Board, 219 by the Academic Board, 11 withdrew, and 3 were found to be over the maximum age.

From another table, exhibiting the ages of the successful and unsuccessful candidates, it appears that out of 1,141 candidates examined, 201 (18 per cent.) were rejected, and of the number rejected, 177 were under 17 years of age. Of the 940 admitted, 313 (33 per cent.) failed the first year, and of the number that failed, 254 were under 17 years of age. The average age of the candidates admitted was 16 years and 2 months, and of those who failed, 15 years and 10 months.

The fact that one-fifth of the whole number nominated failed to pass the examination in the most rudimentary branches of a common English education--and in only the most elementary portions of these branches--indicates unmistakably how little regard has been paid to school attendance and proficiency in the selection of candidates. To judge how far these failures might be attributed to a laudable strictness on the part of the Academic Board, the entrance examination papers, which are filed away from year to year, were called for, and from those it appears that the questions asked and exercises required were few and simple--far too few and simple--far below the requirements of any Public High School; and yet such wretched perversions of the orthography of the most common words, such mistakes in American geography, such bungling use of the English language in the composition of a simple letter, such numerous failures in arithmetical operations not going beyond the elementary rules and simple exercises in fractions and proportion, it would be difficult to gather from all the Public High School entrance examinations of the country. More strictness on the part of the Academic Board would have saved the government hundreds of thousands of dollars, for of the candidates allowed to pass, two-fifths fail on the studies of the first year, although these studies belong to a good English education, and are preliminary to a special scientific naval training--showing a want of suitable preparatory knowledge, of aptitude for study, or of will and desire to learn. A portion of those who fail the first year are put back for a second year’s trial, and in some instances for a third, and the proportion of those thus put back who finally succeed in graduating is very small, thereby causing a total loss of the thousands of dollars expended upon each. From data gathered from the annual reports of the Department, it appears the annual expense of a pupil of the Naval school exceeds $1,500, and that each graduate who has been four years in the institution costs the government over $10,000. But the pecuniary loss is not the only consideration--the places filled by pupils, no matter what their courage or general ability, unable or unwilling to profit by the opportunities of scientific and professional instruction so lavishly provided, might be filled by competent, ambitious, diligent, and courageous young men, if they could have had their qualifications tested by a competitive examination.

Daily Routine.

The morning gun calls the cadets up at 6 o’clock. Inspection of the rooms follows, when the bedding must be found arranged, the rooms swept, and every thing in order. Ten minutes are given to chapel services, and half an hour to breakfast, which is over at 7.15. Forty minutes recreation are then allowed, during which sick-roll is called and such as report themselves indisposed are marched to the hospital and reported to the surgeon. At 7.55 the sections are formed under the supervision of the Officer of the Day, assisted by the section leaders, and at 8 o’clock, on given signal, they are marched in close order to their recitation rooms, in perfect silence and with strict military decorum. All who are not engaged in the recitation rooms are expected to be preparing their lessons in their own rooms, and it is the duty of the superintendents of floors to see that they are there. The dismissal and re-formation of sections at the end of each hour are conducted with similar formality and regulated by special signals. Study and recitation continue until 1 o’clock, when the cadets are formed in order by the captains of crews, (the whole corps being organized in nine guns’ crews, for the purposes of discipline and practical instruction,) all special orders and rules for the day are read, and they are then marched into the mess hall for dinner, which occupies forty minutes. From 1.40 to 1.55 recreation is allowed and the sections are then again formed as in the morning for recitation and study. At 4 o’clock ten minutes are given to preparation for drill, as may be the order of the day, and then follow instruction in fencing, infantry or artillery drill, and recreation until parade and roll-call at sunset. Supper immediately succeeds, to which half an hour is given, and recreation until study-call at 6.30 or 7.00, according to the season. Study hours continue until tattoo, at 9.30, during which time the cadets must all be in their rooms, and after inspection of rooms all lights are extinguished at 10 o’clock.

The routine on board ship is as far as possible the same. No control is exercised over the occupation of the time by the cadets during study hours, provided good order is preserved. No studies or exercises are required on Saturday afternoon and one-half of each class may then be allowed liberty beyond the limits of the Academy. A vacation is given at the close of the second year, the only one in the whole course. As means of recreation, chess, draughts, and all games of chance are strictly forbidden. On the other hand, every facility is afforded for games of ball, boxing, fencing, boating, &c.

Course of Instruction, Examinations, and Merit-Rolls.

The course of instruction at the Naval Academy is comprised in eight departments, with their special branches, as follows:--

First Department, in six branches--Practical Seamanship, Theory and Practice of Gunnery, Naval Tactics, Infantry Tactics, Howitzer Drill, and the Art of Defense.

Second Department, Mathematics, in seven branches--Arithmetic and Algebra, Geometry, plane and solid, Trigonometry, Mensuration, Descriptive Geometry, Analytical Geometry, and the Differential and Integral Calculus.

Third Department, in four branches--Astronomy, Practical Astronomy, Navigation, and Surveying.

Fourth Department, in eight branches--Mechanics of Solids, Mechanics of Liquids, Pneumatics, Acoustics, Electricity, Heat, Chemistry, and the Steam-Engine.

Fifth Deportment, in seven branches--English Grammar, Descriptive Geography, Physical Geography, Outlines of History, Rhetoric, Ethics, and Political Science.

Sixth Department--the French Language.

Seventh Department--the Spanish Language.

Eighth Department--Drawing and Draughting.

These studies are distributed into four annual courses for the four regular classes, each class being subdivided into convenient sections, usually according to the relative standing of the members. During the last year the first class, of 36 cadets, has been graded into three sections; the second class, of 59 cadets, into five sections; the third class into six sections; and the fourth class, during the first term, with 176 cadets, into fourteen sections, and in the second term, with 156 cadets, into twelve sections--each section receiving separate instruction.

The more difficult portions of the several branches may be reserved for the higher sections of the classes, and it is frequently the fact that in certain branches no instruction whatever is given to the lowest sections. Deviation from the general rule for the admission of cadets only in the month of September has made the formation of “Intermediate Classes” necessary, so that there are now two divisions of the second class and two divisions of the third class. By this means the number of sections is increased, the labors of instruction augmented, and much inconvenience in other respects created. The demands of the times have also introduced other irregularities into the course, hurrying the more forward sections through their studies and detailing them into active service at the close of the third year, with or without a graduating examination, while the lower sections are retained through the whole four years.

The Commandant of Midshipmen and the several professors are each at the head of a special department, with such assistants as may be necessary. The professors, instructors, and assistants are responsible for the regular and orderly conduct of their respective classes and sections while under instruction, and must report all want of preparation, absence, or misconduct. Daily notes are taken of the progress and relative merit of each pupil in each of his studies. The assistants must make weekly reports of such notes to the heads of their departments, who in turn report to the Superintendent, recommending such transfers as should be made from one section to another. The scale of daily merit in each study embraces seven grades, with corresponding values designated by numbers, as follows:--Thorough, (4.0)--Very Good, (3.5)--Good, (3.0)--Tolerable, (2.5)--Indifferent, (2.0)--Bad, (1.0)--Complete Failure, (0.) The average standing for the week in each study accompanies the report. Monthly reports are drawn up by the Academic Board for each month in the academic year, showing the relative standing of the members of each class in their different studies, and also their conduct or demerits. These reports are based upon the weekly reports and upon the results of the examinations, when such are held within the month, and are posted for public inspection. The examination weeks are considered of equal weight with those of the month.

