6 22

THE UNION AND CONFEDERATE NAVIES.

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MONITOR “ WEEIIAWKEN ” IN A STORM.

that bordered upon recklessness, they performed services that gave them aplace apart in the history of the river operations. [See page 453.]

In its personnel, the navy was by no means so well prepared for war as itshould have been. Several circumstances combined to weaken the strengthof the corps. As there was no system of retirement, and as promotion formany years had been made solely on the basis of seniority, the upper part ofthe list was filled with officers who had grown too old for active service, butwho nevertheless felt that their position entitled them to important com-mands at sea, or to high places in council or in administration. For theseduties most of them were peculiarly unfitted. At a time when conservatismmeant stagnation, the seventy-eight commodores and captains who were thesenior officers of the navy, through long adherence to routine, had, with fewexceptions, become doubly conservative, and owing to the rapid developmentof their profession, those whose early training belonged to the sail periodseemed almost the relics of a bygone age.

The consciousness of ignorance in some men begets modesty, but it seldomhas this effect upon the older members of a military hierarchy. Obedienceto the orders of a superior is, of course, the essence of military discipline,without which it could not exist, and rank is the primary source of authority.But a system which combines reliance upon rank as the sole source ofauthority, and reliance upon age as the sole qualification for rank, containsessential elements of weakness. Its tendency is to make the seniors growless capable and more despotic, while the juniors gradually lose all senseof responsibility and all power of initiative, and when they at last reacha position of command, their faculties have become paralyzed from long dis-use. Especially is this the case in a long period of peace, such as followedthe war of 1812, and lasted, with only a brief intermission, until 1861.During this time the navy was always grasping at the shadow and losing the