n of mature years and long service, and with no obligation to
speak, it is permissible to infer that they thought us fit at least to
take the deck. As it was, in the uproar of those days, no questions
were asked. The usual examinations were waived, and my class was
hurried out of the midshipmen's mess into the first-lieutenant's
berth. Without exception, I believe, we all had that duty at
once--second to the captain--missing thereby the very valuable
experience of the deck officer. In the face of considerable
opposition, as I was told by Admiral Dupont, the leading officers of
the day frustrated the attempt to introduce volunteer officers from
the merchant service over our heads; another proof of confidence in
us, as at least good raw material. The longer practice of the others
at sea was alleged as a reason for thus preferring them, which was
seriously contemplated; but the reply was that acquaintance with the
organization of a ship-of-war, with her equipment and armament, the
general military tone so quickly assimilated by the young and so
hardly by the mature, outweighed completely any mere question of
attainment in handling a ship. As drill officers, too, the general
excellence of the graduates was admitted.

Within a fortnight of doing duty on the forecastle, as a midshipman, I
thus found myself first lieutenant of a very respectable vessel. One
of my shipmates, less quickly fortunate, was detailed to instruct a
number of volunteer officers with the great guns and muskets. One of
them said to him, "Yes, you can teach me this, but I expect I can
teach you something in seamanship"; a freedom of speech which by
itself showed imperfect military temper. At the same moment, I myself
had a somewhat similar encounter, which illustrates why the old
officers insisted on the superior value of military habit, and the
necessarily unmilitary attitude, at first, of the volunteers. I had
been sent momentarily to a paddle-wheel merchant-steamer, now
purchased for a ship-of-war, the _James Adger_, which had plied
between Charleston and New York. A day or two after joining, I saw two
of the engineer force going ashore without my knowledge. I stopped
them; and a few moments afterwards the chief engineer, who had long
been in her when she was a packet, came to me with flaming eyes and
angry voice to know by what right I interfered with his men. It had to
be explained to him that, unlike the merchant-service, the engine-room
was but a