X. MILITARY SYSTEM AND SCHOOLS IN THE UNITED STATES

X. MILITARY SYSTEM AND SCHOOLS IN THE UNITED STATES

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MILITARY SYSTEM AND EDUCATION OF THE UNITED STATES.

I. MILITARY SYSTEM.

The Constitution of the United States grants to Congress the power “to raise and support armies,” “to provide and maintain a navy,” “to make rules for the government of the land and naval forces; and to provide for calling forth the militia,” as well as “for organizing, arming and disciplining” the same, and for governing such parts of them as may be employed in the service of the United States--reserving to the States, respectively, the appointment of the officers, and the authority of training the militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress. By the same instrument the President is made commander-in-chief of the army and navy of the United States, and of the militia of the several States when called into actual service of the United States “to execute the laws of the Union, suppress insurrections, and repel invasions.”

By law of August, 1789, a department of war, and in 1798, a secretary of the navy is provided to aid the President in the administration of military and naval affairs; and the original rules and articles of war enacted by the Congress of 1776, were continued in force, and in 1806 made the basis of the military code which has since governed all troops mustered into the service of the United States.

In 1790 the rank and file of the regular army was fixed at 1,216 men. In 1796 this force was organized into one corps of artillerists and engineers, whose head-quarters was at West Point, two companies of light dragoons, and four regiments of infantry of eight companies each. This force was increased by additional regiments in the war of 1812, the Indian war in Florida, and the war with Mexico, till in 1861, the army consisted of 14,000 men, stationed in the different forts and garrisons, and mainly on the Indian frontier. In the war of the Rebellion the regular army was increased to 50,000 men.

By act of July 15,1870, the number of enlisted men was reduced to 30,000 by or before July 1, 1871. On the 20th of October, 1871, the army was composed as follows:

Two regiments of Cavalry, 8,800 enlisted men. Five regiments of Artillery, 3,105 “ “ Twenty-five regiments of Infantry, 23,742 “ “ One battalion of Engineers, 314 “ “ Ordnance Department, 444 “ “ West Point Detachment, 202 “ “ Signal Department, 199 “ “ Hospital stewards, 310 “ “ Ordnance Surgeons, 114 “ “ Available Recruits, en route, 349 “ “ Permanent Recruiting Parties, 904 “ “ General Service Men, 420 “ “ ------ Total, 29,003 Commissioned Officers, 2,105 Retired Officers, 295

When the insurrectionary movements and combinations of the Southern States in 1861, proved too powerful to be suppressed by ordinary civil powers, the President, April 15, called for 75,000 volunteers for three months, to defend the capital, and May 3, 42,000 to serve for three years or during the war. On the 22d of July he was authorized to accept the services of 500,000, which, within six months afterwards was increased to 1,000,000. This force proving inadequate, a levy of 300,000 men was ordered in 1863, and in 1864, another call for 500,000 men--making an aggregate of 2,653,062 mustered into the service of the United States, or nearly one fourth of the entire male population of the Northern States. This entire force was disbanded within one year from the close of the war.

The development of the naval resources of the country was quite as marvelous. In 1861 the entire navy consisted of 94 war vessels of all classes and in all conditions, capable when in service of carrying 2,415 guns. Only 43 of these ships were in commission, and the seamen and mariners numbered 7,000. In less than three years 200 war vessels were constructed and 418 merchant vessels were converted to military service, and over 50,000 men enlisted in the naval service.

The Southern States in rebellion put into the field over 500,000 men, and exhausted their pecuniary resources, with the loss of 300,000 soldiers on the field or in hospital.

The debt of the United States contracted in the prosecution of the war, stood in 1866 at the enormous sum of $2,783,425,879.

These extraordinary efforts were made under circumstances which are not likely to exist again, and such expenditures could not be repeated without national bankruptcy.

The Militia of the United States, by act of Congress of 1792, consists of all white male citizens between the ages of 18 and 45, who must be enrolled and arranged into brigades, regiments, and companies, as the legislature of each State may direct. Of the militia, as organized by state legislation, the governor is commander-in-chief, except when called into the service of the United States. To provide arms and equipments for the whole body of militia, arsenals and armories are provided by Congress, in different parts of the country, at an annual charge of $200,000 (since 1808).

In the absence of any official information respecting the number and condition of the Militia of the several States,[1] we gather the following statistics from a pamphlet by General J. W. Hoffman, of Philadelphia, on the subject of the National Guard.

[Footnote 1: The Militia System was broken up by the Volunteer System introduced by the United States and encouraged by State Legislation, and now (1872) even formal returns as to enrollment are not complied with by a majority of the States.]

State. Population. Military Organization.

Alabama--996,902.

Arkansas--484,167,--78 companies of State Guard, with a total of 5,484 men.

California--560,247,--30 companies of infantry, 2 of artillery, 5 of cavalry; organized into 2 battalions, 2 regiments, 6 brigades, 1 division--aggregate, 2,686. Term of service one year. The State furnishes uniforms, and pays $50 per month to each company of infantry and cavalry, and $25 per gun per month to companies of artillery.

Connecticut--537,454,--40 companies of infantry, 2 sections of artillery organized into 4 regiments, 1 brigade; aggregate 2,906. Term of service 5 years; parade annually, by company or regiment, in the month of May; attend camp for six successive days once in every two years. In addition, companies parade once in August or September, and drill not less than one hour in the evenings, not exceeding two evenings in each month, from October to April, inclusive. Compensation to all officers and men $2 per day for each day’s duty performed, and 5 cents mileage to and from place of parade. Members of bands $2,50 per day and mileage; $2 per day for every horse used; rent of armories are paid by the State, and all citizens between 21 and 45 years liable to military duty, but may commute by annual payment of $2,00. Total moneys collected from this commutation tax, $62,000 per annum.

Colorado--39,864.

Delaware--125,015.

Florida--187,748,--96 volunteer companies organized with 3,360 men, out of a total of 21,854 enrolled (116,112 white, and 10,242 colored).

Georgia--1,184,109. No organization.

Illinois--2,539,891. No state organization: a few volunteer companies who provide their own uniforms and are furnished with arms and accoutrements by the State.

Indiana--1,680,637. No organization.

Iowa--1,191,792. No State organization.

Kansas--364,399. No state organization beyond the 2 companies to operate against the Indians.

Kentucky--1,321,011. No organization.

Louisiana--726,915,--37 companies of uniformed infantry, 3 of cavalry, 1 of artillery; organized with 6 regiments, 2 divisions--one of which has 2 brigade organizations; aggregate strength, 3,469 out of 107,821 enrolled militia. Term of service 2 years.

Maine--626,915,--10 companies, with an aggregate of 937; State furnishes arms, equipments, and uniforms.

Maryland--780,894,--the State provides arms, uniforms, and rent of armories, and exempts members from jury duty.

Massachusetts--1,457,351,--92 companies of uniformed infantry, 5 batteries of artillery, 5 companies of cavalry; organized into 10 regiments, 3 brigades, and 1 division; aggregate, 6,277; State pays nearly $200,000 per annum; at the annual inspection in 1870, 5,221 present.

Michigan--1,184,059.

Minnesota--439,706,--30 companies of infantry and 4 sections of field artillery.

Mississippi--27,922.

Missouri--1,721,295.

Nebraska--2,993.

Nevada--2,491.

New Hampshire--318,300.

New Jersey--906,096,--51 companies of infantry, and 2 batteries of artillery; organized into 4 battalions, 6 regiments, 2 brigades; aggregate, 3,146 out of 127,000 enrolled; every company parade at least 12 times in the year, one of which is by brigade; State appropriated in 1870 $26,126. Term of service 6 years, with exemptions from poll tax and jury duty.

New York--4,382,759,--398 companies of infantry, 12 of artillery, 28 of cavalry; organized into 41 regiments, 21 brigades, 8 divisions; aggregate, 24,585; the State furnishes arms and allows rent for armory and $5 per day for any enlisted man who has paraded 7 days in the year, which sum goes into a uniform fund. The State allows for head-quarter expenses, and appropriates annually over $200,000 for its National Guard. Term of service is 7 years, with exemptions from jury duty, and a deduction of $1,000 on the assessed valuation of taxable property.

North Carolina--1,071,361.

Ohio--2,665,260,--2 companies of uniform infantry and 2 sections of cavalry.

Oregon--90,923.

Pennsylvania--3,521,791,--311 companies, with an aggregate of 14,800; no general organization into regiments out of the county of Philadelphia.

Rhode Island--217,353,--State provides armories, or rent for same and pay of armorer, and $2,50 per day for two days’ parade, and $3 per horse.

South Carolina--725,606.

Tennessee--1,258,520.

Texas--818,579.

Vermont--330,551,--4 regiments of infantry, 1 battery of artillery; the State provides arms, uniforms, armories, and $2 per day for each days’ drill, not exceeding 4 days, and tents for a three days’ muster in the autumn.

Virginia--1,225,163.

West Virginia--442,014.

Wisconsin--1,054,670,--8 companies, organized as First Regiment.

The above statement of the legal condition of the militia of the several States, which together constitute the army of Reserve of the United States, is not very creditable to all concerned--to the cities and local communities, whose exemption from riots and illegal combinations of bad men may depend on the fact of an organized force, which the voice of authority could in an hour summon to the protection of the threatened houses and workshops of the citizens;--to the States, whose quota to any national call can not now be depended upon except at the cost of extravagant bounties, and whose raw recruits thus furnished would be worthless till after months of drill and field manœuvres;--to the nation, whose strength should be its weakness for purposes of foreign aggression, and its ability to summon millions of willing men, familiar with military organization and duties, to the defense of their hearths and free institutions.

The Volunteer Soldiery in time of peace, does not hold the same distinct recognition in the armed forces of the United States, apart from the Militia of the several States, as in Great Britain; and yet the most efficient military organizations of the several States, and especially in our larger cities, are of this character; and in most of the States where uniform companies exist, they constitute a permanent and important force, whose services have proved highly valuable in quelling riots and protecting public property. Of the number of regiments or companies--their officers and men, distinct from the enrolled and organized State Militia, we have no official statistics.

MODE OF OFFICERING THE ARMY.

The commissioned officers of the United States army are drawn from three sources:--First, from the cadets of the Military Academy at West Point; Second, from civil life; Third, from the rank and file.

1. The appointment to the grade of lieutenant in either corps, follows regularly to any cadet on graduation, after having completed the course of instruction at West Point. From 1815 to 1832, the army was officered almost exclusively from the Military Academy.

2. The expansion of the military force consequent on the Indian war in Florida, from 1832 to 1837, and the Mexican war from 1845 to 1848, and of the Civil war from 1861 to 1865, was followed by the appointment of many persons from civil life, who had received no military training, and without any special qualifications beyond personal and political considerations.

As a stimulus and reward to special service, promotions are occasionally made from the rank and file, after a mere formal examination in the elementary branches of a common school education, and without the provision for professional training except such as can be got from observation and private reading.

PROFESSIONAL INSTRUCTION AND TRAINING OF OFFICERS.

In the organization and movements of the armed forces of the Colonies, the officers were trained in the military service of the mother country.

In the War of Independence, the general spirit of the people supplied for a time the want of trained soldiers and officers, beyond the small force which had been schooled in the French and Indian Wars; but the necessities of the service compelled Congress to authorize its accredited agents abroad to offer commissions, especially to engineer and artillery officers; and at the close of the war we find nearly all the prominent officers in the artillery and engineer departments had been trained abroad. Nearly all the fortifications were planned by them and erected under their supervision. The names of Steuben, Kosciusko, Du Portail, Radière, Romans, Vincent, Rochefontaine, Toussard, Revardi, L’Enfant, Villefranche, and others of later date, will suggest to any reader of the military history of the country, the extent of our obligations to foreign military schools.

The sources of systematic professional instruction and training for officers of the armed forces of the United States, are--

I. The National Military Academy at West Point, for the general scientific instruction of officers of all arms.

II. The Practical School of Artillery at Fortress Monroe.

III. The Engineer Battalion School of Practice at Hunter’s Point.

IV. The Company and Regimental Drill of various Volunteer Corps in the larger cities of the country.

V. The Cadet Corps in various Military and Scientific Schools in different States.

The gradual development of the military Academy at West Point, and the present condition of Military Education will now be given.

THE MILITARY ACADEMY AT WEST POINT

I. ORIGIN AND HISTORY. PERIOD I.--1802-1812.

The influence of the United States Military Academy upon education, as well as its wide reputation as a school of science, render an inquiry into its rise and progress, a subject both of interest and profit. Since it is mind, rather than any system of forms and studies, which gives power to such institutions, a mere statement of dates and facts is insufficient to give us a just view of its character. We must, if possible, trace the spirit of the men who guided, and the principles impressed upon it. To do this, we shall resort, not merely to the record of events, but to our memory of men and acts, with which we were for years familiar.

It was not to be expected, that schools of refined, scientific art should be founded by small colonies in the wilderness of the new world. When even their clergymen must resort to Europe for education, and their lawyers for license, it was in vain to expect their soldiers to be accomplished engineers. When the revolutionary war came on, this fact became a painful experience. No man felt it more than Washington. With a people, whose patriotism was unquenchable; with soldiers, who rivaled the warriors of Leonidas, he found the best and truest of men, with the smallest possible share of military science. He was obliged to depend on European engineers for a skill which his countrymen did not possess; while their European ideas, and artificial habits were displeasing to his American principles.[2] He felt military instruction to be a primary want in the country. Accordingly, he was the real founder of the Military Academy; that is, he put forth the germinal idea. What the plan of it was to be, and what shape it should ultimately take, he did not state, and probably had not thought of; for Washington in the office of president, seldom meddled with the details of public affairs. What he meant to obtain, however, he distinctly stated, in his message, dated December 3rd, 1793; in referring to measures of national defense, he says an inquiry may be made: “whether your own experience, in the several states has not detected some imperfection in the scheme; and whether a material feature in the improvement of it ought not to be to afford an opportunity for the study of those branches of the military art which can scarcely ever be obtained by practice alone.”

[Footnote 2: Prepared by Major E. D. Mansfield, a graduate of West Point in 1819, for Barnard’s American Journal of Education, March, 1862.]

In his message of December 7th, 1796, he said: “Whatever, argument may be drawn, from particular examples, superficially viewed, a thorough examination of the subject will evince that the art of war is at once comprehensive and complicated; that it demands much previous study, and that the profession of it in its most improved and perfect state, is always of great moment to the security of a nation. This, therefore, ought to be a serious care of every government; and for this purpose an academy, where a regular course of instruction is given, is an obvious expedient, which different nations have employed.”[3]

[Footnote 3: It is not meant to say that this subject was not mentioned before. It was by Col. Pickering, in 1783. But whoever reads the letters and memoirs of Washington, will see, that all the early ideas on the subject of military education and military science were derived from the experience of Washington.]

The views, always entertained, and repeatedly expressed by General Washington, were adopted by Mr. Adams, and Mr. McHenry, secretary of war, in his administration, made an elaborate report on this subject, which was transmitted to congress, on 10th of December, 1800. It is due to Mr. McHenry, to say that his ideas of what ought to be a course of military instruction, were far in advance of what were actually provided, till after the war of 1812-’15 proved his ideas to be correct. In 1794, prior to the last message of Washington, congress attempted to supply the want of a military academy, by attaching cadets to the corps of artillerists, and engineers. This corps consisted of four battalions, to each of which eight cadets were to be attached. This made the whole number of cadets thirty-two; and for this corps of artillerists, engineers and cadets, the secretary of war was directed to procure books, instruments and apparatus. The term cadet signifying in French, the youngest brother of a family, and in Spanish, a young volunteer officer, became naturally applied to young men, who were junior, volunteer officers. In England, the cadet of a family was a young son, who volunteered for the India service; and in the United States has been properly applied to the youth, who enter the military academy.

It seems from the message of Washington, in 1796, that the attempt at military instruction, was a failure. No place, no teachers, no studies, were appointed. It was on the 16th of March, 1802, in the early administration of Mr. Jefferson, that congress established, by that name, the Military Academy. It was still made part of an army corps; the idea of making a separate institution for scientific studies not being yet matured. The artillerists and engineers were made two distinct corps, of which there were forty cadets of artillery and ten of engineers. The corps of engineers consisted of a major, two captains, four lieutenants, and ten cadets, making seventeen in all. The corps constituted the military academy, established at West Point, in the State of New York. So little idea was then entertained of the true objects and mode of scientific instruction, that the law required the cadet, as well as officer, to do duty in any part of the United States. In other words, the only idea of the military academy, at that time, was a place appointed where the officers of engineers might give or receive instruction, when not on other duty. The actual academy, such as it was, conformed to that idea. The major of engineers was the commander, or superintendent. The two captains were instructors, and the cadets were pupils. It was, as a school, an inchoate existence, without regular teachers, or limited studies, or proper discipline. Yet, even in this imperfect condition, it did, as we shall see, some service which ought to be gratefully remembered.

In the meanwhile, let us turn for a moment, to the place which is so memorable in the annals of this country, and is now so intimately associated with science. If Dr. Beattie is correct in saying that the character of the mind is much associated with natural scenery, no place in America could have been more wisely selected, as the site of a national institution. World renowned, as West Point justly is, there is that in its scenery and associations, more interesting to a poetic or a patriotic mind, than its famed Academy. Its green plain, hidden amidst its mountains; its craggy summits; its rocky barriers; its dark evergreens; its darker waters, flowing on forever; that beautiful view of town and country, seen through the frowning brows of Crow Nest and the Beacon; that quiet vale, where Washington oft bent his steps; those lonely little mounds, where the soldiers of the Revolution repose; these forts and ramparts now indistinctly seen, which once guarded these mountain passes; yon ledge of rocks, where Kosciusko once made his little garden; all these and other memorable things, call up whatever is sublime in nature, or noble in history. It is impossible to forget them. It is impossible for the dullest mind, not to have its sensibilities excited, or its character elevated by the contemplation of such sublime scenes, or such interesting events. When such a spot becomes the place of our education, its memories become poetic; its associations mingle with the flow of life, and the structure of our minds.

To return. The law having authorized this ideal Academy, it was immediately instituted, by the appointment of officers. The Academy, it is seen, was on quite a small scale. In fact, so far as teaching was concerned, the Academy consisted of two captains of engineers and ten cadets. The two captains were WILLIAM H. BARRON and JARED MANSFIELD. Mr. Mansfield had been a teacher of mathematics, navigation, and the classics, first at New Haven, (Conn.,) and then at Philadelphia. He had written a volume of “Essays” on mathematics and physics, quite original, and distinguishing him at that time, as the first mathematician of his country. This was brought to the notice of Mr. Jefferson, who with no great love of military affairs, was a warm friend of science. When the act was passed authorizing the Military Academy, Mr. Jefferson wrote to Mr. Mansfield, that he would appoint him a captain of engineers, for the very purpose of becoming a teacher at West Point. Accordingly he was appointed, on May 3rd, 1802; Captain Barron had been appointed in April. Then, in May 1802, the actual Military Academy was constituted, Captains Barron and Mansfield being teachers of mathematics and philosophy, to some half dozen or more cadets and lieutenants. No professor of engineering or of any other department was appointed before 1812. In pursuing the course and growth of instruction at West Point, during this period of ten years, we can only refer to the services of the instructors and graduates. In fact, there were no graduates prior to 1815; but there were appointments made from the cadets of the Military Academy, after more or less study at West Point. To understand what was done, we must refer to the actions of teachers and cadets, rather than to history. Its teachers were few and its annals brief. Captain Mansfield, after a year’s teaching at West Point, was in 1808, appointed by Mr. Jefferson, to a more responsible position. It was necessary to the correctness of our public surveys, that the meridian lines and the base lines (which are co-ordinates,) should be established with astronomical accuracy. For this purpose, Captain Mansfield was appointed surveyor general of the north-western territory; furnished with astronomical instruments, and taking his residence in Ohio, proceeded to establish and perfect that beautiful system of surveys, by which the north-western states are distinguished. Retaining his military bent, with a view to his original destination at West Point, he actually returned there in 1814, to recommence, as we shall see hereafter, his career as an instructor in the national institution. Of Captain Barron, his co-teacher, we only know that he was relieved in February, 1807. At the same time, his successor, FERDINAND R. HASSLER, was appointed, and remained till he resigned in 1810. Mr. Hassler was, we believe, a Swiss by birth. He wrote a small treatise on mathematics, and had quite an extensive reputation, as a mathematician, but was said to be too analytical and refined in the character of his mind, for American practical habits. He was intended for the coast survey, and, we believe, actually commenced it.

In November, 1806, ALDEN PARTRIDGE, superintendent of engineers, was appointed acting assistant professor of mathematics, and retained that position till April, 1812.

The “Teacherships” of French and drawing were created, by the act of February, 1803, being a very important addition to the original scheme of the Academy. To the teachership of French, FRANCIS DE MASSON was appointed, March, 1804, and resigned in March, 1812. To the teachership of drawing, CHRISTIAN E. ZOELLER was appointed, September, 1808, and resigned in April, 1810. Mr. Masson was a Frenchman by birth; Mr. Zoeller, a Swiss. Mr. Masson was highly spoken of by Colonel Williams, a good judge of what constitutes a scholar. Mr. Zoeller was an amiable man, of no high attainments, whose instruction in drawing was wholly confined to the military part, fortifications and bridges.

