West Point: A History of the United States Military Academy 9780231899475

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WEST POINT

WEST POINT A History of the United States Military Academy

By Sidney Forman

SUBMITTED

IN

PARTIAL

FULFILLMENT

OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DECREE OF

DOCTOR

FACULTY

OF OF

PHILOSOPHY

IN

POLITICAL

SCIENCE,

THE

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY

New York 1950

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS

COPYRIGHT

1950

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS, NEW YORK

Published in Great Britain, Canada, and India by Geoffrey Cumberlege, Oxford University Press London, Toronto, and Bombay MANUFACTURED IN T H E UNITED STATES O F AMERICA

PREFACE

This is the first attempt at a fresh evaluation of the Military Academy in terms of the historical record, in almost fifty years. The earliest authoritative full-length account of the Military Academy was that of Edward C. Boynton published during the Civil War (1863) when the academy was under sharp attack because of the defection of many of its Southern graduates. Republished once ( 1871 ), Boynton's book remained the standard until 1904 when West Point celebrated its maturity with the publication of the cooperative, two-volume Centennial History, an outgrowth of the Centennial Jubilee of 1902. Edited by Dr. Edward S. Holden, the Centennial History provided a new assessment of the Military Academy in terms of a nation that had undertaken the obligations of empire after the Spanish American War. Now, the effect of two world wars, and an entirely new world situation, demand a reconsideration of the role of our national Military Academy. In pursuing my researches at West Point I met with no reaction other than cordiality and encouragement. This must be said because I have been asked innumerable times, by people not familiar with the Military Academy, whether the officials attempted to determine what I wrote or the way I wrote it. I have never had the experience of any one at West Point attempting to influence the development of my account or its conclusions. Many people helped me and to them I wish to express grateful acknowledgment. My major debt is to my wife, Belle Forman; the research and writing of this history were a part of

WHY THIS HISTORY?

vi

PREFACE

our lives together. At Columbia University I enjoyed the long association and patient guidance of Dean John A. Krout, and the many useful suggestions of Professor John D. Millett, Professor Harold Syrett and Doctor David Donald. I could not have made much progress at West Point without the help of Miss Mary L. Samson, Associate Librarian; Mrs. Louise V. Horobin, Cataloguer; Miss Thelma E. Bedell, Reference Librarian; and Miss Anna E. Pierce, Miss Irene Feith, Miss Hanna Sibushnick, Mrs. Frances W. Lewis and Miss Catherine McGuinn. At the National Archives, I had the assistance of the War Records Division, particularly of Miss Elizabeth B. Drewry, whose knowledge of the collection saved me many, many weeks of research time. I received assistance at the Library of Congress, Manuscripts Division, from Dr. Philip St. G. Souissat and his staff; at the Massachusetts Historical Society from Dr. Allyn B. Forbes; at the New York State Library from Miss Edna L. Jacobsen, in charge of manuscripts, and from Mr. Robert W. G. Vail, Librarian, who continued his interest in my project after he became Director of the NewYork Historical Society. Also at the New-York Historical Society I enjoyed the advantage of the friendly help of the late Mr. A. G. Wall, and of the society's Librarian, Miss Dorothy Barck; and at the Clements Library, University of Michigan, of Dr. Randolph G. Adams and of Mr. Colton Storm. I also wish to record my appreciation to the late Dean of Ladycliff College, Sister M. Thomas Aquinas; her sympathy was a real help. In the final preparation of the manuscript for publication, I had the careful typing assistance of Mrs. Mary H. Donnery and the editorial advice of Miss Matilda L. Berg of Columbia University Press. I drew upon the generosity and knowledge of many officers at West Point, and I owe sincere thanks to Colonel Elbert E. Farman, Colonel Robert C. F. Goetz, Colonel Meade Wildrick, Colonel R. Ernest Dupuy, Major General Francis B. Wilby, Major General Maxwell D. Taylor, Brigadier General

