posted who would relay wig-wag messages to the local batteries onshore. Occasionally, when the guns opened up for combat engagement they would be short of officers and a message was sent down to the school to request some midshipmen to help out. Every midshipman was eager to volunteer, and so these details to the shore batteries were given as a reward from the classroom instructors. Appointment process Midshipmen were generally appointed by their representatives to the CS Congress from their districts, while some appointments at large were made directly by the President of the Confederate States. Candidates were required to be between the ages of fourteen and eighteen, to pass a physical examination, and an academic examination on reading, writing, spelling and arithmetic, and to be of "good moral character". Curricula Academic subjects included seamanship, gunnery, mathematics, steam engineering, navigation, English studies, French, drawing and drafting. The basic organization, studies and regulations of the school were modeled after the curriculum and format of the U. S. Naval Academy. Studies Studies were divided into six departments and twenty-two branches, distributed in four annual courses of learning, with one course of learning assigned to each year of the four years of planned study, as follows: Fourth Class year – practical seamanship, naval gunnery, artillery, infantry tactics, arithmetic, algebra (to first degree equations), English grammar, descriptive geography Third Class year – practical seamanship, gunnery, artillery, infantry tactics, algebra, geometry, plane and spherical trigonometry, physical geography, history, French Second Class year – seamanship, steam, gunnery, field artillery, astronomy, navigation, application of algebra and trigonometry to measuration of planes and solids, political science, French First Class year – seamanship, naval tactics, gunnery, infantry tactics, navigation, surveying, French, Spanish Academic board Secretary Mallory provided an order for examination by a board of officers. Captain Sidney S. Lee, CSN and Captain Samuel Barron, CSN led an appointed board of examiners. The academic board held examinations of midshipmen twice a year in June and December, and as soon as a midshipman passed his examinations and was ready for sea duty, he was promoted to the rank of "passed" midshipman, and given orders to either a ship, battery or other duties. The Academic board was composed of three captains and two commanders. History 1861 The provisional government of the newly formed Confederate States of America established the Confederate States Navy and formed a structure for it on March 16