The examinations are held by the Academic Board in the months of February and June, and are sufficiently thorough to enable the Board to decide upon the proficiency and relative merits of the members of the several classes. After each June examination a “general merit-roll” is formed for each class, for which purpose a maximum number or value is assigned to each of the principal branches in the several departments. The total amount of these maxima throughout the course is 1,000, and they are distributed among the departments and branches, for the different classes, as follows:--In the first year, to mathematics, 20--grammar and rhetoric, 10--geography, 10--history and composition, 10--drawing, 10--conduct, 5--total, 65;--In the second year, to seamanship, 20--mathematics, 35--grammar and rhetoric, 15--history and composition, 10--French, 30--drawing, 25--conduct, 15--total, 150;--In the third year, to seamanship, 40--gunnery, 20--infantry tactics, 25--howitzer drill, 20--mathematics, 45--general astronomy, 25--practical astronomy, navigation, and surveying, 15--mechanics, 30--physics, 25--moral science and international law, 20--French, 40--conduct, 30--total, 335;--In the fourth year, to seamanship, 100--gunnery, 60--naval tactics, 30--practical astronomy, navigation, and surveying, 75--physics, 30--steam-engine, 35--moral science and international law, 20--Spanish, 50--conduct, 50--total, 450. The minima values are fixed at one-third of the corresponding maxima.

The “general merit-roll” includes only such as pass a satisfactory examination in all the principal branches of their class and have not exceeding 200 demerits recorded against them. In the formation of the roll, the individual having the highest standing in any branch for the year receives the corresponding maximum number, while the one who has the lowest standing receives the corresponding minimum. The intermediate members of the class receive numbers proceeding by equal differences from the maximum to the minimum, in the order of their relative merit as fixed by their “class merit-rolls.” The gradation for conduct is determined by allowing the maximum number to such as have no demerits, and for others diminishing that maximum by 1/300 part for every demerit recorded against them. All the numbers thus assigned to the several members for the different branches of study and for conduct are then added together, and the members are arranged in each class according to the aggregates thus obtained. For the graduating class a “graduating merit-roll” is formed by adding the aggregate numbers of each member upon the several “general merit-rolls” for the four years and arranging the order of the members according to these new aggregates. The highest number reached upon the “graduating merit-roll,” by any one of the class just graduating, was 859.

If any student at any examination fails to pass a satisfactory examination in any principal branch, or has recorded against him more than 200 demerits since the commencement of the academic year, a report is made of the case to the Secretary of the Navy, showing the habits of study, aptitude for study and for sea duties, and his general habits and conduct, and upon his decision the student is dismissed, or upon recommendation of the Academic Board, allowed to continue at the Academy for further trial.

The final graduating examination is held by a special Board and occurs, by a recent regulation, not less than one year after the close of the course. This examination embraces seamanship and naval tactics, practical gunnery, navigation, and management of steam-engines, and the standing in these branches is combined to determine the relative merits of the candidates. In assigning numbers, 1,000 is considered the maximum and 333 the minimum for such as are considered qualified for promotion, and the Board assigns such numbers within these limits as will fairly express the relative qualifications of the members of the class. The numbers thus assigned, when added to the numbers already assigned on the “graduating merit-roll,” determine the standing of the graduates as ensigns; the highest number taking precedence.

Text-Books. Studies of the past Year.

The method of teaching as at present pursued is almost wholly by means of text-books and recitations. A series of lectures is delivered in connection with the recitations in Natural Philosophy and Chemistry. Without underrating the office of the text-book, the success of the French Polytechnic method of teaching even the higher Mathematics by lectures, collateral study, and examination, and the experience of all schools, of the power of the human voice and of the human eye to win, hold, and harmonize attention should not be lost to this institution, many of whose pupils need the influence of such a method to vitalize their powers of thinking and to bring within their grasp the general principle or doctrine of the subjects taught.

The division of the classes into small sections of 12-14 midshipmen each, of nearly equal standing, tends to secure the personal and thorough instruction of each and all. The attempt was made, by furnishing prepared blanks to the several departments, to ascertain the character and actual amount of the studies and exercises accomplished by the several sections during the eight months of study of the year 1863-4. The returns made are not complete, but it appears that the English studies of the lowest class (in 12-14 sections) have consisted of one lesson a week in Spelling and Derivation, four in Bullion’s English Grammar, four during the first term in Cornell’s Geography, and during the second term in General History, with daily exercises in Composition and the exercise of the Voice; in Mathematics, five lessons a week during the first term in Greenleaf’s Common School Arithmetic, and during the second term in Davies’ University Algebra. In the upper sections, the Algebra was commenced within the first term and more or less nearly finished at the close of the year. The highest section had also five lessons a week for three weeks in Davies’ Elementary Geometry (5 books) and instruction twice a week in Drawing. The space in the several textbooks actually gone over varied considerably in the different sections. It will be seen, therefore, that the studies of this class, with the exception of Algebra and Geometry, are simply those of every common school, and yet the lower section is reported as having succeeded but “imperfectly” in Grammar, and “very imperfectly” in Algebra. It is also to be stated that a part of the class had received eight weeks additional preparatory instruction during August and September, 1863.

In the third class, of six sections, there were three lessons per week, during the first term, in American History, and during the second term in Rhetoric. The lower section prepared six English compositions each term--the highest section, weekly compositions through the second term. All the sections prepared three lessons weekly in French during the first term and four lessons during the second, but with very unequal progress. In Mathematics, (five lessons per week,) Algebra was completed by the lower sections and reviewed by the higher in the first four or five weeks, when Elementary Geometry was taken up by all, and completed in the first term by the highest section. In the second term, Elementary Geometry for three weeks by the lowest section, and Trigonometry for the rest of the term--in the highest section, Trigonometry for ten weeks, Mensuration two weeks, and Analytical Geometry commenced, for three weeks. The first section had also three lessons a week in Marine and Topographical Drawing, and during the first term one lesson a week in Seamanship.

In the second class, of five sections, during the first term, five lessons a week in Analytical Geometry, replaced in the highest section by the Differential and Integral Calculus for five weeks; four lessons a week in Statics, to which the first section added Dynamics, three weeks; five lessons a week in Surveying, three weeks in each term, with practical exercises. The lowest sections had also four lessons a week in French, and the first section weekly lessons in Seamanship and Infantry Tactics, and two lessons a week in Gunnery. In the second term, five lessons a week in Dynamics, Hydrostatics, Pneumatics and Acoustics, with twelve lectures, Surveying, three weeks, and Astronomy, ten weeks. Two lessons a week in Wayland’s Moral Science. The first section had also two lessons a week in Gunnery.

The first class, consisting of the three more advanced sections of the second class, and in its third year of study, during the first term were pursuing chiefly second class studies, having five lessons a week in Physics, including Statics, Dynamics, Hydrostatics, Acoustics, Magnetism, and Electricity, with sixteen lectures; four lessons a week in Theory and Practice of Navigation (six weeks) and General Astronomy (eleven weeks;) two lessons a week in Seamanship, and two in Gunnery, Naval Light Artillery, and Field Fortifications. In the second term, four lessons a week in Heat and Chemistry, with nine lectures; three in Wayland’s Ethics and Kent’s Constitution of U.S., and International Law; three in the Theory and Practice of Navigation; two in Seamanship; and one in Gunnery, &c. Two lessons a week were given through the year in Spanish, by means of the French.

In addition to the daily lessons of each class are the general practical exercises by divisions, by the higher classes on shore embracing daily exercises in Fencing, three exercises weekly in Infantry Drill, Howitzer Drill once a week, the Great Gun Drill upon the Practice Ships twice weekly in favorable weather, and a certain amount of Target Practice by the first class. The younger classes on the school-ships have also their special drills. Special instruction is given them in boating, and the numerous cutters and launches belonging to the ships afford ample opportunity for recreation and practice of this kind at suitable times. The use of the “Rainbow,” a schooner-rigged craft of 15-20 tons, is also not unfrequently allowed to pleasure parties made up from the cadets. Weekly bathing is enjoined and practiced throughout the year as a sanitary regulation, but the absence of the cadets from port during the summer months, while on the cruise, prevents the attainment of that knowledge and skill in the art of swimming, which seem to the Visitors so essential a requisite.

