October 10, 1845: The U.S. Naval Academy At Annapolis Opens.

You are there: More than five decades after the United States is founded, an academy to train naval officers starts up at Annapolis, Maryland.

The need for such a school is first suggested in April 1777 by Captain John Paul Jones, naval hero of the Revolutionary War. It gains some momentum when President John Adams creates a Secretary of the Navy cabinet post just prior to the Quasi-War with France. But it fades during Jefferson’s tenure, despite the 1802 arrival of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

Then comes the War of 1812 with its pivotal naval victories:

• 1812. The USS Constitution’s defeat of HMS Guerriere south of Nova Scotia;
• 1813. Oliver Hazzard Perry’s win over the British squadron at the Battle of Lake Erie,
  followed by his famous signal: “We have met the enemy and he is ours.”
• 1814. The Battle of Lake Champlain ending British attempts to invade upstate New York.

Still the conventional wisdom that “the deck of a ship at sea is the best place to train naval officers” remains dominant until 1839 when the transition from sail power to steam power gets under way. Mastering the mechanical know-how to operate and sustain steam engines brings the need for classroom study back into the debate.

The deplorable state of the U.S. Navy in 1845 also adds to the momentum. Living conditions aboard ships are miserable with autocratic captains and rebelling crews. The call for change is amplified that year when Midshipman Philip Spencer, nephew of the Secretary of War, is hanged for mutiny. Delaware Senator Bayard offers a bill to create a Naval School, but Congress adjourns without acting on it.

Finally support comes from Secretary of War William Marcy, whose son is on active duty in the navy, and from President Polk. But to finally move ahead, Secretary of the Navy George Bancroft uses clever financial maneuvers to eliminate the need for new appropriations, and also gains agreement, free of charge, to assume control over the Army’s Ft. Severn at Annapolis, Maryland, adjacent to the western edge of Chesapeake Bay. Remodeling work is completed and the Naval School (or “Naval Academy,” as of 1850) opens its doors on October 10, 1845.

The first Superintendent is Commander Franklin Buchanan, a 30 year naval veteran, who turns out to be the ideal leader over the academy’s two start-up years. He recruits seven professors and an initial class of 56 midshipmen who complete a five year program. They spend their first year as “plebes” in the classroom; followed by three at sea; and then a final year back on campus, graduating as Midshipmen first class.

The school’s motto is Ex Scientia Tridens, “Through Knowledge, Sea Power.” The original curriculum includes physics, the use of steam, mechanics, electricity, navigation, nautical astronomy, ordnance, geography, gunnery, French and Spanish. Classrooms run from 8:00am to 4:30pm, followed by recreation and dinner and study from 6:30pm to lights out at 10:00pm.

Buchanan demands gentlemanly ethics and behavior from his men at all times, and even initiates an annual Grand Naval Ball and various theatrical events to test their social fitness.

The U.S. Navy plays a crucial role throughout the Civil War, most notably in executing the “Anaconda Plan” to blockade Confederate ports and strangle their access to imported food, supplies and armaments. The leader here is Rear Admiral David Farragut long remembered for his quote at the victorious Battle of Mobile Bay: “Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead.”

A total of almost 500 graduates of Annapolis serve in the Civil War: 400 on the Union side and 95 for the Confederates, with 23 killed in action.

Ironically the head of the CSA Navy is Admiral Franklin Buchanan, first Superintendent of Annapolis, who heads south in anticipation that his home state of Maryland will secede.

Buchanan is flag officer on the ironclad CSS Virginia and is wounded at the Battle of Hampton Roads. He suffers a second wound in 1864 at Mobile Bay before being captured there and imprisoned until the war ends.