Society of gentlemen
Subtitle: midshipmen at the U.S. Naval Academy, 1845-1861
By: Mark C. Hunter.
Publisher: Naval Institute Press
Published: 2010
Place of publication: Annapolis, Md
Language: eng
Number of pages: 233
ISBN-13: 9781591143970
Subjects: United States Naval Academy -- History -- 19th century; United States. -- Navy -- Officers -- Training of -- History -- 19th century; Military education -- United States -- History -- 19th century
Description: Mark C. Hunter makes a significant contribution to the understanding of the evolution of professional standards in the U.S. armed forces with this social history of U.S. naval officer education at Annapolis. Combining statistical and scholarly analysis based on original research, he reveals that through the Naval Academy, the Navy in 1845 initiated a more structured form of education in order to assess potential officers on academic and practical seamanship skills. His findings show that by the 1850s the Academy had established summer cruises and school ships to teach navigation and command skills to recruits taken from civilian life. This study offers a detailed analysis of antebellum Naval Academy alumni, including their backgrounds and disciplinary records while students at Annapolis. Hunter enlivens this statistical data to provide insight into the personal lives of these young officers by drawing on the letters of midshipmen and the autobiographies of famous naval officers. --Book Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: The foundation of a system; title: The Naval School, 1845-1849; title: The Naval Academy, 1850-1860; title: Discipline and law in the school era; title: Discipline and law in the academy era; title: Summer cruises, school ships, and the outbreak of Civil War; title: Appendix A. Disciplinary records; title: Appendix B. Summer cruise assessments.