The general results of the examinations and exercises as observed by the Visitors, may be stated as in general very favorable. The examinations of the classes were made by sections and conducted by the individual professors of the departments, with great fairness and impartiality, without any purpose of embarrassing the pupils, and for the single object of eliciting the extent, accuracy, and vividness of the pupil’s knowledge of the topic. Written lists of questions were furnished to the cadets on entering the examination rooms, which were usually answered in writing upon the blackboard, with opportunity for oral explanation. The difference in the proficiency shown by the higher and lower sections, in all except the first class, was very strongly marked. In the written answers, the writing was fair and legible, and the spelling and composition very creditable--revealing in these respects an immense improvement upon the entrance examination papers of the same cadets. The Visitors would suggest that in future examinations there should be more of paper, even if there should be less of blackboard work, and that a portion of the questions should be handed in on slips by the Visitors and answered in writing with ink, in presence of the Board, by every member of the section present.

The practical professional exercises of the cadets upon the parade ground and on board ship, embracing all the different branches of shore and ship duty, (including a harbor cruise on board the Practice Steamer,) and designed to exemplify the proficiency of the classes in seamanship, gunnery, and naval and infantry tactics, were performed in the most satisfactory manner, justifying the professional pride manifestly felt by those taking part in them. Moreover, these exercises, instead of being executed under the direction, as heretofore, of the respective Academic officers in command, were conducted under the charge wholly of officers appointed from the midshipmen themselves.

Physical Training.

The unavoidable exposures and risks of the naval service require not only a sound mind--a mind well informed, quick, and accurate in its operations, but a sound body--a body supple, athletic, and tough to resist the rapid alternations and continuous exposures of wet and cold weather. Although careful and continuous training can do much to develope and strengthen the qualities referred to, the records of the Academy and of the service, as well as the present appearance of many of the cadets, show that sufficient regard has not been paid to vigor and elasticity of physical constitution, in the original appointment, or the entrance medical examination. The regular military drill and evolutions, the small arm and other exercises, in which the whole corps participates, the professional practice in gunnery and seamanship, all help to supply these deficiencies. There is still room for more careful scrutiny for inherited tendencies and hidden defects, in the entrance medical examination, as well as in the regular course of naval education, for a well arranged system of gymnastic exercises and athletic games, to give suppleness to the joints, steadiness to the nerves, hardness to the bones, and elasticity to the sinews. Such games and sports as the young universally accept with eagerness and pursue with unflagging interest, should be systematically introduced. Ample time, room, and encouragement by rank, prizes, and publicity, should be given to make a fondness and indulgence in such games as cricket, football, leaping, boating, &c., the habit of every member of the lower classes at least. An hour a day devoted to these healthful sports, even if taken from the study and class-room,--even more, if taken from the idle lounging, or the listless walk, or vulgar scuffling, will give at once health and strength, increased capacity for study, and valuable social qualities and manly virtues--all results of emphatically the highest professional value.

As part of the physical training of naval cadets, the expansion of the chest and the culture of the vocal organs should receive more special attention than the word of command on parade, and the questions and answers in the examination would indicate they had received. A clear, full, decisive voice is an element of influence on the deck at all times, and of power in the hour of danger, as well as on the field or in the senate chamber.

The first beginning of habits, secret or open, which waste the vigor of the mind and body, should be watched with professional skill as well as parental interest, and those cadets in whom such indulgencies have grown into habits, should be cut off from the institution and service without hesitation and without reprieve.

Domestic and Sanitary Arrangements.

The institution is peculiarly fortunate in having had for years a Commissary who understands his business and gives universal satisfaction to all concerned. The neatness of the kitchen, the supply, preparation, and serving of the food, the geniality, good order, and enjoyment of the mess-hours, and the fact that no complaint reached the Visitors from any one of the 450 boys, blessed with good health and plenty of physical exercise, makes the record of this department an exception to similar departments in other large collegiate institutions. This comes from having the right man in the right place.

The hospital arrangements on shipboard and on shore, although not as large and quiet as would be desirable or as would be provided specially in permanent quarters, are sufficient for the demands on their accommodations. The location of the institution and the judicious arrangement and management of the Academy as to cleanliness, exercise, and diet, as well as the presence of a surgeon and two assistants on the Academic staff, and numerous attendants for hospital service, would seem to act as a preventive of accidents and disease, the mean daily percentage of sick on ship and shore from Oct. 1st to May 31st being returned at a little more than three per cent. out of an average attendance of 447 midshipmen. In calling for the annual reports to the Department of the medical condition of the institution, the Visitors were informed that a duplicate copy or abstract was not retained. Such copy or abstract would be highly convenient, and would seem to be even necessary, if it is deemed advisable to have a periodical inspection of the sanitary condition and requirements of the school.

Religious Observances and Instruction.

The regulations require that the students shall be assembled in the chapel for prayers daily, fifteen minutes before the breakfast hour, and that divine service shall be held on Sunday, which officers and students are expected to attend, unless excused on the ground of conscientious scruples, declared in writing by the former, and by the parents or guardians of the latter. These daily and Sunday exercises are conducted by the regular Chaplain of the institution. He is at the present time assisted in these and other such voluntary religious labors by three other chaplains of the Navy, who are now in residence as assistant professors. There are four Bible classes composed of cadets, and over one-eighth of the members are communicants in the different denominations of Newport. The student who brings, in his moral culture from home, religious convictions and habits, can easily preserve and strengthen them here, and no amount of instruction in the institution can compensate for the neglect of parental example and teaching in this respect. The absence of the religious element in the character and training of youth is a fundamental defect, and no institution of learning, special or general, can safely, for any length of time, dispense with appropriate and adequate means of religious instruction and a practical recognition of religious obligations, consistent with due regard to the religious convictions of individuals and the equal rights of all religious denominations. Such individual convictions and denominational rights can be best respected, not by ignoring the subjects themselves, but by selecting the chaplain from time to time so as to represent different religious denominations, and in all cases, in reference to his ability to be useful as chaplain in this institution.

The reading of the Sabbath, and one of the exercises of Monday morning might be so arranged as to harmonize with the religious observances and uses of Sunday, and the whole be made to unfold and enforce the great, definite, and unchanging obligations of every human being to his fellow-men, to his country, and to God.

As part of the religious and moral instruction of the Academy, more at least should be attempted to prevent, and if these unfortunately exist, to eradicate certain vulgar and vicious habits, whose beginnings are small, but which ultimately take complete possession of the individual. Although the Visitors can not, from their own knowledge, speak of its existence, they have had too many assurances from those who did know, to have any doubt of the prevalence of the vulgar and immoral practice of profanity, and that several of those addicted to it are among the youngest members of their classes, who came here entirely pure in this respect. The medical and police experience of the institution detects the occasional existence of other tastes and habits more directly affecting the health and morality of their victims, and which should and doubtless do receive the considerate and vigilant attention of the authorities, especially of the Chaplain, Surgeon and Superintendent.

Discipline.

The Superintendent is charged with and held responsible for the good order and discipline of the Academy, and it is made the duty of every officer, professor, and instructor, having knowledge of any violation of law or regulation, or of any crime, irregularity, neglect, or other improper conduct, of which any student or any other one has been guilty, to report the same without delay to the Superintendent. Offenses are defined with great minuteness and precision, and the circle of punishments embraces demerits on the roll of conduct, private and public reprimand, confinement to Academy grounds, to room, or to guard-room, and withdrawal on necessity, or dismission. In the administration of discipline, the Superintendent is clothed with much power, which is exercised by the present incumbent with great discretion and the happiest results. The private memorandum and letter book of this officer, respecting every case of discipline during the year, was placed before the Visitors, and they can bear willing testimony to the preventive admonition and parental regard with which he has exercised his authority.

