The Confederate States Naval Academy was an undergraduate academy in Richmond, Virginia, of the Confederate States of America that educated and commissioned officers of the Confederate States Navy. The CS Naval Academy was established by an act of the Confederate States Congress on April 21, 1862, and graduated a number of midshipmen before being disbanded on May 2, 1865, in Abbeville, South Carolina, subsequent to the fall of the Confederate States.
Mission Shortly after the establishment of the Confederate States of America in 1861, the separatist state became involved in a large war with the United States of America, and the Confederate Secretary of the Navy Stephen Mallory had the responsibility to quickly build the Confederate States Navy, starting with almost no ships or resources. Among his primary goals was the establishment of an academy. Confederate States officials saw no need for a Naval Academy early in the war, due to the number of southern military schools, and so midshipmen in the early Confederate Navy were trained by the traditional system of assigning them directly to ships and batteries.Conrad, p.ix
President Jefferson Davis, a graduate of the United States Military Academy, quickly recognized the need for a long term plan to form both army and navy academies for the nation, and gave his vision that "to secure a thorough military education ... it is essential that officers should enter upon the study of their profession at an early period of life and have elementary instruction in a military school."Conrad, p.4
Facilities
The naval college was housed on board the CSS Patrick Henry, a seagoing sidewheel steamer with a walking-beam engine and brigantine rigged,Morgan, p.204 armed with ten guns, and a veteran of the Battle of Hampton Roads. Anchored seven miles south of Richmond, Virginia at Drewry's Bluff, near the Confederate States Marine Corps Camp Beall, "she had now become the most realistic war college that ever existed."Morgan, p.204 Located there, Patrick Henry served the additional purpose of potentially being sunk as an obstruction in the James River channel. The CSS Patrick Henry could only accommodate 52 midshipmen, 20 officers, professors and crew, which limited and helped dictate the size of the naval college.
The ship also functioned as a receiving ship for receiving other steamers under flags of truce, taking captured United States POWs to Harrison's Landing for exchange. Steamers under flags of truce would stop at the Patrick Henry to get their permit to continue downriver, and then return and discharge liberated former Confederate States prisoners.Morgan, p.206
The Patrick Henry was specially modified to serve as the school ship in May 1862 when she was sent to the Rockets Navy Yard in Richmond. All but four of her guns had been mounted at the naval battery at Drewry's Bluff on the James River. The four remaining guns were used for gunnery drills and training of the midshipmen, and served to assist, when necessary, in the defense of that river location. Two class rooms made of pine boards were mounted amidships on the gun deck between the paddlewheel boxes, and an oversized fully rigged mast was placed forward for sail handling and training. Finally a small launch armed with a twelve-pound howitzer was kept on davits for training.Conrad, p.8
Toward the end of the war the demand for midshipmen to assist with shoreside combat duty greatly increased, requiring the students to be housed in huts built inside the Drewry's Bluff batteries.Scharf, p.776
Supervision of the Academy
The superintendent, LT Parker, had been an instructor of seamanship at the U.S. Naval Academy, and was assisted by six CS Navy lieutenants and three CS Navy masters along with several civilian professors. The faculty worked on the hurricane deck between the paddlewheel boxes in two small recitation rooms.Morgan, p.206 While serving as the superintendent Parker wrote the textbook Elements of Seamanship for the school.Conrad, p.12
Faculty and staff The following academic faculty served at CSNA:Scharf, p.774, Conrad, pp.12-14
Military Faculty Lieutenant Wiburn B. Hall, CSN - Commandant of Midshipman and Executive Officer of the CSS Patrick Henry Lieutenant Oscar F. Johnston, CSN - Commandant of Midshipman and Professor of Astronomy, Navigation and Surveying Lieutenant Benjamin P. Loyall, CSN - Commandant of Midshipman and Professor of Astronomy, Navigation and Surveying Lieutenant James H. Rochelle, CSN - Commandant of Midshipman and Executive Officer of the CSS Patrick Henry Lieutenant Thomas W. W. Davies, CSN - Assistant Professor of Astronomy, Navigation and Surveying Lieutenant Charles Iverson Graves, CSN - Instructor of Seamanship Lieutenant James W. Billups, CSN - Assistant Instructor of Seamanship Lieutenant William Van Comstock, CSN - Instructor of Gunnery Lieutenant John P. McGuire, CSN - Assistant Professor of Mathematics Master George M. Peek, CSN - Professor of Mathematics Master George W. Armistead, CSN - Professor of Physics Master George A. Pepley, CSN - Professor of French and German
Civilian Faculty Gustave Adolphus "Gus" Peple - Professor of French and Spanish William B. Cox - Instructor of Drawing and Painting Mr. Sanxey - Instructor of Infantry Tactics Louis N. Huck - Professor of English Literature Unknown - Sword Master
School ship crew Assistant Surgeon W. J. Addison Assistant Surgeon James G. Bixley Paymaster William H. Ladd Assistant Paymaster John F. Wheless First Assistant Engineer - Elias G. Hall Boatswain - Andrew Blakie Gunner - E. R. Johnson Gunner - William F. Brittingham Sailmaker - William Bennett
The original staff appointed to the school remained fairly intact, with the change that in the summer of 1864 a new Commandant of Midshipman was appointed: Lieutenant O. F. Johnston, and then he was followed by Commander James Henry Rochelle who was appointed both Commandant of Midshipman and Executive Officer.Scharf, p.774
Student Activities
Uniforms
The midshipman uniforms followed the CS Navy uniform regulations issued after 1862, requiring the uniform to be steel grey in color, lined with dark black silk serge. The jackets were coarse gray cloth material,Morgan, p.205 and made of wool. The sleeves of midshipmen, like all officers, had three sleeve buttons mounted vertically. In lieu of stripe, midshipman had three small buttons with fouled anchors, and passed midshipmen had three large buttons with fouled anchors mounted horizontally. A midshipman had no shoulder strap, while a passed midshipman had a strip of gold lace four inches long and half an inch wide. The covers of both ranks of midshipman were also steel gray and contained only a horizontal gold officers band with a fouled anchor, and a black leather visor.
