Introduction
Under the constitutional powers “to regulate commerce with foreign nations and among the several States,” and “to provide and maintain a navy,” Congress, it is believed, can do more than is now done to provide both the military and commercial marine with intelligent, hardy and skillful sailors, as well as mates and captains, and to elevate the position of the whole seamen class.
The frightful accidents from explosions caused by badly constructed, or worn out steam-boilers, led to a system of national inspection which has done something to diminish the loss of life and property from this source, in vessels engaged in commerce on the ocean or our inland waters--but a system of instruction, examination, and promotion, under national authority, with national aid and the cöoperation of the mercantile community, of all persons intrusted with the command and navigation of all vessels, registered as national shipping, would put an end to all that class of disasters to life and property which is now attributable to ignorance and want of experience--and which is regarded by underwriters as much the largest portion of all marine disasters.
The necessity of doing something led to the establishment of the naval apprentice system, under the Act of March 2, 1837.
The original trial was not inaugurated under favorable conditions, and was prematurely abandoned, under the economical action of Congress which compelled the department to elect between men and boys for its arduous service. In 1864 the system was revived by Secretary Welles, a vessel was placed under the command of a competent officer, and a promising class of boys, after a preliminary examination were enlisted, and the work of their instruction was begun by training them in all the details of a sailor’s duty at sea. The Secretary in his Report for 1866, expressed himself hopeful of the results--but urged Congress to further legislation, to make the system attractive, by holding out to the most deserving members of the class, appointments to the Naval Academy, and a retiring pension after twenty years’ service. His suggestions were not heeded, and under the limitations of the Act of 1866 the trial failed.
Commodore Jenkins, Chief of the Bureau of Navigation, having cognizance of Naval Apprentices, in his Report for 1866, remarks:
A judicious naval apprentice system will secure to the navy every year, after the first enlisted boys are thoroughly trained and educated, a sufficient number of well-disciplined and better instructed seamen to give tone and character to the crews of our vessels of war than heretofore, and if the enlistments were unlimited it would require only a few years to provide all the seamen necessary for a formidable naval peace establishment.
But it is not the navy alone that is or ought to be greatly interested in the success of the naval apprentice system. Every ship-owner and shipper in the country will be directly or indirectly benefited as well as the navy. Many of the apprentices will, at the expiration of their apprenticeship, seek service on board of merchant vessels, where the advantages of their previous training and education will be felt.
If there were training-ships in every port of the United States for apprentices to the sea service, and the apprentices, after being taught the rudiments of an English education and all the seamanship that could be taught on board of a vessel in port, were sent on long sea voyages, the seamen of the country would soon become more elevated in character than they are at present, and ship-owners would realize the importance of cherishing and protecting a valuable class of our countrymen who are now left to the tender mercies of hard-hearted landlords, crimps, and runners.
It is a great mistake to suppose that steam vessels can be managed well by landsmen at sea. The terrible shipwrecks, loss of numbers of individuals, and of millions of dollars’ worth of property annually on the ocean, is in the main attributable to bad management, ignorance, and want of experience of those in charge of the vessels. It is as necessary that sea steamers should be officered and manned by expert seamen as it was in former times for clipper and other sailing vessels. A good knowledge of seamanship is only to be acquired by a long apprenticeship; nor does the ability to navigate a vessel from one port to another make a man a seaman. There is no vocation, profession, or calling which requires a more varied knowledge and a greater experience than that of an expert seaman. It is not sufficient that he should know how to knot and splice a rope, to reef and furl a sail, to take his trick at the helm, or to give correct soundings in heaving the lead. He must be a good judge of the appearances of the weather, know how to lay his vessel to and under what canvas for safety, on what tack to put his vessel to avoid the strength of the approaching gale or hurricane, when to run and when to lie to, and he must be fertile in resources to save his vessel in case of danger or disaster at sea. The expert seaman is a man full of resources, and ever ready to turn his knowledge and experience to good account; but such is not the estimate of him by those who only know him as an outcast of society, without friends and without influence.
As education and careful training elevate those who are engaged in the different pursuits on shore, the same means, if judiciously employed, will elevate and make useful and respectable in their sphere that much neglected and greatly oppressed class of our fellow-citizens--the American sailor.
Navigation Schools for the Mercantile Marine.
Whatever may be the success of still another trial of the apprentice system to secure a supply of trained seamen for the Navy, the experience of all other countries is decidedly in favor of a liberal system of Navigation Schools, as well as an efficient system of registration, examination, and certificates of competency and of service, administered under national inspection and with pecuniary aid, and under the local management of merchants, ship-owners, and underwriters, for the commercial marine.
GENERAL REVIEW OF MILITARY EDUCATION
I. NAVAL SCHOOLS AND EDUCATION.
We can not better introduce the conclusions to which this study of the subject has brought us, than by giving a few extracts from the many communications, which the recent agitation of naval education in England has elicited.
Proposed Improvements in Naval Education in England.
In 1869, the alternative was offered, on their own petition, to the 2,710 disabled seamen, who resided in the truly magnificent Hospital at Greenwich, on the Thames, which the national gratitude had set apart for their accommodation, when no longer able from wounds, age, or other infirmities to serve under “the meteor flag” of England--to continue there at the expense of the government, or draw their pensions and spend it in their own way, among their friends in their old homes, or wherever they fancied; only 31 elected to remain--and these were too feeble to leave, or had outlived their friends. The old Hospital infirmary, a large detached building, was granted by the Admiralty to the Seamen’s Hospital Society for the benefit of the mercantile marine; but the bulk of that immense pile--which is covered in by seven acres of roof, and whose domes and colonnades were designed by Sir Christopher Wren, and erected at a cost, from first to last, of not less than a million sterling--full of historic associations as the birthplace of Queen Elizabeth, and the residence of two dynasties of English kings, and the greater Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell, and for two centuries the home of the British Navy--for nearly two years has stood vacant. The TIMES, in an editorial of September 13, 1871, renews a suggestion made at the time the system of out pensions was under discussion, to continue its use for the Navy.
It is almost two years since we hazarded the suggestion that it should be converted into a Naval University. We used the term “University” in the sense of a collective institution, embracing several separate Colleges adapted to a similar purpose. We pointed out how inadequate in extent and in range of education is the present Royal Naval College at Portsmouth, the only institution we possess for supplying to Naval Officers what is termed a “higher education.” We also reminded our readers that the education of our Naval Cadets between the ages of 12 and 14 is now carried on in a School-ship, which, from the nature of things, must have many disadvantages in comparison with a building of ample space on the brink of a great river and on the border of a Royal Park. We showed that there was already a great Charity-School in the rear of the Hospital, and supported by its funds, for the gratuitous education of 800 children of poor sailors; and we reckoned that the Hospital would still supply ample accommodation for a scheme, suggested to us on high authority, for furnishing at cost price to the children of seamen of all grades in the Navy and Commercial Marine, an education in English, French, the elements of science, and the ordinary rudiments of instruction.
In the year 1870 the Admiralty appointed a committee on “the Higher Education of Naval Officers,” and directed them to consider whether it was desirable to limit the place of study to the College at Portsmouth, or whether the vacant buildings at Greenwich could be utilized for the purposes of education. The reported evidence of the Committee revealed a lamentable want of scientific knowledge in the naval profession. The witnesses were agreed in stating that few half-pay Officers had knowledge enough to study with advantage after the age of 30, and that few could, with advantage to the service and themselves, be spared to study before the age of 30. It was stated by the Mathematical Master that Commanders and Captains come to the College very badly prepared, and that “some come who are unable to work a decimal fraction.” They come, as the College is now organized, exclusively for scientific study, in which Mathematics are a necessity, and yet are destitute of the most elementary preparation. Of course there are a few brilliant exceptions, but the scientific attainments of the profession as a body appear to be deplorably low.
