1842

Secretary of the Navy A. P. Upshur's report on the condition of the Navy addresses the deplorable state of education of naval officers. Little or no attention has hitherto been paid to the proper education of naval officers. For many years the young midshipmen were left to educate themselves and one another. Their schools were held in receiving ships and cruising vessels, in the midst of a thousand interruptions and impediments, which render the whole system of little or no value.

December 1, 1842

Midshipman Philip Spencer and two bluejackets are hanged at the yardarm of the small brig Somers for what is perceived by the captain, Commander Alexander Slidell MacKenzie, to be a mutiny. The incident becomes a catalyst for founding the Naval Academy.

March 11, 1845

George Bancroft of Massachusetts, outstanding historian, educator, and energetic administrator, becomes Secretary of the Navy, appointed by President Polk.

May 1, 1845

Secretary Bancroft requests four professors at the successful Philadelphia Asylum school to make a report of the instruction and procedures there for the planning of a new school.

June 25, 1845

Naval Board of Examiners submits recommendations for a naval school at Annapolis.

September 3, 1845

Fort Severn, Annapolis, Maryland, a nine acre tract of land called Windmill Point, is transferred from the War Department to the Navy Department. Commander Franklin Buchanan is placed in command.

October 10, 1845

At 11:00 a.m., the superintendent, Commander Franklin Buchanan, assembles the 7 professors (3 civilians, 4 officers) and some 50 midshipmen in one of the classrooms and declares the school open. Buchanan will later command the Confederate forces at Mobile Bay.

The original Naval School course covers five years, with the first and last being spent at the school and the three intervening years being spent at sea.

January 15, 1846

First midshipmen's ball is held.

Spring

Midshipmen Spirit Club presents the school's first theatrical production, "Lady of Lyons."

May 13, 1846

War with Mexico declared. An orderly system of advancing the date of commissioning is established. Before the end of the war, 90 officers will be furnished to the Navy. The school's successful adjustment to war needs may well have been the proof of its value to the Navy that was needed to justify its existence and silence the skeptics. Various war trophies will be located at the Naval Academy. Guns on the Academy grounds bear such colorful names as "Biter", "Grumbler", and "Last Argument of the King."

August 10, 1846

Congress recognizes the existence of the school by voting $28,200 "for repairs, improvements and instruction at Fort Severn."

January 21, 1847

Second naval ball is held in the newly completed mess hall, library/lyceum.

March 15, 1847

Commander George P. Upshur becomes superintendent.

First acquisition of adjacent land--six acres, purchased for $14,105 added to school.

1848

Midshipmen erect their first monument to Midshipmen Henson, Clemson, Pillsbury, and Shubrick who were lost in the Mexican War.

Instigated by Professor Henry Lockwood, a West Pointer, the Academic Board adopts military drill at the Naval School. Angry midshipmen are aroused to new heights for they know the old maxim of the day: "A messmate before a shipmate, a shipmate before a stranger, a stranger before a dog, but a dog before a 'sojer' (soldier). "

Professor Lockwood is hanged in effigy from the school's flagstaff for inventing "Midshipmen P-rades."