PREFACE

vii

Roger G. Alexander, Brigadier General Chauncey L. Fenton, and Brigadier General Harris Jones, the present Dean. I am particularly indebted to Colonel Herman Beukema, Professor of Social Sciences, for his constant support. To Lieutenant Colonel William J. Morton, Jr., Librarian of the United States Military Academy, my debt is great. His unfailing store of faith and encouragement, and his practical help and experience, enabled me to carry this study to a conclusion. SIDNEY FORMAN

Fort Montgomery, New York February, 1950

CONTENTS

PREFACE

ν

A STRATEGIC POINT ON THE HUDSON RIVER

3

WEST POINT'S MILITARY PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY, 1802-1812

20

SYLVANUS THAYER'S MILITARY ACADEMY

36

THE MILITARY ACADEMY CRITICS AND THE MEXICAN WAR

61

THE MILITARY ACADEMY AND CIVIL ENGINEERING

74

CADET LIFE FROM CADET LETTERS

90

SECTIONALISM

110

TURNING THE CENTURY

134

THE NEW WEST POINT

164

PHYSICAL EDUCATION AND ATHLETICS

175

WEST POINT IN WORLD WAR Π

192

WEST POINT'S MISSION

208

APPENDICES I. SUPERINTENDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES MILITARY ACADEMY II. COMMANDANTS OF CADETS III. APPOINTMENTS AND ENTRANCE REQUIREMENTS

222 224 226

BIBLIOGRAPHY

229

INDEX

243

ILLUSTRATIONS

WEST POINT MILITARY ACADEMY, 1828 FROM AN ENGRAVING B Y J .

36

H I L L , DRAWN BY CEORCE CATLIN

VIEW OF WEST POINT, 1857 FROM A U T H O C R A P H BY L. BEHRENS ANO F .

52 MEYER

WEST POINT FROM THE AIR

164

CADET CHAPEL

164

WASHINGTON HALL

164

PARADE ON THE PLAIN

180

WEST POINT

A STRATEGIC POINT ON THE HUDSON RIVER

Where West Point crouches, and with lifted, shield Turns the whole river eastward through the pass; Whose jutting crags, half silver, stand revealed Like bossy bucklers of Leonidas. . . . FROM "CADET GREY" BY BRET HARTE

was established in 1802 at West Point on the Hudson River, a key American military fortress during the Revolution. The West Point site was singled out for its economy and convenience: its buildings had been preserved and a small garrison was maintained there after independence was won. The choice was a fortunate one, because the isolation of the spot, its rugged natural beauty and its historic associations all made some positive contribution to the development of the academy. Before the Revolution, West Point was not a well-populated or significant place. The first known use of the term "West Point" is entered under the date of August 6 , 1 7 5 7 , in the diary of Goldsbrow Banyar, deputy secretary of the Province of New York, who recorded, "At 7 this Evening came to an Anchor at the W. Point of Marbling's Rock [Martelaer's R o c k ] . " 1 In deeds, land papers and military records of the Revolutionary T H E UNITED STATES MILITARY ACADEMY

1

The Magazine of American History, I, 17.

4

A STRATEGIC POINT

period, the form used was always "the West Point," the definite article being retained, because the point of reference was from the older, better known and more populous locations on the eastern bank of the Hudson River. Usage fixed the name as West Point. 2 Settlement was established largely to fulfill the terms of the land grants. West Point proper was ceded to Captain John Evans on March 1, 1694, as part of a larger grant. Finding it difficult to make a living there, he soon vacated and the property reverted to the Crown. The northern portion of the Point, an area embracing 1,463 acres, was granted to Charles Congreve by royal letters patent on May 17, 1723. Another section of the Evans grant touching the southwest corner of the Congreve patent, encompassing 332 acres, was patented to one John Moore, on March 25, 1747. In later years Moore bought the Congreve patent and conveyed it by will, together with his own holdings, to his son Stephen Moore, a North Carolina merchant.3 The lack of level, arable land limited settlement on these tracts, although some wealthy recipients of large grants built ostentatious mansions before the military occupation of West Point. There was the Moore House, because of its pretentious construction sometimes referred to as "Moore's Folly," at which Washington and other general officers later established their headquarters. It was located north of the West Point Plain. There were also the old Thompson House and the North House, later the Gridley House, nearer the Point. The Reverly Robinson House at which General Renedict Arnold established his headquarters was on the east bank of the river, opposite Ruttermilk Falls, a frothing mountain stream two miles south 2 Augusta B. Berard, Reminiscences of West Point in the Olden Time (East Saginaw, Michigan, 1886), p. 17. 3 Lieut. Miner Knowlton, Lands Belonging to the United States at West Point (West Point, 1839). The government purchased 1,795 acres from Stephen Moore in 1790. Records of the land transfer are in the Library of Congress, Manuscripts Division.

