In using Old English letters as a corps device, the Navy reverted to the 1850’s when medical officers had an “M.D.” device, and pursers (paymasters), the letters “P.D.”. in Old English and the sleeve lace light blue velvet. A Uniform Circular of 24 August 1881, which prescribed the insignia for civil engineers, directed that the corps device be the letters C.E. The light blue cloth between the gold sleeve lace follows the pattern established by the Navy in 1869 when all staff corps were assigned a colored cloth to be worn on the sleeves. In the painting, the captain, Civil Engineer Corps, is shown in the service dress uniform first introduced in 1877 to replace the sack coat of the Civil War. The rating of chief petty officer was established in September 1894. A Regulations Circular of 8 January 1885, grouped enlisted personnel into classes and established the ratings of first, second and third class petty officers, doing away with the former all-inclusive rating of “petty officer”. Civil engineers, long a part of the Naval Establishment, were given relative rank in 1881. Staff officers, who had had their relative rank adjusted upwards during the Civil War and had been reduced to their pre-war status in 1869, were finally recognized by Congress in 1871 as an important part of the Navy and again had their relative rank adjusted upwards. The long period of naval neglect which followed the Civil War ended when Congress in 1883 authorized the construction of four steel ships the protected cruisers Chicago, Boston, and Atlanta, and the dispatch boat, Dolphin. The changes had a bearing on the dress of officers and men of the Navy. The latter part of the 19th century is to be remembered as the beginning of the “New Navy”, not only in the type of ships built, but also in a new concept of naval strategy needed to support a growing America and expanding world trade.
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