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Chapter 2

This webpage reproduces a chapter of
United States Naval Academy

by
John Crane and James F. Kieley

McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc.
New York, 1945

The text is in the public domain.

This page has been carefully proofread
and I believe it to be free of errors.
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Chapter 4
This site is not affiliated with the US Naval Academy.

 p28  Battle Stations

It was a pleasant Sunday afternoon in Annapolis. Around the grounds of the Naval Academy midshipmen were strolling with their guests and showing the sights to sweethearts, mothers, dads, and little brothers, as midshipmen had done for nearly a hundred years.

Suddenly a spasm seemed to grip the place. Armed guards appeared, quickly spread out in all directions over the grounds, briskly rounded up all the visitors and showed them through the Academy gates. In one of the buildings where a dance given by the first class was in progress, the music died as couples on the floor separated and the ladies were hustled out of the place.

The entire Academy had been alerted within a matter of minutes. New security orders went out, increasing the guard at the gates and around the grounds. Midshipmen were armed and placed on sentry duty. Patrol boats were went out to keep watch in Chesapeake Bay.

The date was, of course, Dec. 7, 1941. The sudden change of pace in the life of the Naval Academy meant that the United States was once more at war. News of the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor fell with heavy impact at Annapolis, because it was an attack chiefly upon the United States fleet.

The reaction it produced was an old story at the Naval Academy;  p29 for in the century since its establishment in 1845 the Academy has participated in five wars — an average of one every 20 years of its existence. In all of them its midshipmen, its faculty, and its graduates have taken active part — whether their duties were afloat or ashore, with the fleet in battle or at the Academy laboring under intensified schedules to meet wartime demands for new officers.

The nation was faced with the possibility of going to war against two enemies at the same time in 1845. Hostilities with England were averted, but war with Mexico materialized some six months after the establishment of the Naval School at Annapolis. From the superintendent down, the entire personnel of the institution clamored to be sent immediately into combat service. Superintendent Buchanan was the first to be disappointed; for Secretary Bancroft decided that his services were most needed in giving the new school its proper start.

The Secretary, at that time, established the precedent, which has been followed to the present day, of graduating the first class early for war service rather than sending midshipmen out to be returned later to complete their schooling. Those left behind were bitterly disappointed, but their graft was tempered by engaging reports of the deeds of their former schoolmates which came back to the school as the war progressed.

These reports told of the heroism of Midshipman T. B. Shubrick who had been killed at his post with the naval battery that blasted the walls of Vera Cruz. They told how Midshipman Young, who was no horseman, started out on a charger to deliver a message to a dragoon commander. Just as he arrived, a charge was sounded on the bugle. The horse immediately responded to the familiar notes and carried the bewildered midshipman into a position where he gallantly thundered on ahead of the amazed army officers who were supposed to be leading the charge.

Two men from the naval school lost their lives when the ill‑fated  p30 brig Somers went down in a squall off Vera Cruz. Midshipmen at the Academy erected a monument to them with an inscription which stated:

"To Passed Midshipmen Henry A. Clemson and John R. Hynson, lost with the U. S. Birg Somers off Vera Cruz, December 8, 1846. This monument is erected by the Passed and other Midshipmen of the United States Navy as a token of respect."

The monument also honored Midshipmen Shubrick and J. W. Pillsbury also killed near Vera Cruz.

Commander Buchanan renewed his own request for combat duty, and it was finally granted. He was given command of the U. S. S. Germantown and left the school on Mar. 16, 1847, ending his administration of 17 months as the first superintendent. Although getting into the fighting at a late stage of the war, Buchanan took part in several engagements and was present at the fall of Vera Cruz.

By far the most severe test of its entire history came to the Naval Academy with the approach of the Civil War. The growing dissension between the North and South was reflected in the ranks of the midshipmen for months before the actual outbreak of hostilities. The strategic position of the Academy was in itself the cause of gravest concern for the safety of the institution and its personnel.