Demerits, to be considered in making up the conduct-rolls, are assigned for all offenses. Such delinquencies as are not deemed deserving of severer punishment are grouped into four classes, which count ten, eight, six, four, and two demerits respectively, besides a miscellaneous class counting from one to ten demerits according to circumstances. The total demerits of each cadet is expressed by the sum of all demerits standing against him on record for the year, increased for the third class by one-sixth, for the second class by one third, and for the first class by one-half.

No punishment of any kind can be inflicted by other authority than that of the Superintendent. Report is read at evening parade of all demerits and other punishments that have been inflicted during the day, and opportunity is always given for excuse or explanation. Full record is made of every case of discipline, and a monthly conduct-roll is publicly posted showing the number of demerits against each cadet. It is evident that this conduct-roll does not fairly represent the character and conduct of the cadets, as a large number of demerits may be gained by numerous minor offenses, which involve neither immorality nor lawlessness, while a cadet who has been guilty of most flagrant acts of vice and disobedience may still be charged with but few demerits. Yet the conduct-roll has but a subordinate influence in determining the general merit-rolls, and in the question of dismissal the fuller record of punishments, as well as the demerit-roll, has its weight in determining the action of authorities.

Financial Affairs.

All money appropriated for the support of the Naval Academy is drawn for by the Paymaster and by him deposited with the Sub-Treasurer in Boston. The Paymaster draws upon him, from time to time, to make his disbursements.

The principal heads of expenditure for the fiscal year ending June 30th, 1864, are as follows:--

Pay of Commissioned and Warrant Officers, Midshipmen, Seamen, and others, $241,771.71 Pay of Professors and Assistants, 35,000.00 Expenses of the Academy, School and Practice Ships, Surgeon’s necessaries, contingent expenses, and repairs of all kinds, 72,753.84

The total of all expenditures from 1st July, 1863, to May 31st, 1864; is reported at $383,419.41.

From the pay of the midshipmen, which is $500 per annum, $100 are reserved yearly to be paid upon graduation, though this sum is sometimes diminished by unavoidable circumstances. There is also deducted from their pay, the amount of board--at present $16.50 per month--and $3.00 per month for washing. The aggregate of these sums is paid monthly by the Paymaster to the Commissary. Articles of clothing for the midshipmen are provided under contract by the Storekeeper with the approval of the Commandant. All other articles for their use are purchased by the Storekeeper, from funds provided by the Paymaster, at prices sanctioned by the Commandant.

The midshipmen receive such articles as they desire upon requisition approved by the Commandant, and no other articles are permitted to be sold to them than those which the Storekeeper is authorized to have. Each midshipman has a pass-book in which his purchases are entered, and regular report is made by the Storekeeper to the Paymaster, who charges against each the aggregate amount of his purchases. On the 30th April, 1864, the amount of balances still due to the midshipmen was $44,579.93, the aggregate of indebtedness by them being only $111.90. The amounts to the credit of the members of the graduating class vary from $180 to $400.

The accounts of the Commissary are examined quarterly by a committee of three officers appointed by the Superintendent, to whom they make report. The Visitors deemed at their duty to go behind the reports of this committee, and deputed one of their number to examine personally the original accounts of the Commissary and Storekeeper. As the result of this examination, which was conducted with the most rigid scrutiny, it is but justice to state that they found the accounts correct in all their details, and the prices of all articles as low as they can be purchased at wholesale in the city of New York, and the Visitors consider the financial affairs of the Academy as conducted with commendable skill and fidelity.

While the Visitors bear willing testimony to the fidelity with which the financial affairs of the Academy, as well as the departments of subsistence, discipline, and instruction, are and have been administered, they can not but express their disappointment at the very small number of officers of the lowest rank which the institution has contributed to the naval service. With an aggregate annual expenditure of several hundred thousand dollars, the aggregate number of graduates, since the opening of the four years’ course, in 1851, including the three classes of 1858, ’59 and ’60, which were ordered into active service in 1862 and ’63, before completing their studies, is but 269, or at the rate of less than 22 each year, at an expense to the country of over $12,000 for each graduate. If the 93 who entered the service with only two or three years’ residence had completed their course, the aggregate expense for each graduate would have exceeded $15,000. This, as it appears to the Visitors, small result, is due mainly to the want of care in selecting candidates, and the very low standard of general scholarship required for entering the Academy. The experience of this institution is the same as that of others of the same character; any mode of selection which does not test in advance the natural aptitude and preparation for the special studies of the course, and exclude rigorously all who are found deficient, will burden the institution with a number of students which will have to be thrown off after months and sometimes years of struggling to incorporate them into the regular classes and to the manifest injury, in the meantime, of the scholarship and character of the institution. While a nomination by patronage, and a pass examination have a direct tendency to reduce the average ability of the selected candidates to the minimum required, a competitive examination raises the general average to the maximum ability of all who apply.

Graduating Class of 1864.

The present graduating class (consisting after the final examination of 31) at the close of its third year has completed the whole course prescribed, excepting that the Calculus has been omitted and that Surveying has been limited to instruction in Harbor and Coast Surveying, from Bowditch. Steam and the Steam-engine have received fuller attention from this than any preceding class, embracing six weeks of theory and practice on board of the steamer Marblehead--altogether too little attention for a department so important. Two summer cruises have been made by this class--both coast cruises--the first on board the John Adams, from June 6th to Sept. 30th, 1862; the second from 16th June to 25th Sept., 1864, in which the following vessels were united, viz.: Flagship Macedonian, sloop of war Marion, screw steamer Marblehead, and the yacht America. Upon these cruises the midshipmen were practiced in all the regular duties attaching to the posts of lieutenant and master, taking by turns upon themselves the working of the ship, in the different vessels; making and calculating observations for determining the ship’s position, going through all possible manoeuvres and performing the duties incident to the management of ships in action, in heavy weather, or in the many emergencies which arise requiring superior skill in seamanship. They were engaged in instructing the crews in gunnery, in infantry and sword-drill, and in drill of the battery. They were also detailed for actual boat service, and for the transferring of howitzers and marines from ship to shore. During the last cruise Meyer’s code of signals was used by the graduating class as signal officers, in communicating from vessel to vessel in the fleet, and instruction was also given in the Naval Code of signals, and in Navigation throughout the cruise to all cadets on board. In addition to these cruises the yacht America, in charge of cadets of this class, as commanding officers, has been engaged in the performance of despatch-boat duty, and also special “coast picket duty” in search for the Tallahassee.

The experience of this class--made up of three advanced sections of what is now the second class (the graduating class of 1865,) would seem to indicate, that under a system of appointment that should admit from the start only those who had maturity of mind and requisite scholarship, the professional studies of the Academy might be completed in three years. This is one year longer than the course of the French Naval School at Brest, the entrance examination of which would exclude most of the graduates of our Academy.

III. RECOMMENDATIONS.

The Visitors close their report with the following suggestions, as the results of their examinations and conferences, in reference to the further development of the Naval Academy and the extension of nautical education generally, for the consideration of the Department.

I. Until the pupils of the Naval Academy have gone through the theoretical and practical course of instruction provided in this institution expressly to qualify them to act as Midshipmen, the Visitors recommend that they be designated as Naval Cadets--simply candidates for the lowest official rank in the Navy--and that no cadet be rated as midshipman, no matter how well up he may be in his studies, until he has had at least eighteen months of professional practice afloat, towards which time the actual time at sea of each experimental cruise shall be credited.