In preparing a scheme for the improvement of what is so modestly termed “the higher education” of Naval Officers, the Committee proposed to add to the voluntary subjects of study a considerable number of practical pursuits. They proposed, under the advice of the late Chief Constructor of the Navy, to add both a short and a long course in Naval Architecture, in which there is at present absolutely no instruction given to Naval Officers. Such an education was supplied between the years 1806 and 1821, but since the latter year it has been altogether ignored and discouraged. It would require considerable space for the exhibition of models, and no sufficient room exists for it in the present College in Portsmouth Dockyard. The Committee proposed to furnish instruction, as now, in Steam, Mathematics, Nautical Astronomy, and Field Fortification, but to add facilities for the study of Languages, Chemistry, including Metallurgy, Geology, Mineralogy, and Naval Tactics. The want of a knowledge of languages in the British Navy was signally illustrated on a somewhat recent occasion, when the French iron-clad fleet visited Spithead, and upon our Admiral signalling for all officers who could speak French to come on board the Flagship, only one officer in the Channel Fleet was able to respond to the summons. The want of a scientific knowledge of the principles of naval architecture has prevented of late many skilled seamen of the Royal Navy from contributing useful and practicable suggestions to the discussions on our ironclad ship-building. The Committee seem to have thought that it would not be practicable to make a year’s study in the Naval College in peace time compulsory for every sub-lieutenant, though distinguished officers, like Admiral Sir Alexander Milne, gave evidence in favor of it. But, apart from this abundant source for supplying students, it was anticipated that an extension of the education would attract a large increase of scholars; and on general grounds, quite distinct from the accommodation, one-half of the Committee, including the Director of Naval Education, were strongly in favor of establishing the College at Greenwich. Fortified by this concurrence of authority, we recommend again to the consideration of the Government the scheme of a Naval University as the best mode of repeopling that ancient and now vacant Hospital.
This “leader” of the Times was followed in the issue for Sept. 20, by a communication from the eminent ship-builder E. J. Reed, who was for several years at the head of the Department of Naval Construction--with reasons for immediately widening and raising the education of naval officers of all classes.
The absence of everything like a comprehensive organization for imparting to them the knowledge necessary in these days is truly deplorable, and is made the more so by the very fact that our officers are themselves well aware of the extreme defectiveness of their training in many branches of knowledge which would be most valuable to them, and exhibit the strongest desire to supplement that training by every available means. I have had many occasions of observing this during the last few years; not the least striking of them being the publication of my book on Shipbuilding in Iron and Steel, which, although a purely technical and professional book, was eagerly procured and studied by a very large number of naval officers, who, as you justly state, are now left absolutely without any official instruction in naval architecture. When in Russia this year I found elaborate means and appliances for instructing young officers in all the great features of practical shipbuilding, as well as in the general principles of naval design, and I had the opportunity of examining a large model of an iron-clad ship which was being constructed by these young naval officers; while the shipbuilding and engineering officers of the Russian service have one entire side of the vast building which accommodates the Admiralty branches, wholly devoted to their instruction. I have not yet seen the naval training schools of Germany, but I have had several opportunities of conferring on shipbuilding questions with the naval officers of that country, and I can state with perfect confidence that they possess a most intimate acquaintance with even the latest methods of naval design and construction, and obviously have had a careful training in the principles of naval architecture and the details of shipbuilding. How much this training contributes to the efficiency of naval commanders and other officers I need not say.
Mr. Reed dwells on the total absence of even an attempt to instruct naval officers of all ranks in the department of construction.
Even our warrant officers, the “carpenters” of the Navy, whose duty it is to keep our Navy in repair at sea, and to take instant measures for saving our ships from the effects of injuries sustained by collisions, groundings, or during action--even these officers are subjected to no special and organized training whatever, and are often put on board ship, in responsible charge of the repairing staff, without any knowledge whatever of the construction of their vessel.
I knew so well that the whole class of naval “carpenters” have for years been anxious to obtain a better training for their very responsible duty, that I made a vigorous effort to be allowed to organize a system by which every carpenter of the service should be carefully instructed in iron shipbuilding, and as carefully selected for particular ships on account of his fitness for the duty; but some tradition about warrant officers being “executive officers,” and therefore not under the Chief Constructor of the Navy, and also, I fear, some jealousy of the patronage of such appointments passing into new hands, effectually barred my progress, and imposed conditions under which it was not possible to give effect to my wishes.
I do not think I shall go beyond the truth if I say that other warrant officers are as deficient of suitable training as carpenters. I have certainly known of more than one instance in which the machinery by which our great modern guns are worked at sea has been so imperfectly understood that the “breaks” which are intended to control them have been “greased;” and no doubt a war would develope sad consequences of the enforced ignorance of our gunners.
But let it not be supposed that I advocate the instruction of warrant officers alone in the principles and practice of shipbuilding; it is in my judgment pressingly desirable that the whole class of executive officers should be afforded a certain amount of training in these subjects, and a far ampler training than they now receive in many other subjects also. The Navy suffers very much, even in peace times, from the want of a more liberal training on the part of its officers, as they themselves well know; and I am thoroughly persuaded that in a time of war we shall have to make great sacrifices on account of our neglect in this respect. Many unwise things are done, and many unwise reports are written, because of the want of fuller scientific and technical information on the part of naval officers; and I do not hesitate to say that during my tenure of the Chief Constructorship serious evils arose in my own department from the outside pressure of the uninformed.
Mr. Reed would locate the Naval University at Greenwich.
Such a University must almost of a necessity be metropolitan. All the provincial Government Schools of Naval Architecture in this country have failed, and always must fail, because the metropolis alone can supply the necessary professors for class education chiefly of a scientific character; and the same is even more true of the present case. All the civil members of the late Admiralty Committee on the higher education of naval officers concurred in this view, none more strongly, I believe, than the present Director of Admiralty Education, Dr. Joseph Woolley, who is undoubtedly at once the most experienced and most enlightened authority alive as regards all questions of naval training. And there is this very strong further reason for making this University metropolitan--viz., that one of the most fruitful and valuable results to be anticipated from a more liberal and enlarged education of our naval officers is the release of the service from those thousand and one Old World prejudices which cramp the action and spirit of the service in these modern days, when other nations are bringing their most free and cultivated minds to bear upon naval warfare; and to found a University in a port where the present traditions and habits of thought of the service have the greatest force, would be to place a fatal stumbling block at the very threshold of the work; and if the metropolis is to be the home of the University there can not be a doubt about the superior eligibility of Greenwich. There the magnificent college already stands, with its empty halls, inviting the Government to devote them to some great national and naval object. It is within easy reach of London, professors and teachers; it is in the neighborhood of great shipbuilding and marine engine-making establishments, and also of Chatham Dockyard. It is on the banks of our noblest river, and on the verge of the open country, so that every form of healthful recreation would be available for the students. It also affords ample internal space for all those laboratories, model rooms, lecture rooms, and other apartments, which could only be secured on a sufficient scale at a seaport by a large outlay of money. And, above all, it affords the readiest, as well as the best, means of entering upon a much too long-neglected undertaking.
In the same issue (Sept. 20), the Times had a leader on the subject, from which we take a few paragraphs.
It is certainly discouraging for a nation which has hitherto held, and which means to keep, the first place in the world as a naval Power to find that in systematic training Russia and Germany are dangerously surpassing us. No doubt in the raw material of a navy we can compete fearlessly with any country on the face of the earth; our sailors can not be matched for enterprise, resolution, and discipline, nor can our captains, in spite of some late disasters, be out-sailed or out-manœuvred by any who sail under foreign flags. But we must not forget that war on the seas, like war on land, is year by year becoming more and more a scientific pursuit. Our magnificent iron-clad fleet, in which Mr. Reed feels justly a parental interest, is too precious a possession to be intrusted to men who do not know how to use so two-edged an instrument. But how should our naval officers know how to manage an iron-clad ship? They are taught nothing about the construction of these triumphs of modern science; they do not, as a rule, possess even the elementary knowledge which would enable them to commence the study of the subject.