Anxiety and emotional strain weighed heavily on the midshipmen; especially upon those from the Southern states who found themselves called upon to decide between remaining loyal to the Union whose uniform they wore or transferring their allegiance to the Confederacy. Letters from the families of these boys were demanding that they resign their appointments and return home at once. Officials of the academy begged them to remain loyal to the Union and the Navy. Their mixed feelings were further confused by the affection they felt for their school, their classmates, their teachers, and the service they had chosen as a career.

 p31  The spring of 1861 found tension mounting to an alarming degree at Annapolis. Midshipmen from the South were resigning in increasing numbers. Those from Alabama had left in a body in January. Captain George S. Blake, superintendent of the Academy, received word that an attack on the institution was likely because of the growing sentiment in the neighborhood in favor of secession of Maryland from the Union. Blake hastened to advise the Navy Department in Washington that, because of the defenseless position of the Academy, arrangements should be made for the quick escape of its midshipmen and officers to Philadelphia on board the U. S. S. Constitution. Fear was also felt for the safety of the Constitution herself. Reports had been circled that Southern sympathizers intended to capture the gallant old vessel, which was moored off the Academy as a school ship, and to make her the first to carry their colors to sea. To guard against this the guns of the ship were double-shotted, and all preparations were made to defend her.

Meanwhile, the Academy was fast becoming an actual scene of war operations. A week after the opening shots of the war had been fired upon Fort Sumter, the Sixth Massachusetts Regiment was attacked by a mob in Baltimore. This convinced General Benjamin F. Butler, who was with the Eighth Massachusetts Regiment at Philadelphia, that it would be unwise to attempt to go through the Maryland city in moving his troops to Washington. He decided to make the journey by rail and water via Annapolis. Leaving the train at Perryville, the Union soldiers seized the ferryboat Maryland and set out on board her for Annapolis.

The rumors of an attack upon the Constitution and possibly upon the Academy itself had persisted to such an extent at Annapolis that the schooner Rainbow was sent out to keep watch for the approach of enemy vessels. She intercepted the Maryland as the ferry was heading for Annapolis and was nearly fired upon by the Union troops in the few exciting moments it took those  p32 in both vessels to find out that they were friends. Then the Maryland herself came close to receiving a broadside from Constitution as she approached the Academy, but her identity was established in time to stay the matches that were held over the great guns of Old Ironsides.

As Butler's troops poured ashore and set up camp on the grounds of the Academy, routine of the school was completely disorganized. Conditions became more crowded with the immediate arrival of the New York Seventh Regiment aboard another steamer, and the midshipmen of the first class gave up their rooms to the Army officers. Then more troops began to arrive, and Superintendent Blake strongly advised the Navy Department that the area be immediately evacuated by the Academy.

Before the departure, the first group of ten midshipmen of the first class was detached from the Academy and ordered into active service in the war. On Apr. 24 the midshipmen remaining loyal to the Union were transferred on board the Constitution to await the decision from Washington on Captain Blake's recommendation.

The order to midshipmen to board the Constitution confronted the Southerners still at the Academy with the necessity of making their final decision at once. Their minds were made up at last as they stood in formation for the last time to hear the strains of the "Star-spangled Banner" played by the band. When the music was over, a final plea for loyalty to the Union was made by Lieutenant Christopher R. P. Rodgers, commandant of midshipmen, who later became a rear admiral and superintendent of the Academy. When he had finished, he told those who wished to fall out of ranks that they might do so. A number stepped out, said good‑by to their classmates, and departed for their homes. Firm friendships made at the Academy were interrupted that day, but many of them were renewed when peace was restored.

Having no further use for the steamer Maryland, General Butler  p33 offered the vessel to Captain Blake to tow the Constitution away from the wharf. In order to lighten the warship for this operation, her upper-deck guns were transferred to the Maryland. The steamer, however, went aground before she could get the Constitution into deep water. Finally, another vessel that had come on the scene hauled the sailing ship clear of the mud. Her guns were then replaced and she stood ready to cover the leading of additional troops and stores at Annapolis.

The Constitution set sail on Apr. 25 for New York where she arrived four days later. From there she continued to Newport, arriving on May 9. Meanwhile, the steamer Baltic was loaded at Annapolis with all of the books, models, equipment, and gear from the Naval Academy that could be moved. She then took on board the officers, the professors, and their families. She arrived at Newport a few hours after the Constitution.

As it had provided Fort Severn at Annapolis as the permanent home of the Naval Academy 16 years before, the War Department now made Fort Adams at Newport available as a temporary location for the school. While welcome in the emergency, the accommodates at the fort were neither adequate nor suitable. In October the Navy Department leased the Atlantic House, a summer hotel at Newport, which was occupied by the Academy until its return to Annapolis in 1865. The Constitution was again moored offshore as a school ship, and the fourth class was berthed on board her. During this period the U. S. S. Santee also joined the Academy as a school ship.