From this brief history, it appears, that there were but six teachers at West Point, between 1802 and 1812. Of these, no more than four were ever present at one time, and that only between 1808 and 1810. The teachers present, each year, were as follows:

1802-1803, Captain Barron, Mathematics. Captain Mansfield, Philosophy. 1804-1806, Captain Barron, “ Francis Masson, French. 1806-1807, Captain Barron, Mathematics. Francis Masson, French. Alden Partridge, Mathematics. 1808-1810, Ferdinand Hassler, “ Alden Partridge, “ Francis Masson, French. Christian Zoeller, Drawing. 1810-1812, Alden Partridge, Mathematics. Francis Masson, French.

This glance at the actual teachers of West Point enables us to see at a glance, what was done. No continuous study was pursued at all, except mathematics. For the eight years, between 1804 and 1812, French was taught by an able professor, Mr. Masson, and from 1808 to 1810, drawing. In 1812, this inchoate existence of the Academy was ended by the act of congress, reorganizing the institution, and placing it on a permanent and extensive foundation. The next period of five years, from 1812 to 1817, was the forming period of the Academy. In some respects, its elements were chaotic. In others, its personnel was inefficient and inharmonious. In others, again, its materials of instruction were inadequate. From this condition it finally emerged, and attained its present high character and usefulness. The history of this change is important, if not interesting to those who would understand what are the true foundations of a great school of education. In the meanwhile, let us return to what the CADETS of the Academy had done. If they were few, and with small means of instruction, they may nevertheless have shown that the Academy was not altogether fruitless. How many cadets were appointed between 1802 and 1812, we do not exactly know, but we have the number appointed from the Academy. The number of cadets promoted from the Academy during that period were for each year, thus:

In 1802, 2. In 1803, 3. In 1804, 2. In 1805, 3. In 1806, 15. In 1807, 5. In 1808, 15. In 1809, 7. In 1811, 19. In 1812, 18.

This makes eighty-nine in ten years. Let us look at their career, as stated in the brief annals of the army; or, as they are retained in memory. Of this number, comprising ten cadets of more than half a century ago, this is the result:

Killed in battle, 10. Died in service, 21. In service, 7. Resigned, 33. Disbanded, 10. Dropped, 3. Dismissed, 4. Declined, 1.

This is no bad roll. If we were to search our college rolls for those who had been really useful, those who died in battle, or served to the end, or entered other fields of usefulness, or now live in the performance of duty, we should find a less grateful exhibition than this. The number of those who had been “dropped,” or “dismissed,” for incompetence, or vice, would be far greater. Alas! if we could read the secret history of the college roll, how sad would be that account! We know, that in times past, many of the officers of the army were addicted to dissipation. Happily, we can say, many less now. But since we would estimate the value of the Military Academy, even in its most imperfect condition, let us see who some of these men were.

The first cadet appointed was General JOSEPH G. SWIFT,[4] who having risen to the rank of general of engineers and inspector of the Military Academy, resigned, became surveyor of the port of New York, and is now a venerable and respected citizen of Geneva. Of those who were killed in battle, Eleazer D. Wood, (whose monument stands at West Point,) was killed while loading a cannon, in the sortie from Fort Erie. Five others were killed on the Canada frontier, and four in battle with the Indians. Of those who died in service, two reached the rank of general, and eight that of field officers. Of those who are now in service, (7,) one is General JOSEPH G. TOTTEN, chief of the corps of engineers, who served on the Canada frontier in the war of 1812, and at the siege of Vera Cruz. One is Col. SYLVANUS THAYER, who served in the war of 1812-’15; who was superintendent of the Military Academy from 1817 to 1833, and to whom it is indebted for a large part of its usefulness. Of these gentlemen, we shall have more to say, when we refer to the forming period of the institution. Another is Colonel RENE DE RUSSY, who was distinguished in the battle of Plattsburg, and became superintendent of the Academy on the retirement of Col. Thayer. Of those who resigned or were disbanded, many died young; one became a member of congress and politician; and another, Col. WILLIAM MCREE, was a remarkable man, distinguished for gallant conduct in the battle of Niagara and Fort Erie, a member of the board of engineers, and of cultivated mind; he resigned from the army and became surveyor general for Missouri and Arkansas, and finally died of cholera at St. Louis. Of the whole eighty-nine, who were commissioned prior to 1813, but twenty-one were alive in 1850, and several others have died since. The few who now remain have seen more than half a century’s service in useful employments. Perhaps it should be mentioned to the advantage of the Military Academy, as a school of physical education, that at the end of half a century, twenty of its pupils out of eighty-nine, should be yet alive. In twenty years of civil life, as appears from the United States census of 1830 and 1850, more than the same proportion of youth between ten and twenty years of age perished. The general strength and health of the pupils of West Point are beyond a doubt greater than that of the same number of young men brought up in the ordinary methods of education. This is not wholly due to physical exercises, but also to moral education, and to the care and comforts of their mode of life. Will any one deny that discipline is a part of moral education? Is not self-restraint, the regularity of habits, and the art of using the mind in intellectual pursuits, the most important elements of a moral education? It is to all these, and not merely the training and exercise of arms, that the eléves of the Academy owe so large a share of the health and strength of life.

[Footnote 4: The first diploma, which we suppose was a manuscript certificate, was the one given to the then Cadet SWIFT, and signed by Captains Barron and Mansfield.]

In the period of its history which we have now examined, the Military Academy was really only in the germ of its existence. Like most other useful or remarkable enterprises, it was first thought of as a thing needed; then began without any clear idea of what it would become, and was then improved upon, till it grew to be of magnitude and importance.

PERIOD II.--1812-1825.

The Academy, in its germinal existence, whose history we have briefly traced, was obviously inadequate to supply the army and country with young men instructed in the art of war. Congress authorized the appointment of a large number of cadets. But the President did not act upon it, because there were neither professors, nor books, nor quarters, nor material at West Point for their training. In 1808, Mr. Jefferson recommended an enlargement of the Academy. In 1810, Mr. Madison did the same. In vain, however, were these recommendations, till the nation was roused from its indolent repose by the sudden shock of war. In 1811, the battle of Tippecanoe electrified the people. The war-whoop sounded on the north-western frontier, and the aggressive conduct of Great Britain became insufferable. War was an imperious necessity. Then it was that the use if not necessity of an institution for military training became obvious to all reflecting minds. In April, 1812, the act was passed which erected the frame-work of the present Military Academy. As this legal outline has been little changed since, it is necessary that we should look to its provisions, for correct ideas of what the law intended, and what has been substantially carried out in its growth and development.

1st. It was provided, that the number of cadets might be increased to two hundred and fifty, and attached at the discretion of the President as students to the Military Academy at West Point, and be subject to the regulations thereof.

2d. That these cadets should be between the ages of fourteen and twenty-one, and previous to his appointment should be well versed in reading, writing, and arithmetic.

3d. That the Military Academy should consist of the Corps of Engineers, the Professors of Philosophy, of Mathematics, of Engineering, with their assistants, and the teachers of French and Drawing.

4th. That when any cadet shall receive a regular degree from the Academical Staff, he shall be considered a candidate for a commission in any corps for which he shall be deemed competent.

In addition to these provisions for education, money was appropriated for buildings and books, and for a band of music. The expenditure provided for was very small, compared with the need of the Academy; but it was enough for a beginning. It was far easier, as we shall see, to provide for all its material wants, than to bring it into that state of moral and intellectual discipline, which was essential to the attainment of great results. The institution, in its former period, was in an inchoate condition. A few young officers, raised up partly as teachers, and partly as pupils, without a course of studies, without regulations, and without discipline, could furnish no just ideas, from experience, of what a highly intellectual, well-ordered school of science should be; and accordingly the want of just ideas of education was precisely what first stood in the way of making West Point what it subsequently became.

For more than five years there was a wrestling between old and new ideas. There was a positive ignorance of what high education should be. In fact, the country had no models for it. Then there were old habits to overcome. Lastly, there was a willfulness on the part of some in authority, opposed as long as opposition was possible, to any new idea of things. For people are aware, in this day of change and novelty, how strongly the vis inertiæ of intellectual habits opposes intellectual improvement. This very vis inertiæ, at first, almost nullified the power of law itself to improve and enlarge the studies at West Point. How it acted we shall see. The first difficulty at West Point was, (after preparing the accommodations and material) in complying with the spirit of the law, and placing the academic instruction on the high ground really intended. To understand this we must here advert to some provisions of the law which were either overlooked or neglected. First, the law expressly recognized an Academic Staff, who should confer degrees. Secondly, that the cadets of West Point should be students, subject to the regulations of the Academy. All this evidently meant that these two hundred and fifty young men should be placed, like students in college, under regular academic instruction, and that the professors and teachers should constitute an academic faculty, with power to regulate the education of the cadets, and confer degrees according to merit. Ultimately this was accomplished; but it took much effort on the part of the Professors to bring the military authorities into a just conception of this scheme. During the years 1812 and 1813, little was done except in commencing buildings, buying apparatus, appointing the cadets, and getting ready for the real business of the institution. Here we must record the first academic faculty organized at West Point. The professorship of Natural and Experimental Philosophy, which was higher in rank and emoluments than the others, was instituted expressly for Col. JARED MANSFIELD, who, having retained his commission in the corps of engineers, while he was surveyor-general in the north-western states, was now (October, 1812,) appointed to the same professorship which he held ten years before. ANDREW ELLICOTT, who had been astronomer of the United States, and had a wide reputation for mathematical knowledge, was appointed professor of Mathematics, in September, 1813, at which time, also, ALDEN PARTRIDGE was appointed professor of Engineering. The teacher of drawing was CHRISTIAN E. ZOELLER, reappointed; and of French, FLORIMOND DE MASSON. This was the first academic faculty. Subsequently, the principal professors were allowed assistants, and other teachers were at still later periods provided in the departments of Ethics, Tactics, Artillery, Chemistry, &c., as the institution was enlarged, and its wants were better known. The gentlemen above named were, however, the first professors and the first faculty. They had the real labor and responsibility of taking the initial steps, and to a large extent, of forming the Military Academy. At the very first step a difficulty occurred, which could not have been anticipated. Captain ALDEN PARTRIDGE, (who was professor of Engineering) was superintendent of West Point, from January, 1815, to November, 1816--nearly two years. He was a man of strong will; of independent and rather eccentric ideas, who quite naturally as a military man, long resident at the Point, wished to forget that the law required the education of the institution to be decided by an academic faculty, and governed by regulations. He chose rather to remember that it was a military post, governed by a military commandant, and sought to gratify his own ambition by grasping its sole direction. Professors Mansfield and Ellicott, who held no command in the army, took a different view of the subject. They justly thought, that the object of the institution was to give a thorough scientific education, especially adapted to the art of war; that this required discipline, and a course of studies systematic and complete; and that all this was evidently contemplated by the law, which said that the Academy should be governed by regulations, and hence an academic faculty. This difference of opinion was vital. It led to a controversy of two years, which belongs to the private rather than the public history of the Academy. Little of it was known to the public, and we are now concerned only in the issue. Had the views of Captain Partridge prevailed, the institution never could have become what it is.[5] Fortunately, the Professors had the law on their side, and also the good opinion of the administration, and eventually gave to the scientific college the cast and features which it now has. For three years, between 1814 and 1817, this internal controversy continued, gradually tending to give the Academy a systematic organization. General JOSEPH G. SWIFT, (head of the corps of engineers,) who was officially inspector of the Academy, took up his residence at West Point, in November, 1816, but remained only two months. While there, there could be no controversy, as to the government of the Academy, since the commander of engineers was legally its chief. After the removal of General Swift, Captain Partridge, as senior officer, again took command. It was determined, however, to remove him; and the Government most fortunately hit upon an officer, whose character, education, and accomplishments, most eminently fitted him for the post of governing, and disciplining the young men, who were in turn to become the savans as well as the ornaments of their country. This officer was SYLVANUS THAYER, a native of Massachusetts, commissioner in 1808 from West Point to the engineer corps, and who had recently traveled in Europe, examining the military schools of France and Germany. The arrival of Colonel Thayer constitutes the most important epoch in the history of West Point. Why it is so will appear evident when we trace out the scientific culture of the Academy, and the discipline which it furnishes. Up to 1813, we have seen that the Military Academy was merely a small company of officers and cadets, who, being stationed at one post, were required while there to pursue certain mathematical and military studies. It had no one element of organization. From 1814 to 1817, professors Mansfield and Ellicott were struggling with no more than partial success, to give it organization and systematic instruction. But, in 1817, Colonel Thayer, who had seen in France what such institutions required, and whose enlightened mind realized the necessity of adopting better methods, at once coöperated with the Professors, in making a permanent and successful reform.

[Footnote 5: Captain Partridge, who was a useful and energetic man, had subsequently full opportunity of carrying out his popular views in the military schools of Norwich and Middletown, which he founded by his own efforts.]

At this point we should notice the additions made to the academic staff, between 1816 and 1819, and the steps taken by the war department toward carrying out the views of the Professors, and Colonel Thayer. CLAUDE CROZET was appointed professor of Engineering, in March, 1817; DAVID B. DOUGLAS was appointed assistant professor of Natural Philosophy, in January, 1815; CHARLES DAVIES was appointed assistant professor of Mathematics in December, 1816. Rev. THOMAS PICTON was appointed Chaplain, and professor of Ethics, in July, 1818. THOMAS GIMBREDE was appointed teacher of Drawing, in January, 1819. Major JOHN BLISS, instructor of Tactics, in April, 1818; Lieut. GEORGE W. GARDINER, instructor of Artillery, in September, 1817. CLAUDIUS BERARD succeeded Francis Masson, as teacher of French, in January, 1815; JOSEPH DU COMMUN was appointed second teacher of French, in March, 1818. Of the old professors, Captain Partridge and Francis Masson were gone; all the others remain. Thus, in 1817, when Colonel Thayer took charge of the Academy, the corps of teachers was composed of professors Mansfield, Ellicott, and Crozet; teachers Zoeller and Berard; and assistant professors Douglas and Davies, exclusive of the military teachers and of those appointed in 1818 and 1819. This was properly the Academic Staff, and Colonel Thayer was willing and pleased to have them take their proper part in organizing the institution, and raising it to that high standard of discipline and excellence to which it has since attained. In the meanwhile, the war department, under the enlightened administration of Mr. Crawford, had endeavored to supply some of the obvious defects of the Academy, by new regulations.

So far we have pursued the history of the Academy, as it progressed from a germinal idea to actual being and life. It is now necessary to trace that system of scientific culture which is its essential element and peculiar character. In this the student of education may be more interested, and as we trace it still further, in its fruits, the education and services of more than two thousand young men, who have held the most important positions in all the departments of life, we shall be better able to pronounce a just judgment upon its merits and services.

Mr. CRAWFORD, one of the most enlightened men who have appeared in public affairs, was, we believe, the first to understand and attempt to remedy the defects and irregularities which Professors Mansfield and Ellicott had pointed out.[6] In March, 1816, “Rules and Regulations” were drawn up by Mr. Crawford. The main points in them were--

1. There shall be a Board of Visitors, to consist of five suitable gentlemen, who shall attend each annual examination.

2. There shall be a General Examination twice in each year; in July and December, and an annual vacation in July and August.

3. Cadets shall be admitted in September, and examined in spelling, reading, writing, and arithmetic.

4. A course of studies, embracing definitely all branches of science and instruction to be procured, and rules for classification shall be drawn up, and comprise a complete course of education at the institution.

[Footnote 6: These defects and irregularities arose from not obeying the law, and not pursuing the ideas it pointed out. The great effort of Professors Mansfield and Ellicott, was to get the spirit of the law followed practically.]

According to the last regulation, a course of studies was drawn up by the Academic Faculty, and approved by Mr. Crawford, in July, 1816. This course comprised four years, and was substantially the same (although largely increased,) which has been pursued since.

The first year studies were English Grammar, French, Algebra, Geometry, and Logarithms.

The second year comprised French, Geometrical Construction, Application of Algebra, Mensuration, Plain and Spheric Trigonometry, the Conic Sections, and Drawing.

The third year, Natural and Experimental Philosophy, Astronomy, and Drawing.

The fourth year, Engineering, Geography, History, and Ethics.

In the first draft, Engineering was put in the third year; but since 1817, has been placed in the fourth. In a year or two afterwards was added the Calculus; and in a few years, Chemistry, Mineralogy, and Natural Law. This course of studies is exclusive of the purely military part, which under the heads of Tactics, Practical Artillery and Gunnery, occupied several hours each day.

Thus, in July, 1816, the Academy had for the first time arrived at a course of studies, and a preparation for discipline. In the fall and winter of 1816, began an attempt to carry this course of studies into practical effect. We do not say there had been no studies and no attempt at classification before that, for there were, but that nothing had really been perfected in either, till after the “regulations” of 1816. If we could carry the reader back to the year 1815, and see the difficulties under which the professor of that day labored, the small material provided, and the undisciplined condition of the young men under their charge, we should give better views of the merits and services of its pioneer teachers. One or two reminiscences may possibly throw some light on the subject. Colonel Mansfield arrived at West Point in 1814, and immediately sought for his pupils. He was not like the professors of whom Gibbon speaks, remembering that he had a salary to receive, but forgetting he had duties to perform. On the contrary, he immediately asked for pupils to teach. What was he to teach? Philosophy and Astronomy. But these required prior training, and it was not till the winter of 1814-’15, that he could find any pupils. Then he found five young men who thought that they could go on in such studies. For want of any recitation rooms at the Point, he taught them in the parlor of his own house. As we shall refer specifically to the subject of text-books, we merely add, that the only work to be found at all suitable, was Enfield’s Philosophy. There was no classification, and in a few months these five cadets were commissioned. They made the first class in Philosophy, taught at West Point.

Again, there are some who will recollect Professor Ellicott, sitting at his desk at the end of a long room, in the second story of what was called the Mess Hall, teaching Geometry or Algebra, looking and acting precisely like the old-fashioned schoolmaster, of whom it was written,

“And still they gazed, and still the wonder grew, That one small head could carry all he knew.”

The cadets were all “boys” to him, and his kind face was long remembered. In the other end of this room, or in the next, was seen his acting assistant, Stephen H. Long, then a young lieutenant of engineers; since distinguished as a traveler, an engineer, and a man of science. The text-book used was “Hutton’s Mathematics,” and at that time the best to be had. Mr. Hutton had been a professor at Woolwich, England, and his treatises were plain, simple, easily understood, and therefore well adapted to beginners. It was, however, very deficient both in extent and analysis. It was a good text-book then, for there were no cadets trained to pursue deeper or more analytical works. With Hutton’s Mathematics, Enfield’s Philosophy, and plain right-lined drawing, and nothing which could be called engineering, did the cadets of the Academy get along, without roll, classification, or graduation, till the close of 1816.

In August, 1817, as we have said, Colonel Thayer became superintendent at West Point; and in the course of the next four or five years the Academy passed through the great changes which brought it from the inchoate to the crystallized state in which it now appears. The most important of these changes relate to scientific culture; and we shall best describe them by narrating the actual work the classes then pursued, and the change of text-books. The first step was taken, as we have seen, in March, 1816, by the regulations of Mr. Crawford, which required classification, a course of studies, and annual examinations. Some steps towards these were taken in 1816, but very imperfectly. In 1817 the system of classification was first systematically begun. CLAUDE CROZET, a French officer under Napoleon, and a pupil of the Polytechnic School, was appointed professor of engineering, in March, 1817. The annual examination coming on in June, the course of studies in his department did not regularly commence till September, and the second or junior class[7] of 1817-’18 was the first class which commenced thoroughly the severe and complete course of studies at West Point. The labors of that class in the years 1818 and 1819 may have been equaled, but certainly have not been surpassed. It was not a brilliant class, but its labors were not the less on that account. It had not merely to pass over the plain turnpike road of science which is now made so easy to those who follow; but, like the pioneers of an army, had to cut down the obstructions, make their own bridges, and to no small extent, furnish their own munitions. Let us look into the class-room of 1817, as Professor Crozet advances to instruct those young men in studies, which were not only new to them, but entirely unheard of, and in which the language to which they were born and bred furnished not a single text-book. Professor Crozet was to teach engineering; but when he met the class, he found not one of them fit to learn engineering. These were branches of science, and its affiliations, essentially necessary to engineering, which they had never been taught. What was he to do? All he could do obviously was to supply these preliminary studies before he could commence in his own department. In other words, he must begin by becoming a teacher of mathematics, and drawing. The surprise of the French engineer instructed in the Polytechnique may well be imagined when he commenced giving his class certain problems and instructions, which not one of them could comprehend or perform. Among these preliminary studies was Descriptive Geometry, not an original and distinct science, but which by projecting geometrical figures and problems on co-ordinate planes, gave a more facile and practical mode of representing (as its name implies,) as well as solving many geometrical and practical problems. This, too, required an accurate knowledge of mathematical and perspective drawing, and its various minor but important arts. We doubt whether at that time more than a dozen or two professors of science in this country knew there was such a thing; certainly they never taught it, and equally certain, there was not a text-book in the English language. Perhaps this is not surprising, when we reflect, that this new application of geometry was scarcely thirty years old. Monge, a French savans, was, we believe, the author of this system, about the beginning of the French Revolution. Crozet meant to begin with Descriptive Geometry, but fortunately, the class was not in the last year of the course (in which engineering has recently been taught,) and could spare some time for mere mathematics. But, a new difficulty arose. There was no text-book in English, and none to be had just then in French. Geometry is not a thing to be taught orally. What is to be done? It was here at this precise time that Crozet, by aid of the carpenter and painter, introduced the blackboard and chalk. It is a very simple thing, and so is every thing which is useful; but we know of no mere adjunct of teaching, so useful as the blackboard. To professor Crozet, so far as we know, is due the introduction of this simple and useful machine. He found it, with many other things, far superior to the English methods in the Polytechnic of France.