Whether the unequaled advantages offered by Greenwich Hospital be turned to account or some more expensive method be adopted by a Government which pins its credit on economy, the necessity of providing for the education of naval officers can no longer be ignored. Not to speak of the absolute absurdity of sending iron-clads to sea in charge of officers who know no more of the construction of an iron-clad than they know of the latest improvements in cotton-spinning machinery, it is obvious that a system under which men whose business is to navigate costly vessels of war, are sent to their work without knowing even the elements of mathematics, must sooner or later result in a disastrous collapse. It may be a question whether such has not been the case already,--whether the recent mischances in the conduct at sea of some of our finest vessels may not be traceable to the imperfect education of the officers.
When other nations are giving their sailors scientific teaching, and when we are expending gigantic sums on the construction of a Navy which must be handled in accordance with scientific principles, it appears absurd, or worse, to allow the commanders and the officers of our iron-clads to go to sea without the slightest guarantee for their knowledge of the peculiar conditions under which one of our modern monster ships is to be managed. If an iron-clad happens, as we may presume, considering what has lately happened, is not impossible, to strike upon a rock or otherwise seriously to damage herself at a distance from home dockyards, the chances are that no one on board, from the captain down to the carpenter, will know how to repair the damage.
To the urgent demand for more scientific knowledge of naval construction, Admiral Henry J. Rouse interposes a plea for more seamanship, discipline, and education afloat. In the Times for Sept. 28, the bluff Admiral says, rather bluntly:
I was alive to the want of seamanship and to the neglect of a naval education from the moment a midshipman left his school and was appointed to a steamer: but I always flattered myself there was one redeeming point--namely--gunnery--in which the officers of the present day had a wonderful preëminence over the old school. How is the proposed college to ameliorate this state of things? Will it make the young officers engineers when on board ship? They are not allowed to interfere with the engineer, who is, in fact, the commanding officer. Will warrant officers, carpenters, and gunners, be educated there? And in answer to Mr. Reed relying upon the carpenter in the event of a ship grounding (not an uncommon occurrence), we look to the captain to lay out his anchors, lighten his ship and heave her off by purchase over purchase; we do not consult the carpenter. Mr. Reed says,--“The men who will have to design for our Navy will never be free to design the best ships which can be provided until an improved education of the whole naval service unbinds the hands of the scientific servants of the Admiralty.”
Who are the scientific servants? Are the men who designed the iron-bound monsters at the expense of half a million each; which have every bad quality, which can neither sail, wear, nor stay better than a coal barge, and which roll and pitch like maniacs owing to the weight of their armor, and which are certain to founder if called upon to face a very heavy gale? Are the servants scientific who stow their ballast on empty cells, thereby preventing a ship righting herself if she heels over 33 deg. under canvas, and which makes her capsize keel uppermost, according to the simple law of gravitation which impels the vacuum to the surface? Was the servant scientific who reduced a ship’s ballast 300 tons, and put a corresponding weight of iron on the upper works, boasting he had retained the same line of immersion without calculating the loss of stability, and did not the Admiralty listen to him like countrymen to a mountebank, and reward him with a grant of money?
If a Greenwich College could diminish the frightful excesses and expenditure in the last eight years in the building department, for which the House of Commons demanded an investigation, which was checkmated by sending a distinguished admiral to the Cape of Good Hope; if it could instruct the scientific servants in the mysteries of their vocation, and convert the simple landsmen in Charing-cross into naval oracles; if it could make young officers seamen by inspiration, then I should agree with Mr. Reed that a Greenwich College would be most desirable.
As for the junior officers nothing but a sailing ship can educate a seaman. If a midshipman loses the precious years from 14 to 17 in a steamer he will be too old and proud to learn his profession, and when later in life he is sent to take command of a prize ship under canvas in war time he will look very foolish in half a gale of wind.
If any man will take the trouble to think, he must be convinced that no ship of any size, no armor clypei septemplicis, no guns of 25 tons can compete with an iron-cased steam ram of about 1,200 tons, invulnerable, bomb-proof, which would put five feet of cold steel under a ship’s water line going 14 miles per hour. We are now building gunboats to protect the coast. One of Mr. Drake’s steam rams of about 300 tons, without a gun mounted, would destroy a dozen of them. In the next naval action history will be repeated. Romans, Carthagenians, and again the naves rostratæ, alias the Steam Ram, will carry the day. It is wonderful that the Admiralty for the last twenty years have been building their hogs in armor to defy shot and shell, ignoring the terrible attack of this superior power. It is never too late to mend. To save enormous sums of money and a waste of coal we ought to pay off all our useless monsters, and during peace to commission small ships with auxiliary screws, never to burn a coal except in a case of necessity; and then, by keeping squadrons at sea, we might improve our discipline, our seamanship, and esprit de corps.
The letter of Admiral Rouse was accompanied by a leader in the Times of the same date from which we take a few paragraphs.
The spirit of an English sailor of the old school, with his bluff, outspoken, uncompromising detestation of change, and his unfaltering belief that all that has been was right, is something to wonder at and even admire, if we should not care to imitate it, in these days of perpetual motion. He has observed, as we all have, with shame and misgiving, that while the cost of our vast ironclad vessels of war is growing yearly greater, the officers of the new generation who are to be intrusted with the handling of these expensive monsters are not comparable for practical skill and shiftiness with those of Admiral Rouse’s contemporaries who dominated the seas in sailing frigates in the days before either steam or ship-armor was devised. In his perception of the defects of our present system the Admiral does not stand alone; it is condemned by the ablest officers who are now in command of our fleets, by the eminent engineers who construct them--unfortunately, with still more eloquent urgency by the voice of our recent naval annals. The misadventures of the Captain, the Psyche, and the Agincourt, not to mention less serious mishaps, have startled us all, and the seamanship of the British Navy has come to be gravely questioned.
Let us compare Admiral Rouse’s remedy with Mr. Reed’s.
The latter is dwelling on the custom of sending young boys to sea with necessarily imperfect training, and of promoting them to the higher grades, though in the meantime they have had no opportunities of scientific instruction. He asserts the consequence is that very few of the officers who command our costly iron-clads at the present day know any thing of the construction or the qualities of those gigantic boating masses. Admiral Rouse admits this fully, but he superadds a charge at least as serious; he alleges that few or none of our modern naval officers who spend the years of their apprenticeship to the sea on board a steamer, and who “worship the boiler whenever they are in a scrape,” do know or can know any thing of real seamanship. Mr. Reed says that the study of the principles of shipbuilding is unknown among the officers of our Navy, and that accordingly, few of them can handle an iron-clad. Admiral Rouse says that the study of the winds and waves is neglected by them, and that not many of them can sail a frigate. Mr. Reed demands a Naval University to teach officers the theory of navigation as applied to the vast masses of iron now afloat under our flag. Admiral Rouse would get rid of these “useless monsters” altogether, would, during peace, commission small “ships with auxiliary screws,” and “never burn a coal except in case of necessity.” Here we have the ancient and the modern spirit in contrast and juxtaposition. The former, obstinate and often illogical, but with a certain rude and not unjustified faith in practice, deserves our respect, for it was this spirit which won us, in old times, our naval supremacy. The latter may be over-bold and presumptuously contemptuous of the past and all its belongings; but it is the spirit of progress, and on its guidance we have to depend for the maintenance of the renown we achieved in the earlier and darker time.
On the 20th of March, 1871, Capt. James G. Goodenough, R. N., read a paper before the Royal United Service Institute, on the Preliminary Education of Naval Officers, from which we make extracts.
I should be guilty of an absurd and forced indifference to what is passing around me if I were not to say that an impression now exists very generally in the service, that the views which finds most favor with regard to the training of the officers of Her Majesty’s Navy is, that the naval officer should be taught young; that he should be made to devote himself to the details, and nothing but details of his profession from boyhood to youth, and from youth to middle age, and that somewhere behind middle age and old age, he should be deemed to be warrant, and be thrown away a pensioner on the country’s gratitude, unfit even to have a voice in the guidance of the affairs of the service to which he may have been an ornament. This impression is doing much harm in all directions.