II. As the most direct blow to the hindrances which practically exclude a large portion of the youth of the country, no matter how strong may be their predilection or great their acquired fitness for the naval service, from even a chance of being admitted to this national school;--as the most effectual preventive of the disappointments now experienced by individuals and families in the failure of many appointees to pass the entrance examination, or to meet even the low requirements of the first year’s course;--as the only effectual way of ridding the institution of the low average ability and attainments which characterize the lower sections of every class, and of bringing up the talent and scholarship and conduct of the whole corps to the average of the first two sections;--as a sure guaranty against the early resignation of officers educated at the public expense for a life service in the Navy, and of a progressive and honorable career as long as life and health last;--as a powerful attraction to draw to this department of the public service a fair share of the best talent and loftiest ambition of the youth of the country, and as a stimulus to their best efforts for self and school improvement for this purpose--the Visitors recommend the immediate abandonment of the custom of selecting candidates for admission by individual patronage, in consideration of neighborhood, relationship, or party connection, or the better motives of the poverty or the public service of parents, and that all appointments be hereafter made in consideration of the personal merit of the applicant, ascertained by a public competitive examination, conducted before an impartial tribunal, constituted as shall be prescribed by law. Admission, sought and obtained in this way, will be honorable to the successful candidates, a source of pride to the neighborhood and State from which they come, a reward to the teachers who have prepared them, and a stimulus to the industry and good conduct of their comrades at home. The classes of the Academy, replenished every year by new recruits, all of whom have sought the service from personal choice and won their place by personal merit founded on natural aptitude and vigor of mind and acquired knowledge, and who regard the diligent improvement of these opportunities of professional study and practice as the true road to honorable promotion hereafter, to be gained by farther industry and devotion--will at once have an average ability and scholarship equal to that now attained by only five or six out of every one hundred, and a large proportion of the cases of discipline, the “dead weights,” the reëxaminations, and the failures from inability, distaste, or want of preparatory knowledge, will forever disappear from the records of the Academy.

These suggestions have not the merit of originality nor the objections of novelty. The principle recommended has stood the test of seventy years’ trial in France in naval and similar public schools, and is now in successful operation in England, as well as in most of the military schools of Europe. It has been again and again urged by thoughtful friends of this institution and of our other national school at West Point, as the most effectual remedy for the evils complained of. The Academic Board of this Academy, in answer to a request from a committee in 1858 for its opinion on this point, replied:--“The Academic Board has long been of the opinion that the present system of appointing midshipmen without care in their selection, was undermining the very existence of the institution. The records of the Academy show that scarcely more than one-fourth of those admitted graduate. The fault lies with the appointing power, which has not kept the institution supplied with the proper material, and the Board has been powerless in applying a remedy. It has done all in its power by recommending a higher standard of proficiency.” The Visitors for 1862, in the Report of their examinations, remark:--“After a careful examination of the subject, the Board has been forced to the conclusion that the selection of candidates has not been made with sufficient reference to the wants of the public service, but has been and continues to be regarded as a portion of the patronage of the members of Congress making the nominations. The evil does not stop here; for in many cases, after they have been appointed without regard to talents or fitness, and have obtained admission to the institution, and subsequently have been found incapable to pursue the studies of the class to which they belong, the influence of the same member of Congress originally nominating them is successfully used to continue them at the institution, in obtaining authority for them to recommence their studies by joining a lower class; thus retaining those wanting in talents and fitness, to the exclusion of others of suitable qualifications that might be presented. An institution like this, in which the students are educated and supported by the government, ought to have them selected from the highest and most promising youths of the country.”[27]

[Footnote 27: An early friend of this institution, on learning the fact stated in the same Report of 1862, from which the above extract is taken, “that in the course of six years one hundred and twenty-four students were turned back to pursue a second time portions of the academic course,” and of this number only six passed the final examination, (thereby costing the country over $300,000 in pay, salaries, and equipment, for absolutely nothing, and at the same time depriving the naval service of an equal number of competent young officers,) writes to a member of this Board as follows:--“I have had the curiosity to question fifty middies, as I happened to meet with them, without selection, and representing different classes in the institution and different States, as to the circumstances of their appointment--and of these fifty, forty were the near relations or sons of political friends of the parties making the nominations, and five were the sons of persons in official stations at Washington, although appointed ‘at large,’ leaving but five for selection from other sources. In several cases the answers were significant--‘My father had to bleed freely for my appointment.’ ‘My brother worked hard for his election.’ ‘I had the promise of a cadetship at West Point, but as there was no vacancy that year, I got an appointment here.’ ‘I am an exchange. Senator ---- got an appointment for Mr. C.’s nephew, and Mr. C. nominated Senator ---- friend’s son for the place.’”--[Ed. of Amer. Journal of Education.]]

The same general principle, selection by merit, ascertained by the same general method, competitive examination, conducted on such conditions as Congress shall authorize or prescribe, has been recommended for appointments to the kindred national institution--the Military Academy at West Point--with the view of removing the same hindrances and remedying the same defects in the practical working of that school. That eminent military teacher and administrator, General Thayer, under whom the Academy, notwithstanding many hindrances and defects, attained its highest development, recommended the adoption of this principle at the outset of his administration, after having seen its successful operation in the military schools of France; and he has recently, after the lapse of nearly fifty years, all of them spent in actual experience or observation of the practical results of a different principle, renewed the recommendation in a communication to the Secretary of War. He has, within the present year, declared his belief that the adoption at the start, and the continuous recognition of this principle, the selection of candidates for admission on the ground of personal merit and aptitude for the special purposes of the institution, in appointments to the Military Academy, would have more than doubled its usefulness, would have avoided most of the difficulties of administration which it has encountered, would have prevented the popular prejudices which demagogues and disappointed parents and Congressmen have fostered, and would have gained for it a larger measure of the popular favor.

The Visitors of the Military Academy for 1863, in their Report to the Secretary of War, go into an extended discussion of the advantages and objections to this principle and mode of making appointments. To this document reference is made as embodying the convictions of this Board as to the probable working of the same principle in admissions to the Naval Academy.

III. In connection with a change in the mode of appointment, the Visitors would commend to the consideration of the Department a revision of the conditions as to the age, bodily vigor, and general knowledge of candidates. The old system of training naval officers, by placing boys at the early age of twelve or fourteen years on shipboard in the daily and constant practice of the routine of the ship, when accompanied with the parental oversight of the captain as to conduct, and with regular and progressive instruction in the science and art of his profession, on ship and shore, by the teacher of mathematics and navigation--has produced many capable commanders, out of the larger number who have been ruined for the want of proper supervision and instruction, or grown up into men of mere routine. Some of the brightest names in the records of our own and of the English naval service had no other education or training than this. But these are the exceptions, and their success was as much due to opportunity and original genius, as to their early and continuous ship experience. That system of training officers is, however, everywhere abandoned, and the present aim of every naval power in the world is to seek out young men having a fondness for sea-life, with a generous ambition for naval distinction, with an aptitude for the sciences which qualify and adorn the naval officer, with vigor of body to bear the inevitable exposures of the service, and with a large amount of general knowledge, and then subject them to a special course of professional study and practice in a naval school. For every stage of promotion, additional knowledge as well as professional experience, tested by successive rigid examinations, are required. The experience of this class of schools indicates that those original qualities and acquired qualifications deemed indispensable in candidates for the proper mastery of a thorough course of naval instruction, can not often be found in young men under eighteen years of age.

IV. With an advance in the average age, maturity of mind, and preparatory attainments of the cadets on admission, the Visitors believe a revision and readjustment of the subjects and course of instruction can be advantageously made, which in connection with the new schools of naval construction, and of marine engineering, would greatly extend the range, depth, and practical value of the education of the naval officer, without prolonging the time now devoted to its acquisition. If the Academy can be relieved of the large amount of merely elementary general education which every graduate of the common schools of the country ought to have received, and which in a few years every aspirant to the privileges of this school would contrive to get, if the law made its acquisition necessary as a preliminary to a competitive examination--then the whole general scientific course could be mastered in two years, with a large amount of military and naval tactics, as well as of practical seamanship in the two summer cruises. At this point the Visitors recommend to the consideration of the Department the establishment of the following departments, or schools, in each of which the course of instruction shall be far more comprehensive and thorough than is now practicable where the branches constitute parts of a single course:--

First.--Of Navigation and Seamanship.