[Footnote 7: The Class here spoken of graduated in 1819. Of its living members, are HENRY BREWERTON, late Superintendent at West Point; EDWARD D. MANSFIELD, Commissioner of Statistics for the State of Ohio; JUSTIN DIMMICK, late Commander of Fortress Monroe; DANIEL TYLER, a distinguished Engineer and General in the Army of the Potomac; WM. H. SWIFT, a distinguished Engineer, and President of the Illinois Canal Company; JOSHUA BAKER, a Civil Engineer, Judge, and Planter, in Louisiana; and Major TURNBULL, distinguished as a Topographical Engineer in the War with Mexico.

Among the dead was GEORGE H. WHISTLER, the most distinguished Civil Engineer our country has produced.]

We now see Crozet with his blackboard before him, chalk in hand, and animated, intellectual face, about to teach his class a new science, without a text-book. Again he meets a new difficulty. He does not more than half understand the American language. This difficulty is only to be overcome by practice. With extreme difficulty he makes himself understood. With extreme difficulty his class comprehend that two planes at right-angles with one another are to be understood on the same surface of the blackboard on which are represented two different projections of the same object. But, at last it is done. The Professor labors with inexhaustible patience, and the pupils are pleased to receive into their minds entirely new ideas. The first problems are drawn and demonstrated on the blackboard, by the Professor; then drawn and demonstrated by the pupils, and then accurately copied into permanent drawings; and thus this class were taught in the most important and valuable method of imparting true knowledge, which has been given to mankind since the days of Socrates. Fortunately, professor Crozet had brought with him the complete drawings of the French Polytechnique, so that he was not, in this particular, obliged to depend upon himself. The path of his instruction soon became easier, and then this class completed their course in drawing, mathematics, and Engineering.

In the study of Natural Philosophy and Mechanics, the way was scarcely less difficult. We have already said, that Enfield’s Philosophy was the first book on that subject. But this was not enough. Professor Mansfield looked around in vain for any suitable book on Mechanics. At last, Gregory’s Mechanics was adopted. It was a book without any analysis, and probably written only for scientific men. Yet, it was the best to be had. For several years after, this work still remained the best book on Mechanics. Whether the class who first studied its mysterious pages acquired as clear and extensive ideas of the subject as those who have since passed over smoother roads, may be doubtful. It is certain they had more arduous labors. We have said there was no text-book on engineering, as a science. When the class which had commenced Descriptive Geometry, with professor Crozet, (then the second or the junior class,) had become the first class, they were instructed in engineering by drawings from oral teaching, on the blackboard. The various modes of laying out fortifications, of bridging, of defiling, of materials, ordnance, &c., were taught by professor Crozet. For several years no text-book in engineering was found. It was not till 1823 that a French treatise, entitled the Science of War and Fortication, was translated by Major O’Connor, and for several years used as a text-book. It will be seen that the class which, in 1817, 1818, and 1819, commenced the new culture and discipline of West Point, had an arduous and difficult task. It is, notwithstanding, quite probable, that this severe exercise of the mind, in making paths for itself, where there are no guide-posts on the way, no regal road, is a better discipline than that furnished by the more easy and systematic methods.

Perhaps no one step taken at West Point, has contributed so much to intellectual culture as the Merit-Roll. The effect at the Military Academy is totally different from what it would be at any civil institution. For there it determines rank, which is the great object of military men. Forty young men may be commissioned on the same day to the same grade, but through all their after life, even when they return to civil life, the distinctions of the merit-roll will follow them, and be counted for or against them. In the very first day of their commissioned service, the distinction is a practical one, for there are great and practical advantages in certain arms of the service over others. Thus the engineer officer, without any actual care of men, or responsibility for any movements, and almost always stationed at comfortable posts, has great advantages over other arms. The Artillery has advantages over the Infantry. Thus the cadet, commissioned from West Point, has determined for himself, by his position on the merit-roll, not only his rank in the army, but almost his position in human life. The merit-roll, as it now exists, graduated in all departments, and summed up at the close of the course, was not adopted at once, but was the work of several years.

In February, 1818, the superintendent of the Academy was directed by the Secretary at War to publish in the Army Register the “names of cadets who are distinguished for attainments, and meritorious conduct, not exceeding five in each class, specifying the studies in which they may excel.”

We well recollect with what excitement and interest this communication was received by the cadets of that day, especially by those who thought themselves within the probabilities of that distinction. It unquestionably stimulated most of the young men to much greater exertions than they would otherwise have made. In a few months after, the merit-roll was fully established in the classes, and the rank of the graduating cadets determined by it.

There has been much discussion, and no small doubt, as to the real effects of emulation. There is undoubtedly a bad sense, and a bad effect attached to that term. But is that a necessary consequence of the merit-roll? Is not the merit-roll adopted, so far as it can be ascertained, in all departments of human life? Who would risk himself with an ignorant engineer, if he could get a skilled one? Who would employ a poor clerk if he could get a good one? The objection made to emulation is that it excites wrong motives. However this may be, and however casuists may regard it, it is quite certain that the merit-roll is the strongest stimulant to intellectual exertion which can be presented to young men. Nor can we perceive, after much observation on its effect, that it has impaired the purely moral motives of action, or excited evil passions, to be remembered in after life. At West Point all the moral actions which are visible and tangible are brought within the scale of the merit-roll, and often the fate of a young man is determined far more by his standing in conduct, than in studies.

II. STUDY, DISCIPLINE, AND FRUITS.

Having thus sketched the historical progress of the Academy in the path of scientific culture, it remains for us to state what it is; what it has done; and what men have conducted it.

Without entering into minute details, we shall very briefly state the present methods of study and discipline. The leading studies in their order are Mathematics, Natural Philosophy, Mechanics, Astronomy, Engineering, Chemistry, French, Tactics, Artillery Practice, Mineralogy, Ethics, and History. This course is wholly scientific, the practical part being adapted strictly to military purposes. In the early period of the institution, some attempt was made to introduce the classics, but it was found impracticable, with the limited time allowed the cadets. Indeed, it may be doubted whether any institution can have more than one tone. All branches of human learning may be embraced in the proper schedule of university instruction; but has any university given equal attention to all branches of education? What are called colleges in our country, all aim at fitting young men for the civil professions--Law, Medicine, and Theology. They therefore make the classics the principal branch of study, and are right, since Law, Medicine, and Theology have their foundation deep laid in the classic ages. Literature also is a part of professional knowledge, necessary to adorn and illustrate the history and theory of professional science. Hence, in these lines of instruction specially have run the studies of the college, and from these is derived the tone of college education. The object of the Military Academy was totally different. It was not civil, but martial life, for which the young men were fitting. It was neither a metaphysical discussion, nor a hair-splitting argument on the law, in which they were expected to excel. They were to learn the sterner arguments of the battle-field; to arrange squadrons for the hardy fight; to acquire that profound knowledge of the science and materials of nature, which should fit them for the complicated art of war; to defend and attack cities; to bridge rivers; to make roads; to provide armaments; to arrange munitions; to understand the topography of countries; and to foresee and provide all the resources necessary to national defense. This was the object of the Military Academy, and to that one end it was adapted. The method of education may be happily stated under the heads of Studies, Physical and Moral Discipline, and of Military Exercises.

1. The subjects and method of study we have already mentioned; Mathematical, Philosophical, Mechanical, Chemical, Military, and French, the military language. These being the chief topics of study, the students and the time were suitably divided into classes and hours. There are four classes, occupying four years, as usual in colleges. There are ten months of study, the intermission being in the hot months of July and August, when only military studies and exercises are pursued. The studies of a day are necessarily modified, by the introduction of military exercises which consume much time. The regular study hours (which include also the recitations,) are from 8 A.M. to 1 P.M., and from 2 P.M. to 4 P.M., making seven hours of study and recitations. Generally four hours more are consumed in military exercise and discipline, being the hours before breakfast, and after 4 P.M. Thus eleven hours are generally occupied either in study or exercises. The evening also after dark, is devoted to study in so far that with occasional exceptions, the cadets are required to be in the rooms. In this division of time we find a continual alternation of study and exercise; leaving the least possible time for idleness, or mere amusement. Indeed, the problem of education is to find the maximum of development, with the minimum of idleness. To this should be added, that the development should be co-relatively, intellectual, physical, and moral.[8] It is not merely ignorance, but unequal development, which is the great misfortune of mankind. How many great and glorious intellects have been lost, because there were no counter-balances to the force which, inclined in only one direction, carried them off into a wilderness of fruitless objects!

[Footnote 8: We use the word moral, in preference to spiritual, because, in its comprehensive sense, including the latter; but by no means intimating, that in this Christian country, we should make any place of education a mere reproduction of Persian or Greek models. Our servile imitation of the Ancients, often makes us forget that we are neither Spartans nor Romans. The man who attempts at this day to revive the institutions of Pagan Greece, is as false to true Philosophy, as he is to true Christianity.]

In the course of studies pursued at West Point, the main feature is the method of study. We can give an idea of this in a few words. The very first thing done at West Point is to recognize the fact, that intellects are unequal; in other words, that of a given number of young men, commencing a severe and elaborate course of studies, there will be some who can not endure it, and can not get through; and others, who while they will come up to the requisites for graduation, can not equal a third class, who are capable and ambitious of receiving the highest style of education. This recognition is effected thus: a class enters the Academy, we will say eighty in number. This class enters on the 1st of September; and on the 1st of January there is a semi-annual examination. This four months of study by that class is regarded as a period of probation, which will furnish some test of the abilities of its several members. When the January examination is held, some are found deficient, and they are at once discarded. Then the remaining class are numbered, according to what is then their apparent merit, and they are divided into sections of from fifteen to twenty each; those highest on the roll being placed in the first section; those next in the second, &c. Usually there are four of these sections. The professor usually teaches the first section; his assistant the second, and so on. It is obviously a decided advantage to be in the first section, and there is usually a struggle to get there. But, a cadet may change his position in his class, at any time, by his own efforts. This he can only do, however, by more strenuous efforts. Then, if he be in the second section, he may at the end of the year be found to have a higher aggregate of good marks in study and conduct than some of those in the first section. In that case he will be transferred. Thus the ambition of the student has always placed before it the possibility of higher class rank, and if his talents and industry are capable of it, he will attain it.

The method of study at West Point, which in all institutions is the important point, is the rigidly demonstrative, in those studies which admit of it, and the positively practical in those which do not. The course of studies requires this, if the subjects of study are to be thoroughly understood. There is little of the purely metaphysical or transcendental known or pursued at West Point. No abstract speculations or merely theoretical inquiries occupy their minds. It is the actually knowing, and doing, in which they are engaged. As far as can be made practically useful, the oral method is pursued. In mathematical and mechanical, engineering and tactical studies, this is largely the case. The blackboard, we have said, was first introduced into this country by Professor Crozet, at West Point. How largely this is used in all institutions of education now, our readers well know. It has proved one of the most efficient means of instruction at West Point. The student of the mathematical section, for example, begins with a text-book on Algebra, in his hand; but, it is on the blackboard where the workings of his mind are chiefly exhibited. He learns what he can from the book, but, on the blackboard the professor makes him trace out what he has done, not merely by telling what he knows, but what he don’t know; detects his weak place, and forces his mind (so far as such force is possible,) to think, and think rightly on the subject before him. This thinking, we need not tell experienced teachers, is the great thing which education is to teach. If a student can not, or will not think studiously and industriously, he will not long remain at West Point. There is not, as in civil colleges, the great fallow field of poetry, history, and metaphysics, in which he may show his classical professor that he has acquired rich things, although ignorant of mathematics. It will not do to say that he has wandered with Greeks and Romans around the ruins of Troy, or by the waters of Babel. There is no such compensating principle in the system at West Point. The cadet must study what is set before him; must study it hard; must think upon it, and discipline his mind to systematic modes of thought.

2. This leads us to the Specific Discipline of the Academy. This is partially included in what we have already said. The intellectual discipline is mainly maintained by the method of study; but there is a grand and perfect system of discipline, which we may briefly describe. The term DISCIPLINE is derived from disciples, discipulus, and means originally teaching of knowledge; but this is not all, nor entirely its modern sense. Discipline is training in knowledge and virtue, in order and diligence, in good conduct, and good habits. To do this requires a control of the body as well as mind; of food and raiment; of time and exercise; as well as the imparting of facts and ideas. It was in the former sense rather than of the latter, that the word EDUCATION, (to lead forth,) was understood among the ancients, and so far as they went they were right. It was this discipline in virtue, temperance, courage, fortitude, and self-denial, which was taught in the days of Persian Cyrus, and Greek Leonidas. It was adopted among the early Christians; but, Cowper well said:--

“In colleges and halls in ancient days, When learning, virtue, piety, and truth Were precious, and inculcated with care, There dwelt a sage called Discipline. * * * * * But Discipline, a faithful servant long, Declin’d at length into the vale of years,”

Nothing can be more certain than the decline of “discipline” in modern civil institutions. “Colleges and Halls” advertise a much enlarged course of studies; they call to their aid the most learned professors; and they proclaim “all the modern improvement,” and yet it is quite certain, that a pupil can walk for years their learned halls, and at last receive the honors of graduation with a very small share of either learning, diligence, or virtue. Civil institutions may be most excellent for all, who either by early care or natural inclination are willing to use their opportunities for their intellectual or moral advancement. Nay, more, all open irregularities will be corrected, and all possible means afforded for spiritual improvement. But there are two things impossible to overcome--the popular and almost universal license allowed youth, (under the name of freedom) and the total want of any ultimate power to restrain it. These stand directly in the way of thorough discipline. At a Government Military Institution, this is directly reversed. The very first thing taught is positive obedience. The cadet can not be a week at West Point without knowing that he can not govern himself, but must be governed by others. If he is either not fit or not willing, the faculty meet the case in short and decisive language: “If you are either unable or unwilling to pursue the course of study and discipline, we direct you must instantly go. There are plenty more worthy to fill your place.” There is, then, no alternative for the cadet but to go forward, and exert himself to the utmost, or not to go at all. There can be no loitering by the way, to slumber in idleness, or waste in dissipation, or pursue the pleasures of literature. There is no doubt that this stern and constant discipline is the great merit of West Point. It acts on the whole conduct and character. We have already said, that the class-standing determined by the merit-roll, determined their position relatively, and their rank in the army, and by consequence, great distinctions and differences in after life.

Let us see how this merit-roll is made up. The first thing done is to mark each cadet with a figure (having relation to an agreed scale of numbers,) for every act done or undone, in study, conduct, drill, attention, &c. The second is to agree upon the relative values of each study, conduct, &c., in aggregating the whole positive or negative performance of a cadet, in his whole course at West Point. The summation of these for any one year gives his class-standing for that year, and the summation for the whole course gives his standing at the time of graduation, and his rank in the army.

Formerly, and we believe yet, the mode of marking and summing up for standing, was this. Each professor or teacher marked for one performance one of seven marks, from -3 to +3. This being purely artificial may be changed. But it is in this way the marking is made. Then in regard to relative values of study and conduct, the scale formerly was:--

Mathematics, 300. Philosophy and Mechanics, 300. Engineering and Military Science, 300. Chemistry and Mineralogy, 200. Moral and Political Philosophy, 200. Conduct, 300. Infantry Tactics, 150. Artillery Practice, 150. French, 100. Drawing, 100.

To obtain 2,100, the aggregate, a cadet must never have failed in a recitation, or been absent from a military duty, or derelict in the least particular. This most rarely if ever happens. Not to fall short more than 100, is evidence of very high standing.

It is evident, that under this system, emulation is highly excited, and, in fact, there must be a constant, unremitting effort to graduate at all. The general result is, that not more than one-half of all appointed are graduates. At the first semi-annual examination, many drop off; several more at the end of the first year, and more at the end of the second. Nearly all who survive the second year are graduated.

The only remaining point, peculiar to the system at West Point, is that of Military Exercises. As a Military Institution, this is a necessity, but it has also a great advantage as a means of Physical Education. This is a kind of education too much neglected, and for which civil colleges afford little opportunity, and no encouragement. The ordinary games, amusements, and walks in the field are relied upon to afford development to the body, and the natural tastes the only guide. So thought not Persian statesmen, Greek Philosopher, or Roman Senator. In contrast, a systematic education of the body was a principle, and a practice, with all the civilized nations of antiquity. There was a constant attention to this in the training of youth; and the Olympian Games, the Gymnastic Exercises, and the Gladiatorial Shows, all had reference to this principle. If heathen nations could thus wisely attend to the healthy development of their bodies, can Christian people safely neglect it? There is no question that the Christian law of temperance, daily labor, good temper and amiable dispositions will do much to preserve health and strength. The health of the mind goes far to make the health of the body; but we must recollect that all students, properly so called--men who are set apart for the cultivation of learning and science--the savans of a country, are cut off at the very beginning, from that daily labor of the body, which in the dawn of human history was declared to be the necessity of man’s existence. There is, therefore, a positive need of supplying by some system of salutary exercises, the place of that labor in which the farmer and mechanic are constantly exercised. What shall it be? Our common classical institutions have left this almost entirely to the student’s own choice. Several hours of the day are left to the student to employ as he pleases. Does not experience prove, that he is quite as apt to employ this in novel reading, or playing cards, or visiting, or (in the case of an ambitious pupil,) in studying or reading the classics, as in any systematic method of exercise? Let the early dead of consumption, the victims of dissipation, and the unhappy subjects of chronic diseases, teach the living, that education consists not merely in spurring the mind on to intellectual feats, however admirable. The bird soars through the mid-heavens, but soars on the strength of his wings; and if he had the soul of Socrates, would still fall, when they are exhausted.

The military exercises, at West Point, accomplish some great results. They give an admirable exercise to the body, and they occupy time which might be wasted, and they compel the cadets to give up late night studies. Let us begin with the last. Nothing is more common among the ambitious students of colleges, than to sit up late at night. To burn the midnight oil, in order to accompany every thought in the realms of Plato, or fight with Hector on the plains of Troy, or pursue the phantom of metaphysics, or the genius of literature through the bright worlds of fiction, is the common boast of scholars. They have little thought, till too late, that life was shortened, and happiness impaired, by every hour taken from the natural period of rest. At West Point this evil is avoided, not so much by force of command, as by that of wise arrangements. At the dawn of day, even in the shortest days, the shrill fife and rolling drum summon the cadet to his morning duties, and with the exception of the hours of meals, there is one incessant pressure upon him for bodily and intellectual labor, till ten at night. The results of this is, that when the hour of retirement comes, he must have more than human strength, who is not ready and willing to lie down and sleep. There are, of course, exceptions; but, at West Point, they are rare. The lights are put out at 10 o’clock, and the weary student is ready to retire. Thus, the system of discipline at the Military Academy at once strengthens the body, stimulates ambition, prevents idleness, and compels the mind to pursue the objects of reason, rather than the charms of imagination.