It is weakening the desire for knowledge and self-improvement in naval officers; it is tending to narrow and circumscribe the idea of responsibility of a naval commander for all things coming within his ken, and to lower his conception of his own position from that of a representative of his country in all parts of the world, an agent of her policy, and a guardian of her commerce, to that of being a mere executing tool, whose only argument is force.
The warning which I should give, and it contains the whole case, is this,--that while all other circumstances of life at sea have changed considerably in the last thirty years, the preliminary training of our officers has not changed in its main features. It is not merely that our material, whether in ships or guns, steamships or canvas, has changed. It is not only that our material has become far more complicated than of yore. If that alone were the case, the system of a former age might supplant the wants of the day. No! the change whose bearing we have failed to acknowledge, even though we may have perceived it, is this, that while formerly the conduct of ships at sea, their discipline, and the handling of their material generally, was based on the experience obtained in the practical individual lives from early years, and on an acquaintance with external phenomena and internal details, which were not reduced to laws or elevated into systems; now, we do possess rules and laws, which greatly reduce the value, if they do not quite supersede, the practical experience of a single life. In every one of the varied practical duties of a sea officer, this is the case, whether in navigation or in discipline, in artillery or in manœuvring; and I say that this constitutes the great change in a sea life to which we have made no corresponding advance. I say that although those laws and systems exist, we still continue to let the details which they include be painfully and only practically acquired by experience, instead of methodically teaching the principles on which they are based.
The principles on which I consider that that education should rest are these: First, that a distinction should be made between the period of education and that of special training. Second, that special training should be the business of the Government, while education should be left to the care of the parents, at the ordinary schools of the country. Third, that the handling of ships’ sails and boats, and the principles of command should be methodically taught, instead of, as at present, being left to chance observations and the accidents of service. Fourth, that the young officers under training in schoolships should have no command, except over each other, and should count no sea time; and that on entering the service afloat in sea-going ships, they should become at once, in some measure, responsible officers, though liable to future examinations, and to produce evidence of having done work after leaving the training-ships. Fifth, that in order to discourage cramming, all entrance examinations should be confined, as far as possible, to the subject of study at advanced public schools, and that every candidate should be required to bring with him certificates of a year’s good conduct from his last school.
I wish to see a distinction made between the education and the special training of naval officers. I do not pretend to give the precise age at which this distinction should be made. It will necessarily differ with different boys, and I would therefore have a two years’ limit to the age of entry instead of one. My opinion is, that special training should begin at from 14 to 16, and that it should be continued from that age for three years; that is, from an average of 15 to an average of 18 in the college and sea-going training ships.
I should wish young officers to proceed thence to the ordinary service afloat, and after two years’ service in a sea-going ship to be admitted to pass an examination for lieutenants.
The examination for entry, which under the system I propose, would be at the average age of 15, should take place in November of each year, and should be arranged, as far as possible, so as to comprise subjects which do not require special cramming, but are taught generally in our public schools, omitting some, such as Greek, of which no further use or notice would be made in their future career, and substituting French, or another modern language in lieu.
The college would then open for the cadets on the 1st of February, and while indoor studies of navigation, nautical astronomy and modern languages occupied the mornings, the afternoons should be devoted to practical seamanship until the first of May, when they should embark in a corvette, especially set apart for their instruction, until August.
During these four months they should perform every practical duty of their profession with their own hands, under instruction, with plenty of time, and with patient, steady instructors, and at the end of their cruise, after an inspection by the governor of the college, they should strip and clear their vessel before proceeding on a summer holiday.
During the cruise they should not only learn to take and work their own observations for the position of the ship by the ordinary known methods, but should also study the pilotage of the coast of England, whenever visited.
After the vacation they should again rig their vessel, and until the end of October should have instruction in rigging, masting, and so on, while the weather permitted, as well as continuing to exercise in boats. November and December being devoted to indoor studies and examination. This would complete the first year of training.
The second year would begin as the first, with indoor studies in the morning, the advanced seamanship class of the afternoon, alternating with gunnery instruction classes until May, when the second class would embark in a steam corvette, and in addition to the study of seamanship, as in the first year, would join that of steam machinery. While the cruise of the first year would have been on board a sailing corvette, and on the south coast of England generally, that of the second year should have been extended to the coasts of the United Kingdom and western coast of Europe; and while the sailing corvette should be manned by steady old seamen, and no attempt should be made at quickness of manœuvre, the steam corvette for the second year should be manned by active young trained able seamen, and all manœuvres should be performed together, as in actual practice in man-of-war, the young cadets under training working a mast.
At the end of this cruise, they would not only strip their vessel, but would also take to pieces the principal parts of the machinery, before the summer holidays and after inspection.
On recommencement of term in October, indoor studies should again be taken up, and the final examination for the rank of midshipmen should take place in December, the average age of the young officers being now 17 years.
I should now reassemble the midshipmen on February 1st, either on board the gunnery ships or in a special ship attached to the college, for a three months’ course in practical gunnery, after being examined in which, they should be discharged into a full-rigged, full-manned frigate for final instruction in the duties of an officer, under selected captains, commanders, and lieutenants. They should here alternately take the duties of officers of tops, officers of boats, officers in charge of a particular mast, and in rotation as officers of the watch, under the care and guidance of a lieutenant of each watch, while lectures and exercise in manœuvres of ships and boats, of heavy and field guns, of small-arm drills and landing parties, should be systematically taught them. At the end of this cruise, which should extend to the Mediterranean, an examination in seamanship should take place, and the midshipmen would be discharged into the service afloat, at an average age of 18 years, where they would serve as midshipmen for one year before examination (as now) for sub-lieutenants.
Thus, the whole course of training would be two years at college, and in training corvettes as cadets, and one year’s training in practical gunnery, and instruction as an officer in various duties, with the rank of midshipman performing all the duties of a subordinate officer, at the conclusion of which an examination should take place in all the subjects of the profession, whether at home or abroad. This preliminary education should be followed by the modification of the navigating class, the creation of an examination for the rank of lieutenant, and other changes in rank.
[Errata for Part X (United States): Arkansas--484,167,--78 companies of State Guard, --484,167-- was followed by the appointment of many persons from civil life apointment till after the war of 1812-’15 proved his ideas to be correct 1812--’15 1 Sergeant Major, / 1 Quartermaster Sergeant. Sergeant, VIII. NATURAL AND EXPERIMENTAL PHILOSOPHY. VII. 7 a.m. Parade call, 8 a.m. Guard mounting, final . after “8 a.m.” invisible public examination is to be held from year to year, text has “year to / to year” at line break the latter is given according to the Census of 1850. final . missing or invisible agitate the question unceasingly.” close quote missing We have been favored with the perusal of the “Propositions,” close quote missing according to the personal merits and fitness of the candidate.” printed as shown: missing open quote or superfluous close quote? the boys have not had a fair chance. This is what I want them all to have, and especially the country. I desire that the Academy shall begin, as it goes on, upon the competitive principle. printed with two lines transposed: ... the boys have the country. I desire that the Academy shall begin, as it goes on, upon the not had a fair chance. This is what I want them all to have, and especially competitive principle... Let us see what is their system. sytem the powers and duties of the general government, missing hyphen in “govern/ment” at line break Surgeon--Col. R. L. Madison. Madison, these and the various pedestrian excursions, pedesterain Before your memorialist proceeds to examine the truth exaime the abuse of the mode of appointing Cadets apppointing of 5206 cadets admitted from 1842 to 1863 inclusive page damaged: number computed from table on page 799 an amendment to the appropriation bill in 1836 apppropriation In his general programme he includes studies progamme at some time or other save an army, and not let army,” [Footnote 23] ED. Am. Jour. of Ed. all . invisible “that the inferences drawn can not be controverted.” close quote missing renew his knowledge of what he had been taught. taught.” For the purpose of giving instruction “For Professor Owen has stated “Professor [Footnote 25] in their messages in January. final . missing impress them more strongly with its importance. expected close quote missing Reveille at day break, and they march by squads Revielle as the cadet wearies of it when the novelty is past.” not an error: this quotation began two pages earlier [Footnote 26] will soon be published by J. B. Lippincott both . missing or invisible footnote tag missing: position conjectural well instructed and thoroughly disciplined seamen thoroughy [The principal heads of expenditure ...] Pay of Professors and Assistants Asssistants and no doubt a war would develope sad consequences anomalous spelling unchanged on the 1st of February, and while indoor studies text has “and / and” at line break]
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
MILITARY EDUCATION IN FRANCE; Part I. of Military Schools and Courses of Instruction in the Science and Art of War in different countries. By Henry Barnard, LL.D., late U.S. Commissioner of Education. Pages 7-276.