Second.--Of Naval Ordnance and Practical Gunnery.

Third.--Of Hydrography, Marine Surveying, Astronomical Observations, Construction of Charts, &c.

Fourth.--Of Drawing, Naval Designs, Construction of Ships, Naval Machinery, Docks, &c.

Fifth.--Of Steam and Marine Engineering.

Sixth.--Of Naval History and Strategy, International Law--especially of belligerents and neutrals--and the Law of the Sea, Consular Duties, &c.

Seventh.--Of Modern Languages.

Into each of these schools let the cadets be drafted, the choice to be determined by their own predilection or comparative fitness, at the close of the second year, and after completing such number of these courses, not less than four, as may be prescribed, let them have the privilege of an examination.

Each of these departments or schools might be opened to a certain number of candidates, on competitive examination, from each State--no matter where they may have received their education--and permission might be given to officers of any rank to review and extend their knowledge of either of these departments with the more advanced text-books and means of instruction. By this arrangement the service will secure the highest development of any special aptitude, preparation, or experience--and will more frequently get “the right man in the right place.”

The importance of these great departments of the naval service, and of special preparation for them, is fully appreciated by the Academic Board, but any attempt to give this preparation to all the members of the present classes, with such unequal and deficient preparatory knowledge and with such diverse aptitudes for particular branches, would be futile. The attempt to teach as much as is now done, under the circumstances, only produces confused and unsatisfactory results with a large portion of the class. The remedy for this state of things seems to the Visitors to be in:--

1. More thorough preparation, higher average ability, and greater maturity of mind on the part of the cadets.

2. A thorough scientific course up to a certain point, for all the cadets, to occupy two years.

3. The requiring of linguistic training (in one or more modern languages,) only of those who show some aptitude or previous preparation for the same.

4. An option of two or three of the above courses, and a thorough proficiency in those selected before being permitted to pass as midshipman.

5. And finally continuation of study as well as of practice after graduation in the directions for which there is a demonstrated fitness and ability.

V. The Visitors deem it desirable to concentrate in and around the Naval Academy the largest amount and the highest quality of teaching ability, naval experience, and the apparatus and opportunities of practice of every kind connected with the naval service. But they would also commend to the consideration of the Department the encouragement of Naval Institutes, or temporary courses of instruction, at suitable seasons of the year, in some of the great departments of naval education specified in the foregoing classification--for the benefit of officers on furlough, or connected with the National Dockyards and Depositories, especially those in the neighborhood of large collegiate institutions, on the request of a certain number of such officers. Private naval architects and shipmasters might also be invited to attend these Institutes. Something of this kind should be provided, especially if continued study and examination is required by law and regulation at every stage of promotion in the naval service.

VI. The absence of elementary naval schools and of any regular instruction in navigation, the want of nationality and the low condition of the seaman-class generally, prevents any considerable demonstration or recognition of that nautical taste and aptitude for sea-life in the great mass of the population, which ought to be the basis of all special nautical training. To remedy this state of things, to develope and cultivate, where it exists, a desire for a maritime career, to provide at once a supply of intelligent, hardy, and well-trained seamen, mates, and masters, for the national as well as for the commercial marine, in time of peace as well as in the emergencies of a sudden Or a great war, the Visitors recommend the inauguration, under the auspices of the Naval Department, of a system of navigation schools and naval instruction, in addition to and in connection with our present system of naval apprenticeship, commensurate with the demands of the service, the country, and the age. As the basis of this system, they recommend the immediate offer of pecuniary aid to encourage the establishment of a class of navigation schools in all the large seaports of the country, subject to thorough national inspection in order to secure uniformity and efficiency. They do not deem it necessary to consider here the organization, management, and instruction of this class of schools, farther than to present the outline of a system.

1. The schools which they contemplate, are not to be government schools--although they will be aided and inspected by the Naval Department. Their original establishment, buildings, material, equipment, and immediate management will belong to the local Board of Trade or Commerce representing the shipping and commercial interests of the communities in which they are located. Through such Board, the State or municipal authorities, or individuals, can extend pecuniary aid for the original outfit or annual support.

2. The objects aimed at in the internal constitution of the schools and classes, will be thorough instruction in navigation, seamanship, and kindred branches through:--First--Evening classes for adults, (seamen, mates, or masters,) who can not attend regularly on account of absence from port or engagements by day, in which the instruction will necessarily be elementary and fragmentary; Second--A junior department or division, in which instruction in arithmetic, drawing, commercial geography, and statistics, will be given, as well as in navigation, the use of instruments, calculation of observations, keeping a log-book, journal, &c; Third--A senior department, in which a thorough course of mathematics, navigation, nautical astronomy, steam and steam navigation, &c., will be given, with facilities for acquiring one or more of the languages of the nations with which we have large commercial dealings.

3. The extension of any government aid should be based on the condition that suitable buildings and material equipment are furnished and kept in repair and working order by the local Board, or committee of the same, charged with the immediate management of the school; and such aid shall be subject to reduction and withdrawal for the succeeding year on the recommendation of the Department inspectors. For the first year the only condition should be the actual payment, from other sources, of an equal amount for the annual expense of the school, subject to the disposal of the local Board. For the second and subsequent years, the sum paid by the government shall be appropriated in portions; First--a specific sum to the principal teacher and assistants according to the grade of certificated qualification each may hold; Second--a specific sum to the managers of each school for the annual expense of the same, according the average daily or evening attendance of the whole number enrolled in each class or division for a specified period of time in each year; Third--a specific sum to the managers of each school according to the number of pupils who shall complete certain specified courses of study to the satisfaction of the inspectors upon examination by them; Fourth--a specified sum in prizes, in the form of chronometers, sextants, text-books in navigation, &c., to be competed for by all the pupils of each division of a school; Fifth--a specified sum in aid of such professional experience as can be secured for the younger members of the school, as is now given to naval apprentices. All payments by the government should be so made as to secure and reward the services of able and faithful teachers, the regular, punctual, and prolonged attendance of pupils to the completion of each course which they enter, and the liberal coöperation of the local municipal authorities and the commercial and shipping portions of the community in which the school is located. Without such coöperation the whole plan will fail. The school need not be free--but let the instruction be good, practical, and cheap, and its possessor be sure of a lucrative employment, and then there will be a demand for it.

And why should not the national government enter upon this or a better devised system of training its own seamen, and advancing its naval and commercial interests? All maritime nations, either directly and exclusively by the central government, or through local boards of trade and commerce, have aimed to protect the lives and property of citizens engaged in commerce and navigation, by providing not only for the erection of light houses, buoys, and other material safeguards, but also by an adequate supply of competent pilots and mariners, duly trained and commissioned. Our own government has recognized its duty in all these respects, and in the recent enormous expansion and peculiar risks of the steam-marine, has established a system of inspection which is intended to reach every engine used for the propulsion of every vessel of any class in all waters subject to national law. Surely the same policy which permits and justifies this interference of the national arm and the application of the national resources to build light-houses, erect buoys, register the names, tonnage, and ownership of vessels; which commissions pilots, inspects steam-boilers, surveys harbors, makes observations of the stars, the currents of the ocean and the prevalent directions of the winds in different seasons and latitudes; constructs and circulates maps and charts, and does all these things for the protection of commerce and for the use of the navy, will, in behalf of the same great interests, when satisfied that they are jeopardized by present neglect, see and be assured that the masters, mates, and seamen, who have all the precious lives and enormous properties embarked in commerce in their keeping, are properly trained in the science and art of navigation.