A STRATEGIC POINT

5

of West Point. A short distance to the north of Robinson's House stood another mansion, frequently mentioned in the records as Mandeville's. Each of these estates contained a few cultivated fields and tenant farm dwellings.4 Nearly all of these old houses have since disappeared. Most of the traces of man's occupation of the West Point region date from the Revolutionary period; they consist of remnants of forts and storehouses, military roads, fireplaces, buttons, flints from gunlocks, broken trunnions, clay pipes, handwrought nails, combs, and bricks. For it was with the rising tide of the American Revolution that the Hudson Highlands and West Point intruded themselves on the consciousness of America as a region of major importance in the unfolding military and political struggle. The geological formation of the Hudson Highlands lent logic to their fortification. The West Point rock is part of the belt of granite and complex gneiss mountains stretching northeast from Pennsylvania, across northern New Jersey and southeastern New York, into western New England.® In crossing the Hudson valley, these hills form a barrier of highlands about fifteen miles wide. A characteristic feature of the river's effect on the Highlands' rock is the very deep river gorge, the independent mountain masses on both sides, small rocky islands, some of which are connected with the mainland, a few terraces about one hundred fifty feet above sea level, one of which is the West Point Plain, and three remarkably sharp turns or angles in the river—at West Point, Anthony's Nose, and Dunderberg—where the hard crystalline rock has withstood the erosive power of the water. At West Point the river channel 4 Description of settlement from Bernard Romans's maps of 1775, and "A View of West Point on Hudson's River," original sketch by Major P. C. l'Enfant, 1780, copy by Lieut. Richard S. Smith, November, 1841. See A. B. Berard, op. cit., pp. 3-17. 5 Charles B. Berkey and Marion Rice, "Geology of the West Point Quadrangle, N.Y.," New York State Museum Bulletin, Nos. 225, 226, 1919. William J. Miller, "The Geological History of New York State," New York State Museum Bulletin, No. 255, 1924.

6

A STRATEGIC POINT

was narrowed even more by the rocky island, now Constitution Island, directly east of West Point. Previous to and at the beginning of the Revolution, this island was known variously as Martelaer's Rock Island or Martyrs' Rock.6 The most reasonable explanation of the origin of these names may be drawn from an account of Dutch-Indian relations. In 1643, Indians on or near the island robbed and murdered a number of white traders and settlers who were traveling on the river. In memory of the slain the island was referred to as "Martelaar" or Martyrs' Island. Numerous other theories and legends have been perpetuated concerning the origin of the name.7 One phase of the American Revolution was a contest for control of the Hudson Highlands, for command of these hills meant control of traffic on the river and movement along the roads which hugged the river bank. The military force which held the southern region of the Highlands could control King's Ferry which connected two important roads : one leading east from Verplanck's Point into Connecticut, the other southwest from Stony Point to New Jersey and Pennsylvania. The power that held the Hudson River could sever New England from the central and Southern colonies, and in order to wage war successfully, the Americans had to have this channel of communication open for the transportation of food, manpower, and munitions. West Point, the most commanding position in the Highlands, formed the sharpest angle on the river. Here the Hudson, which normally flowed in the north and south direction, turned abruptly east and then turned back again to the south. In the days of sail, boats were vulnerable to shore batteries when forced to slow down to navigate the turn.8 George Washington had a share in the recommendation β

