The first issue was published on August 29, 1863, with this motto: "Established in obedience to an insistent demand for an official organ for members of the American Defense and those concerned with it." The paper included news of the Civil War, then in its third year, along with "important official reports, lists of promotions, discussions upon the various appliances and methods of war, editorial comments upon the various naval and military questions of the day, and a great mass of information for the use of professional and non-professional readers." A single copy cost 10 cents; an annual subscription was five dollars.