Having thus traced very briefly the history, studies, and discipline of West Point, it is only just to say something upon the fruits it has produced. These are divided naturally into two classes; the work of the Professors, and the performance of Graduates. The former is little noticed in the accounts of our colleges, except in the reputation of some distinguished men; but the latter, (the divines, lawyers, and statesmen who have graduated,) make the glory and the ornament of the triennial catalogue. Let us see if something has not been produced by West Point, which, in regard to the peculiar objects and teaching of the Academy, may bear a favorable comparison with the catalogue of any institution for the last half century. We do not mean in regard to the learned professions, for if West Point had excelled in these departments, it would have utterly failed in those for which it was made. But, we mean in the great field of science and of usefulness. First, let us look at some of the fruits produced by its professors, especially in the production of text-books. In the history of instruction at West Point, we have stated the total absence in the beginning, of text-books on some subjects, and the unfitness of those on others, even the common studies of Mathematics. The first text-book on Descriptive Geometry, published in America, and we believe, the English language, was prepared by Professor CROZET; but, as he then understood our language imperfectly, and had little taste for authorship, it was soon supplanted, by a complete treatise prepared by Professor Davies. On that subject, as on the subject of Engineering, there was no systematic treatise; and for a time, West Point got along by oral teaching, and such collateral aid as could be had. The utter deficiency of suitable books may be known by the fact, that the first really tolerable text-books on mathematics were translations of La Croix, Bourdon, Biot, &c., French authors. The French methods of writing and teaching science are, on most topics, the best. Their style is clear and analytical. The English treatises are clumsy, being what is called in literature, elliptical, having vacancies in the reasoning, to be supplied by the student. The next great and permanent improvement in books, were the mathematical works of Professor DAVIES, a graduate of 1815, when the Academy was yet in a chrysalis state; he was several years a teacher before he conceived the idea of supplying a new series of mathematical text-books. His first plan was to adopt the best French works as a basis, and modify them, so as to be adapted to the American course of instruction. In this manner were prepared “Davies’ Legendre,” (Geometry,) and subsequently “Davies’ Bourdon,” (Algebra.) Other treatises were prepared on his own plan, and thus, for many years, Professor Davies pursued the quiet and laborious task (independent of other avocations,) of preparing an entire course of mathematical text-books. In time he modified these again, so as to fit them for the best colleges, and the higher schools. From the smallest mental arithmetic, to the profoundest treatise on the Calculus, he has produced clear and admirable text-books on every topic of mathematical studies. Many other good books have been prepared by professors in colleges, but there is no part of the United States in which some one of Davies’ works is not taught in schools and colleges. Gradually, the civil institutions have been, in some degree, brought up to the standard of West Point, in mathematical studies.

In more recent years, Professor BARTLETT has published his treatise on Optics; Professor CHURCH, on the CALCULUS, and Professor MAHAN, on Field Fortification, and a treatise on Civil Engineering. Various other works on military subjects have been contributed to the stock of knowledge, by graduates of the Academy.[9]

[Footnote 9: The authorship of West Point has been quite extensive: too much so to enumerate here. Among the works of its graduates, we may mention the “Political Manual,” “American Education,” and Statistical Reports by Edward D. Mansfield, the “Review of Edwards on the Will,” by A. T. Bledsoe, and the Military Tactics of Generals McClellan, and Halleck. The Educational Works of Mr. Mansfield have been before the public for many years, and studied in all parts of the United States. In this class also may be mentioned the editorial labors of some twenty of the graduates, some of whom have had no small influence on public affairs.]

Thus have the graduates of West Point, by disseminating in textbooks, and teaching the higher knowledge, and better methods pursued there, in fact, and beyond dispute, elevated the entire standard of education in this country. Contrast, for example, the text-books of Day, Hutton, Enfield, Gregory, &c., which were the only ones to be had on mathematical science in 1818, with those now in use at West Point, New Haven, or Princeton. Contrast the methods of study before the blackboard, the art of drawing, the system of rigid demonstration, and of exact scales of merit were introduced, with those now in use in the higher schools of science, and we shall be satisfied that West Point has done a great and most useful work in elevating the standard of education. This is one fruit of its production, which has been altogether too lightly estimated. If it be of importance to increase the number of blades of grass, it is of much more importance to increase the number of minds fitted to enjoy the works of God, and use beneficially the gifts with which he has intrusted them.

A more obvious and commonly remarked fruit of West Point, is the men, laboring in their vocations, which it has produced. It is impossible here, (though it would be a labor of love,) to note the individual examples of merit and usefulness, among those whom West Point has sent into the service of their country. We are here limited rather to a statement of general results. It may be done briefly; and since we have seen no Register later than 1850, we must deal in round numbers. These, however, will approximate the precise facts. They are there statistically:--

Whole number of Graduates, (about) 2,000. Killed in battle, 80. Died in service, 300. In military service of the United States now, 800. Have been in political service (ministers, } governors,) mayors, and members of congress, } 80. and of legislature } Other civil and state offices, 100. Lawyers, 110. Clergymen, (including two bishops,) 16. Physicians, 110. President of colleges, professors and teachers, 100. Authors, editors, and artists, 25. Civil engineers, and officers of R.R. and canals, 180. Merchants, financiers, farmers, and manufacturers, 140. Officers of militia, and volunteers, (not of the army,) 110.

Numbers have resigned, and died young, not above enumerated, and numbers of these also have died in the civil service. We have made this classification to show how largely West Point has contributed to education, civil engineering, and the professions. These were not the direct objects of the Academy; but, when long years of peace presented no duties but that of the garrison, and no glory to the profession of arms, it was natural and proper for active and ambitious young men to seek honor and usefulness in other pursuits. Nor did the government discourage this, for it foresaw what has happened, that these young men, so highly educated in science, would diffuse this knowledge throughout the country; elevate the standard of education, and be ready when their country needed their services. This has happened. A better knowledge of the exact sciences has been carried into the colleges; the railroads and canals have been built by engineers ready furnished by the government; and now when half a million of men have been suddenly called to war, they have been largely officered by the graduates of West Point. Here we may briefly allude to the most grave fact which has been urged against the Military Academy. The best officers of the rebel army were educated there. Why is this? Is there a want of sound morals? or, is loyalty no virtue there? Neither. A part, and a part only[10] of the graduates born and grown up in the south, have gone with their friends, families, and connections, into the rebel service. This was on account of social ties, and had no more to do with West Point, than had other rebels from Harvard, or Yale, with those institutions. The noticeable fact is that they were educated at the government expense, and therefore under peculiar obligations to the country. But we find a parallel in the numerous officers of the state, as well as of the army and navy, who had been honored and rewarded at the public expense, but who thought it no shame to betray their country, and conspire against its life. We in vain attempt to account for such crimes, except upon the principle of common depravity, of which history has furnished similar examples in all ages of the world.

[Footnote 10: We should not forget that a large number of West Point graduates from the south, (Maryland, Virginia, Carolina, and Tennessee,) have remained loyal, in spite of all the influences of social and political ties.]

We have come to the end of the work we proposed. The rise, progress, and fruits of the Military Academy, we have briefly, and, we trust, justly delineated. Certainly, we have no end to serve, no prejudice to gratify. We knew the Academy in its early and immature period. We have seen it grow up to usefulness and honor. We see its graduates taking their places among those who have well served their country, and well deserved its laurels. In this we are glad. But our memory is filled with other images. We see West Point, in the now lengthening shadows of time. We seem to see those with whom we studied freshly present, as they walk the green plain, or sit before the class, or strive to teach our dull and inattentive minds. They were men worth remembering, and when, in after times, we became their friends, rather than their pupils, still more pleasant memories gathered around them. We seem to see the venerable ELLICOTT, like Goldsmith’s schoolmaster, alike full of learning, and of kindly humor; the placid and intellectual expression of MANSFIELD, whose abstracted looks seemed to be searching the higher philosophy; the courtly and dignified THAYER, whose graceful manners and attractive conversation can not be forgotten by any who knew him; and the amiable COURTNAY, who though of later date, will long be remembered. He left the world in doubt, whether he was the better scholar or the better man.[11]

[Footnote 11: Mr. Courtnay was afterwards Professor of Philosophy and Mechanics in the University of Virginia. There he died, lamented by all who knew him.]

Of these, and of those like them, do we think, when we think of West Point. Nor of those alone; the place itself, where nature delights in the sublime and beautiful, rises before us. No imagination is necessary to clothe it with the hues of poetry; no books to recall the lost passages of history; no labored eulogy to bring up the memories of the dead. You can no more forget them, than you can the Pilgrims, when standing by the rock of Plymouth. Yon gray and moss-covered ruin was once the fortress of the Revolution. Yon scarcely perceptible pile of stones marks the spot where its soldiers were hutted in the winter. Yon slightly raised turf, beneath the dark shades of the cedar, was his grave, and soon, perhaps even now, that slight memorial will be gone forever. Yon little valley under the shadows of the mountain, recalls the illustrious name of Washington. Yon blue mountain-top tells of the beacon fires he lit. All around are memories; all around are sacred spots. If the Greek remembers Marathon; if the Jew lingers at Jerusalem, or the Christian pilgrim grows warm at Bethlehem, so should the American remember West Point; linger round the ruins of Fort Put, and gaze with delight on the blue summit of Beacon Hill.

DEVELOPMENT OF INSTRUCTION AT WEST POINT.

1. Down to 1802, the instruction of the Cadets attached to the Corps of Artillerists and Engineers stationed at West Point, according to Act of Congress (May 7th, which was all that repeated recommendations of Washington and other experienced officers could obtain), was confined to military drill and practical exercises in common with other members of the Corps; but as that Corps was made up of the scientific officers of the army, and as military works were in construction under their plans and superintendence, these exercises were of great practical value, and the appointment of these Cadets in 1794, and their gathering at West Point, may be regarded as the nucleus of the Military Academy.

2. The Military Academy, established with that name, by Act of March 16, 1802, in pursuance of a Bill reported in 1800, by the Committee of Defense in the House of Representatives, of which Harrison Gray Otis was chairman, and to which an elaborate report of the Secretary of War (James McHenry, of Maryland), had been referred--consisted of the Corps of Engineers, which by the Act was organized distinct from that of Artillery, and could not exceed in officers and cadets, twenty members. The Corps was stationed at West Point, and its officers and cadets were subject to duty in such places as the President should direct. The principal engineer was made superintendent, and down to 1808 he was instructor in fortifications, field-works, and the use of instruments. Two officers of the rank of captain, appointed without previous military experience, but with special reference to their knowledge of mathematics, gave instruction in that branch, “one in the line of geometrical, and the other of algebraic demonstration.”

In 1803, two teacherships--one of the French language and the other of Drawing, was attached to the Corps of Engineers, and in 1804, F. De Masson was appointed to discharge the duties of both.

In 1808, the basis of the Military Academy, so far as related to the number of Cadets, was enlarged by the addition of two for each new company of Infantry, Riflemen, and Artillery, added to the military force; and the number in the Act of 1812, is limited to 250, which with the ten originally attached to the Corps of Engineers, fixed the strength of the Cadets at 260.

By the Act of April 29, 1812, the Corps of Engineers was enlarged, and was again constituted the Military Academy, and in addition to the teacher of the French language, and Drawing, provided in Act of Feb. 28, 1803, one Professor of Natural and Experimental Philosophy; one Professor of Mathematics; one Professor of Engineering in all its branches; and for each an Assistant Professor taken from the most prominent characters of the officers or cadets, are provided for; and for the purposes of military instruction, it is ordered that the students shall be arranged into companies and officered from their own members, to be taught all the duties of a private, non-commissioned officer, and officer; and for instruction in all matters incident to a regular camp, shall go into camp for at least three months of each year, and erecting buildings and providing apparatus, library, and all necessary implements, the sum of $25,000 is appropriated. By this act the minimum of age is fixed at 14, and the literary qualifications of candidates on entering are to be well versed in reading, writing, and arithmetic.

III. CONDITION IN 1871.

I. GOVERNMENT AND ORGANIZATION.[12]

[Footnote 12: From Instructions for government of the U.S. Military Academy, Report of Board of Visitors for 1871, and an account by Col. McDougall in Report of English Military Commission.]

A military officer, not usually below the rank of colonel, is appointed by the President of the United States as superintendent of the Academy, who has supreme local control over both the studies and discipline of the institution. He renders all prescribed returns, and addresses his communications to the inspector.

The inspector of the Academy is an officer of rank in the army named by the Secretary of War, who has his residence at Washington, and through whom all general orders relating to the Academy are transmitted to the superintendent at West Point. He makes an inspection of the Academy at least once in each year.[13]

[Footnote 13: The duties of Inspector are now (1871) discharged directly by the Secretary.]

The general staff of the Academy consists of an adjutant, a quartermaster, a treasurer, one surgeon, and two assistant surgeons.

Although the system of the Academy as regards the training of the cadets both in and out of study is peculiarly and rigidly military, the staff of instruction is separate from the staff of discipline.

Military Staff.

The cadets are organized into a battalion of four companies.

The commandant of cadets, usually not under the rank of lieutenant-colonel in the army, exercises the immediate command of the battalion. He is also, ex officio, principal instructor in infantry, artillery, and cavalry tactics (signifying drill).

Under the commandant are six assistant instructors of tactics, viz.--one for artillery; two for infantry; one for cavalry; one for artillery and infantry; one for infantry and cavalry. The four senior of these officers command the four cadet companies respectively; the two junior officers being always available to perform the routine duties of the others in case of absence. The assistant instructors must be officers of the army.

The battalion is provided with a full complement of cadet officers, and non-commissioned officers, who are appointed by the superintendent from a list submitted by the commandant of cadets.

To each company are appointed

1 Captain, 3 Lieutenants, 1 First Sergeant, 3 Second Sergeants, 4 Corporals.

The battalion staff consists of

1 Adjutant, 1 Quartermaster, 1 Sergeant Major, 1 Quartermaster Sergeant.

The cadet companies are composed indiscriminately of the four classes into which the students are divided according to their respective years of residence, the period of residence being four years for all.

The cadet officers are taken from the first, or senior class; the sergeants from the second class; the corporals from the third class. The selection is not made with special reference to proficiency in study. Those are selected who have manifested the greatest military aptitude and respect for discipline in their own conduct; although cœteris paribus superior standing in study would be decisive.

Staff of Instruction

The general superintendence of the studies is exercised by the superintendent, acting with the Academic Board. The immediate staff of instruction is as follows:

{ One professor, { One assistant professor, { Two acting assistant professors, Military and civil engineering.

{ One professor, { One assistant professor, { Two acting assistant professors, Natural and experimental philosophy.

{ One professor, { One assistant professor, { Five acting assistant professors, Mathematics.

{ One professor, { One assistant professor, { One acting assistant professor, Drawing.

{ One professor, { One assistant professor, { Three acting assistant professors, French.

{ One professor, { One assistant professor, { One acting assistant professor, Spanish.

{ One professor, { One assistant professor, { One acting assistant professor, Ethics and Law.

{ One professor, { One assistant professor, { Two acting assistant professors, Chemistry, mineralogy, and geology.

{ One instructor, { One assistant instructor, Ordnance and gunnery.

{ One instructor, { One assistant instructor, Practical military engineering. Military signals and telegraphing.

One sword master.

The Academic Board consists of the Superintendent, the Commandant of Cadets, the Professors of the Academy, and the Instructors of Practical Military Engineering, and of Ordnance and Gunnery.

All the professors and instructors, with their assistants and acting assistants, have been educated at West Point, with exception of the chaplain, the professors of French and Spanish, and the sword master. All are regularly enrolled in the military service of the United States, and subject to military discipline.

Professors and Assistants.

The professor or chief instructor in each branch is responsible for the efficiency and uniformity of the system of instruction in his own department. To this end he has no special class or section assigned to him for tuition. His time is devoted to general superintendence, and is chiefly spent in visiting the halls of study of his assistants. He does, however, take the instruction of the different sections, each in their turn, as he sees fit, and occasionally assembles all the sections of his department for lecture.

The assistant and acting assistant professors or instructors are always appointed from among officers on the full pay of their regiments who have graduated at the Academy, on the recommendation of the professor or chief instructor of the branch in which there is a vacancy to be filled. These assistants are carefully selected through means of the data of their proficiency, temper, and general character, afforded by their record of four years’ residence as cadets. They are, thus, all of them previously well known to the professors to whom they are to act as assistants, and to whom they are naturally inclined to defer from old associations.

The term of duty at the Academy of the assistant and acting assistant professors and instructors is fixed at four years, at the end of which period they return to regimental service. Duty at the Academy is obligatory on every officer who may be selected for it, and is considered as part of the general service which every officer who has graduated at West Point, owes to the country; practically those only are selected to whom the duty is not disagreeable.

Admission

Each congressional or territorial district of the United States (i.e. each district entitled to return a member to Congress), is by law entitled to have one cadet receiving education at the Academy.

The nominations are made in each year by the Secretary of War, on the recommendation of the representatives in Congress of the several districts then unrepresented at the Academy, or whose representatives are about to quit the Academy. In addition to these, the President of the United States may nominate ten cadets in each year, to be selected according to his own will and pleasure, from the community at large.

The number of vacancies at West Point in any one year varies according to the number of cadets who happen to complete their period of residence, and of those, who, not having completed their term, are yet discharged as deficient in studies or discipline, as hereafter explained. The number of yearly admissions varies from 50 to 70.

The date of admission in each year is the 1st of July, and the candidate for admission is required to report in person to the superintendent before the 31st of May, with a view to his qualifications being tested. But if sickness or any other unavoidable cause should interfere, he may present himself on the 28th of August. Except at the two periods above named, no admissions can take place.

Candidates must be over 17 and under 22 years of age, except in the case of any candidate who may have served faithfully as an officer or enlisted man in the army of the United States, either as a volunteer or in the regular service during the late civil war, who may be admitted up to 24 years of age.

Candidates must be at least five feet in height; free from any deformity, disease, or infirmity which would render them unfit for military service; and from any disorders of an infectious or immoral nature. They must be able to read and write well, and be thoroughly versed in the first four rules of arithmetic, in reduction, in simple and compound proportion, and in vulgar and decimal fractions.

Although the examination for entrance is not difficult, the prescribed tests, both medical and intellectual, are rigidly applied, and many candidates are rejected.

The examination for entrance is not competitive, but simply a qualifying examination. The competitive system commences after a cadet is once admitted; it enters into every branch of instruction, and continues in full force to the end of his residence.

Subjects and Course of Study.

The length of the course of study, for all who may succeed in graduating, is four years; its nature, after the first year, is principally professional, and the course of study is identical for all the students. The subjects are not all studied simultaneously, separate periods of the course being devoted to certain subjects, as shown by the time tables annexed.

The relative importance of the different subjects is indicated by the maximum marks of merit assigned to them respectively, at the summing up of the results of each student’s attendance at the end of his fourth year, according to the following scale:--

Subjects. Maximum. Period of Attendance.

Mathematics, 300 2 years Natural and experimental philosophy, 300 1 year. Military and civil engineering, 300 1 “ Chemical physics and chemistry, 150 1 “ Ethics and law, 150 1 “ French, 100 2 years. Drawing, 100 2 “ Spanish, 75 1 year. Mineralogy and geology, 75 1 “ Ordnance and gunnery, 75 1 “ Infantry tactics (theory), 50 1 “ Artillery “ “ 50 1 “ Cavalry “ “ 50 1 “ Discipline, 300 ----- General merit, 2,075

Practical instruction in surveying; in fortification; in ordnance and gunnery, including the loading, pointing, and firing heavy guns; in drill, or, as it is termed, the tactics of the three arms; in interior economy and regimental duty; forms an important part of the training of the cadet at different periods during his residence. In addition, the months of July and August in each year are entirely devoted to practical instruction, the battalion being then placed under canvas and relieved from all study.

During his first year a cadet receives instruction in fencing three hours in each week, from 10th October to 1st April.

During his second year he receives instruction in riding three hours in each week, from 1st November to 15th March.

Throughout the whole of his third academic year, from 1st October to 1st July, he receives instruction in riding, excepting between the 1st February and 15th April.

Throughout the whole of his fourth academic year he receives instruction in riding, three days in each week.

Swimming is not taught at the Academy. There is a good gymnasium for the use of the cadets in recreation hours, but the practice of gymnastics is purely voluntary.

Classification for Instruction.

The cadets are ranged in four distinct classes, corresponding with the four years of residence. Cadets of the first year constitute the fourth class; those of the second year, the third class; and so on. Cadets are promoted from one class to another at the end of the academic year, 30th June; provided only that they shall have passed satisfactorily before the Academic Board in the examinations which are always held during June, failing in which, they are either kept back in their then class for another year, or, in the case of decided deficiency, discharged from the Academy.

Each class is divided into sections convenient for instruction in the different branches of study. The method of division will be best explained by taking the fourth or lowest class as an example.

The members of the fourth class are, on their admission to the Academy, arranged in alphabetical order, and are then formed into sections, averaging about 12 cadets for each branch of study. After the lapse of a month, transfers are made at the close of each week from one section to another, according to the results of the past week’s attendance in study, and so continue until those most advanced are found in the first section; the next in order, in the second section; and so on.

During the first six months of residence, cadets are on probation, and only receive their warrant as cadets, provided they shall have passed satisfactorily at the January examinations held before the Academic Board, and that their conduct shall have been satisfactory.

Before receiving his warrant, each cadet is required to sign an engagement of service in the United States army for eight years, and to take an oath of allegiance to the National Government and Constitution.

The hours allotted to study are divided nearly equally between attendance on the instructors in the halls of study--or section rooms, as they are termed--and independent study in quarters. The attendance in the section rooms is termed recitation; the independent study in quarters, study.

The theory is, that during each recitation, every cadet of the section attending it, shall receive a thorough viva voce examination illustrated on the blackboard, and there is not much practical variation therefrom. Where there is any departure from it, it arises from the number of cadets in a section being too large to enable them all to be examined during the same recitation, which lasts an hour and a half, or an hour, according to the subject. Recitations in mathematics, in natural and experimental philosophy, and in civil and military engineering, occupy one hour and a half; in all the other branches of instruction, only one hour. Thus, when it appears in the time table that a class attends mathematics, for example, from 8 to 11, it is to be understood that the sections forming one half of the class attend their respective teachers in the section rooms during an hour and a half, while the other half of the class is engaged in study in quarters. At the end of the first hour and a half those sections which have attended recitation return to their quarters to study, while their places are taken by the remaining sections which have been up to that time engaged in study in quarters.