The liberal educational policy of the national government which has set apart over one hundred millions of acres of the national domain for educational purposes, which if the right of inspection into its application had been asserted and exercised, would have amounted ere this time to a permanent fund of over five hundred millions of dollars--and which has more recently appropriated over six hundred thousand acres of public land for the establishment of agricultural and scientific schools;--the similar policy of the State governments, that holds all property subject to taxation for the support of schools, and that authorizes the most munificent appropriations for free public schools in all of the large cities, which are also the great seaports of the country--all justify the belief that a system of education for this large class of the community, once fairly entered upon by the national government, will be cheerfully and liberally responded to and sustained.

In England the same necessity which exists in this country--the reluctance of young people in good circumstances, to enter the maritime service--the low state of the professional as well as general education of her seaman-class--the enormous amount of property and the large number of lives directly interested in commerce and navigation--the reliance for properly manning the national vessels in the sudden emergency of war, on the commercial marine--the representative character which mariners bear, of the religion, manners, and civilization generally of the country, to all nations which they visit--the desire for the elevation of this large class of the population in intelligence, morality, and physical well-being, for its own sake as well as for the happiness, safety, and glory of the whole country--has prompted the government to organize a system of nautical education, not only for officers, gunners, architects, shipwrights, engineers, seamen, and boys employed directly in the national service, but for the masters, mates, sailors, and boys in her large commercial marine. Prior to 1853, the whole reliance of that country for the professional education of masters and mates was their registration after an examination in the mere mechanical knowledge of navigation and seamanship. To obtain this knowledge, reliance was placed on the economic law of supply and demand, and in this case as in others of an intellectual and moral nature, the least demand was made by those in the greatest want. Only here and there, in the great seaport towns, individuals poorly qualified in most instances, opened schools and classes of navigation, in which instruction of the most elementary and mechanical character was given without system, to a very small number, and without supervision or responsibility. In 1853, after the great International Exhibition had demonstrated the superiority of France and other continental nations, in the scientific as well as artistic training of their industrial classes, the English Government constituted a Department of Art and Science to administer a large appropriation (amounting annually to nearly a half-million of dollars) so as to extend encouragement to local institutions of practical science scattered in all the principal centers of population, and acting in every department of industry, all subject to the visits of government inspectors. To this Department of Science and Art was assigned the extension of pecuniary encouragement to, and the inspection of a class of schools which had been instituted by the Mercantile Marine Department of the (governmental) Board of Trade, in connection with local boards of commerce and trade, for the benefit of the navigation interests of the country. These schools in 1863 had increased to eighteen--each in an important seaport--each under the management of a local committee--each having a fair attendance of boys, seamen, mates, and masters, who all paid small fees. The system is still in its infancy, but continues to enjoy the confidence of the government and of the large commercial houses.

Nor is this system of governmental aid and inspection of marine and navigation schools, confined to England. In all the continental states in which the commerce is large enough to require the aid of government in any form for its protection, as well as for the indirect advantage of the navy, this class of schools exists--and in some the national policy in this respect is most comprehensive and thorough. In France, the government in its gigantic efforts within the last twenty-five years to establish a navy which in the number, design, construction, and armament of its vessels, in the scientific and professional knowledge of the officers, and the practical intelligence of her seaman, should be equal to that of any other nation--has included the whole commercial marine in its operations. Encouragement is given to private shipyards, architects, and founderies; and the system of maritime “inscription” or enrollment is so thorough that there is not a master nor an engineer in the commercial service who has not served at least two years in the national dockyards, founderies, or ships, and enjoyed opportunities of professional study, as well as practice, of the most scientific character.

VII. To give unity, stability, thoroughness, and general efficiency to the inspection and operations of the large system of naval education contemplated in the foregoing suggestions, the Visitors recommend the appointment of a Council or Board of Naval Education, in the constitution of which the great features of such a system should be represented, viz.:--(1.) Experience and success in naval command. (2.) Experience in large commercial and maritime affairs. (3.) Success in naval construction. (4.) Success in the instruction and discipline of educational institutions. (5.) A new infusion every year of the popular element, by the appointment from year to year of one or more public-spirited citizens from different sections of the country to attend the local examinations of applicants for admission, and the annual examinations of the several institutions.

To this Board should be assigned the duty of (1.) Frequent personal inspection and examination at other than stated periods. (2.) The thorough examination by themselves, and in connection with the professors, of the several classes in their daily recitations. (3.) The examination by themselves, or by competent experts, of all candidates for admission, of which as far as practicable, the written answers of the candidates should be preserved, and a written report in detail should be filed away for reference.

The language used in the law under which the present Board of Visitors are appointed--“for the purpose of witnessing the examination of the several classes”--if taken literally, would certainly justify the practice adopted by this, and as far as they can learn, by previous Boards. At all events, the constitution of this and previous Boards, composed as it is of members a majority of whom have had no experience in school examinations--who have had no acquaintance with this institution before their present appointment--and who are together for but a short period of time, is very inadequate for any purpose of thorough personal examination. They must be satisfied in the main to receive statements on trust, and to receive and communicate only general impressions. All the duties devolving upon the Board of Visitors as at present organized, could be far more efficiently and successfully performed in connection with the other duties of the Council of Naval Education, here suggested.

VIII. With a programme of studies so extensive as that now laid down or as herein proposed, in which each study is, or should be arranged with reference to what has gone before, as well as to what is to follow, the professor of each department and the teacher of each branch and section, should be kept closely to his portion, each cadet should master thoroughly every step in the succession, no professor should encroach upon the time of another, no teacher should be allowed to pass his pupils indifferently prepared into the succeeding section or branch. Even if no change be made in the present programme this course is essential to the success of the school, and to secure this an Inspector of Studies should be appointed, who should report frequently to the Academic Board all and every infraction of the programme, so that it may be ascertained whether the cause of failure be in the programme, or the class, or the teacher; and the remedy at once applied. Both the special and general duties of the Commandant preclude the constant and minute inspection referred to, and to the professor of no one department can these duties be properly assigned. While there is a superior executive officer who has in charge the external administration of the affairs of the Academy, there is no corresponding officer, as in the opinion of the Visitors there should be, to preside over the vital matters of instruction and training.

IX. The appointment of professors and assistants is a subject from its importance at all times, and from its immediate bearing upon the welfare of the school, deserving of mature consideration. The efficiency and thoroughness of instruction, the spirit of diligent study and the enthusiastic love of it among the midshipmen, depend to a great degree, upon the fitness of the instructor for his post and the method and manner of teaching which he employs. Though there may be some reason for limiting their appointment to the graduates of the Academy, yet the present course of instruction has by no means in view the training of future teachers, nor has it yet reached its full development. The success and advancement of the institution would seem to require the employment of the best educational talent, and none other, to be obtained wherever it can be found. Whenever any vacancy is to be filled, or new appointments to be made, the Visitors recommend that due notice of the same be given, and that the credentials of all applicants be referred to a competent board, and the applicants themselves whose credentials are satisfactory, be subjected to an open, competitive examination.

X. In conclusion, the Visitors recommend that greater publicity be given to all the documents which set forth the object and operations of the Naval Academy, the mode and conditions of nominating midshipmen, the name of the person responsible for a nomination, the requisitions and results of each entrance as well as of all annual examinations, with specimens of the questions asked and answers given, so far as the same were written or printed. They would respectfully urge that the Official Register of the Academy, with the above and other information deemed necessary by the Department, be sent not only to every member of Congress, but to the libraries of all principal High Schools, public and private, and all institutions where candidates are prepared, that both teachers and pupils may know what the Department requires as preliminary to the special professional training provided in this Academy for any branch of the naval service of the country, and especially how deplorably deficient a large proportion of the candidates are found to be, on only a moderately strict but impartial examination. To this Register might be appended the official report of the Bureau charged with its supervision, or of any Board of Visitors, or Special Examiners, appointed by the Department.

