Charles H. Peaslee, then member of Congress from the Concord
congressional district, offered him the appointment of acting midshipman
to fill a vacancy at the Naval Academy, Annapolis, Maryland, which,
after some hesitation, his parents permitted him to accept, and he was
withdrawn from Gilmanton and sent to Concord to prepare for entrance at
Annapolis, under a private tutor. He remained under such pupilage until
the age of fifteen, when the beginning of the academic year, October,
1851, saw him installed in "Middy's" uniform at that institution, and
the business of life for him had begun in earnest.

To a young and restless lad, used to being afield at all times and hours
with horse, dog, and gun, and fresh from a country home where the "pomp
and circumstance" of military life had had no other illustration than
occasional glimpses of the old "training and muster days" so dear to New
Hampshire boys forty years ago, the change to the restraint and
discipline; the inflexible routine and stern command; the bright
uniforms and novel ways; the sight of the ships and the use of a
vocabulary that ever smacks of the sea; the call by drum and trumpet to
every act of the day, from bed-rising, prayers, and breakfast, through
study, recitation, drill, and recreation hours, to tattoo and taps, when
every student is expected to be in bed,--was a transformation wonderful
indeed; but the flow of discipline and routine are so regular and
imperative that their currents are imperceptibly impressed upon the
youthful mind and soon become a part of his nature, as it were,
unawares. So we may conclude that our young aspirant for naval honors
proved no exception to the rule, and soon settled into these new grooves
of life as quietly as his ardent temperament would permit.

The discipline at the Academy, in those days, was harsher and more
exacting, and the officers of the institution of a sterner and more