CONTENTS.
PAGE. MILITARY SCHOOLS OF SPECIAL APPLICATION IN FRANCE, 131 I. ARTILLERY AND ENGINEERS’ SCHOOL AT METZ, 133 1. History and General Description, 137 First Artillery School in 1679 at Douai, 137 Garrison Schools in 1720, 137 Academy at La Fère in 1756, 137 First Engineer School at Mézières in 1749, 137 School at Metz in 1795, 137 2. Location, Buildings, Barracks, Riding School, 138 3. Staff of Government, 140 “ Instruction, 141 Superior Council, 141 Instructional Council, 142 Administrative “ 142 4. Subjects and Methods of Study, 142 Instruction Common to both, 143 “ Special to Artillery, 143 “ “ Engineers, 143 Employment of time for First Year, 144 “ “ Second Year, 143 5. Examination and Classification, 145 Final Examination, 146 Classification of the Order of Merit, 147 6. Subsequent instruction and Employment, 148 7. Regimental Schools, 150 APPENDIX, 151 REGULATIONS AND PROGRAMMES OF INSTRUCTION, 151 I. Police Regulations, 152 II. Regulations for Estimating the value of Work Executed, 151 III. Programme of Artillery Course, 156 Introduction--1. Effects of Powder, 158 2. Projectiles, 159 3. Motion of Carriages, 160 Second Part--Section 1. Small Army, 161 “ 2. Projectiles and Cannon, 162 “ 3. War and Signal Rockets, 164 “ 4. Carriages, 166 “ 5. Artillery Force, 165 “ 6. Construction of Carriages, 166 Third Part--Effects of Projectiles, 167 Fourth Part--Trace and Construction of Batteries, 168 Fifth Part--Section 1. Organization and Service of Artillery, 179 “ 2. Artillery in the Field, 170 “ 3. Artillery in the Attack and Defense, 170 “ 4. Artillery in the Sham Siege, 174 Recapitulative Tables, 180 IV. Course on Military Art and Field Fortification, 181 I. Lectures, 181 1. Historical Notices of the Organization of Armies, 181 2. Tactics, 182 3. Castrametation, 182 4. Field Fortification, 182 5. Military Communications, 184 6. Strategy, 184 II. Works of Application, 184 Recapitulations, 189 V. Permanent Fortifications and Attack and Defense of Places, 190 VI. Course of Topography, 194 1. Topographical Drawing, 194 2. Topographical Surveying, 194 VII. Course of Geodesy and Dialling, 197 1. Special for Engineers, 197 2. Common to Engineers and Artillery, 198 VIII. Course of Sciences applied to Military Arts, 200 1. Geology, 200 2. Working in Iron, 200 3. Application of the Working of Iron, 201 4. Manufacture of Small Arms, 201 5. “ “ Ordnance, 201 6. “ “ Powder, 201 7. Pyrotechny, 201 Works of Application, Samples of Minerals, Geological Exercises, Molding, Chemical Compounds, 202 Practical Instructions on Munitions and Fireworks, 203 IX. Course of Applied Mechanics, 205 1. General Principles, 205 2. Motion of Machines, 205 3. Resistance of Materials, 205 4. Working Machines, 206 5. Explanations and Works of Application, 207 X. Course of Construction, 208 1. Elements of Masonry, 208 2. Architecture of Military Building, 209 3. Resistance of Material, 210 4. Hydraulic Construction, 210 Works of Application, 215 XI. Course in the German Language, 214 XII. Programme of Sham Siege, 217 Preliminary Measures and Lectures, 217 Composition of the Personnel, 218 Conferences, 218 Tracing of the Work, 219 Memoir and Sketch, 219 XIII. Course on the Veterinary Art, 220 Interior of the Horse, 220 Exterior “ “ 220 Health “ “ 220
II. REGIMENTAL ARTILLERY AND ENGINEERS’ SCHOOLS, 221 1. Artillery Regimental Schools, 221 Design, 221 Staff, 221 Instruction, 221 Theoretical--Practical--Special, 221 2. Engineer and Regimental Schools, 223 Staff’s, 223 Instruction--kinds, 223 Courses, 224 III. THE INFANTRY AND CAVALRY SCHOOL AT ST. CYR, 225 History and General Description, 225 Origin, 225 General Description, 226 Staff of Government and Instructions, 228 Buildings, 229 Daily Routine, 231 Course of Study, 235 Examinations, 238 Co-efficients of Influence, 238 Classification in Order of Merit, 239 Choice of Service, 240
IV. THE CAVALRY SCHOOL OF APPLICATION AT SAUMUR, 241 Design, 241 Staff, 241 Instruction, 241 Pupils, 242 Text-books and Recitations, 243 Veterinary Instructions, 243 Hippology, 244 The Model Stud, 244 Breaking Young Horses, 244 School of Farriers, 244
V. THE STAFF SCHOOL AT PARIS, 245 1. Duties of the French Staff, 245 The War Dépot, 246 The Staff Corps, 246 2. Buildings and Establishment, 248 3. Staff of Government and Instruction, 248 4. Conditions of Admission, 249 Entrance Examination, 250 Studies, 250 Daily Routine, 251 Examinations, 253 Co-efficients of Influence, 253 Examination before Consulting Committee, 256
VI. THE MILITARY ORPHAN-SCHOOL AT LA FLECHE, 257 Juvenile and Privileged School, 257 Course of Instruction, 257 Staff of Government and Instruction, 257 Yearly Charge, 257 Courses, 258 Examination, 258 Inspection, 258
VII. THE SCHOOL OF MUSKETRY AT VINCENNES, 259 Origin, 259 Staff, 259 Course of Instruction, 260
VIII. THE MILITARY AND NAVAL SCHOOL OF MEDICINE AND PHARMACY, 261 1. Military School of Medicine at Paris, 261 2. Naval Schools of Medicine at Brest, Toulon, and Rochefort, 262
IX. THE NAVAL SCHOOL AT BREST, 263 Examination for Admission, 263 Course of Instruction, 264
X. THE MILITARY GYMNASTIC SCHOOL AT VINCENNES, 265 1. Elementary Gymnastics, 265 Classification, 265 Spirit and Method of Teaching, 266 Learning to March, 266 Gymnastic Chain, 266 Pyrrhic Exercise, 267 Equilibrium: Wrestling, 268 Traction, 268
2. Applied Gymnastics, 269 Leaping, 270 Climbing, 271 Swimming, 271 Escalading, 272 Carrying Weights, 272
XI. REMARKS ON THE MILITARY EDUCATION OF FRANCE, 273 1. Officers must be regularly Trained, or have seen Service, 273 2. Junior Military Schools, 273 3. Professional Education at St. Cyr, 273 4. Staff School, 273 5. Officers of Artillery and Engineers, 274 6. Mathematical bias, 274 7. Bourses, 274 8. Practical Teaching, 274 9. Number of Senior Departments, 274
REVISED EDITION--1872.
