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A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY DEPARTMENT
Jeffrey M. Wilhite
Assistant Professor of Bibliography
Government Documents Reference Librarian
University of Oklahoma
Norman, OK 73019
(405) 325-1832
jwilhite@ou.edu

ABSTRACT
The history of the United States Navy Department is deeply ingrained in the history of America. In 1789 the Naval forces were first organized within the War Department. In 1798 the Navy Department was established as its own federal department. Through disuse in times of peace to upscaling in times of need, the Department of the Navy served as America's watchdog through four major wars. The Navy Department existed as its own independent federal department for nearly one-hundred and fifty years before being incorporated into the National Military Establishment in 1947. The Department of the Navy was one of the most lasting and important of all Governmental agencies.
INTRODUCTION
Through the Navy Department's origin as a branch of the War Department, to its establishment as an independent department, and its final incorporation into the National Military Establishment, the Department of the Navy has been one of the longest standing and most steadfast of all departments of the United States Government. The Navy Department began at a time when sea power was significant and grew accordingly as the waterways of the world became even more valuable. Throughout its one-hundred and forty-nine year existence, the Navy Department grew and changed along with the United States. As the United States went from thirteen colonies to fifty states, the Navy Department continued, to protect and serve.
THE BEGINNING
In 1775 Congress provided for two ships to stop incoming enemy vessels. Soon after a 'Naval Committee' was established, including members Silas Deane, John Langdon and Christopher Gadsden, to continue the naval need. The Naval Committee's main charge was to commission ships for defensive purposes. This committee lay the ground work for what would eventually become the Navy Department.
In 1789, under President George Washington, Congress passed an act establishing the Department of War. The position of Secretary of War was created to helm this Department. The Secretary of War was given jurisdiction over all military forces, including the Navy. Section I, Chapter 7 of the United States Statutes states:
       "Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of 
       America in Congress assembled, that there shall be an executive department to 
       be denominated the Department of War...relative to military commissions, or to 
       the land or naval forces, ships, or warlike stores of the United States,
       or to such other matters respecting military or naval affairs..."[1]
One of the first duties of the navy forces was to build a fleet of ships to stop privateers. Less than ten years later, on April 30, 1789, Congress established a distinct Department of the Navy. The Fifth Congress, Session II, Chapter 35, of the United States Statutes states:
       "That there shall be an executive department under the denomination of the 
       Department of the Navy, the Chief Officer of which shall be called
       the Secretary of the Navy...and the Secretary for the Department of War, shall be 
       repealed, from and after this period when the Secretary of the 
       Navy shall enter on the duties of his office."[2]
The Navy Department, for the first time its own federal department, immediately set a course to support and enforce external policies of the nation, to keep the balance of power, and to protect the United States of America.
At the same time of the founding of the Navy Department, many of the Department's most lasting agencies were created. The most prestigious of the early Naval Agencies was the Marine Corps. The Marines originated in 1775, when two battalions of men were raised for continental service [3]. The Marine Corps were reactivated by Congress on July 11, 1798, within the Navy Department. The Marine Corps fought in every declared war fought by the United States as well as a score of obscure affairs that lacked official blessing [4]. The Marine Corps remained within the Navy Department until the Department was incorporated into the Military Establishment in 1947. Among the other agencies created within the Navy Department at this time were: the Judge- Advocate General (1880-1947), the Hydrographic Office (1866-1947), the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery (1842-1942), and the Naval War College (1824-1947). There were thirty-four different agencies under the Department of the Navy throughout its nearly one-hundred and fifty year history.
With the first formal workings of the Navy Department came national industrialization. At this time, the Navy operated to stop piracy and the slave trade. It was also during this time that the ships began to move from "sail to steam, from wood to iron and steel and from shot to shell, and muzzle-loading, smooth-bore cannon to rifle breech-loaders" [5]. By 1860 the Civil War was approaching. The Navy had grown to forty-two vessels in commission, though only twenty-three of those were steam ships. As the dispute over the variety of moral and economic issues related to the institution of slavery split the nation, it also split the Navy between the North and the South [6].
The Civil War increased the rate of industrialization, making the Navy stronger on both Northern and Southern fronts. By war's end, the Navy Department had accumulated over seven hundred ships. In the five years of the war, the United States Navy had become one of the strongest sea powers in the world. However within a few years after the war, the Navy Department fell into almost total decline. As America reformed itself in times of peace, most Navy ships were left to rot or sold for scrap. By 1880 the Navy had dropped to twelfth in world water power.
THE NAVY REEMERGES
