The Confederate States Naval Academy was an undergraduate academy in Richmond, Virginia of the Confederate States of America that educated and commissioned officers of the Confederate States Navy. The CS Naval Academy was established by an act of the Confederate States Congress on April 21, 1862 and graduated a number of midshipmen before being disbanded on May 2, 1865 in Abbeville, South Carolina subsequent to the fall of the Confederate States. Mission Shortly after the establishment of the Confederate States of America in 1861, the separatist state became involved in a large war with the United States of America, and the Confederate Secretary of the Navy Stephen Mallory had the responsibility to quickly build the Confederate States Navy, starting with almost no ships or resources. Among his primary goals was the establishment of an academy. Confederate States officials saw no need for a Naval Academy early in the war, due to the number of southern military schools, and so midshipmen in the early Confederate Navy were trained by the traditional system of assigning them directly to ships and batteries. President Jefferson Davis, a graduate of the United States Military Academy, quickly recognized the need for a long term plan to form both army and navy academies for the nation, and gave his vision that "to secure a thorough military education ... it is essential that officers should enter upon the study of their profession at an early period of life and have elementary instruction in a military school." Facilities The naval college was housed on board the CSS Patrick Henry, a seagoing sidewheel steamer with a walking-beam engine and brigantine rigged, armed with ten guns, and a veteran of the Battle of Hampton Roads. Anchored seven miles south of Richmond, Virginia at Drewry's Bluff, near the Confederate States Marine Corps Camp Beall, "she had now become the most realistic war college that ever existed." Located there, Patrick Henry served the additional purpose of potentially being sunk as an obstruction in the James River channel. The CSS Patrick Henry could only accommodate 52 midshipmen, 20 officers, professors and crew, which limited and helped dictate the size of the naval college. The ship also functioned as a receiving ship for receiving other steamers under flags of truce, taking captured United States POWs to Harrison's Landing for exchange. Steamers under flags of truce would stop at the Patrick Henry to get their permit