I. FRENCH MILITARY EDUCATION IN 1869, 274 1. Increase of professionally educated officers, 274 2. Admission to the Military Schools and to the Staff, by competition, 275 3. Military Schools under control of Minister of War, 275 4. Internal Economy of each School determined by its own Staff, 275 5. Military and instructional Staff, distinct but cooperative, 275 6. Great care exercised in appointment of professors, 275 7. Discipline very strict, 276 Power of dismissal rests with the Minister of War, 276 8. Age of admission, and general education advanced, 276 Strictly professional instruction does not begin generally till 20, 276 9. Military Schools, more and more professional and practical, 276 10. Much time given to drawing, military administration and practical exercises, 277 11. System of Instruction the same in all the schools, 277 Active competition the leading feature, 277 No choice of studies allowed, 277 12. Education of French officers concluded before regimental duty begins, 278 13. Chief changes since 1856, 278 Increase of literary subjects in the Polytechnic, 278 An examination at the end of the first year at Metz, 278 Advance of age for admission at St. Cyr, 278 Conversion of La Fleche into a purely civil school, 278 Increase of students in the Staff School, 278
II. EXPENSE OF MILITARY SCHOOLS IN 1869, 278
III. ORGANIZATION OF THE POLYTECHNIC SCHOOL IN 1869, 131 Programme of instruction in 1856, 47 Annual expenses for 1869, 132 Changes in course of instruction, 133 Subjects and course of studies, 133 Studies involving least difficulty occupy the evenings, 134
MILITARY EDUCATION IN PRUSSIA AND OTHER GERMAN AND EUROPEAN STATES: Parts II., III., IV., V. and VI., of Military Schools and Classes of Special Instruction in the Science and Art of War in different countries. By Henry Barnard, LL.D., late U.S. Commissioner of Education. Pages 277-518.
CONTENTS.
MILITARY SYSTEM AND EDUCATION IN PRUSSIA, 279
I. OUTLINE OF MILITARY SYSTEM, 281 1. The Standing Army, 281 2. The National Militia, or First Landwehr, 282 3. The Last Reserve, or Landsturm, 282 Origin of the Landwehr System, 283
II. HISTORICAL VIEW OF MILITARY EDUCATION, 284 Basis of the present System is a good General Education, 284 Origin of the Military Schools in the Wars of the Reformation, 284 School of Frederick William in 1653, 284 Military Academy opened in 1765, 286 Plans of Scharnhorst and Stein in 1807, 288 Origin and Changes of the Division Schools, 289
III. PRESENT SYSTEM OF MILITARY EDUCATION AND PROMOTION, 293 Usual Conditions and Course of obtaining a Commission, 293 1. A good General Education, 294 2. Actual Military Service, 294 3. Professional Knowledge by Military Study, 294 Central and Local Boards of Examination, 294 Supreme Officer Board of Control, 295 Classification and cost of Military Schools, 295
IV. EXAMINATIONS--GENERAL AND PROFESSIONAL FOR A COMMISSION, 297 1. Preliminary or Ensign’s Examination, 297 Who may be Examined, 298 Time and Mode of Examination, 298 Results of Examination, how ascertained, 299 2. The Second, or Officers’ Examination, 302 Time and Place, 302 Preliminary Certificates, 302 Mode--Oral and Written, 303 Programme of Studies, on which Examination turns, 304
V. MILITARY SCHOOLS FOR PREPARING OFFICERS, 310 1. The Cadet Schools, or Cadet Houses, 310 Number and Classification, 310 Junior Cadet House at Berlin, 312 Senior Cadet House at Berlin, 312 2. The Division Schools, 320 Number and Location, 320 Professors--Studies--Examinations, 321 3. The United Artillery and Engineers’ School at Berlin, 324 Admission, 324 Examinations, 325 Studies, 326
VI. THE STAFF SCHOOL AT BERLIN, 329 Entrance Examination, 330 Course, Method, and Subjects of Instruction, 331 Final Examination, 335 Appointment to the Staff Corps, 336
VII. ELEMENTARY MILITARY SCHOOLS FOR NON-COMMISSIONED OFFICERS, 336 1. Military Orphan-Houses, 336 A. Military Orphan-House at Potsdam, 337 B. Military Orphan-House at Annaburg, 342 2. The School Division, or Non-Commissioned Officers’ School, 345 3. Regimental Schools, 347 4. The Noble-School at Liegnitz, 348
VIII. GENERAL REMARKS ON THE SYSTEM OF MILITARY EDUCATION IN PRUSSIA, 348 APPENDIX, 351 THE ARTILLERY AND ENGINEERS’ SCHOOL AT BERLIN, 351 Object and Course of Study, 351 Staff And Authorities, 351 Superior Authorities, or Curatorium, 352 Executive Authorities, 352 Course of Instruction, 357 A. General Course, 357 B. Instruction in Detail, 358 Financial Matters, 365 PROGRAMMES OF PRINCIPAL SUBJECTS TAUGHT, 367 1. Artillery, 367 Preliminary Instruction:--a. Mathematics; b. Physics; c. Chemistry; d. Tactics; e. Fortification; f. Veterinary Art, 367 A. First Cœtus, 368 1. Arms, 368 2. Gunpowder, 368 3. Cannon, 368 4. Gun-Carriages, 368 5. Military Combustibles, 368 6. Movement of Cannon, 368 7. Firing, 368 8. Small and Side-Arms, 368 B. Second Cœtus, 369 1. Organization of Artillery, 369 2. Use in the field, 369 3. Use in the Siege, 369 a. For Attack; b. For Defense, 369 C. Third Cœtus, 369 1. Organization of Artillery Service, 370 2. Artillery regarded as an Arm, 370 3. Artillery in Technical and Administrative point of view, 370 4. Progress and Literature of Artillery, 371 D. General Distribution of Time for each Cœtus, 371 2. GENERAL AND SPECIAL ENGINEERING IN THE FIRST AND SECOND CŒTUS, 373 A. First Cœtus 373 a. In Field Fortification; b. in Permanent Fortification, 373 B. Second Cœtus, 374 The Applied Arts in Attack and Defense, &c., 374 3. EXCLUSIVE ENGINEERING IN THE THIRD CŒTUS, 375 1. Application of Rules to Regular Fortresses, 375 2. Theory of Constructions, Materials, Modes of Building, 375 4. HYDRAULIC CONSTRUCTION IN THE THIRD CŒTUS, 377 1. General Principles of Hydraulic Architecture, 377 2. Internal Navigation, Harbors, Bridges, &c., 378 5. TACTICS. Construction of Cannon, 378 6. MATHEMATICS, 380 A. First Cœtus--Arithmetic, Algebra, Plane Geometry, Plane Trigonometry, 381 B. Second Cœtus--Geometry of Solids, Solid Trigonometry, Projection, Conic Sections, 382 C. Statics, Geostatics, Hydrostatics, 382 D. Dynamics and Hydraulics, 382 7. PRACTICAL ARTILLERY EXERCISES, 384 1. First Cœtus, 385 A. Visits--a. Foundry and the Boring-Machine; b. Examination of Ordnance, Carriages, &c.; c. Workshops, 385 B. Exercises--a. Small-Arms; b. Management of Machines, 386 2. Second Cœtus, 386 Tracing Batteries; Placing Ordnance; Ordnance Carriages and Wagons; Sieges, 387 3. First and Second Cœtus, 388 Proof of Powder; Artillery Practice; Laboratory, 389 4. Third Cœtus, 390 Visit to and practice in Workshops; Iron Foundry; Boring-Machine, 390 Ammunition; Cannon; Gun-Carriages; Rules of placing Guns; Sham Siege, 391 8. PRACTICAL EXERCISES IN FORTIFICATION, 392
THE WAR OR STAFF SCHOOL AT BERLIN, 395 1. Objects and Plan; 2. Instruction; 3. Professors and Students, 397
REVISED EDITION--1872.
