Academy on the James is the exciting account of the birth, the life, and the tragic death of the Confederate naval school. Utilizing meticulous research, the author has pieced together a remarkable story of the South's naval school and the young midshipmen who attended it. From the battles below Richmond in the summer of 1864, to the guardians of the Confederate treasury in its retreat south to the Carolinas and Georgia, they remained true to their nation and themselves - and they never surrendered.