Each teacher, as a general rule, has two sections specially assigned to him for instruction, excepting the professor or head of each department who, as has been already explained, devotes his time to general superintendence, and takes the different sections for his personal instruction at such times and in such order as he may judge best.

Before proceeding to the section rooms the different sections parade in the barrack square by sound of bugle, under the superintendence of the cadet officer of the day; the roll is then called by the senior cadet, who is termed the section marcher, who reports absentees to the officer of the day, and marches his section off to the section room by direction of the latter. Arrived in the section room, the section marcher causes the cadets to take their seats in the order of their names on the roll, and then hands them over to the instructor. When dismissed by the instructor, the section marcher forms his section as before, marches it back to the barrack square, reports all infractions of discipline which may have taken place either in study or on the march to the officer of the day, and then dismisses his section by the latter’s permission.

There is no system of private tuition recognized at the Academy. Each cadet must depend on his own exertions, aided by the explanations given by the instructors in the section rooms, and by the occasional assistance he may derive from his more advanced comrades.

The allotment of so large a portion of time to independent study is a great departure from the practice of military schools in Europe; and it is a remarkable feature in the West Point system that no continued supervision is exercised over the cadets when studying in quarters beyond that which is supplied by the discipline of the cadets themselves. The senior of the two cadets inhabiting each room is responsible for discipline and orderly behavior. The officer of the day (cadet) visits each room during the hours of independent study; and the officer in charge, who is detailed daily from the assistant instructors of tactics, also visits the rooms at his discretion.

Routine of Daily Work.

A full-dress parade of the battalion takes place every day at sunset, after which the cadets are marched to supper, the hour of which varies with the season of the year, but is never earlier than 5.30 p.m. Half an hour after supper the evening call to quarters is sounded for study in barracks until tattoo at 9.30. All cadets excepting officers, the non-commissioned officers of the battalion staff, and the first sergeants, must be in bed and their lights extinguished at 10 p.m., the hour for the signal of Taps.

The arrangement of time on Sundays is as follows:

Breakfast at 7 a.m. Full-dress parade and inspection at 8. Call to quarters for study in barracks at 9. Church call at 10.30. Recreation after church. Dinner at 1 p.m. Recreation. Call to quarters for study, 3 to 5 p.m. After 5 p.m. the arrangement of time is the same as on a week day.

Cadets may obtain leave from the Sunday afternoon study in barracks to attend church a second time, should they desire it.

There is no yearly vacation. When a youth enters West Point, he is fixed there, unless discharged, for four years without intermission, with the exception of two months’ furlough which he may obtain at the end of his second year on certain conditions, and which is subject to a scale of diminution graduated according to misconduct.

This discipline would be intolerably severe but for the relaxation afforded by the change from barracks and the section room to camp life. The battalion is encamped from about 20th June to 30th August, and during that period the time is exclusively devoted to military exercises, practical instruction, and amusement.

Proficiency in Study--Examinations.

The system of estimating proficiency in the different subjects studied is very elaborate. Each instructor keeps daily notes of the proficiency of the cadets forming the sections of which he has the charge; the degree of excellence shown by a cadet at any recitation being recorded by marks, 3 being the maximum for each lesson, which represents thorough proficiency; 2.5 signifies good; 2 fair; 1.5 tolerable; 1 very imperfect; any thing below 1 is recorded as 0, or complete failure.

A weekly report showing the daily credit of each cadet and the aggregate for the week, is handed in by each instructor to the professor or head of his department at the end of the last study on Saturday, and the professor personally delivers the weekly reports of his department to the superintendent at the office of the latter between the hours of 12 and 2 p.m. on the same day. The professor at the same time recommends such transfers of students from section to section as he may think proper. The aggregate weekly credits of each cadet in all the branches of instruction are then recorded in the superintendent’s office.

From the weekly class reports, and the monthly record of discipline, a consolidated report of the progress of the Academy is made up monthly and forwarded to the inspector of the Academy, who transmits an abstract of the same to the parent or guardian of each cadet.

The weekly class reports form the most important element in determining the relative standing of the cadets in their class at the period of graduation, but a verifying test, or corrective, is supplied by the examinations which take place in January and June, the method of conducting which is as follows:

The January examinations commence on the 2d of the month. The examination of the 4th or lowest class is conducted by the whole Academic Board, the constitution of which has been already detailed. The relative standing of the members of the fourth class, up to that time arranged alphabetically, is then determined by the summing up of the weekly class reports, verified or corrected by the results of the examination. A large proportion of the cadets of the fourth class, usually from one-sixth to one-eighth of the whole, are yearly pronounced to be deficient, and removed from the Academy at this their first examination, which on account of its importance is required to be conducted by the whole Academic Board. The examinations of the three other classes take place before committees of the Academic Board, the whole Board being divided into two committees for this purpose.

The June, or annual examinations, commence on the first of the month. The first or graduating class alone is examined by the entire Academic Board, and the final relative standing of the cadets determined. The remaining classes are examined before the two committees of the Academic Board.

The June examinations take place in the presence of the Board of Visitors, the members of which are specially appointed in each year by the President of the United States, and whose duty it is to report to the Secretary of War, for the information of Congress, on the state of discipline, instruction, &c., &c., of the Academy.

The senior assistant professor or instructor of the branch under examination is ex officio a member of the Academic Board or of the committee thereof which conducts such examination; and the immediate instructor of the section to be examined is likewise associated with the Board or its committee so far as relates to the examination itself and the arrangement of the section in order of merit.

Classification according to Marks.

To assist the Academic Board in determining the accurate classification of any section about to be examined, the immediate instructor of that section hands to the Board, before the examination commences, a roll in the order of merit in which he considers the members should stand, based on the weekly credits which he had himself assigned.

At the close of the examination the same instructor hands to the Board a second roll in the order in which he conceives the members of the section should stand, judging by the result of the examination. The instructor then retires and the Board proceeds to deliberate.

Each member of the Board having kept careful notes of the examination, the relative standing of the cadets of a section in proficiency is determined by discussion.

The question next arises, who, if any, are to be pronounced deficient?--a dictum which inevitably entails discharge from the Academy, or putting down to a lower class.

The different sections composing the class, having been arranged in one class list in order of merit; one of the Board, usually the professor of the department concerned, supposing e.g. the class to consist of 50 members, may move that No. 50 be declared deficient. If the motion is negatived on discussion, the salvation of No. 50 proves also the salvation of all standing above him. But if the motion be carried, Nos. 49, 48, 47, &c., may be pronounced deficient in like manner, and so on, until a number is reached which is not condemned.

The examinations are entirely vivâ voce. Each cadet is subjected to a searching oral examination of from seven to ten minutes, illustrated on the blackboard where the subject admits of it. The daily record of the proficiency of a cadet in any subject forms, as already stated, by far the most important element in fixing his relative standing among his classmates: it is only exceptionally that the public examinations alter materially the order of merit which has been previously framed from the weekly class reports.

At the close of each examination the Academic Board reports to the Secretary of War the names of all cadets who are pronounced deficient in studies or discipline, to be discharged from the Academy unless otherwise recommended by the Academic Board.

The rule of discharge for deficiency, even in one solitary subject, is very rigidly enforced; unless where exceptional circumstances, such as loss of time on account of illness, or having been unavoidably prevented from joining the Academy until some time after the rest of his class, induce the Board to recommend that the cadet shall have another trial by being put back to the next lower class.

Some detail is necessary to explain how the marks obtained by a cadet at the daily recitations are employed to determine the credit he is to receive in any given branch of study at the period of his graduation.

Where a subject is studied for two years, the maximum time allotted to any branch of study, the marks gained during the first year help only to fix a cadet’s relative standing in his class for the year next ensuing. The credits shown by the weekly class reports of the second year alone are taken into account in determining the credit due to a cadet at the end of his residence.

The exact method of fixing the credits due for any one subject is as follows. The professor makes out a roll of the class in the order of merit finally fixed by the Academic Board at the June examinations. The first on the roll then receives credit for the maximum number of marks allotted to the subject; the last on the roll receives a credit of one-third of that maximum only. The common difference for all the members of the class between those limits is then calculated, and the remaining members receive credits varying from the first cadet and from each other by the amount of that common difference. The figures thus determined represent the credits assigned for any one subject at the period of graduation, and the figure of general merit for each cadet is made up of the aggregate credits obtained by him for all the branches of study, with one column included for discipline.

Proficiency in drill or riding does not affect the figure of general merit, except indirectly. Inattention or carelessness at these exercises would be noted by a certain figure of demerit, and would thereby diminish, as will be hereafter explained, the credit to be allotted for discipline at the final examination.

Graduation.

The qualifications required for obtaining an appointment to the army are simply graduation, or in other words that a cadet shall have passed through the four years’ course at the Academy without being found deficient in any one branch of study or in discipline. The proportion of cadets who fail to graduate is very considerable--nearly one-half. The present first class is a fair sample. It numbered 74 on entrance, and its members are now only 39, and of these three had belonged to the next higher class, and were put back for deficiency. From 1842 to 1852 the exact proportion who succeeded in graduating was 0.510. From 1852 to 1862 the exact proportion was 0.523.

Although the ultimate consequences of idleness in being declared deficient at the half-yearly examinations are generally sufficient to insure diligence, an immediate penalty is attached to any adverse report against a cadet for want of attention to study, or any misconduct in the recitation halls. The instructor of any section notes on his weekly class reports any cases of decided idleness and all infractions of discipline, and to each reported instance a double penalty is attached, as to every instance of misconduct at the Academy; the one immediate, in punishment according to the scale of the offense; the other prospective, consisting of a certain figure of demerit, which will rise up in judgment against the delinquent at the end of his residence, and diminish his credit for discipline.

The certainty of the penalty which attaches to idleness, both in the immediate punishment it entails, and its more serious ultimate consequences, is found to be sufficient, as a general rule, to attain the desired object; hence the character of the cadets for diligence is decidedly high.

The members of the graduating class have their choice of the services to which they shall be appointed according to their standing on the roll in order of merit. The order of precedence of corps of the United States army is: 1, Engineers; 2, Ordnance; 3, Artillery; 4, Cavalry and Infantry; and that is, as a general rule, the order of choice. The Secretary of War may sanction subsequent transfers from one branch of the service to another, but such transfers are very rare.

Beyond the privilege of choice, the only direct inducement held out to distinction among his classmates to any cadet, is one which is purely honorary. By an order from the Secretary of War so early as the year 1818, the five cadets most distinguished in studies and discipline in each class at the June examinations, are published each year in the United States Army Register (Army List). The distinction is highly prized.

The advantages resulting from a degree or peculiar distinction at West Point after appointment to the army, in respect to professional advancement or the obtaining staff employment, are very small. No special qualification is required by law or regulation for admission to the staff. When a vacancy occurs any one who desires may make application for the vacant appointment to the Adjutant General of the army. The decision rests with the Secretary of War or the President. The head of the department in which the vacancy exists is the proper person to insist, if he thinks proper, on the possession of certain qualifications by the officer who is to be employed as his subordinate. Even graduation at West Point is not insisted on as a necessary qualification for staff employment.

Discipline.

Every young gentleman who passes his probationary examination in the January after his admission, receives his warrant of cadet, and signs an engagement to serve in the military force of the United States during the eight years next ensuing. He thus becomes amenable to the articles of War and to trial by court-martial.

The discipline of the Academy has no resemblance to that of an ordinary civil college, but is peculiarly and essentially military. The cadets are required to clean their own rooms, make their own beds, and clean their own arms and belts.

The staff for the maintenance of discipline is distinct from that of tuition. The professorial staff simply report infractions of discipline in study, but have no power to punish. All professors and instructors, however, as well as all military officers who may be stationed at West Point, are expected to report to the superintendent any improper conduct on the part of a cadet which may come under their observation.

The punishments to which a cadet is liable are comprised in the three classes following, viz.:--

1st. Privation of recreation, &c.; extra duty (not guard); reprimands; arrests or confinement to barrack room or tent; confinement in light prison. Inflicted only by the superintendent or by his authority.

2d. Confinement in dark prison. Only by sentence of court-martial, and seldom or never resorted to.

3d. Suspension; dismissal with privilege of resigning; public dismissal. Only by sentence of a garrison or general court-martial, which must be approved by the Secretary of War.

“Breach of arrest” is treated as a military offense of the worst nature, and is classified with “mutinous conduct.”

All offenses are classified under five heads, and are recorded according to the following scale:

An offense of the 1st class counts 5 demerit. “ 2d “ 4 “ “ 3d “ 3 “ “ 4th “ 2 “ “ 5th “ 1 “

All offenses reported or to be reported against cadets, are read out at evening parade on the day after commission, excepting offenses in the section rooms reported by the instructors, which are read out on Monday evening’s parade; so that every cadet may have the opportunity of presenting a written explanation, or plea, in extenuation, of the offense charged against him.

The commandant of cadets attends at his office, in the square of the cadet barracks, between the hours of breakfast and the first study every morning to receive reports of offenses.

Explanations in writing, on paper of prescribed uniform size, may be taken to the commandant by any cadet charged with an offense not later than the commandant’s second orderly hour after publication, as a general rule from which any departure requires to be explained.

If the commandant considers the excuse satisfactory, he erases the offense and tears up the excuse, but forwards an abstract of all offenses which have not been explained to his satisfaction, with the written explanations, for the decision of the superintendent.

The superintendent may, on further inquiry, find the explanations of some of the offenses forwarded satisfactory, in which case he erases such offenses. To the remainder he allots such immediate punishment, and such marks of demerit in addition, as the cases respectively justify; or he may consider the demerit marks sufficient without any immediate punishment.

Thus the offenses of which a cadet may be guilty during his residence are recorded against him by a very elaborate and just method, and rise up against him at the period of his graduation. No instance of carelessness or inattention to orders is too trifling to be taken notice of.

If any cadet has more than 100 demerit recorded against him in any six successive months, he is immediately discharged from the Academy as deficient in discipline.

But during the first year’s residence, offenses count one-third less than those committed during the subsequent three years; a cadet of the first year would therefore only be discharged as deficient in discipline who had obtained a demerit of 150 within any period of six successive months.

The marks of demerit of all the fourth class cadets who have not proved deficient in discipline, are wiped out entirely at the end of their first year, and do not therefore affect their relative standing at the period of graduation. The demerit of the first year is only taken into account, so as to determine, in combination with the credits received for progress in study, the relative standing of the cadets in their class for the year next ensuing.

At the final examination, the credit to be allotted to any cadet on the score of discipline is made up by means of the demerit rolls as follows.

Each cadet receives a credit of 16.67 for every month during his residence, in which he has had no demerit recorded against him, to be deducted from his aggregate marks of demerit at the end of his residence. The monthly credit is fixed at 16.67, because that number forms the sixth part of the 100 marks of demerit, which if recorded in six months against any cadet would have occasioned his discharge.

Notwithstanding that the demerit marks of the fourth class are wiped out at the end of the first year, and do not count against the cadets at their final examination, the credit of 16.67 is still allowed to cadets for every month of their first year in which no demerit was recorded against them and deducted from their aggregate marks of demerit at the end of their residence.

The positive marks of merit for discipline due to any cadet at the end of his residence are thus determined. The cadet of the graduating class having the lowest aggregate demerit recorded against him is placed first in discipline, and is credited with the maximum of marks due to that subject, viz., 300. The whole class is then arranged in the same sense, the cadet having the highest demerit being placed last, and receiving only one third of the maximum, viz. 100. The common difference between these limits is then calculated for each cadet of the class, and applied as already explained.

Although the nominal value placed on discipline is represented by the same number of marks only as are allotted to each of the more important branches of study, in fixing the relative standing of cadets at their final examination; it should be remembered that no candidate can reach that period at the Academy who is not fairly well conducted. It would be quite impossible for any cadet to remain at the Academy who had earned for himself the sentence “deficient in discipline,” even though the marks of demerit required for that sentence might have been earned by a succession of minor infractions of discipline. And a cadet who might be guilty of any serious willful offense would be at once removed from the Academy.

Owing to the very limited time allowed for recreation, games are almost unknown; and almost the only athletic amusement indulged in is boating on the river, for which, however, Saturday afternoons afford the only available time.

No difficulty is found to arise from the difference of age among the cadets in maintaining an uniform system of discipline. The same rules are applied to all during the whole period of residence.

The cadet officers and non-commissioned officers greatly assist in maintaining discipline. A daily abstract of offenses show that out of 15 offenses recorded therein, 11 were reported by cadet officers or non-commissioned officers.

The daily duties are assimilated as much as possible to those of a battalion in quarters, and are as follows:

The officer in charge, detailed daily from the assistant instructors of tactics, is responsible for the proper performance of all the military duties of the battalion during the day. His tour of duty commences at guard mounting (7.30 a.m. in barracks, 8 a.m. in camp); at which time he reports for orders to the commandant at the office of the latter. He has an office adjoining that of the commandant where he must constantly be present from reveillé to taps (the signal for putting out lights at 10 p.m.), except when absent on duty or at meals. He is present in the cadets’ mess hall during all meals, and superintends every parade and roll call. He visits the sentries at his discretion. On being relieved, he includes in the usual morning report of his company, all offenses which may have come to his knowledge as having occurred during his tour of duty.

The officer of the day, is detailed usually from the roster of the cadet officers, although every cadet of the highest class is appointed at least once to perform this duty. He is present at guard mounting and receives his guard in the usual military manner, after which he reports for order to the commandant and is generally under the orders of the officer in charge. His post of duty is the guard room, which is in the same building as, and immediately beneath, the offices of the commandant and the officer in charge. He causes all calls to be sounded at the proper time; is present at all parades and roll calls; and receives reports of all absentees, whom it is his duty immediately thereafter to seek and to order when found to repair to their respective duties unless properly excused. He reports to the officer in charge all absentees whom he may not be able to find, and all cadets who fail to obey his orders. He directs the formation of all the class sections before marching to the section rooms; receives reports of absentees from the section marchers, and requires the latter to march off their sections in a proper military manner. He is responsible for the suppression of all irregularities in quarters or their vicinity during his tour. He visits the quarters during the hours of independent study and receives reports of absentees. He visits all the quarters at Taps, and reports absentees to the officers in charge. He afterwards visits the room of every cadet absent every 15 minutes until the return of the absentee, or until otherwise directed by the officer in charge. On the back of the guard report which he forwards next morning to the commandant, he records all offenses which come to his knowledge as having occurred during his tour; and presents with it all permits and passes that have come into his hands, all of which are required to be deposited with him. The officer of the day is relieved from study during his tour of duty.

Daily Guard.--A cadet guard, consisting of one sergeant, four corporals, and 24 privates, is mounted every morning at 7.30. The cadets of the guard remain in the guard-room during the day, excepting the hours of study.

Sentries are posted during the hours of recreation, the most important posts being the different entrance halls of the cadet barracks. Ten minutes after the call to quarters, during the day on Sundays, and every evening, it is the duty of each such sentry to visit all the rooms belonging to his particular entrance hall. He then orders all cadets whom he may find visiting in rooms not their own to their proper quarters, and reports all who fail to comply promptly with his orders to the sergeant of the guard, as well as all absentees; and the sergeant of the guard passes on all such reports to the officer of the day. A sentry similarly reports every irregularity that may occur on his beat, and particularly the name of any cadet who may have absented himself from the barracks for more than ten minutes. A high sense of the honorable confidence reposed in a sentry seems to be generally entertained; and there is every reason to believe that the cadet sentries at West Point perform their duties in a trustworthy and satisfactory manner.

The general duties of the battalion are assimilated as much as possible to those of a battalion in quarters. The daily detail of duties is drawn up by the cadet adjutant. The cadets for guard are detailed by the first sergeants of their respective companies at each evening parade, and the daily routine is in this respect as nearly as possible the same as that of military life.

There is no yearly vacation; and the furlough which each cadet may obtain at the end of his second year is subject to the following conditions, viz.:--

1st. If he has obtained 350 demerit in the two preceding years, he is detained twelve days; if 325, 300, 275, 250, or 200 demerit within the same period, he is detained ten days, eight days, five days, three days, or two days respectively.

2d. He is required to sign a certificate, declaring that he has in no manner improperly interfered with, or molested or injured new cadets. The furlough of any cadet declining to sign this certificate is limited to one month, from 28th July to 28th August. Although there have been instances of cadets declining to sign this certificate, it is probable that, as a general rule, the cadet conscience places a liberal interpretation on the words of the formula.

Leave of absence from the Academy for one to two days is occasionally granted, but only for exceptional reasons.

Buildings.

The cadet barrack is a handsome stone building of four stories. It contains 176 rooms, of which 136 are cadets’ quarters, 14 feet by 22 feet, arranged in eight divisions, each division having its own entrance, and having no interior communication with the other divisions. Not more than two cadets are lodged in the same room. The two beds in each room are curtained off from the room, and separated from each other by a partition. There are numerous bathing rooms in the basement, to which the cadets have access.

