What did the sympathies lie of the US Navy around the time of the American Civil War?

Question

Around the time of the American Civil War the land military (that is the Army) had its sympathies on the cause of the Confederacy, in my opinion, due to the make up of the military officers of the time being mostly from the American South. Many of the leaders and military commanders were from Southern states and their sympathies tended to be towards their home states. The US Navy around the same time must have had an officer core that came in a majority from somewhere, but I've not seen any written materials that have investigated this.

What was the composition of the US Navy around this time? Were they in a majority from Northern states that already had a naval culture? Granted the US Navy was relatively small at this time but those people had to come from somewhere and I am interested in knowing where to sort of gauge where their sympathies might have lie.

Answer 1

Unlike the Army, where a disproportionate number of officers came from the South, the U.S. navy was pretty much dominated by the North. One evidence of this was the fact that the fleet in Norfolk, Virginia, was scuttled by its sailors to prevent in from falling into the hands of the South. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Monitor

A major reason that the Union blockade was successful was that nearly all the ships (with the notable exception of the iron Merrimac, renamed the Virginia), stayed with the Union.