Map drawn by Bernard Romans, September 14, 1775. Captain Edward C. Boynton, History of West Point (New York, 1863), p. 21; Stuyvesant Fish, Constitution Island (Albany, 1915), passim. 8 Hoffman Nickerson, The Turning Point of the Revolution (Boston, 1928). An excellent military history which gives proper emphasis to the importance of the Hudson River. 7

A STRATEGIC POINT

7

that fortifications be built on each side of the Hudson River in the Highlands. As a representative to the Continental Congress from Virginia, he served with the Congressional Committee which drew up and introduced the proposal on May 25, 1775, to erect batteries to prevent enemy vessels from using the river.® The British were planning similar measures.10 The New York Provincial Congress, directly responsible for this vital area, kept itself well-informed of the British plans and comprehended their designs.11 The Congress quickly ordered a survey of the points most suitable for defense, and trustworthy persons like Colonel James Clinton and Christopher Tappan were appointed to the committee delegated May 30, 1775, to prepare preliminary plans. 12 The committee studied the terrain and decided upon the erection of the works on Martelaer's Rock and the North and South Redoubts on Fort Hill across the river from West Point. They also recommended the construction of several batteries and the two forts, Montgomery and Clinton—to the north and south of Popolopen's Creek—six miles south of West Point. The committee urged "that . . . by means of four or five Booms, chained together on one side of the river, ready to be drawn across, the passage can be closed up to prevent any vessels passing or repassing." 13 For some reason they completely overlooked the commanding position of West Point. Congress accepted their proposals and ordered the necessary work done under the direction of several commissioners and an engineer, Bernard Romans. Colonel Romans was a Netherlands' civil engineer, cartog9

Journals

11,60.

of the Continental

Congress,

1774-1789

(Washington, 1904-1922),

Peter Force, ed., American Archives (Washington, 1837-1853), ser. 4, ΠΙ, 927; Oct. 1, 1775. ι» Ibid., 1281; Oct. 12, 1775. 1 2 Journal of the Provincial Congress of New York, May 25, 1775, to June 13, 1776. Typewritten extracts from papere in the New York Historical Society (under date of May 30, 1775), pp. 3 ff. 13 Ibid., p. 6.

8

A STRATEGIC POINT

rapher and naturalist; he had previously been employed by the British in various technical capacities. The work party under his direction arrived at Martelaer's Rock and preliminary construction began on August 29, 1775. Official reports from the island later that year were headed "Fort Constitution." 14 This name for the fort, and subsequently for the island on which it was built, indicates one of the reasons for which the war was being fought. The name appeared in official records a year earlier than the formulation of the New York State Constitution and nearly twelve years before that of the United States. Before the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, Americans based their contentions for freedom upon their rights as free-born Englishmen under the British "Constitution." On Constitution Island a sharp difference of opinion arose between Colonel Romans and the commissioners over the division of authority. 15 The dispute contributed to doubts as to the usefulness of the works there, and forced the Provincial Congress again to investigate the Highlands' fortifications. The new survey, made by Robert R. Livingston, Robert Treat Paine, and John Langdon, was critical of Colonel Romans' technical ability. The findings, reported on November 23, 1775, contain the first official suggestion recommending the occupation and garrisoning of West Point: The fortress [on Constitution Island] is unfortunately commanded by all the grounds about it; but the most obvious defect is that the grounds on the West Point are higher than the Fortress, behind which an enemy may land without the least danger. In order to render the position impassible, it seems necessary that this place should be occupied, and batteries thrown up on the shore opposite. . . . l e

John Hancock, Lord Stirling, and the New York Committee of Safety also urged that defensive positions be taken at West 14 Ibid., passim.. The first such reference was to "Constitutional Fort" in a letter, now in the New York Historical Society, dated Sept. 21, 1775, written by John Berrien, one of the commissioners. See also Stuyvesant Fish, op. cit. 1 8 Force, ed., American 1 6 Ibid., 1657. Archives, III, 363.