Each division of quarters is under the superintendence of an assistant instructor of tactics, who visits the rooms of his division three times in the course of each day, and occasionally during the night. He makes a daily report in writing to the commandant of the condition of the rooms under his charge, noting all delinquencies that may have come to his knowledge since his last report.

A division of quarters is divided into two subdivisions of quarters of two floors each, each subdivision being under the charge of one of the cadet officers, who has his quarters therein, and who is responsible for the discipline of his subdivision, and for the proper fulfillment of all orders that may be issued relative to the police of quarters. He visits all the rooms of his subdivision 30 minutes after reveillé, and immediately after taps (lights out), notes all irregularities, and makes a daily report in writing to the superintendent of his division, recording all delinquencies, and certifying that since the report of the previous day he has faithfully performed all duties required of him as inspector of subdivision.

The Academy is a building detached, containing the following rooms and departments, viz.:--

Chemical department, comprising laboratory, lecture-room, room for electrical experiments, and a work-room; fencing department; gymnasium; mineralogical collection; engineering department, comprising drawing and model rooms; artillery model room; mathematical model room; drawing academy; trophy room; picture and statue galleries; mineralogical section rooms; and 10 recitation rooms (or halls of study).

Another detached building contains the observatory; and library of 20,000 volumes, to which the cadets have access at stated times.

There are no rooms specially set apart for day rooms, reading or recreation rooms.

The mess hall is a detached building. The central hall where the cadets take all their meals is 96 feet by 46 feet and 20 feet high. Quarters for the purveyor with kitchen and bakery, and with quarters for the necessary servants in the basement, are attached.

The cadets are formed in the barrack square previous to each meal, and are marched to and from the mess hall. The officer in charge visits the mess hall at all meal times. The senior cadet officer present is responsible for good order.

The Riding School is detached and is admirably adapted to its purpose.

Expenses.

The Academy is entirely supported by the State. The average annual cost for 62 years has been $137,315; and this sum includes the cost of all buildings and structures, of repairs and maintenance. The yearly appropriations during the last eight years have varied from $170,000 to $200,000, but does not include certain sums which are paid out of the regular appropriation to the War Department.

A new cadet is admitted to the Academy on the 1st of July. From that date he is credited with Government pay at the rate of $30 a month, which allowance is calculated as sufficient to pay for the whole cost of his equipment and maintenance. As the monthly pay is, however, small compared with the first cost of uniforms and outfit, a new cadet usually deposits with the treasurer of the Academy on entrance from $60 to $80, to be credited to his account. Thenceforth all wants and necessaries are supplied to the cadet by the Government, the prices being a trifle above cost and charged against his account. At the end of his residence, a balance is struck, and the sum standing to his credit, if any, is paid over to him. It is possible by this arrangement for a very careful and steady lad to secure his education, his maintenance during four years, a position in the army, and $100 in addition, at the time of his graduation.

STAFF FOR GOVERNMENT AND INSTRUCTION, JAN. 1, 1872

SUPERINTENDENT.--Col. THOMAS H. RUGER, 18th Infantry.

Military Staff.

Adjutant.--Captain Robert H. Hall, 10th Infantry. Quartermaster.--Captain Tally McCrea, 1st Artillery. Treasurer.--1st Lieut. James M. Marshall, 4th Artillery. Surgeon, U.S.A.--Thomas A. McParlin, M.D. Assistant Surgeon, U.S.A.--Van Buren Hubbard, M.D.

Academic Staff.

_Commandant of Cadets and Instructor of Artillery, Cavalry and Infantry Tactics._--Lieut. Col. EMORY UPTON, 1st Artillery. Assistant Instructor of Artillery Tactics.--Captain Alexander Piper, 3d Artillery. Assistant Instructor of Infantry Tactics.--Captain Joseph S. Conrad, 2d Infantry. Assistant Instructor of Artillery and Infantry Tactics.--Capt. John Egan, 4th Artillery. Assistant Instructor of Cavalry Tactics.--Captain Alfred E. Bates, 2d Cavalry. _Assistant Instructor of Artillery, Infantry and Cavalry Tactics._--1st Lieut. William S. Starring, 2d Artillery. Assistant Instructor of Infantry Tactics.--1st Lieut. John F. Stretch, 10th Infantry. Professor of Mathematics.--ALBERT E. CHURCH, LL.D. Assistant Professor of Mathematics.--1st Lieut. John P. Story, 4th Artillery. Acting Assistant Professors of Mathematics.--1st Lieut. William F. Reynolds, jr., 1st Artillery; 2d Lieut. John E. Greer, Ordnance; 2d Lieut. Albert H. Payson, Engineers; 2d Lieut. Frank Heath, 3d Artillery; 2d Lieut. Philip M. Price, jr., 2d Artillery. Professor of Drawing.--ROBERT W. WEIR, N.A. Assistant Professor of Drawing.--1st Lieut. Edward H. Totten, 1st Artillery. Acting Assistant Professor of Drawing.--2d Lieut. Charles W. Whipple, 3d Artillery. Professor of Chemistry, Mineralogy, and Geology.--HENRY L. KENDRICK, LL.D. Assistant Professor of Chemistry, Mineralogy, and Geology.--2d Lieut. John Pitman, jr., Ordnance. Acting Assistant Prof, of Chemistry, Mineralogy, and Geology.-- 2d Lieut. Samuel E. Tillman, 4th Artillery. Professor of the Spanish Language.--PATRICE DE JANON. Assistant Professor of the Spanish Language.--1st Lieut. James O’Hara, 3d Artillery. Professor of Natural and Experimental Philosophy.--PETER S. MICHIE. Assistant Prof. of Natural and Experimental Philosophy.--1st Lieut. James Mercur, Engineers. _Acting Assistant Professors of Natural and Experimental Philosophy._--2d Lieut. Edward S. Holden, 4th Artillery; Additional 2d Lieut. Edgar W. Boss, Engineers. Professor of the French Language.--GEORGE L. ANDREWS. Assistant Professor of the French Language.--1st Lieut. Geo. G. Greenough, 4th Artillery. Acting Assistant Professor of the French Language.--2d Lieut. Thomas H. Barber, 1st Artillery. Professor of Ethics and Law.--JOHN FORSYTH, D.D. Assistant Professor of Ethics and Law.--Captain John S. Poland, 6th Infantry. Professor of Military and Civil Engineering.--JUNIUS B. WHEELER. Assistant Professor of Military and Civil Engineering.--Captain Jarrett J. Lydecker, Engineers. Acting Assistant Professors of Military and Civil Engineering.-- Captain Oswald H. Ernst, Engineers; 1st Lieut John C. Mallery, Engineers. Instructor of Ordnance and Gunnery.--Captain THOMAS C. BRADFORD, Ordnance. Assistant Instructor of Ordnance and Gunnery.--1st Lieut. James W. Reilly, Ordnance. _Instructor of Practical Military Engineering, Military Signaling and Telegraphy, Commanding Company E, Engineers._--Captain OSWALD H. ERNST, Engineers. _Assistant Instructor of Military Signaling and Telegraphy, and Acting Signal Officer._--1st Lieut. Edward H. Totten, 1st Artillery. _Assistant Instructor of Practical Military Engineering, on duty with Company E, Engineers._--2d Lieut. Frederick A. Mahan, Engineers. Sword Master.--Antoné Lorentz.

COURSE OF INSTRUCTION.

The studies pursued, and the instruction given at the Military Academy, are comprised under the following heads, in the Official Regulations:--

I. INFANTRY, ARTILLERY, AND CAVALRY TACTICS, AND MILITARY POLICE AND DISCIPLINE.--This course will conform to the system of Infantry Tactics and Military Police and Discipline, established for the government of the Army, and will comprise the schools of the soldier, company, and battalion, the evolutions of the line, the manual exercise and manœuvres of Light Infantry and riflemen, with the police and discipline of camp and garrison. (2.) Artillery Tactics will comprise exercise of field, siege, and garrison artillery; manœuvres of batteries; mechanical manœuvres and target practice. (3.) Cavalry tactics will comprise the schools of the trooper mounted, of the platoon, and of the squadron; and equitation.

II. THE USE OF THE SWORD, &C.--Will comprise the use of the small-sword, broadsword, and bayonet, and such military gymnastics as circumstances may permit.

III. MATHEMATICS.--This course will comprise:

(1.) Algebra.--Fundamental operations; involution and evolution; reduction and conversion of fractional and radical qualities; reduction and solution of equations, including those of the third degree ratios and proportions; summation of infinite series and figurate numbers; nature, construction, and use of logarithms.

(2.) Geometry.--Geometry of right lines, planes, and volumes and spherical geometry; and the formation and construction of determinate geometrical equations.

(3.) Trigonometry.--The solution of all the cases in plane and spherical trigonometry; analytical investigation of trigonometrical formulæ; and the construction of trigonometrical tables.

(4) Mensuration and Surveying.--Mensuration of planes; surfaces and volumes; principles and practice of common land surveying; different methods of plotting and calculating such surveys; trigonometrical surveying; measurement of heights and distances; leveling; and use of instruments in plotting, surveying, &c.

(5.) Descriptive Geometry.--The graphic illustration and solution of geometrical problems in space; and the particular application of this method to spherical projections, construction of maps, to shades and shadows, and perspective, and isometric projections.

(6.) Analytical Geometry.--Construction of algebraic expressions; solution of determinate problems; determination and discussion of the equations of the right line, plane and conic sections; discussion of the general equations of the second degree involving two or three variables; determination of loci, &c.

Differential and Integral Calculus, with its application to maxima and minima, the drawing of tangents, rectification of curves, radii of curvatures, quadratures, cubatures, &c.

IV. FRENCH LANGUAGE.--This course will comprise:

French Grammar; reading and writing French; and translating (from text and orally) English into French and French into English.

V. SPANISH LANGUAGE.--This course will comprise:

Spanish Grammar; reading and writing Spanish; and translating (from text and orally) English into Spanish and Spanish into English.

VI. DRAWING.--This course will comprise:

Topography, with lead-pencil, pen and ink, and colors. Figures, with pen and ink. Landscape, with the lead-pencil. Landscape, with colors.

VII. CHEMISTRY, MINEROLOGY, AND GEOLOGY.--This course will comprise:

Chemical Physics.--Magnetism; static and voltaic electricity; electro-magnetism; magneto-electricity; thermo-electricity; animal electricity; construction and use of apparatus illustrating the principles of the foregoing subjects and their mutual relations. Heat--its nature, sources, and effects; relation between thermal energy and other forces; measurement and equilibrium of temperatures; thermal and aqueous phenomena of the atmosphere; light as a chemical agent.

Chemistry.--Its general laws and language; inorganic and organic chemistry theory of radicals, types, and substitutions; animal chemistry; animal nutrition, heat, and force; relation between the mineral, vegetable, and animal kingdoms; applications of chemistry to agriculture, fermentation, &c.

Mineralogy.--Crystallography; structure, practical determination and uses of minerals; descriptive mineralogy.

Geology.--The earth’s features; classification, structure, modes of occurrence and distribution of rocks; rock veins; division of geological history into ages; the various agents of geological changes; geology of the United States.

VIII. NATURAL AND EXPERIMENTAL PHILOSOPHY.--This course will comprise:

Mechanics.--1st. General classification of the physical sciences; general constitution and physical properties of bodies; measurements of the masses; densities and weights of bodies; definitions and descriptions of natural forces. 2d. Mechanics of Solids.--Work; laws of equilibrium and of motion; free and constrained motion of solids; motion of projectiles; planetary motions and the general principles of physical astronomy. 3d. Mechanics of Fluids.--Mechanical properties of fluids; equilibrium and motion of fluids; general principles of buoyancy; equilibrium and stability of floating bodies; specific gravity; and barometrical measurements. 4th. Mechanics of Molecules.--General principles of sound, heat, light, and electricity, to be taught principally by lecture. 5th. Application.--Objects and principles of machines; friction; stiffness of cordage and adhesion; discussion of the elementary machines--cord, lever, inclined plane, wheel and axle, pullies, screw, hydraulic press, and hydraulic ram.

Acoustics.--Theory of the internal structure of bodies; nature of sound; waves in general; velocity of sound in solids, liquids, and gasses, and measurement of distances by sound; qualities of sound; reflection, refraction, divergence and decay of sound; echoes, hearing and speaking trumpets, and description of the ear.

Optics.--Nature of light; laws of its deviation; laws of vision; optical instruments; chromatics; achromatism; polarization, interference, and chromatics of polarized light.

Astronomy.--Description of the solar and stellar systems; celestial and terrestrial spheres; figure and magnitude of the earth; its motions, with the appearances and vicissitudes arising therefrom; theory of astronomical reductions; eclipses, occultations, and transits; tides and twilight; use of astronomical instruments and tables; methods of making, clearing, and calculating observations for time, latitude, longitude, the earth’s magnetism and true meridian.

IX. ORDNANCE AND GUNNERY.--This course will comprise:

Ordnance.--1st. The theory and preparation of gunpowder, cannon, artillery carriages, projectiles, implements, machines, small-arms, ammunition, and military fireworks. 2d. Practical instruction in making musket, rifle, pistol, cannon and howitzer cartridges; preparation of strap, grape, and canister shot, fuzes, slow and quick match, port-fire, signal rockets, carcases, fire-balls, light balls, and incendiary composition; loading shells, shrapnel shot and grenades; putting up stores for transportation; loading caissons; in determining the pressure on the bore of a gun; in determining the initial velocity of projectiles; in the manner of proving powder, and when circumstances will admit of it, the operation of casting cannon solid and hollow, casting of projectiles and the usual methods of testing gun-metals, will be witnessed.

Gunnery.--Embracing the study of the movements of projectiles; the theory of pointing fire-arms; the different kinds of fires and their effect; the art of breaching, and the composition of batteries.

X. ETHICS AND LAW.--This course will comprise:

Ethics.--1st. Common basis with law. 2d. In moral science, the pursuit of the highest good for each and all; the realization of excellence by virtue, the fulfillment of obligations to God and our country, to ourselves and others; and 3d, In its practical division, the duties, vices and passions.

Law.--1st. General principles. 2d. International law. 3d. Political organization and constitution of the United States. 4th. Rules and articles of war: and the organizations, powers, forms, and proceedings of courts-martial.

XI. PRACTICAL MILITARY ENGINEERING.--This course will comprise:

The preparation of trench and battery materials--gabions, facines, sandbags, &c.; the manner of tracing and profiling batteries and intrenchments, by cords, pickets and laths; the defiladement of intrenchments and other works; the distribution and posting of working parties, with their implements and materials in the construction of batteries, intrenchments, &c.; the construction of the various revetments for batteries and intrenchments, the laying of platforms for field, siege, and garrison artillery; the construction of palisades, fraises, abatis, rifle-pits, and trous-de-loup; the manner of placing intrenchments and other works, together with houses, walls, fences, &c., in a state of defense; the trace, defiladement, and construction of the several kinds of trenches and saps; descent and passage of a ditch, and other operations of a siege; the manner of laying out, constructing, tamping and springing mines, both for attack and defense, with the application of electricity thereto; trestle, ponton, and other bridge exercises; military reconnoissance of a route for the march of a column of troops, and of a locality for defensive works.

XII. MILITARY AND CIVIL ENGINEERING, AND THE SCIENCE OF WAR.

Military Engineering.--1st Principles and methods of planning and constructing temporary works, comprising intrenchments, inclosed works, batteries, lines, bridge-heads, with the modes of their attack and defense. 2d. Permanent Fortifications.--Principles of planning and constructing permanent works for land and sea-coast defense, with an analysis and description of the modern systems of fortifications; the attack and defense of permanent works, including mines.

Civil Engineering.--Comprising building materials, masonry, carpentry, bridges, roads, railroads, canals, and river and harbor constructions. The theory and description of mechanism and machines. The principles of architecture.

Descriptive drawing as applied to civil engineering, architecture and fortification.

Science of War.--The military organization of states and kingdoms; composition and organization of an army; strategy illustrated and explained by military history; the operations of a campaign, comprising the movements of troops and their general dispositions for attack and defense.

DISTRIBUTION OF STUDIES BY YEARS AND CLASSES.

Subjects.--First Year--Fourth Class.

MATHEMATICS.--Davies’ Bourdon’s Algebra. Davies’ Legendre’s Geometry and Trigonometry. Church’s Descriptive Geometry.

FRENCH LANGUAGE.--Bolmar’s Levizac’s Grammar and Verb Book. Agnel’s Tabular System. Berard’s Leçons Françaises. *Spier’s and Surrenne’s Dictionary.

ARTILLERY AND INFANTRY TACTICS.--Practical Instruction in the Schools of the Soldier, Company, and Battalion. Practical Instruction in Artillery.

SMALL-ARMS.--Instruction in Fencing and Bayonet Exercise.

Second Year--Third Class.

MATHEMATICS.--Church’s Descriptive Geometry, with its application to Spherical Projections. Church’s Shades, Shadows, and Perspective. Davies’ Surveying. Church’s Analytical Geometry. Church’s Calculus.

FRENCH LANGUAGE.--Bolmar’s Levizac’s Grammar and Verb Book. Berard’s Leçons Françaises. Chapsal’s Leçons et Modèles de Litterature Française. Agnel’s Tabular System. Rowan’s Morceaux Choisis des Auteurs Modernes. *Spier’s and Surrenne’s Dictionary.

SPANISH LANGUAGE.--Josse’s Grammar. Morale’s Progressive Reader. Ollendorff’s Oral Method applied to the Spanish, by Valazquez and Simonne. *Seoane’s Neuman and Barretti’s Dictionary.

DRAWING.--Topography, &c. Art of Penmanship.

INFANTRY, ARTILLERY, AND CAVALRY TACTICS.--Practical Instruction in the Schools of the Soldier, Company, and Battalion. Practical Instruction in Artillery and Cavalry.

Third Year--Second Class.

NATURAL AND EXPERIMENTAL PHILOSOPHY.--Bartlett’s Mechanics. Bartlett’s Acoustics and Optics. Bartlett’s Astronomy.

CHEMISTRY.--Fowne’s Chemistry. Chemical Physics, from Miller.

DRAWING.--Landscape. Pencil and Colors.

ARTILLERY, CAVALRY, AND INFANTRY TACTICS.--United States Tactics for Garrison, Siege, and Field Artillery. Upton’s Infantry Tactics. Practical Instruction in the Schools of the Soldier, Company, and Battalion. Practical Instruction in Artillery and Cavalry.

PRACTICAL MILITARY ENGINEERING.--Myer’s Manual of Signals. Practical and Theoretical Instruction in Military Signaling and Telegraphy.

Fourth Year--First Class.

MILITARY AND CIVIL ENGINEERING, AND SCIENCE OF WAR.--Mahan’s Field Fortifications. Mahan’s Outlines of Permanent Fortification. Mahan’s Civil Engineering. Mahan’s Fortifications and Stereotomy. Mahan’s Advanced Guard and Outpost, &c. Mahan’s Industrial Drawing. *Moseley’s Mechanics of Engineering.

MINERALOGY AND GEOLOGY.--Dana’s Mineralogy. Hitchcock’s Geology.

ETHICS AND LAW.--French’s Practical Ethics. Halleck’s International Law. Kent’s Commentaries (portion on Constitutional Law). French’s Law and Military Law. Benét’s Military Law and the Practice of Courts Martial. *Webster’s Dictionary.

ARTILLERY, CAVALRY, AND INFANTRY TACTICS.--United States Tactics for Cavalry. Practical Instruction in the Schools of the Soldier, Company, and Battalion. Practical Instruction in Artillery and Cavalry.

ORDNANCE AND GENNERY.--Benton’s Ordnance and Gunnery. Practical Pyrotechny.

PRACTICAL MILITARY ENGINEERING.--Practical Instruction in fabricating Facines, Sap Fagots, Gabions, Hurdles, Sap Rollers, &c.; manner of laying out and constructing Gun and Mortar Batteries, Field Fortifications, and Works of Siege; formation of Stockades, Abattis, and other military obstacles; and throwing and dismantling Pontoon Bridges.

Myer’s Manual of Signals. Practical Instruction in Military Signaling and Telegraphy.

[* Books marked * are for reference.]

PROGRAMME OF CAMP DUTIES FROM JULY 5, TO AUGUST 30.

Reveillé, 5 a.m. Policing camp just after reveillé. Infantry company drills, for all classes, 5.30 a.m. Surgeon’s call, 6.30 a.m. Breakfast call, 7 a.m. Parade call, 8 a.m. Guard mounting, immediately after parade. Siege and sea-coast artillery drill for 1st class; Light Battery drill, 2d class; Foot Light Battery drill, 4th class; 9 till 10 a.m. Laboratory duty for two weeks, signaling, practical and topograpical engineering, for rest of term for 1st class, 10 till 12 a.m. Laboratory duty for 3d class for two weeks, 10 till 12 a.m. Infantry squad drill for 4th class, 10 till 11 a.m. Dinner, 1 p.m. Policing camp, 4 p.m. Infantry company’s drill for all classes, 5.30 p.m. Parade, sunset, Supper, after parade. Tattoo, 9.30 p.m. Taps, 9.45 p.m.