With the best permanent accommodations and equipment of the Academy that can be made at Annapolis or elsewhere--with schools or courses of scientific and practical instruction for every branch of the service, and for every stage of promotion--with a teaching staff so numerous and so diversified as to secure the advantage of special attainment and qualifications to each branch of study--with entire control of the pupil’s time--with hospital accommodations and medical services for the sick--with chaplains for religious observances and the moral culture of all--with regular alternations of physical exercise and intellectual labor, and the stimulus of an honorable distinction before and after graduation--the Visitors think it not unreasonable to expect from an institution so provided for, the highest results, especially as the government has it in its power to select for admission, without regard to the social or political status of parents, from among the entire youth of the country, those who are best fitted by their physical and mental endowment and preliminary education, as well as by their aptitude for special studies and predilection for the naval service, for which those studies are a preparation.

All which is respectfully submitted.

JOHN MARSTON, Commodore U.S. Navy, President. JAMES A. HAMILTON, New York. JOHN RODGERS, Commodore U.S. Navy. CHARLES D. ROBINSON, Wisconsin. G. D. A. PARKS, Illinois. C. W. PICKERING, Capt. U.S. Navy. JOHN W. HARRIS, Missouri. HENRY BARNARD, Connecticut.

The aggregate expense of the Military Academy at West Point, and the Naval Academy at Annapolis, to the country, is not represented by the specific sums which appear in the annual appropriation for the military and naval service, but is increased by the large sums paid to officers and men who are detailed to these posts for police, instructional, and other purposes of these institutions. The cost to the government of each cadet from his admission to his graduation in either Academy, exceeds $10,000.

NAVAL CONSTRUCTION AND ENGINEERING.

Under authority of an Act of Congress (July 4, 1864), the Secretary of the Navy, in 1865, made provision at Annapolis for a course of instruction for a class of Assistant-Engineers, composed of persons admitted on competitive examination, many of whom had secured a preliminary scientific training, and all of whom gave evidence of aptitude for such occupation and of having had experience in the fabrication of steam machinery. There was every indication of a special school for this department of the naval service, when the enterprise was suspended; but to be revived under the following Regulations, issued by Secretary Robeson, April 4, 1871:

REGULATIONS FOR THE APPOINTMENT OF CADET ENGINEERS.

I. In pursuance of the third and fourth sections of an act passed at the first session of the 38th Congress, approved July 4, 1864, “To authorize the Secretary of the Navy to provide for the education of Naval Constructors and Engineers, and for other purposes,” and of the second section of an act passed at the first session of the 39th Congress, approved March 2, 1867, entitled, “An Act to amend certain acts in relation to the Navy,” applications will be received by the Navy Department for the appointment of Cadet Engineers.

II. The application is to be addressed to the Secretary of the Navy, and can be made by the candidate, or by any person for him, and his name will be placed on the register. The registry of a name gives no assurance of an appointment, and no preference will be given in the selection to priority of application.

III. The number of Cadet Engineers is limited by law to fifty. The candidate must be not less than eighteen nor more than twenty-two years of age; he will be required to certify on honor to his precise age, to the Academic Board, previous to his examination, and no one will be examined who is over or under the prescribed age. His application must be accompanied by satisfactory evidence of moral character and health, with information regarding date of birth and educational advantages hitherto enjoyed. Candidates who receive permission will present themselves to the Superintendent of the Naval Academy between the 15th and 25th of September for examination as to their qualifications.

IV. The course of study will comprise two academic years. All Cadets who graduate will be warranted as Assistant Engineers in the Navy. The pay of a Cadet Engineer is the same as that of a Cadet Midshipman.

V. The academic examination previous to appointment will be on the following subjects, namely: Arithmetic: the candidate will be examined in numeration and the addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division of whole numbers, and of vulgar and decimal fractions; in reduction; in proportion or rule of three, direct and inverse; extraction of square and cube roots. In Algebra, (Bourdon’s,) through equations of the first degree. In Geometry, (Davies’ Legendre,) through the plane figures. Rudimentary Natural Philosophy. Reading: he must read clearly and intelligibly from any English narrative work, as, for example, Bancroft’s History of the United States. In Writing and Spelling: he must write from dictation, in a legible hand, and spell with correctness, both orally and in writing. In English Grammar and English Composition he will be examined as to the parts of speech, the rules connected therewith, and the elementary construction of sentences, and will be required to write such original paragraphs as will show that he has a proper knowledge of the subject. The candidate will also be required to exhibit a fair degree of proficiency in pencil-sketching, and to produce satisfactory evidence of mechanical aptitude. Candidates who possess greatest skill and experience in the practical knowledge of machinery, other qualifications being equal, shall have precedence for admission.

VI. Any of the following conditions will be sufficient to reject a candidate.

Feeble constitution, permanently impaired general health, decided cachexia, all chronic diseases or injuries that permanently impair efficiency, viz:

1. Infectious disorders.

2. Weak or disordered intellect.

3. Unnatural curvature of spine.

4. Epilepsy, or other convulsion, within five years.

5. Chronic impaired vision, or chronic disease of the organs of vision.

6. Great permanent hardness of hearing, or chronic disease of the ears.

7. Loss or decay of teeth to such an extent as to interfere with digestion and impair health.

8. Impediment of speech to such an extent as to impair efficiency in the performance of duty.

9. Decided indications of liability to pulmonary disease.

10. Permanent inefficiency of either of the extremities.

11. Hernia.

12. Incurable sarcocele, hydrocele, fistula, stricture, or hæmorrhoids.

13. Large varicose veins of lower limbs. Chronic ulcers.

14. Attention will also be paid to the stature of the candidate, and no one manifestly undersized for his age will be received into the Academy. In case of doubt about the physical condition of the candidate any marked deviation from the usual standard of height will add materially to the consideration for rejection.

15. The Board will exercise a proper discretion in the application of the above conditions to each case, rejecting no candidate who is likely to be efficient in the service, and admitting no one who is likely to prove physically inefficient.

VII. If both these examinations result favorably, the candidate will receive an appointment as a Cadet Engineer, become an inmate of the Academy, and will be allowed his actual and necessary traveling expenses from his residence to the Naval Academy, and be required to sign articles by which he will bind himself to serve in the United States Navy six years, (including his term of probation at the Naval Academy,) unless sooner discharged. If, on the contrary, he shall not pass both of these examinations, he will receive neither an appointment nor his traveling expenses, nor can he have the privilege of another examination for admission to the same class unless recommended by the Board.

VIII. When candidates shall have passed the required examinations, and been admitted as members of the Academy, they must immediately furnish themselves with the following articles, viz:

One navy-blue uniform suit, One fatigue suit, One navy-blue uniform cap, One uniform overcoat, Ten pairs of white pants, Four white vests, Six white shirts, Six pairs of socks, Four pairs of drawers, Six pocket handkerchiefs, One black silk handk’f or stock, One mattress, One pillow, One pair of blankets, One bed cover or spread, Two pairs of sheets, Four pillow cases, Six towels, Two pairs of shoes or boots, One hair-brush, One clothes-brush, One coarse comb for the hair, One fine comb for the hair, One tumbler or mug, and One thread and needle case.

Room-mates will jointly procure, for their common use, one looking-glass, one wash-basin, one water-pail, one slop-bucket, and one broom. These articles may be obtained from the store-keeper of good quality and at fair prices.

IX. Each Cadet Engineer must, on admission, deposit with the paymaster the sum of seventy-five dollars, for which he will be credited on the books of that officer, to be expended by direction of the Superintendent for the purchase of text-books and other authorized articles besides those above enumerated.

X. While at the Academy the Cadets will be examined, from time to time, according to the regulations prescribed by the Navy Department; and if found deficient at any examination, or dismissed for misconduct, they cannot, by law, be continued in the Academy or Naval service, except upon recommendation of the Academic Board.

XI. A Cadet Engineer who voluntarily resigns his appointment will be required to refund the amount paid him for traveling expenses.

INSTRUCTION, TRAINING AND PROMOTION OF SEAMEN.

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