I. PRUSSIAN STAFF IN 1869, 399 1. Peace establishment. 2. War establishment, 399 Staff at head-quarters of each army corps, 399 General Staff at Berlin--Sectional work, 400
II. PRUSSIAN MILITARY EDUCATION IN 1869, 403 1. Changes since 1856, 403 2. General education more and more the basis of professional studies, 404 3. Theory of military perfection attended to after practice, 404 4. Military examinations made to advance civil education, 405 5. Liberal education encouraged in officers, 405 6. General management of all military education vested in a single officer, 405 Assisted by Board of Studies and Board of Examination, 405 7. The heads of each school supreme in discipline, 405 8. Educational experience valued in the head of a school, 405 9. Competition not very extensively recognized, 406 Its place supplied by personal knowledge of each individual, 406 10. Great care bestowed on the methods of instruction, 406
III. AUSTRIA.
MILITARY SYSTEM AND INSTRUCTION IN AUSTRIA, 409
I. OUTLINE OF MILITARY SYSTEM, 409 Mode of recruiting--period of service, 409 Officers--non-commissioned--commissioned, 410 Training--payment, 410
II. SYSTEM OF MILITARY EDUCATION, 410 Center of Administration--Fourth Section of War Department, 410 Annual appropriations in 1856, and 1871, 411, 464 Imperial Institutions of Military Education, 410 A. Schools for non-commissioned Officers, 411 1. Lower Military Houses, 420 2. Upper Military Houses, 422 3. School Companies and School Squadrons, 424 Frontier--Artillery--Engineer--Flotilla, 426 B. Schools for Officers, 429 1. Cadet Institutions, 429 2. Military Academies, 431 Neustadt Academy for Infantry and Cavalry, 433 Artillery and Engineering Academy, 434 3. Marine Academy, 435 C. Special Military Schools 436 1. Normal School for Military Teachers 436 2. United Higher Course for Artillery and Engineers 437 3. Staff and Adjutant School 439 Supreme Control of each class of Schools 441
III. PECULIARITIES OF AUSTRIAN MILITARY EDUCATION IN 1856 453
IV. STAFF SCHOOL AT VIENNA 447 1. General Staff of Austrian Army 447 2. Admission--Specimens of questions put 448 3. Subjects and Course of Instruction 449 4. Austrian Staff in 1868 462
V. REORGANIZATION OF MILITARY EDUCATION IN 1868 453
VI. CAVALRY BRIGADE SCHOOL FOR OFFICERS 463
IV. BAVARIA, SAXONY, HOLLAND, &c.
MILITARY SYSTEM AND SCHOOLS IN BAVARIA 465
I. MILITARY SYSTEM 467
II. MILITARY EDUCATION 468 1. Cadet Corps 468 2. War School 469 3. Artillery and Engineer School 471 4. Staff Academy 472
MILITARY INSTRUCTION IN SAXONY 473
ROYAL MILITARY ACADEMY AT DRESDEN 471
MILITARY SYSTEM AND EDUCATION IN HOLLAND 475
I. Military System 475
II. Military Education 476 1. Military Academy at Breda 477 2. Naval Academy and Navigation Schools 478
V. ITALY.
MILITARY SYSTEM AND SCHOOLS IN ITALY 479
I. MILITARY SYSTEM IN KINGDOM OF ITALY 481
II. MILITARY EDUCATION IN THE KINGDOM OF SARDINIA 483 General characteristics 483 1. Military Academy at Turin 486 2. Artillery and Engineer School 489 3. Staff School and Staff Corps 492 4. Regimental Schools 494 5. School of Artillery at the Arsenal 498
III. MODIFICATIONS SINCE THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE KINGDOM OF ITALY 499
VI. RUSSIA
MILITARY SYSTEM AND SCHOOLS IN RUSSIA 501
I. MILITARY SYSTEM 503
II. MILITARY SCHOOLS 504 1. Schools under Board of Military Instruction 504 2. Schools under Ministry of War 504 IMPERIAL STAFF SCHOOL AT ST. PETERSBURG 505
VII. NORWAY, SWEDEN, AND DENMARK.
MILITARY SYSTEM AND SCHOOLS 513 1. Sweden 513 2. Norway 515 3. Denmark 516
VIII. GREAT BRITAIN.
MILITARY SYSTEM AND EDUCATION 519-686 Historical Notice 521 ORGANIZATION AND INSTITUTIONS IN 1871 535
I. COUNCIL OF MILITARY EDUCATION 535 1. Historical Notice 535 Organization and Duties in 1869 537 Military Schools and Examinations 539 Army Schools, Regimental Libraries and Reading-rooms 540 2. Examinations for Commissions and Promotions 541 (1.) Examination for Direct Commissions 541 Regulations in 1869 544 (2.) Public School Education as preparatory for Examination 543 (3.) Examinations for Promotions 550 (4.) Results of Examinations 555 (5.) Expenses of the Council 555 (6.) List of Examiners employed 555 3. Military, Orphan, and Soldiers Schools 557
II. ROYAL MILITARY COLLEGE AT SANDHURST 559 1. Historical Notice 559 Junior and Senior Departments 560 Inquiry and condition in 1855 563 Junior Department changed to a College 566 Queen’s Cadetships--Proposed enlargement in 1860 566 Free Commissions opened to Competition 570 Attendance--Staff--Expense 574 2. Queen’s and Indian Cadetships 575 3. Regulations for Admission, etc. 577 Subjects and Marks--Value of Entrance Examinations 577 Value of University Examinations 578 Preliminary Provisions--Payments 579 Discipline--Termination of Course 580 Compassionate Allowance 581 Subjects and their Marks--Value in Final examination 581 4. Subjects and Course of Instruction 582 5. Results of Competitive Examination 584
III. ROYAL MILITARY ACADEMY FOR THE SCIENTIFIC CORPS AT WOOLWICH 585 1. Historical Notice 585 2. Regulations for Admission 586 Open Competition to the Artillery and Engineers established 588 Subjects and their Marks--Value in Entrance Examinations 589 Length of Course--Scale of Payments 590 3. Course of Study 591 4. School Preparation for Woolwich Examinations 592
IV. ROYAL SCHOOL OF MILITARY ENGINEERING AT CHATHAM 595 1. Origin and Object of the Institution 595 2. Organization for Instruction 595 3. Nature and Length of Practical Courses 596 (1.) Survey Course--Astronomical Observations 596 (2.) Course of Construction and Estimating 598 (3.) Field-work Course 600 Modeling in Sand 601 Siege Works 601 Works of Defence 601 Mining 601 Bridging 601 Railways 601 Boring for Water 601 Drawing Projects of Attack, Construction 602 (4.) Miscellaneous Subjects 602 Course of Telegraphy 602 Chemical Laboratory course 602 Photography 603 Lectures on Engineering and Professional Subjects 603 Demolitions--Submarine Mines 603
V. PROFESSIONAL INSTRUCTION OF OFFICERS 605 Historical Notice 605 1. Survey Class at Aldershot 611 2. Advanced Class of Artillery Officers at Woolwich 613 3. School of Gunnery at Shoeburyness 616
VI. STAFF COLLEGE AND STAFF APPOINTMENTS 619 Historical Notice 619 1. Staff College at Sandhurst 620 Admissions--Course of Instruction 620 2. Examinations for Staff Appointments 623
VII. SCHOOLS OF MUSKETRY AND RIFLE CORPS 625 1. School of Musketry 625 2. Rifle Corps--Volunteer Force and Practice 626 3. Corps Manœuvering 626
VIII. NAVAL AND NAVIGATION SCHOOLS 627 1. Naval Schools for Officers 627 (1.) Old System of Training Officers 627 (2.) Royal Naval Academy 628 (3.) Training Ship Britannia 629 (4.) Gunnery Instruction 629 (5.) Steam and Steam Engine 629 (6.) Naval Cadets and Midshipmen 630 2. Marine Artillery 632 3. Schools for Warrant Officers and Seamen 634 (1.) Seamen’s Schoolmasters 634 (2.) Schools on board of Ships in Harbor 635 (3.) Royal Marine Schools 636 (4.) Dockyard Schools 637 (5.) Greenwich Hospital Schools 639 4. SCHOOLS FOR MERCANTILE MARINE 639 (1.) Historical Notice of Navigation Schools 639 (2.) London Navigation School 640 (3.) Number of Seamen required in the British Service 643 (4.) Subjects of Instruction 644 (5.) Teachers and their Assistants 646 (6.) Instruction and Government Aid 647 5. College of Naval Architecture in London 650 6. Present Condition of Naval Education 651
IX. APPENDIX.--French and German Naval Schools 653 I. FRENCH NAVAL AND NAVIGATION SCHOOLS 657 1. Nautical School for Orphans of Sailors 659 2. School Ships for Practical Instruction 662 3. Naval Apprentice Schools 662 4. Schools for Boatswains 664 5. School for Naval Engineers 667 6. Naval Drawing Schools 668 7. Schools of Navigation 669 8. Naval School at Brest--The School Ship Borda-- Jean Bart 672 9. School of Naval Architecture 676 10. Schools of Marine Artillery 678 II. GERMAN NAVAL AND NAVIGATION SCHOOLS 679 1. Prussia 681 2. German Empire 683 3. Austria 685