In 1885 the Naval War College was established and began to revitalize the Navy Department. By the time of the Spanish-American War (1898), the Navy Department had reestablished itself as a dominant sea power. Unlike the period of decline after the Civil War, the period after the Spanish-American War dictated a build-up of the Navy Department. The outbreak of war in Europe in 1914, was met by a quickening of naval arms, ships, and men. By 1917, due to unrestricted warfare of German submarines [7], the United States could no longer remain neutral. The U.S. sided with the Allied Forces (including England and France) against the Central Powers (Germany, Italy, and others) at a time when the Allies and the Central Powers were stalemated. World War I saw the utilization of submarines, U-boats and battleships, along with the introduction of aircraft used for reconnaissance as well as attack and strategic operations [8]. The U.S. Navy Department succeeded in maintaining sea control and sea communication, helped the British combat the Central Powers submarine units, and transported the U.S. forces overseas. With the United States' help the war ended in 1918.
In America's first significant post-war period, from 1918-1941, the Navy Department experienced peace through World-Wide disarmament. Japan, Great Britain, and the United States were the only major sea powers remaining. The Great Depression of the 1930’s brought about material and personnel cuts, but not a complete dissolution of the Navy, as in the last pre-war period. The Navy Department took advantage of this period of peace to reorganize and expand. A number of new agencies were created in this twenty-three year period, including: The Naval Records and Library Office, the revitalized Coast Guard (previously decommissioned in 1919), the Bureau of Aeronautics, and the Office of Naval Research.
THE NAVY DEPARTMENT'S FINAL WAR
Peace ended in 1939 as the Allies (France and England) declared war with Germany. To meet this new challenge the Navy Department constructed 351 new ships, 13,500 additional Naval planes and added 20,000 additional Naval officers. By the end of 1941, the Navy had more than a million men and women in service. With the attack on Pearl Harbor, the U.S. was thrust full throttle into World War II. The Navy played a key role in the Pacific Theatre sea battles of this war, including the fall of the Philippines, the Battle of the Coral Sea and the Battle of Midway [9]. By 1945, the mighty German machine surrendered, the atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the war ended. The Department of the Navy had once again played a strategic role in the defense of the United States.
In the post-war peace of 1947, a motion was made by Congress to bring all of the now- settled wartime troops under one command. The National Military Establishment was founded. This united the Army, Navy, and Air Force into one department for the first time since the 1789 creation of the War Department. The Secretary of Defense was selected head of the National Military Establishment, with all other department heads reporting to him. This was passed by the Eightieth Congress, in Chapter 343 of the United States Statutes. The Navy Department itself was not changed, only the order of command:
       "In general the United States Navy, within the Department of the Navy, shall 
       include naval combat and service forces and such aviation as may be organic 
       therein. It shall be organized, trained and equipped primarily for prompt and
       sustained combat incident to operations of Naval forces necessary for the       
       effective prosecution of war except as otherwise assigned and, in accordance with 
       integrated joint mobilization plans, for the expansion of the peacetime 
       components of the Navy to meet the needs of war." [10]
This change left the Navy Department structurally the same, but without its own independent Department. The National Military Establishment, though short-lived, did prove the advantage of having all of the armed forces under one command, more organized and directed than previously. In 1949 the National Military Establishment was reorganized by the National Security Act of 1949 as the Department of Defense [11]. The Defense Department has carried on as head of the unified Air, Military and Naval forces to the present day.
CONCLUSION
The 1947 incorporation of the Navy Department into the National Military Establishment may have left the United States without one of its historically longest-running Departments, but it benefited the Navy and America as a whole. The Navy Department was founded in the nation's need for defense, followed the ebb and flow of the American wars, and at last consolidated into a larger, more powerful federal department. The Department of the Navy, from its origins to its incorporation, played a vitally important role in the establishment of the United States of America.
NOTES
1. United States Statutes, An Act to Establish and Executive Department, to be Denominated the 
        Department of War, (Aug. 7, 1789). I Stat. 49-50.

2. United States Statutes, An act to Establish an Executive Department, to be Denominated the 
        Department of War, (April 30, 1798). II Stat. 553-554.

3. Lt. Colonel Frank O. Hough, USMCR, et.al., Pearl Harbor to Guadalcanal, (Washington, 
        D.C.: G.P.O., 1958.) 4.

4. Ibid., 4. 

5. Carroll Storrs Alden, The United States Navy: A History  (New York: Lippincott Company, 
        1943) 126.

6. Richard Natkiel, Atlas of American Military History  (Greenwich, CT: Dorset Press, 1990), 
        34.

7. Immigration and Naturalization Service. U.S. Department of Justice. United States History, 
        1600-1987 (Washington, D.C.: G.P.O., 1988) 106.

8. Charles D. Bright, Historical Dictionary of the U.S. Air Force (New York: Greenwood Press, 
        1992) 631.

9. Richard Natkiel, Atlas of American Military History, ibid., 79.

10. United States Statutes, The National Military Establishment, (July 26, 1947). 61 Stat.      
        499-500. 

11. Donna Androit, Ed., Guide to U.S. Government Publications, 1993 Edition (Virginia:  
        Documents Index, Inc., 1993) 219.
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