A STRATEGIC POINT

9

Point but nothing was done then, as the patriot leaders were engrossed in more important tasks elsewhere. The disagreement with Colonel Romans exposed a problem which plagued both the Provincial and the Continental Congress during the entire course of the war: the difficulty of obtaining qualified engineers and the necessity of relying upon foreigners. Bernard Romans was superseded by Captain William Smith in January of 1776; 17 he in turn was quickly replaced and there followed a succession of officers. During that same year, as soon as spring weather made it possible, Colonel George Clinton, Revolutionary governor of New York, cooperated with his brother, Colonel James Clinton, in the erection of Forts Clinton and Montgomery. Redoubts had been thrown up by the troops encamped around Peekskill at Verplanck's Point and on the southern base of Anthony's Nose, all with the hope of stopping any British move up the Hudson Valley. In the fall of 1777 General Sir Henry Clinton organized an expedition for the capture of the forts in the Highlands. Early in October, the British landed at Verplanck's Point and drove the garrison out, then crossed over to Stony Point, moved north, and took Forts Montgomery and Clinton. On October 8, two thousand men under General William Tryon proceeded up the Hudson River to Constitution Island to complete the demolition of the Highlands' fortifications.18 But the British victory was short-lived, for the capture of General Burgoyne and the British Army at Saratoga forced Sir Henry Clinton to abandon the Highlands after twenty days' occupation and return to his base in New York City. His temporary success thrust "the West Point" into a position of prominence, and crystallized American opinion on the advantages of that location for a fort. General Washington, in a letter to Major General Israel Putnam dated December 2, 1777, discussing the construction of new works on the river, especially recommended that a " ibid., ser. 4, V, 321. ι* William Heath, Memoirs

(Boston, 1798), pp. 129-30.

10

A STRATEGIC POINT

"strong fortress should be erected at West Point, opposite to Fort Constitution." 19 The first group to occupy West Point was a section of a Massachusetts brigade under the command of General Samuel Holden Parsons. The unit crossed the river on the ice on January 20, 1778, and climbed the hill. The situation which faced them was not different from the more effectively publicized Valley Forge winter. An officer of Parsons's Brigade recorded the first occupation of West Point: Coming on to the small plain surrounded by very high mountains, we found it covered with a growth of yellow pines 1 0 or 15 feet high; no house or improvement on it; the snow waist high. W e fell to lopping down the tops of the shrub pines and treading down the snow, spread our blankets, and lodged in that condition the first and second nights. Had we not been hardened by two years of previous service we should have thought it difficult to endure this. The pines not being large enough for logs for huts, we were under the necessity of making temporary covers of these scanty materials until we could draw logs from the edge of the mountain and procure the luxury of log huts; this we effected but slowly, the winter continuing severe. In two or three weeks we had erected our huts, and a French engineer by the name of La Radiere arriving, the snow being removed for the site of the present main fort, the works were traced out, and parties sent out every fair day up the river to cut timber and drag it on to the ice, to be ready to float it down to the Point when the river should be clear of ice. This service was rather fatiguing to the men, but as they had a cabin to lodge in at night and provisions served out with tolerable regularity, they thought themselves comparatively happy, though their work was incessant. 2 0

The winters were brutally cold for the men, yet they thronged in companies, regiments, and brigades from every part of New England, from every province in the South, and worked winter and summer. For long periods they were without pay. They were so poorly clothed that they could not work during the 19 The Writing» of George Washington, 1745-1799, ed. John C. Fitzpatrick (Washington, 1931-1944), X, 129-30. 2 0 Samuel Richards, "Personal Narrative of an Officer in the Revolutionary War," United Service Magazine, 3d ser., IV, 361-62.

