Special Attention Needed for Training of Confederate Naval Officers

APRIL 30TH, 1864:  Secretary Mallory reported to President Davis regarding the operation of the Confederate Navy Department:  "Special attention is called to the necessity of providing for the education and training of officers for the navy, and to measures adopted by the department upon the subject.

Naval education and training lie at the foundation of naval success; and the power that neglects this essential element of strength will, when the battle is fought, find that its ships, however formidable, are but built for a more thoroughly trained and educated enemy....

While a liberal education at the ordinary institutions of learning prepares men for useful service not only in the Army, but in more branches of public affairs, special education and training, and such as these institutions cannot afford, are essential to form a naval officer.

In recognition of the necessity of this special training, every naval power of the earth has established naval colleges and schools and practice ships, and the radical and recent changes in the chief elements of the naval warfare have directed to these establishments marked attention."

On other words, it is harder to train naval officers than Army and schools are needed.

--Old B-R'er