school, and already
development had gone so far that suspicion and antagonism were
aroused. Up to 1850 midshipmen went at once to sea, and, after five
years there, spent one at Annapolis; whereupon followed the final
examination for a lieutenancy. This effected, the man became a
"passed" midshipman. Beginning with 1851, the system was changed. Four
years at the Academy were required, after which two at sea, and then
examination. This, being a clean break with the past, outraged
conservatism; it introduced such abominations as French and extended
mathematics; much attention was paid to infantry drill--soldiering;
the scheme was not "practical;" and it was doubtless true that the
young graduate, despite six months of summer cruising interposed
between academic terms, came comparatively green to shipboard. In that
particular respect he could not but compare for the moment unfavorably
with one who under the old plan would have spent four years on a
ship's deck. Whether, that brief period of inexperience passed, he
would not be permanently the better for the prior initiation into the
_rationale_ of his business, few inquired, and time had not yet had
opportunity to show.

Perhaps, too, there was among the graduates something of the
"freshness" which is attributed to the same age in leaving a
university. I do not think it; the immediate contact with conditions
but partly familiar to us, yet perfectly familiar to all about us,
excited rather a wholesome feeling of inferiority or inadequacy. We
had yet to find ourselves. But there remained undoubtedly some
antagonism between the old and the new. Not that this ever showed
itself offensively; nothing could have been kinder or more
open-hearted than our reception by the lieutenants who had not known
the Academy, and who probably depreciated it in their hearts. Whatever
they thought, nothing was ever said that could reflect upon us, the
outcome of the system. It was not even hinted that we might have been
turned out in better shape under different conditions. From my
personal experience, I hope we proved more satisfactory than may have
been expected. When we returned home in 1861, just after the first
battle of Bull Run, our third lieutenant said to me that he expected a
command, and would be glad to have me as his first lieutenant; and
upon my detachment one of the warrant officers expressed his regret
that I was not remaining as one of the lieutenants of the ship. Both
being me