+ Confederate States Navy Midshipman Rank Insignia Insignialocation PassedMidshipman Midshipman Sleeves ShoulderStraps Cover
Meals The menu had little variety. Breakfast was hard-tack and a decoction of coffee made from either sweet potatoes or beans.Scharf, p.775 Typically a meal was a lump of fat pork (salt-junk) or fresh meat shaving, a piece of hardtack, and a tin cup of coffee made from either chicory or burned corn.Morgan, p.205 Occasionally vegetables were served, and corn-meal.Scharf, p.775
Daily routine The daily life of a midshipman was centered around three activities: academic recitations and drills, work and maintenance of the school ship, and occasional help and support to actual combat operations with onshore batteries.Scharf, p.775 The daily schedule was composed of: 0700 - the morning gun 0800 - breakfast 0900–1200 - studies, recitations or sick call 1200 - dinner afternoon - school exercises or dress parade 2130 - tattoo 2200 - taps
Extra-curricular activities On top of the recitation classrooms signalmen were posted who would relay wig-wag messages to the local batteries onshore. Occasionally, when the guns opened up for combat engagement they would be short of officers and a message was sent down to the school to request some midshipmen to help out. Every midshipman was eager to volunteer, and so these details to the shore batteries were given as a reward from the classroom instructors.Morgan, p.206
Appointment process Midshipmen were generally appointed by their representatives to the CS Congress from their districts, while some appointments at large were made directly by the President of the Confederate States.Scharf, p.774 Candidates were required to be between the ages of fourteen and eighteen, to pass a physical examination, and an academic examination on reading, writing, spelling and arithmetic,Scharf, p. 775 and to be of "good moral character".Conrad, p.15
Curricula Academic subjects included seamanship, gunnery, mathematics, steam engineering, navigation, English studies, French, drawing and drafting.Scharf, p.773 The basic organization, studies and regulations of the school were modeled after the curriculum and format of the U. S. Naval Academy.Scharf, p.774
Studies Studies were divided into six departments and twenty-two branches, distributed in four annual courses of learning, with one course of learning assigned to each year of the four years of planned study, as follows:Scharf, p. 775
Fourth Class year – practical seamanship, naval gunnery, artillery, infantry tactics, arithmetic, algebra (to first degree equations), English grammar, descriptive geography Third Class year – practical seamanship, gunnery, artillery, infantry tactics, algebra, geometry, plane and spherical trigonometry, physical geography, history, French Second Class year – seamanship, steam, gunnery, field artillery, astronomy, navigation, application of algebra and trigonometry to mensuration of planes and solids, political science, French First Class year – seamanship, naval tactics, gunnery, infantry tactics, navigation, surveying, French, Spanish
Academic board Secretary Mallory provided an order for examination by a board of officers. Captain Sidney S. Lee, CSN and Captain Samuel Barron, CSN led an appointed board of examiners. The academic board held examinations of midshipmen twice a year in June and December, and as soon as a midshipman passed his examinations and was ready for sea duty, he was promoted to the rank of "passed" midshipman, and given orders to either a ship, battery or other duties.Scharf, p.775 The Academic board was composed of three captains and two commanders.
History
1861 The provisional government of the newly formed Confederate States of America established the Confederate States Navy and formed a structure for it on March 16 which "amply authorized" the creation of a Confederate States Naval Academy. By December of that year, the Confederate States Congress instructed Secretary Mallory to establish "some form of education for midshipmen."Conrad, p.4
1862 Secretary Mallory, overwhelmed with the duties of standing up the CS Navy in the midst of a war, finally responded to the dictate from Congress in a letter to President Davis on February 27, 1862, in which he recommended the creation and establishment of a naval academy as the best form and means of educating midshipmen.Conrad, p.5 On April 21, 1862, by an act of Congress, the naval academy was approved with a total manpower level for midshipmen at 106 and that of passed midshipmen 20.Scharf, p.773, Conrad, p.6 In that same month, the CS Naval Academy started taking appointments for the school.