The Navy's Bureau of Navigation was one of three bureaus created by Congress on July 5, 1862, to supersede the
Bureau of Construction, Equipment, and Repair, one of the original Navy Department bureaus established on August 31, 1842, to replace the
Board of Navy Commissioners. The new Bureau was initially responsible for providing nautical charts and instruments and for supervising the
US Naval Observatory, the
Hydrographic Office, and the Nautical Almanac Office. It also had responsibility for the
United States Naval Academy, which previously under been under the jurisdiction of the Bureau of Ordnance and Hydrography. In 1867, the Navy Department took the Academy under direct supervision, but for many years the Bureau of Navigation continued to provide routine administration and financial management. From 1865 to 1884, the Bureau was responsible for the Office of Detail, which handled the assignment and detailing of
naval officers. That Office had been established in March 1861, just prior to the outbreak of the Civil War, in the Office of the
Secretary of the Navy. The Office of Detail reverted to the Secretary's office on October 1, 1884, but was restored to the Bureau of Navigation a few months later, May 22, 1885. The Office of Detail was reorganized within the Bureau in 1889 as the Division of Officers and Fleet. ==Reorganization and acquisition of personnel functions, 1889==