and practice cruises were substituted for the three consecutive years at sea. The first class of naval academy students graduated on 10 June 1854. They were considered as passed midshipmen until 1912, when graduates were first sworn in as officers.
In 1850, Edward Seager joined the faculty as the first instructor of drawing, and he also served as the first fencing instructor. He held the position of teacher of the art of defence from 1851 to 1859.
In 1860, the Tripoli Monument was moved to the academy grounds. Later that year in August, the model of the USS Somers experiment was resurrected when USS Constitution, then 60 years old, was recommissioned as a school ship for the fourth-class midshipmen after a conversion and refitting begun in 1857. She was anchored at the yard, and the plebes lived on board the ship to immediately introduce them to shipboard life and experiences.
=== American Civil War ===
The American Civil War was disruptive to the Naval Academy. Southern sympathy ran high in Maryland. Although …