A STRATEGIC POINT

11

worst days of the winter and the lack of an adequate and balanced diet led to disease.21 Many hated the inhospitable West Point rock and dubbed it "Point Purgatory" ; the hospital was derisively called "Bolus Hall." 22 Nevertheless the fortifications were pushed forward. Captain Thomas Machin, an experienced artillery officer, had charge of laying the chain and boom across the Hudson. The links were forged in the winter of 1778 at the Sterling Iron Works, in the mountains about twenty-five miles back from West Point. Hammers and anvils worked day and night for six weeks. The chain, which weighed 140 to 150 tons, was mounted on logs, and each spring, until the end of the war, it was stretched across the Hudson and taken up before the river froze. Links of the chain with a swivel and clevis may still be seen displayed at Trophy Point on the edge of the Plain at West Point.23 Lieutenant Colonel Louis Dashaix de la Radiere, first assigned to the walled fortifications, found it impossible to complete his work. He was succeeded in the spring of 1778 by Thaddeus Kosciuszko who spent over twenty-eight months, almost without interruption, at West Point. Kosciuszko left his mark in the West Point defense works and in a curious monument—a little garden which he built on a terrace below the Plain to amuse himself in spare moments. The garden with its water fountain is still preserved.24 21

The West Point Order Books tell an amazing story of privation. From letter of Dr. Samuel Adams of Roxbury, Mass., in the magazine section of the New York Times, Feb. 18, 1934. For another soldier's testimony on life at West Point during the Revolutionary War, see the Atlantic Monthly of October, 1924, article titled "The Doughboy of 1780," edited by James R. Nichols. 23 For some reason the linked obstruction across the river has fascinated many students. In principle the idea is still being applied in submarine nets. See Captain John T. Thompson, A Descriptive Catalogue of the Ordnance Museum (West Point, 1898) ; Macgrane Coxe, The Sterling Furnace and the West Point Chain (New York, 1906) ; William M. Horner, Obstructions of the Hudson River during the Revolution (Metuchen, N.J., 1927) ; and Edward Ruttenber, Obstructions to the Navigation of Hudson's River (Albany, 1860), pp. 117-46. 21 Miecislaus Haiman, Kosciuszko in the American Revolution (New York, 1943). 22

12

A STRATEGIC POINT

The main fortification was at the edge of the Plain. By the summer of 1778, this work was sufficiently advanced toward completion to receive the name Fort Arnold to honor Benedict Arnold, the hero of Quebec. Renamed Fort Clinton upon Arnold's defection, it consisted of huge trunks of trees piled up on a wall of steep rock and hand-hewn stones. Fort Clinton was supported by Colonel Henry Sherburne's redoubt also on the level of the Plain. Above Fort Clinton, on the high ground to the west stood Fort Putnam, whose ramparts enclosed a powder magazine, cistern, and garrison quarters. These were completed during the summer of 1779. Below Fort Putnam, covering the southern approaches, were built Forts Wyllis, Webb and Meigs, named after their respective commanders : Colonel Samuel Wyllis, Colonel Charles Webb, and Colonel Return J. Meigs. High in the hills were four strong redoubts with connecting trails, and along the river bank were several shore batteries. The last successful British effort to invade the Highlands took place at the end of May, 1779, when they again seized Verplanck's Point and Stony Point. Shortly thereafter, on July 2 5 , 1 7 7 9 , Brigadier General Anthony Wayne, in a daring move, recaptured Stony Point with the whole enemy garrison, its cannon and stores. Washington, who lauded Wayne's success and looked upon West Point as "the most important Post in America," 25 then transferred his headquarters to West Point to conduct the defense. He remained there from July 25 to November 28, 1779. General Washington's presence at Moore's House transformed that region into a center of state, for next to the Congress at Philadelphia the commanding general and his staff were the objects of continental and even international attention. The general was here busy with the round of administrative duties; but several official acts and incidents associated 25

Washington's Writings, XXI, 344.