I. REGULATIONS

RELATIVE TO

THE ADMISSION OF CADETS INTO THE MILITARY ACADEMY.

Applications for admission into the United States Military Academy at West Point, should be made by letter to the Secretary of War. By provision of law, each Congressional and Territorial district, and the District of Columbia, is entitled to have one cadet at the Military Academy, and no more. The district appointments are made on the nomination of the member of Congress representing the district at the date of the appointment. The law requires that the individual selected shall be an actual resident of the Congressional district of the State or Territory, or District of Columbia, from which the appointment purports to be made. Also, appointments “at large,” not to exceed ten, are annually made. Application can be made, at any time, by the candidate himself, his parent, guardian, or any of his friends, and the name placed on the register. No preference will be given to applications on account of priority; nor will any application be entered in the register when the candidate is under or above the prescribed age; the precise age must be given; no relaxation of the regulation in this respect will be made; nor will any application be considered in cases where the age and other qualifications of the candidates are not stated. The fixed abode of the candidate, and number of the Congressional district which he considers his permanent residence, must be set forth in the application. The pay of a cadet is $30 per month, to commence from his admission into the Military Academy, and is considered ample with proper economy, for his support.

The appointments will be made annually in the month of February or March, on the applications made within the preceding year. The claims of all the candidates on the register will be considered and acted upon. No certain information can be given as to the probable success of the candidate, before the arrival of the period for making the selections. Persons, therefore, making applications, must not expect to receive information on this point.

As a general rule, no person will be appointed who has had a brother educated at the institution.

QUALIFICATIONS.

Candidates must be over sixteen and under twenty-one years of age, at the time of entrance into the Military Academy; must be at least five feet in height, and free from any deformity, disease, or infirmity, which would render them unfit for the military service, and from any disorder of an infectious or immoral character. They must be able to read and write well, and perform with facility and accuracy the various operations of the four ground rules of arithmetic, of reduction, of simple and compound proportion, and of vulgar and decimal fractions.

It must be understood that a full compliance with the above conditions will be insisted on--that is to say--the candidate must write in a fair and legible hand, and without any material mistakes in spelling, such sentences as shall be dictated by the examiners; and he must answer promptly, and without errors, all their questions in the above-mentioned rules of arithmetic: failing in any of these particulars, he will be rejected.

It must also be understood, that every candidate will, soon after his arrival at West Point, be subjected to a rigid examination by an experienced medical board; and should there be found to exist in him any of the following causes of disqualification, to such a degree as will immediately, or in all probability may at no very distant period, impair his efficiency, he will be rejected:

1. Feeble constitution and muscular tenuity; unsound health from whatever cause; indications of former disease; glandular swellings, or other symptoms of scrofula.

2. Chronic cutaneous affections, especially of the scalp, or any disorder of an infectious character.

3. Severe injuries of the bones of the head; convulsions.

4. Impaired vision from whatever cause; inflammatory affections of the eyelids; immobility or irregularity of the iris; fistula lachrymalis, &c., &c.

5. Deafness; copious discharge from the ears.

6. Loss of many teeth, or teeth generally unsound.

7. Impediment of speech.

8. Want of due capacity of the chest, and any other indication of a liability to a pulmonic disease.

9. Impaired or inadequate efficiency of one or both of the superior extremities on account of fractures, especially of the clavicle, contraction of a joint, extenuation, deformity, &c., &c.

10. An unnatural excurvature or incurvature of the spine.

11. Hernia.

12. A varicose state of the veins, of the scrotum and spermatic cord, (when large,) sarcocele, hydrocele, hemorrhoids, fistulas.

13. Impaired or inadequate efficiency of one or both of the inferior extremities on account of varicose veins, fractures, malformation, (flat feet, &c.,) lameness, contraction, unequal length, bunions, over-lying or supernumerary toes, &c., &c.

14. Ulcers, or unsound cicatrices of ulcers likely to break out afresh.

The above Regulations were issued by the War Department in 1862. Although it appears from this official document, that “applications for admission into the United States Military Academy at West Point, should be made by letter to the Secretary of War,” and that “the claims of all candidates on the register will be considered and acted upon,” it is also stated, that “the district appointments are made on the nomination of the member of Congress representing the district at the date of the appointment.” This delicate duty, and great privilege of selecting, out of all the young men between the ages of sixteen and twenty-one years, in a Congressional district of at least 70,000 inhabitants, who aspire to serve their country in a military capacity, the one best qualified, or even well qualified, is not imposed or conferred directly by law, but by the practice of the appointing power, on the member for that district.

Summary of Qualifications (in Circular of 1871).

A sound body and constitution, a fixed degree of preparation, good natural capacity, an aptitude for study, industrious habits, perseverance, an obedient and orderly disposition, and a correct moral deportment are such essential qualifications that candidates knowingly deficient in any of these respects should not, as many do, subject themselves and their friends to the chances of future mortification and disappointment, by accepting appointments to the Academy and entering upon a career which they can not successfully pursue.

Method of Testing the Qualifications of Candidates.

Candidates should be able to read with facility from any book, giving the proper intonation and pauses, and to write portions that are read aloud for that purpose, spelling the words and punctuating the sentences properly. Some historical work should preferably be chosen, and successive passages read till the reading exercises are ended. Then, from another part of the book, a suitable paragraph or paragraphs, of reasonable length, should be read aloud to the candidates, with proper intonations and pauses, as a guide to punctuation, and written down by them as read.

In Arithmetic they should be able to perform with facility examples under the four ground rules, and hence should be familiar with the tables of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, and be able to perform examples in reduction and in vulgar and decimal fractions, such as:

Add ⅔ to ¾; subtract ⅖ from ⅚; multiply ¾ by ⅞; divide ⅖ by ⅜

Add together two hundred and thirty-four thousandths, (.234,) twenty-six thousandths, (.026,) and three thousandths, (.003.)

Subtract one hundred and sixty-one ten thousandths (.0161) from twenty-five hundredths (.25.)

Multiply or divide twenty-six hundredths (.26) by sixteen thousandths (.016.)

They should also be able to change vulgar fractions into decimal fractions, and decimals into vulgar fractions, with examples like the following:

Change 15/16 into a decimal fraction of the same value.

Change one hundred and two thousandths (.102) into a vulgar fraction.

In simple and compound proportion, examples of various kinds should be given, and the candidates should understand the principles of the rules followed.

In English Grammar candidates should exhibit a familiarity with the nine parts of speech and the rules in relation thereto; should be able to parse any ordinary sentence given to them, and, generally, should understand those portions of the subject usually taught in the higher academies and schools throughout the country, under Orthography, Etymology, Syntax, and Prosody.

In Descriptive Geography they should name, locate, and describe the natural grand and political divisions of the earth, and be able to delineate any one of the States or Territories of the American Union, with its principal cities, rivers, lakes, seaports, and mountains.

In History they should be able to name the periods of the discovery and settlement of the North American continent; of the rise and progress of the United States, and of the successive wars and political administrations.

The examinations in Orthography, Grammar, Geography, and History may be either oral or written.

Candidates undoubtedly deficient in any one requisite, or more than one, should resign any expectation of admission till the deficiency is overcome.

Candidates should first be examined by a medical practitioner, with reference to the physical requirements and disqualifications set forth in the circular; such as are manifestly disqualified being so informed.

The condition of body and mind considered together should be regarded, as well as general proficiency in the studies as a whole. Especially should natural ability and manifest aptitude for acquiring and applying knowledge take precedence of mere scholastic finish and readiness of answer to former problems. Other things being equal, preference should be given, in order, to those whose claims are strengthened by military, naval, or other distinguished service rendered to the country by themselves or their immediate relatives; and it is better for candidates to be nearer the minimum than the maximum age.

BOARD OF VISITORS

In the Regulations for the government of the Military Academy, approved July 1, 1816, provision for the appointment of a Board of Visitors, to consist of five competent gentlemen, who should attend at each general examination, and report thereon to the War Department through the Inspector, who appears to have been from the start the senior officer of the corps of Engineers.

In 1846 (Aug. 8), Congress authorized the appointment annually, by the President, of a Board of Visitors, whose duty it was made to attend each yearly examination, and report to the Secretary of War upon the discipline, instruction, police and fiscal affairs of the Academy. The members were to be taken from one half of the number of States, alternating yearly with the other half, each member being a bona fide resident of the State from whence appointed, and each Congressional district being in turn designated to furnish an appointee. Of the members each year, not less than six must be taken from among officers actually serving in the militia.

Extract from Act of Congress approved August 8, 1846, amended by Acts of March 16, 1868, and February 21, 1870.

That the President is authorized to appoint a Board of Visitors to attend the annual examination of the Military Academy, whose duty it shall be to report to the Secretary of War, for the information of Congress, at the commencement of the next succeeding session, the actual state of the discipline, instruction, police, administration, fiscal affairs, and other concerns of the institution: Provided, That the whole number of visitors each year shall not exceed seven: Provided, further, That no compensation shall be made to said members beyond the payment of their expenses for board and lodging while at the Military Academy, and an allowance, not to exceed eight cents per mile, for traveling by the shortest mail route from their respective homes to the Academy, and back to their homes. And in addition to the other members of the Board of Visitors to be appointed by the President, according to law, to attend the annual examination of cadets at the United States Military Academy, there shall be on every such board two Senators, to be designated by the Vice-President, or President pro tempore of the Senate; and three members of the House of Representatives, to be designated by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, such designations respectively to be made at the session of Congress next preceding the time of such examination; and the Senators and members so appointed shall make full report of their action as such visitors, with their views and recommendations in regard to the said Military Academy, within twenty days after the meeting of Congress, at the session next succeeding the time of their appointment.

EXTRACT FROM REPORT OF VISITORS FOR 1871.

Twenty-five years ago West Point was substantially separate from the outside world; for several months of the year a mail was not received oftener than once in three or four days. The presence of visitors was almost wholly unknown, and the officers and cadets formed a community by and of themselves. The relations existing between the officers and cadets was like that at present existing between the officers and soldiers at a military post. Cadets were permitted to visit at the quarters of professors and officers on Saturday afternoons, and at no other time. But so reserved were the manners of officers, even on such occasions, that the privilege, though recognized, was very rarely exercised. There was substantially no social intercourse between the officers and the cadets.

In those days, too, the rigor of discipline put all cadets, the sons of the rich and the sons of the poor, upon a common footing. The regulations not only prohibited any cadet from receiving money from his parents and friends, but no place existed, or was permitted to exist, on the limits, where cadets could expend money. Occasionally a cadet was allowed to purchase what he pleased under the head of “sundries;” not exceeding one dollar in amount, and that only on the order of an officer in charge.

But all this has changed. West Point is now or fast becoming a place of fashionable resort. Hotels have been erected in near proximity to the post, and hundreds of visitors now repair thither where one did in former years. This influx of fashionable life has caused a relaxation of the rules in regard to cadets visiting. The great distance between officers and cadets has been gradually diminished. Cadets of the first class may now visit officers every day in the week, and officers and cadets associate together with a freedom of intercourse not formerly known. Insensibly the standard of discipline has been lowered, until the Academy has less than formerly the character of the Regular Army, and more the features of a militia establishment, where officers and men are separated while on duty, but mingle in social intercourse when the hour of drill or parade has passed.

Although the regulation in regard to cadets receiving money remains unchanged, yet, at present, a new functionary, known as the “cadet confectioner,” is allowed to keep open on cadet limits a place of resort which cadets are known to frequent daily to enjoy the table, and where they may treat their fellows without stint or limit. Thus one of the elements of equality which formerly existed among the cadets is destroyed, and the son of a wealthy man may fare sumptuously, while the poor boy must confine himself to such food as the mess-hall affords.

Many other causes might be mentioned as contributing to the present condition of things, and many other illustrations of the change from the custom of former years might be given. But those members of the board who have been appointed by the Vice-President and Speaker of the House of Representatives, and whose duty it is by law specially made to report to Congress upon this subject, will doubtless do so at length, and therefore this board pass the subject without as full a consideration as would otherwise be demanded. But this board, feeling the importance of a high state of discipline to the efficiency of the Academy, to accomplish the purpose for which it is maintained, earnestly recommend a return to the stricter kind of discipline which was administered years ago. An army must be governed by different methods and upon different principles from a civil society and to an army and to every military establishment discipline is a necessity.

With a view to this end, in the opinion of this board, the superintendent and commandant of cadets should always be officers of high rank, who, by their age and military distinction, can command not only the respect but the implicit obedience of the cadets.

REPORT OF THE BOARD OF VISITORS FOR 1863.

The Board of Visitors invited by the Secretary of War to visit the Military Academy at West Point, to make “a full and free investigation of the Military and Scientific instruction of the Cadets, and of the internal police, discipline, and fiscal concerns of the institution, and communicate the results of their observations, with any suggestions for the improvement of the Academy,” consisted of the following members:

Oliver S. Munsell, Illinois, PRESIDENT. Birdsey G. Northrop, Mass., SECRETARY. Thomas M. Allen, Missouri. Henry Barnard, Connecticut. Samuel W. Bostwick, Ohio. Thomas Brainard, Penn. Cyrus Bryant, Illinois. A. W. Campbell, West Virginia. Ralph W. Emerson, Mass. Oran Faville, Iowa. John H. Goodenow, Maine. P. D. Gurley, District of Columbia. Oliver P. Hubbard, New Hampshire. Edward Maynard, District of Columbia. Henry S. Randall, New York. William H. Russell, Conn. William A. Rust, Maine. Albert Smith, _New Hampshire_.

The Visitors introduce an account of their inspection with the following remarks:

Some of our number came with objections and prejudices against the Academy. But all doubts as to the value and importance of the institution were banished by the evidence presented in the course of our personal inquiries into its present condition and actual results. The Mexican war clearly evinced the value of military science. Still more has the present war demonstrated the necessity of maintaining, and even enlarging our Military Academy.

This Academy belongs to the whole nation. So far as its purpose and numbers permit, it is the Peoples’ College. It is maintained for the special benefit of no particular section, sect, party, or class. We could discover no evidence of aristocracy, exclusiveness, or caste. The Cadets represent all sects and parties, and almost all nationalities, now naturalized among us. The poor are not denied its privileges, for the expenses of all are paid alike. If particular dogmas have at any time prevailed here, the fact is an accidental, rather than an essential one, and should be referred to the ruling influences at the seat of government, and not to any inherent element in the local organization at West Point.

Their Report has been communicated to the Secretary, by whom the same will be transmitted to Congress--to receive such attention as the Secretary and Congress may see fit to bestow on its various suggestions. By permission of the Secretary, we transfer to our pages, that portion of the Report in which the subject of the Admission of Cadets--their number, age, attainments, and mode of appointment, is discussed with considerable fullness.

ADMISSION OF CADETS.

In concluding the report of their inspection of this, the only national military school, to which the country naturally looks for the organization and command of her armies, and the construction of her works of defense, the Visitors would respectfully urge on the consideration of the Department, an immediate and thorough revision of the law and regulations relating to the admission of Cadets--the number, the qualifications required, and the mode of ascertaining these qualifications, and of making the appointments. No matter how appropriate may be the location, how complete the buildings and equipment, and how skillful and faithful the teachers, unless there is a constant and sufficient supply of pupils of the right age, character, bodily and mental vigor and aptitude, as well as aspirations for a military career, the public will be disappointed in the practical workings of the institution.

1. The number of pupils in the Military Academy is determined by the law, which limits the Cadet Corps of the United States Army to one cadet for each Congressional District in the several States, one for each Territory, one for the District of Columbia, and to forty more, whom the President may appoint, ten each year, from the country at large, without reference to their residence. Under this law, if each Congressional District and Territory were represented, the whole number of cadets would be two hundred and eighty, but owing to vacancies by withdrawal or non-appointment in Congressional Districts in the States involved in the rebellion, the number at this time is reduced to less than two hundred--and the graduating class of 1863, to twenty-five--a number altogether inadequate for the regular army in time of peace, and much below the present and future exigences of the service, while the expense of the Academy remains the same. We are assured by the Superintendent that without any additional expense for building and material equipment, and with a small advance in the pay of pupils and assistant teachers, the Cadet Corps could be increased to four hundred. The Visitors are unanimously of the opinion that the corps should be at once increased to this number, and should be maintained at this maximum at all times, by authorizing the President to appoint to any vacancy which may remain unfilled for three months by reason of nullification, secession, rebellion, or any other cause. If the appointments to fill and maintain the Corps at this maximum, can be selected out of the many American youths, ambitious to serve their country in the army, on the plan of an open competitive examination in the several States, the Visitors believe that ninety out of every one hundred thus appointed will go through the whole course with honor, and the average ability, scholarship, and good conduct of the whole corps, will equal that now reached by the first ten of each class.

2. By the original law providing for the appointment of cadets to the corps of Artillerists and Engineers, and by the act of 1812, by which the Military Academy was made to consist of the Corps of Engineers, the candidates for cadets were to be “not under the age of fourteen, nor above the age of twenty-one years.” By regulations of the Department the minimum age is fixed at sixteen years, and the Visitors believe that the interests of the Academy and the military service, will be promoted by making the legal age for admission between eighteen and twenty-one years. The four years preceding and including eighteen are peculiarly the formative period of the body, mind, and character, and should be devoted to the acquisition of right habits of study and general culture, as the proper foundation for all special and professional training, which should not be commenced until the constitution is consolidated, the taste for a pursuit is distinctly pronounced, and the moral character is naturally developed under the influences and supervision of home. The experience of Europe, and particularly of France and England, has led to the abandonment of juvenile military schools, as nurseries for officers; and the very common practice of nominating candidates who exceed the legal age, expresses the convictions of our own people that military studies now require more maturity of mind than was deemed necessary in the early history of the Academy. The present want of uniformity as to age and mental discipline explains in part, the wide disparity of attainments between members of the same class. With few brilliant exceptions, confined to cadets of rare aptitude and vigor of mind, the most solid practical education is obtained by those who come to West Point when at least eighteen years of age, with at least a good preparation in English studies, and a taste for mathematical and military pursuits.

3. The school attainments required by law of candidates for admission to the Military Academy, are as rudimentary and limited as our language can express--far below, we are assured, the requisitions of any similar school in the world. Prior to 1812, when the Academy was little more than a school of mathematics, taught by two professors, in the line of geometrical and algebraical demonstrations, and the practical exercises were confined to surveying, and the simplest forms of military construction, the candidates were not subjected to any examination. The act of 1812, provides that “each candidate previously to his appointment, shall be well versed in reading, writing, and arithmetic,” and by regulations of the department, the knowledge of arithmetic is restricted to only a portion of that science. There were special reasons at the start for thus limiting the amount of knowledge, when the minimum age of admission was fixed at fourteen years, and the Academy was properly a juvenile military school, like all cadet schools in Europe at that time. At that date, science entered far less than now into the art of war, as applied to the means and modes of attack as well as of defense. Besides, the opportunities of even elementary instruction were then far less widely or equally distributed through all the States than now, when the general government has set apart over sixty million acres of the best land in aid of primary schools in all the new States, and nearly every State legislature has subjected the entire property of their several communities to taxation for the support of public instruction. Now that the requirement as to age has been advanced from the fourteenth to the sixteenth year, and by the voluntary action of parties having the nomination, or seeking the appointment, to the eighteenth year, we see no reason why the school attainments corresponding to, and compatible with that age, should not be also required. The least that should be demanded of any candidate is that amount of general culture and attainments, which constitutes a good English education, and which it is now the aim of the public schools, and their boast, to give without partiality, to all, poor and rich alike, if the advantages they proffer are properly improved. And we see no injustice in fixing the standard of general attainments and culture as high as that now reached by cadets in good standing at the close of their first year in this Academy, including even an elementary knowledge of one modern language. If the French, or Spanish, or German language is to be mastered by American officers for the sake of the military science and literature which it embodies, or its uses in conversation, or official duty, called for by the exigences of our foreign relations, both in peace and war, its acquisition should be begun as early in life as possible, while the organs of speech are flexible, and the grammatical and etymological difficulties of a new language are more readily surmounted. Judging from the results of the examinations we have witnessed here, and what we know of the attainments made by students in colleges elsewhere, very few persons, who begin the study of modern languages, late in their school life, in the pressure of other studies, ever attain the mastery of even one, so as to be able to use it as an instrument of written or spoken communication, or make its treasures of science and literature a familiar possession.

Whatever may be thought of the disciplinary and practical value of earlier and longer attention to one or more modern languages, to those, whose minds will otherwise be almost exclusively subjected to the peculiar training of the mathematics, there can be no doubt that young men who have reached the age of eighteen, and desire to profit by the special studies of a purely military school, should exhibit in their language, habits, and attainments that intellectual, moral, and esthetical culture, which the public or private schools of any State can, and should give to any youth of average ability of that age.

