Happy 175th Birthday to the U.S. Naval Academy
POSTED ON: Saturday, October 10, 2020 12:00 AM by Jennifer Bryan
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| The Naval Academy as it appeared in 1845. |
On October 10, 1845, the Naval School (renamed the Naval Academy in 1850) opened its doors on the grounds of a former army post in Annapolis, Maryland. Secretary of the Navy George Bancroft had succeeded in obtaining the support of senior naval officers for the new school and had arranged with Secretary of War William L. Marcy for the transfer of Fort Severn to the navy. On August 14, 1845, Bancroft appointed Commander Franklin Buchanan, who had entered the navy as a midshipman in 1815, as the school's first superintendent. Buchanan prepared, at Secretary Bancroft's request, a plan of organization for the Naval School.
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| Article 1 of Commander Franklin Buchanan's plan for the Naval School |
At the beginning of October, Buchanan ordered the school's seven professors to convene as a board to arrange the schedule of lectures, recitations, and study hours. The course of instruction would consist of mathematics, natural philosophy, chemistry, gunnery and steam engineering, geography, English grammar, arithmetic, history, French and Spanish languages, "and such other branches desirable to the accomplishment of a naval officer." The original faculty members were William Chauvenet, professor of mathematics; Henry Hayes Lockwood, professor of natural philosophy, Lieutenant James Harmon Ward, instructor in steam engineering and gunnery; George Jones, instructor in English; Arsène Napoléon Girault, instructor in foreign languages; John A. Lockwood, instructor in chemistry; and Samuel Marcy, assistant professor of mathematics.
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Commander Franklin Buchanan, USN, first Superintendent of the U.S. Naval Academy.
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At 11 a.m. on Friday, October 10, the officers, professors, and fifty-six midshipmen attached to the school assembled in one of the recitation rooms where Superintendent Buchanan addressed them. He began by stating that the government, "In affording you the opportunity of acquiring an education, so important to the accomplishment of a naval officer, has bestowed upon you all an incalculable benefit. But few if any now in the service have had the advantages that you are about to receive....I feel confident that all of you attached to this institution will endeavour to hold a high rank in the Service by your application, zeal, intelligence and correct deportment, and I shall deeply regret to hear that any individual among you has brought disgrace upon himself or upon his associates." He followed his opening remarks with a presentation of the rules and regulations that he had drafted for the school, and closed by reading the Secretary of the Navy's letter to him in which Bancroft had explained his purpose in establishing the Naval School in Annapolis.
And thus was the Naval Academy formally opened 175 years ago today.
Category: Special Collections & Archives, Naval & Military Studies, History