Research Catalog

Title

Letters from Annapolis : midshipmen write home, 1848-1969 / edited by Anne Marie Drew.

Publication

Annapolis, Md. : Naval Institute Press, [1998], ©1998.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Additional Authors

Drew, Anne Marie.

Description

xiv, 216 pages : illustrations, portraits; 23 cm

Summary

• In 1859 Midshipman Ambrose Batcheller wrote to his mother, "You would like to see me in my uniform. Brass buttons enough to sink a person if he should fall overboard." Like many young men who left home to be educated as naval officers at the U.S. Naval Academy over the past 150 years, Batcheller hoped to impress his family with his new life. But most such letters have been lost or squirreled away in family attics over the years.
• This collection of letters from thirteen midshipmen begins shortly after the founding of the Naval Academy in 1845 and continues into the Vietnam era. It is especially valuable for the light it throws on life and learning at the nation's premier institution of naval training for more than a century. Academy English professor Anne Marie Drew selected the letters from hundreds that found their way back to the Naval Academy archives. She introduces the letter-writing mids with brief biographies and photographs and places their letters in the larger context of history.
• A glossary of unfamiliar terms is included at the end.

Subjects

• Military cadets > Maryland > Annapolis > Correspondence
• Midshipmen > Maryland > Annapolis > Correspondence
• United States Naval Academy Students > Correspondence
• Annapolis (Md.) > Biography

Note

• Includes index.

Contents

1. The Prettiest Place in Maryland: The Letters of William Penn McCann -- 2. Those Demerits Are a Perfect Humbug: The Letters of Josiah G. Beckwith, Jr. -- 3. Civil War Is a Terrible Thing: The Letters of Oliver Ambrose Batcheller -- 4. War Is Inevitable: The Letters of Philip Henry Cooper -- 5. Castor Oil in the Applesauce: The Letters of Harry Phelps -- 6. The Newspapers Are Exaggerating: The Letters of Alfred K. Schanze -- 7. I Play My Violin: The Letters of Ellsworth Davis -- 8. Dearest Audrey: The Letters of Orin Shepley Haskell -- 9. I Called Him a Draft Dodger: The Letters of Daniel Vincent Gallery -- 10. Love to All: The Letters of Charles John Weschler -- 11. Lucky Bag Holds the Stage: The Letters of Frank Kane Slason -- 12. What a Gamel: The Letters of Gerald P. Motl -- 13. To Truly Witness for Christ: The Letters of Barry Mason Shambach.

ISBN

155750170X (alk. paper)

LCCN

98004956

OCLC

ocm38215622

Owning Institutions

Columbia University Libraries