4. Low as the requirements for admission now are, from a defective and vicious mode, as we believe, of selecting candidates, and making appointments to the Cadet Corps, the number of candidates nominated and provisionally appointed, who present themselves at West Point and shrink from any examination, or who fail to pass even the entrance examination which is confined to reading a few passages of familiar English prose or verse, and writing a few sentences from dictation, and performing on the blackboard a few operations of the most elementary character in arithmetic,--or being admitted, are not able to gain or keep a respectable standing for one year, although the studies of the first year belong to a general, and not a military education,--or by a “special providence,” manage just to escape dismission from incompetency, and graduate,--is disgracefully large. The country abounds in youth, competent to master and profit by the course of instruction here provided, and ambitious of enjoying these privileges of education, and opportunities of distinction; and a selection by lot from the juvenile population of any state, could not result in so few prizes, and such a dreary waste of blanks as have been realized from the appointments made, in the necessary absence of all personal knowledge of the candidates by the appointing power, on the recommendation, or nomination of one or more persons in each Congressional District, in no way responsible for the incompetency of the individuals named.

From official tables prepared from the records of the Academy,[14] it appears that the proportion of all who graduate, to all appointed in successive periods of ten years, is as follows:

For Ten Years, from 1802 to 1811, 0.606 “ “ “ 1812 to 1821, 0.289 “ “ “ 1822 to 1831, 0.377 “ “ “ 1832 to 1841, 0.472 “ “ “ 1842 to 1851, 0.510 “ “ “ 1852 to 1861, 0.523

[Footnote 14: See Boynton’s “History of Military Academy at West Point,” p. 293.]

From official returns furnished by the Superintendent, a portion of which are hereto appended, (B. C.) it appears that out of 4626 who have been admitted to the Corps of Cadets, (including two hundred new members,) only 2020 were able to graduate, and of those who failed, (2398, excluding those who remain,) more than three-fifths broke down in the first year in studies which in almost every military and scientific school in Europe are required for admission. Out of the whole number regularly nominated, recommended, and provisionally appointed from 1841 to 1863, more than twenty per cent. failed to pass the examination, as to health and constitution, or the slight examination in reading, writing, and ciphering. And this proportion would be increased by the number who withdrew in advance from the consciousness of their unfitness for a position to which ambitious and influential friends had promoted them. Out of the whole number admitted from 1851 to 1862, more than one-third failed during their first year. The proportion of graduates to the whole number admitted is 46 per cent. and of those who failed to graduate, 54 per cent.

The Visitors are unanimously of opinion that in a matter of such vital importance as the right organization and command of the armies of the United States, on which the honor and safety of the whole country depend, the original appointment to the Cadet Corps which is the first step in promotion to such command, as well as to all the special duties which attach to the engineer service, should not be made in any case except on the principle of finding the best youth for the place--having the health, character, vigor of body, maturity and aptitude of mind, and preparatory knowledge, to profit by the opportunities of the special military training provided by the government for this corps, and a decided taste and expressed desire for a military career. And to this end, the law and regulations should provide for the rigorous exclusion in advance of all who can not present testimonials from the teachers under whose instruction they have been for the two years next previous, that in their opinion they possess the qualifications above specified, and who do not make a written declaration of their desire to enter the Corps for the purpose of qualifying themselves to labor in the military service of the government, to which they will bear true allegiance against all enemies foreign and domestic, and over all state and local authority, government and constitution whatever. To select the best out of any number who may present their testimonials and written declarations, public examination should be held of all applicants at such times and places as the law should prescribe, by such persons and under such regulations as the Department shall be authorized to appoint; and the results of such examination of each person examined, and in each subject specified by law, should be returned to the Department, in which return the applicants should be arranged in the order of merit. From this merit roll, revised from year to year, all appointments to the Cadet Corps should be made, and in the order of merit as assigned by the examiners.

This principle of appointment and promotion by merit which we advocate, is in full and successful operation in the classification and advancement of cadets in the Academy itself, and the country will be satisfied if the same principle can be as fairly and rigorously enforced on all who aspire to enter, as well as on all promotions in the service after leaving the institution. The principle itself, of selection by merit, either in the mode of public examination, or of careful and searching inquiry by competent and impartial educators, designated for this purpose by the parties to whom custom and not law had assigned the grave responsibility of nominating candidates, has been voluntarily applied in several Congressional Districts. Not a cadet known to have been thus selected and appointed, has ever broken down from want of vigor of body or mind, or failed to reach and maintain an honorable position on the merit roll of the Academy; and to this careful selection by those who felt the responsibility of the privilege accorded to them, is the country indebted for its most eminent and useful officers.

To the objection that selection by public competitive examination, will involve expense, we reply, that any expense which will do away with the prejudices against the Academy, which the present system of patronage has done so much directly and indirectly to evoke and foster, and which will, at the same time, exclude incompetent, and secure the services of vigorous, talented, well trained officers, for every arm of the service, will be well incurred. But, in our opinion, there will be no more expense in selecting and educating a given number of cadets on this plan, than on the present. The two thousand cadets who were appointed by patronage and failed to graduate, cost the government, directly and indirectly each year, a much larger sum than it would have taken to have excluded them in advance from the institution by competitive examination, and filling their places by better men; and their exclusion by substituting better material, would have been an incalculable gain to the Academy, facilitating its discipline, increasing the value of its instruction, and giving to the army a larger number of competent officers.

The objection, that the mode of making all appointments by open competitive examination, will deprive the President, and members of Congress of the opportunity of appointing the sons of meritorious officers, or poor, and it may be, orphan boys of genius--is more plausible than real. That such appointments have been made, to the manifest advantage of the country, is certain. But we know not a single instance of such marked success, on the part of a cadet thus appointed, as to attract investigation, where the same youth would not have secured the appointment in open competition. But if he had failed, and the place had been filled by one better qualified, the country would have been no loser, and he would have suffered no injustice or neglect. We fear, from an abuse of this amiable motive of rewarding meritorious parents, and assisting the poor, that in some instances, weak, ignorant, and incompetent persons are appointed, as though this Academy were a public charity school, or home for orphans; and not a special school for military instruction and training, for which the great object, in any mode of appointment, is to select those who will profit most by its advantages, and do the country the greatest service after being thus educated at its expense.

To the objections that, in these examinations, “the most forward boys will have the best chance, and such boys seldom make the best men,” and that no amount of book knowledge can give assurance of the great military genius, “which must be born and not made,” we reply, that these objections apply just as forcibly to any plan of nomination, and to every system of instruction. But we believe that those examinations can be and will be so conducted as to distinguish what is precocious from what is the healthy development of the faculties, what is solid from what is showy in attainments, what is vigor, grasp and aptitude of mind from what is mere memory and quickness, in competing candidates. All of these candidates must bring the testimonials of their former teachers, as to their character, ability and attainments, must have reached the age of eighteen years, and will be called upon to exhibit orally as well as in writing their knowledge and opinions on subjects which require judgment, reflection, presence of mind and decision. If a young man of eighteen and upward shows that he has done well what he had undertaken to do thus far in life, that he has preserved a sound constitution in vigorous health, has mastered the studies appropriate to his age, is honest, diligent, thoughtful, teachable, courageous, courteous, and ambitious of excellence generally, then the country has every assurance which can be given that on this basis of character, talents, attainments, and application, a solid fabric of military education can be reared, and that in the hour of trial he will show not only courage to dare, but competence to devise, influence and command. In the responsibilities of such an hour will be found the fruitage of all his previous promise and preparation.

To the objection--“that a competitive examination must always result in the success of the best instructed, wholly irrespective of the capacity of the competing candidates; and the plan will thus secure for the country the services of dull mediocrity well instructed, and exclude genius without opportunities of development,”--we reply, that this does occur now under the present system, but need not, and never has been the result of competitive examination properly conducted. The examination which we propose to have inaugurated, is not to search simply or mainly for the results of memory or diligence, but for “vigor and aptitude of mind” in reference to the special purposes of this Academy. The examination will be poorly conducted, and will operate here widely differently than elsewhere, if it does not only exclude in advance palpable incompetency, and ascertain beyond doubt the possession by all the successful candidates, of that knowledge which is the basis of a special military training, but also seek, and give credit in the result, for the quick eye, the firm set mouth, the vigor and elasticity of body, the rapid decision, the contempt of danger, the competency to influence and command--and all the other marks of the incipient soldier and officer, as well as the mathematical tastes and qualities of mind which indicate the successful engineer. Composed as every Examination Commission might be, of at least one experienced officer of the United States Army, of one member (past or present,) of the Academic Board, of one officer of the State Militia, as well as one or more experts in educational matters, the military qualities of body, character and mind, will be sought for as well as the mere results of memory, diligence and good opportunities of instruction, in the competing candidates.

To the objection, that candidates will make special preparation, and in the phraseology of the class-room, “cram for the occasion,” we reply,--to such preparation and cramming as cover the whole ground of a good English education, we can see no possible objection; the more of it, the better. If the preparation is only crude and on the surface, we are sure that the ploughshare of interrogation requiring precise answers, oral and written, will very soon expose its superficial and undigested character.

To the sifting out and selection by open competition, might be added a period of probation for the successful candidates--making their first year’s connection with the academy a further test of capacity, preparation, and aptitude for a military career. No pains and no expense should be spared to exclude from the academy and the service, incompetent, indifferent, and unteachable cadets and officers; such men are “cumberers of the ground,” and no influence and inertia should be potent enough to resist the inevitable working of the principle of open competition, applied at frequent intervals, and at every stage of promotion, in getting rid of such cadets and officers.

The fact that such a public examination is to be held from year to year, and that the educational privileges of this Academy, and immediate and prospective promotion in the army are the prizes which await success, will, in five years call forth more latent genius in the obscure corners and poor families of a State, than has ever been sought out by the lantern of patronage, (which is now seldom carried beyond the family, or neighborhood, or party of the person having the nomination,) since the foundation of the Academy. With the network of public and elementary schools, woven by state legislation over all the land--with public schools of a higher grade, and special schools of science and the arts already established, at short intervals, or which will be called into existence by the demand for a higher and different preparation from that now given, it may be safely said, that no genius, likely to attract the attention of a member of Congress, will exist, which will not be developed under the same influences by which the “dull mediocrity” of the rest of the community will be educated. Once set in the path of instruction and development, real genius will assert its own claims to attention, and will, on a first or second trial, before any board of examiners, make its vigor, courage, and persistence felt. The result will be the same in this institution, as in every really good Public High School and Free Academy--all classes as to wealth, occupation, religious and political affinities will be represented,--provided the regulations are judicious, and the examination practical and impartial.

This is the experience of the competitive principle in France ever since it was inaugurated by Carnot in the Polytechnic School at Paris, and Napoleon extended its application to every public special school, and to promotion in every department of administration, civil as well as military. And where is there more general administrative ability, central and local? Where are abler or better trained officers, military and civil, to be found? Where does “well instructed mediocrity,” no matter how well backed up by wealth, find less favor, or genius for organization and command, no matter how poor or unfriended, find such speedy and sure recognition?

The experience of England in the trial of the two principles of patronage and competitive examination for admission, not only to the military and naval schools, but to the East India and the Civil service generally, is instructive, and especially on the points which we are now considering. Prior to the Crimean war, (which exposed the utter incompetency of a large number of officers, who had obtained their military education and promotion by patronage and purchase,)--admission to the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich, was by nomination, and the age fixed by law, was fourteen years.

The Secretary of War was satisfied by personal inquiry in 1855, that nothing could do so much to narrow and cramp the full development of a boy’s mind, as his long confinement from so early an age among lads having the same limited attainments, special studies, and destination;--that a majority of those admitted on nomination and through influential friends, had only the minimum qualifications specified by law;--that to most cadets the severer studies were irksome and imperfectly mastered, on account of immaturity of mind and imperfect preparation;--that the certainty of promotion by influence and purchase, after obtaining the diploma of the Academy, and not unfrequently without it, took away all stimulus for continued study;--that resignations were common, when the profession of arms ceased to be a pastime, or could be exchanged for something that paid better--and the service was incumbered by officers without large and trained capacity for command, although not deficient in courage and dash. Under these circumstances the Secretary of War, advanced the minimum age of candidates from fourteen to eighteen years, removed all the general studies of the Academy into the preparatory course, and opened the doors of admission to those only, who could prove their title to enter by personal merit, in a free competitive examination. The same principle was applied to appointments and promotion in the new regiments called for by the exigences of the great war in which England found herself engaged.

Subjects, time, and places of examination, were officially made known throughout the kingdom, and commissions to conduct the examinations were appointed, composed of men of good common sense, military officers, and eminent practical teachers and educators. The results as stated in a debate in Parliament, five years later, on extending this principle to all public schools, and to all appointments and promotions in every department of the public service, were as follows:--In the competitive examinations for admission to the Royal Military Academy, candidates from all classes of society appeared--sons of merchants, attorneys, clergymen, mechanics, and noblemen, and among the successful competitors, every class was represented. Among the number was the son of a mechanic in the arsenal at Woolwich, and the son of an earl, who was at the time a Cabinet Minister--the graduates of National Schools, and the students of Eton, and other great Public Schools. The most successful candidates were between the ages of eighteen and nineteen, as is found to be the case in competitions for admission to the Polytechnic School of France. Out of 579 successful candidates for the latter, between 1854 and 1857, 450 were over eighteen years. But the most important result of the competitive examinations for Woolwich, was the superior mental ability, the vigorous health, and eagerness for study exhibited by the new classes, and the small number who have failed on account of ill-health or incompetency. On this point, Mr. Edward Chadwick, in a Report before the National Social Science Association, at Cambridge, in 1862, says:--

“Out of an average three hundred patronage appointed cadets at the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich, for officers of engineers and the artillery, during the five years preceding the adoption of the principle of open competition for admission to the Academy, there were fifty, who were after long and indulgent trial, and with a due regard to influential parents and patrons, dismissed for hopeless incapacity for the service of those scientific corps. During the five subsequent years, which have been years of the open competition principle, there has not been one dismissed for incapacity. Moreover, the general standard of capacity has been advanced. An eminent professor of this university who has taught as well under the patronage as under the competitive system at that Academy, declares that the quality of mind of the average of the cadets, has been improved by the competition, so much so, that he considers that the present average quality of mind of the cadets there,--though the sorts of attainment are different, has been brought up to the average of the first classmen of this (Cambridge) university, which of itself is a great gain. Another result, the opposite to that which was confidently predicted, by the opponents to the principle, has been that the average physical power or bodily strength, instead of being diminished, is advanced beyond the average of their predecessors.”

The opening of the Royal Military School at Woolwich to competition, on the basis of a more advanced age, and more thorough general education, has not only drawn in pupils of higher average ability and attainments, but has enabled the authorities to extend the course of instruction. In this, the only safe way, they solved the problem which has tortured the ingenuity of the friends of our Academy--of crowding new studies acknowledged to be desirable if not indispensable, into a course already too crowded for cadets so unequally, and, many of them, so imperfectly prepared for the course as it is.

Another result of immense importance to the educational interests of Great Britain has followed the introduction of these open competitive examinations for appointments to the Military and Naval Schools, to the East India service, as well as to fill vacancies in the principal clerkships in the War, Admiralty, Ordnance and Home Departments of the government:--a stimulus of the most healthy and powerful kind, worth more than millions of pecuniary endowment, has been given to all the great schools of the country, including the universities of England, Scotland and Ireland. As soon as it was known that candidates, graduates of Trinity College, Dublin, had succeeded over competitors from Oxford and Edinburgh in obtaining valuable appointments in the East India service--the professors in the latter universities began to look to their laurels. As soon as it was known to the master of any important school, that some of his leading pupils might compete in these examinations, and that his own reputation as a teacher depended in a measure on the success or failure of these pupils, he had a new motive to impart the most vigorous and thorough training to his whole school.

The success of candidates who had never seen the inside of a government Military School, in open competition for appointments to the Artillery and Engineer Corps, in the new regiments raised in 1855, over those who hold the diplomas of the Royal Military Academy, was one of the reasons which led to a thorough revision of the whole system of military education.

These results, imperfectly presented here, will, the Visitors believe, be realized from the changes, which they now suggest, in the requirements as to age, attainments, capacity and aptitude, and especially in the mode of ascertaining these qualifications, of candidates for appointments to the Cadet Corps of the United States Army.

To the present low requirements, and mode of selecting cadets, do they attribute the hostility which they know exists, to some extent, against this Academy, in different parts of the country. The charges of personal, and political favoritism in making nominations, and the absence of reasonable search, among all the youth of a district, for the best qualified in natural endowments and acquired knowledge irrespective of the poverty, or wealth, or occupation, or family, or party relations of the parents or guardians, we are forced to believe, in too many instances, to be well founded. To these hasty and injudicious nominations, do we attribute the bitter disappointments of so many individuals and families caused by the numerous failures to pass the almost formal entrance examinations in reading, spelling, penmanship, and elementary operations of arithmetic, or if admitted, to maintain a respectable standing in conduct and studies during their first year’s connection with the institution. To this inequality of preparation and maturity of mind on entrance, do we attribute the astonishing disparity of capacity and attainments in the members of the same class, and the very large proportion of all who are admitted, who fail to graduate in very high standing as men of science or military promise.

To this want of preparatory knowledge, maturity of mind, and taste for mathematical and military studies, do we attribute most of the difficulties of internal administration, and class-room instruction. So long as the cadet is a boy, or if full grown in body, a youth with only boyish tastes, and without scholarly and soldierly aspirations,--so long as not a few are in the Academy, not because they sought its privileges from an inward and irrepressible impulse to a military career, but for the eclat of a military position to be resigned when such position involves sacrifices; so long will the admission of each new class, and especially, the period of encampment be signalized not only by boyish pranks, but by personal outrages on unoffending members of the same corps, which we had supposed to belong to the dark ages of collegiate institutions, when boyish inmates were congregated in large numbers, away from the restraints of family discipline;--so long will the time, skill, and patience of able professors, which should be devoted to the elucidation of difficult scientific principles and their applications to military art, be engrossed in supplying the defects of an elementary education, which should have been obtained by the cadet as well, or better, at home; so long will the severe mathematical studies, and their special applications, difficult enough to task a well disciplined mind even with the preparation provided in a thorough knowledge of arithmetic, algebra, and geometry,--be irksome in the extreme, and be never mastered to any useful purpose to the army of the United States, by more than one half of the graduates of the Academy;--so long will the country be disappointed in the subsequent career of many graduates, for whose military instruction and training all these appropriate and costly preparations have been made.

In view of these and other considerations the Board of Visitors unanimously recommend that the law and regulations relating to the military academy be so modified as to provide as follows:

I. The Cadet Corps of the army of the United States shall consist of four hundred members, to which each state and territory shall be entitled to a number equal to its representation in the Congress of the United States, and the remainder shall be designated by the President from the country at large, including the District of Columbia; and he shall also fill, in the same way, any vacancy which for any cause may remain unfilled, for three months after the annual examination in each year.

II. No person shall be appointed to the cadet corps until he has been found qualified in the particulars designated by law, after a public examination conducted in such places, at such times, and in such manner as Congress shall prescribe; from which examination no person resident of that portion of the country for which the same is held, shall be excluded, who shall present credentials from the teacher or teachers whom he had last attended, that he is over seventeen, and under twenty-one years of age, of unblemished moral character, and personal habits, of good physical strength and constitution, and has given evidence of aptitude and vigor of mind for the studies and duties of a military career. The examiners shall make return under oath to the Secretary of War, of the persons so presenting themselves, examined, and found qualified, arranged in the order of merit, specifying the residence and school or schools which they have attended in the two years previous, and the degree of merit exhibited in each subject of the examination. And all appointments to fill vacancies for any state or territory, or for the country at large, shall be made from these returns, and in the order of merit as assigned by the examiners, until the same shall be revised by new regulations of the Department.

III. No person shall be returned to the Secretary of War as a suitable candidate for admission to the Cadet Corps, unless he

1. Shall be over seventeen, and under twenty-one years of age.

2. Shall possess an unblemished moral character and correct personal habits.

3. Shall be in good health, and in no way incapacitated by want of vigor and elasticity of physical constitution for military service.

4. Shall possess vigor and aptitude of mind for the studies of the Military Academy, and shall give evidence, oral and written, of a good English education, which, in view of the wide spread facilities of instruction in public and private schools, might very properly embrace

(a.) The correct use of the English language, in speaking, reading, and writing the same.

(b.) Penmanship, book-keeping, and elementary drawing.

(c.) The ability to perform with facility and accuracy the various operations of arithmetic.

(d.) The elementary principles of algebra and geometry.

(e.) A thorough knowledge of American geography and history, and the leading features of the Constitution of the United States, and of the State of his residence.

(f.) Or so much of the subjects above specified as shall be deemed indispensable to the immediate and profitable attention of the Cadets on their admission to the special studies and occupations of a military school.

5. Shall make a written declaration of his desire to obtain admission to the Cadet Corps for the purpose of qualifying himself for the military service of the United States, which service he assumes from the date of his appointment as cadet, to continue in the same for a period of at least sixteen years--bearing true faith and allegiance to the Constitution and government of the United States, against all enemies, foreign and domestic, and paramount to all obligations to any State government, authority, or constitution.

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