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The United States Navy was stressed by the situation as 24% of the US Navy officers resigned and joined the Confederate States Navy, including 95 graduates and 59 midshipmen from USNA,[1] as well as many key leaders involved with the founding and establishment of USNA. The first USNA Superintendent, Admiral Franklin Buchanan,CSN led the Confederate States Navy as its first and primary admiral, commanding the ironclad CSS Virginia in the historic Battle of Hampton Roads. The first superintendent of the United States Naval Observatory, Commander Matthew Fontaine Maury,USN, great naval reformer and advocate of the creation of the United States Naval Academy, after whom Maury Hall is named, similarly chose to serve the Confederate States Navy.

Alumni who joined the CSN

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Early/unknown

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  • Commander James Iredell Waddell, CSN, one of the first graduates of USNA and an instructor at the US Naval Academy also chose to serve the Confederacy in their strategy of guerre de course commanding the CSS Shenandoah.
  • Captain Jonathan H. Carter, CSN graduated with the first class from USNA, and went on to supervise the building of gunboats and defenses of the Red River in 1862-63.
  • Lieutenant Benjamin P. Loyall, CSN graduated from USNA, resigned on Oct 5, 1861, but was arrested and spent time at Fort Warren, Massachusetts. He was then promoted to LT in the CSN and assigned to Gosport Navy Yard, and then transferred to PACS in the land defenses at Roanoke Island, NC. He later attained the rank of Major. He was relieved on Feb 13, 1862 and transferred into the CSN, and instructed at CSNA.

Class of 1848

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  • Lieutenant William Harwar Parker,CSN, class of 1848, and instructor at USNA, joined the Virginia State Navy, and then went on to become the Superintendent of the Confederate States Naval Academy, while

Class of 1857

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  • Lieutenant Charles Iverson Graves, CSN, class of 1857 from Georgia, veteran of the Mobile Squadron, Instructor of Seamanship at CSNA.

Class of 1859

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  • Lieutenant Wilburn B. Hall, appointed to USNA from Louisiana in 1855, graduated at the head of his USNA class of 1859. He was the flag-lieutenant to Commodore Inman, commanding the squadron on the African coast at the outbreak of the war. After he helped capture a slave ship with 700 slaves on board and took the ship back to Africa, delivering them to the Liberian government, he then went on to become the first Commandant of Midshipman of the Confederate States Naval Academy.

Not yet graduated

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  • Lieutenant William Van Comstock, appointed to USNA from Louisiana, resigned from USNA on January 30, 1861 and appointed acting midshipman in the CS Navy on April 25, 1861.
  1. ^ Conrad, p.6