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.