Shortly after transfer of the Academy to Newport the remainder of the first class, and the second and third classes were detached and sent into war service. These vacancies at the Academy were immediately filled by an exceptionally large entering class of 200 in the summer of 1861.

The summer cruises for midshipmen were continued during the Civil War and proved exciting; for there was always the possibility  p34 of an encounter with the enemy. The sloops of war John Adams and Marion were used for this purpose in the summer of 1862. The following year the sloops of war Marion and Macedonian and the yacht America, which had been captured from the Confederates, were used. In the summer of 1864 the Macedonian, the Marion, the America, and the gunboat Marblehead cruised as a squadron, taking the midshipmen along the north coast.

The Civil War caused only a few separations among the faculty of the Naval Academy. Lieutenant William H. Parker, who resigned his commission when Virginia seceded from the Union, organized the Naval Academy of the Confederate States. Among officers of the Navy who left the service to fight with the South, however, was the Academy's first superintendent, Franklin Buchanan. On Apr. 22, 1861, Buchanan, in the belief that his native state, Maryland, would secede, resigned his commission. He was then a captain and in command of the Washington Navy Yard. Later he attempted to withdraw his resignation, but on May 14 he was dismissed from the service. Buchanan then accepted a commission as captain in the Confederate States Navy and became an admiral and the ranking naval officer in the South. He saw considerable action in the war and was in command of the squadron that opposed Farragut in the Battle of Mobile Bay.

The class of 1898 at the Naval Academy was quickly graduated with little ceremony when its members were called into service with the fleet at the outbreak of the Spanish War. The second class was permitted to follow a little later. In time 46 members of the third class and 29 of the fourth class also went into war service.

Naval Academy graduates served with distinction during the Spanish War. Official recognition was given Naval Cadet Joseph W. Powell of the Class of 1897 for picking up survivors of the sunken collier Merrimac in Santiago harbor under fire. The men  p35 who scuttled the Merrimac were under the command of another Naval Academy graduate, Richmond Pearson Hobson. Ensign Worth Bagley, a graduate of the Academy, was one of the 16 men killed in this war. Later, in the Philippine trouble, Naval Cadet Welborn C. Wood of the Class of 1899 earned distinction when he died bravely at his station as commanding officer of the gunboat Urdaneta Wood was wounded in a sudden attack on his ship but continued to direct the defense of the vessel until his last breath.

Midshipmen at the Academy who had been denied the privilege of joining the fleet during the Spanish War were somewhat compensated in the satisfaction of seeing some of the enemy brought in as prisoners. Officers of the Spanish Navy who had been captured were quartered at the academy for about two months.

Two entire Naval Academy classes were graduated within three months as the Navy went into action in the First World War. The Class of 1917 was graduated in March, and the Class of 1918 in June of 1917. The regular course was reduced to three years and the Naval Academy also undertook the training of reserve ensigns to meet the pressing need for young officers of the fleet.

The Academy's graduates and reserve officers trained at Annapolis commanded and served in the naval vessels that convoyed our troops to France and in the ships that patrolled the waters of the Atlantic in constant search of enemy submarines and surface raiders. In the higher places of command in that war were such distinguished Naval Academy graduates as Admirals William S. Sims, Hugh Rodman, Henry B. Wilson, and Mark Bristol.

As the Naval Academy once again heard the call to general quarters on that quiet Sunday afternoon of Dec. 7, 1941, her sons were already at their battle stations at every naval activity. At Pearl Harbor some of them gave their lives in the first minutes of what was to become the greatest naval war in the history of the world.

 p36  Then, as the Navy quickly translated its war plans into action, the Academy saw her older graduates in command of operations that were ultimately to hurl the might of the world's greatest fleet against the enemy. For this she counted heavily on such former midshipmen as Ernest J. King, Chester W. Nimitz, William F. Halsey, and many others whose names soon became known around the world.

The Naval Academy's part in the war is to go about its business of supplying new young blood to the commissioned ranks of the Navy as it has been doing for a full century. In the first three and one half years of the war the Naval Academy supplied 6,123 ensigns to the fleet and second lieutenants to the Marine Corps. Of these, 2,812 were graduates of the Academy and 3,311 were graduates of the Naval Reserve Midshipmen's School at Annapolis.

Page updated: 19 Mar 13