Page "United States Navy Reserve" Paragraph 14

With the lack of any major threat to the United States in the post-Civil War years, the U. S. Navy took on the appearance and missions of the force it had been in 1860.

Then came publication of naval theorist Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan ’ s landmark study The Influence of Sea Power Upon History, which in part prompted a modernization of the U. S. fleet and brought some of the first calls for an organized naval reserve to help man these more advanced ships.

In the meantime, state naval militias represented the Navy ’ s manpower reserve, demonstrating their capabilities during the Spanish-American War in which they assisted in coastal defense and served aboard ship.

Militiamen from Massachusetts, New York, Michigan, and Maryland manned four auxiliary cruisers — Prairie, Yankee, Yosemite, and Dixie — seeing action off Cuba.

All told, some 263 officers and 3, 832 enlisted men of various state naval militias answered the call to arms.