IX. SWITZERLAND.
MILITARY SYSTEM AND MILITARY INSTRUCTION, 687-713
I. OUTLINE OF MILITARY SYSTEM, 689 Area--Population--Military Service, 689 Federal Militia--Elite, Reserve, Levy en masse, 690 Federal Army--Various Corps, 691
II. CADET SYSTEM, 693 Helvetic Military Association--Volunteer Corps, 693 Cantonal Organizations--Juvenile Military Festivals, 694 Swiss Cadet Feast in 1856, 695 Sham Fight in 1860, and Zurich Cantonal Festival, 696
III. TARGET SHOOTING OF SHARP-SHOOTERS IN 1859, 701 Number of Candidates--Prizes--Public and Religious Services, 705
IV. FEDERAL INSTRUCTION OF OFFICERS--SCIENTIFIC CULTURE, 710
X. UNITED STATES.
MILITARY SYSTEM AND MILITARY EDUCATION, 713-940 Regular Army--State Militia--Volunteer Force, 715 Officers--How Trained and Appointed, 717
A. MILITARY EDUCATION FOR LAND SERVICE, 719 National, State, Individual, and Corporate Institutions, 720
I. UNITED STATES MILITARY ACADEMY AT WEST POINT, 721 1. Historical Development, 721 2. Summary of Instructional Progress, 751 Condition in 1870-71, 753 (1.) Government and Organization, 753 Military Staff--Staff of Instruction, 753 Professors--Assistant and Acting Assistants, 754 Academic Board, 755 (2.) Mode and Conditions of Admission, 755 (3.) Subjects and Marks--Value of Each Study, 758 Practical Instruction and Exercises, 757 (4.) Classification of Cadets for Instruction, 757 (5.) Methods of Instruction--Recitation-- Independent Study, 758 (6.) Routine of Daily Work, 759 (7.) System of Estimating Daily Proficiency, 760 Weekly Class Report--Monthly Record, 760 (8.) Periodical Examinations--Oral, 760 Annual Examinations--Board of Visitors, 761 Classification by Results--mainly from the Daily Record, 762 Dismissal for want of Proficiency in Studies, 763 (9.) Graduation--Penalties Attached to Idleness, 763 Choice of Service determined by standing on the Roll, 764 Honorable Mention in the Army List, 765 (10.) Discipline--Punishments--Demerits, 765 Credit Allowed to Conduct on Final Examination, 767 (11.) Athletic Sports--Recreation, 767 (12.) Assimilation of Duties to those of a Regiment, 768 Officer of the Day--Officer in Charge-- Guard--Sentries, 769 (13.) Academy Buildings, 770 (14.) Annual Expense--Aggregate--to each Cadet, 771 4. Staff of Government and Instruction, Jan. 1, 1872, 772 5. Subjects and Synopsis of Course of Instruction, 773 6. Regulations for Admission, 777 Official Exposition of the Aim and Mode of Examination, 779 7. Board of Visitors--Annual Report, 781 Report on Competitive Examinations in 1862, 784 8. Discussion of the Subject in Senate, 809
II. SPECIAL SCHOOLS OF APPLICATION 819 ARTILLERY SCHOOL AT FORTRESS MONROE 821
III. MILITARY ELEMENT IN STATE SCHOOLS 825 1. State Military Schools 825 2. Military Tactics in State Science Colleges 827
IV. INDIVIDUAL AND CORPORATE MILITARY SCHOOLS 831 CAPT. ALDEN PARTRIDGE 833 Memorial adverse to Exclusive Government Schools 857 Literary and Scientific Institute at Middletown and Norwich 857
V. MILITARY EXERCISES IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 865
B. UNITED STATES NAVAL AND MARITIME EDUCATION 885 1. United States Navy and Naval Affairs 885 Growth and Condition in Ships, Officers, and Men 887 2. Steam and Science in their Applications to Navigation 895
I. UNITED STATES NAVAL SCHOOL AT ANNAPOLIS 897 Historical Development 897 Secretary Bancroft’s Letter, Aug. 7, 1815 899 1. EXPOSITION OF ITS CONDITION AND NEEDS IN 1864 901 Organization for Administration and Instruction 902 Buildings and Material Equipment 903 Pupils--Entrance Examination 905 Daily Routine--Study--Recitation--Recreation 907 Course of Instruction, Examinations, and Merit Roll 908 Physical Training--Expansion of Chest--Vocal Organs 915 Domestic and Sanitary Arrangements 916 Religious Observances and Instruction 916 Discipline--Offenses--Demerits--Punishments 918 Financial Affairs-Cost per Pupil 919 Graduating Class of 1864--Summer Cruise 920 2. RECOMMENDATIONS BY BOARD OF VISITORS 921 (1.) Change of Relation and Name from Midshipmen to Cadets 922 (2.) Change in Mode and Condition of Appointment and Admission 922 (3.) Practical Test of Aptitude and Constitutional Qualities 925 (4.) Reorganization of Studies on the Basis of Special Schools, Courses optional after Second Year, and open to Outsiders 926 (5.) Temporary and Special Courses for Officers on Furlough 927 (6.) Navigation Schools for Seamen, Mates, and Masters 927 Not Government Schools, but inspected by National Officers 928 Evening Classes, Junior and Senior Departments 928 Local and National, Commercial and Military cooperation 929 Experience of England and France in Navigation Schools 929 (7.) Appointment of Council of Naval Education 930 Constitution of such a Council--in Attainment, Experience 931 Duties--Useless Character of Existing Board of Visitors 932 (8.) Inspector of Studies needed 932 (9.) Appointment of Professors and Assistants 933 (10.) Greater Publicity given to the Annual Reports 934 3. CONDITION IN 1872 935
II. SCHOOL OF NAVAL CONSTRUCTION 937
III. SCHOOL OF STEAM ENGINEERING 938
IV. NAVAL APPRENTICES 939
V. INSTRUCTION IN NAVIGATION, AND EXAMINATIONS FOR COMMANDS 940
VI. NAUTICAL REFORMATORY SHIPS 940
GENERAL REVIEW OF MILITARY SYSTEMS AND EDUCATION 941
CONTENTS OF VOLUME 947
[Errata for (second) Table of Contents: I. OUTLINE OF MILITARY SYSTEM, ... 281 221 Ordnance Carriages and Wagons; Sieges, ... 387 378 III. PECULIARITIES OF AUSTRIAN MILITARY EDUCATION IN 1856 AUSRTIAN 2. War School ... 469 461 III. MODIFICATIONS SINCE THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE KINGDOM II. (4.) Miscellaneous Subjects ... 602 number “6” missing or invisible I. FRENCH NAVAL AND NAVIGATION SCHOOLS NAVAGATION Practical Instruction and Exercises, ... 757 357]
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Errors and Inconsistencies: General Notes
Individual errors are listed at the end of their respective sections.
This book is a compilation of articles and translations that originally appeared in different sources. No attempt was made to regularize spelling or punctuation. In particular:
--The position of parentheses with respect to closing punctuation is unchanged.
--In the “France” section, the form “assymplote” (for expected “asymptote”) is used consistently.
--In the tables at the end of the “Austria” section, and throughout the “Bavaria” and “Italy” sections, the word “caligraphy” is consistently spelled with one l.
--Closing quotation marks were generally not supplied when absent.