A STRATEGIC POINT

13

with his life at West Point have become a part of the literature and tradition of the old post.26 Shortly after Washington moved his headquarters from West Point in 1779, he directed Generals McDougall and Steuben to reinforce the garrison and to cover the southern entrance to the Highlands. On August 3, 1780, Major General Benedict Arnold was instructed to proceed to West Point and to relieve General Robert Howe of the command. Arnold arrived at the Robinson House on August 5 and established his headquarters there. It was from this point that he conducted his negotiations with Major John André to sell West Point to the enemy.27 The enormity of his crime can be understood only by comprehension of the value of West Point to the patriot cause, of the amount of blood and treasure sacrificed to construct the fortifications, and of the energy expended to defend this strategic heart of the United States. At the close of the Revolution, the fortifications remained and their historic walls, partially restored for preservation, may still be seen in the Highlands of the Hudson, concentrated in the area of West Point. The Army was practically dissolved after peace was proclaimed in 1783, in keeping with the national feeling that "standing armies in time of peace are inconsistent with the principles of republican government." 28 Approximately 100 officers and men, a mere handful of artillerists and artificers, were retained to guard such stores as were left from the Revolution ; some were concentrated at Fort Pitt but the larger portion were at West Point. The spoils of Saratoga, Stony Point, and Yorktown, including thousands of English, French, and Hessian arms, were kept at West Point and Constitution Is24 Ibid., XVI, 13. Cenerai Washington's oft-quoted order against swearing was issued at Moore's House and dated July 29, 1779. 27 See Carl Van Doren, Secret History of the American Revolution (New York, 1941). 28 Oliver L. Spaulding, The United States Army in War and Peace (New York, 1937), p. 116; also William A. Canoe, The History of the United States Army (New York, 1942), pp. 79-115.

14

A STRATEGIC POINT

land, 29 and the post was maintained as the Army's quartermaster and ordnance supply center.30 The post organization was found convenient to satisfy a number of national obligations : for a time a group of French-Canadians who had served in the American Army were sheltered there; Captain Molly, the Margaret Corbin of Fort Washington fame, was retired to West Point so that she could get the pension and hospital stores to which she was entitled.31 She died near there and her remains were later buried in the West Point cemetery.32 The periodic reorganizations of the Army left West Point practically undisturbed for more than a decade; any new troops mustered into service were designed for the Indian frontier. But the cumulative effect of domestic unrest under the Articles of Confederation, Shay's rebellion, frontier wars, boundary disputes and the imminent danger of involvement in the complexities arising from the French Revolution of 1789 all moved public opinion in favor of a more energetic national government and a better-trained armed force. The question of a military school was debated by the Cabinet in November, 1793. Washington, Randolph, Knox, and Hamilton favored its establishment. When Jefferson doubted whether such action would be constitutional, Washington declared that he would leave this for Congress to decide.33 Threats of war compelled Congress in 1794 to authorize the recruitment of a Corps of Artillerists and Engineers which was then sent to garrison West Point. The Act of May 7, 1794, also created the rank of cadet. Several cadets were assigned to the corps at West Point.34 Diary of Joseph Gardner Swift, MS. Quartermaster's Store Waste Book, West Point, N.Y., 1785-1806, MS. 3 1 West Point Letter Books, 1784-1790 (2 vols., M S ) . 3 2 Amelia Parker, "Revolutionary Heroine Interred in West Point Cemetery," in Daughters of the American Revolution Magazine, LX (June, 1926), 347-52. 33 The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, ed. Albert E. Bergh (Washington, D.C., 1907), I, 409. 3 4 Orderly Books of the Corps of Artillerists and Engineers, May 7, 1795-May 16, 1799 (4 vols., M S ) . 29

30

A STRATEGIC POINT

15

Cadets were in effect junior officers: they had the right to command, to sit as members of courts-martial, and to employ servants or waiters. The law provided for the purchase of books and apparatus for military instructions and cadets and junior officers were expected to attend regular classes in a two-story stone building called "The Old Provost" at the margin of a hollow in the Plain. Some officers became indignant at descending to the grade of pupils—and by design or accident the Provost, books and instruments were destroyed by fire in 1796. 3 5 In 1798, the Army was again augmented and the President was authorized to appoint four teachers of the arts and sciences to instruct the artillerists and engineers. 36 In 1799 the number of authorized cadets was increased ; 37 in September of that year, President John Adams began to cast around for a likely superintendent to head a proposed military academy. Curiously, the position was offered to Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford, who had forsaken his Massachusetts home to join the British during the Revolution. His experiments in artillery, heat, and chemistry, together with his experience in establishing a military school in Bavaria, had placed him in the front rank of men of science. 38 The offer, made through Ambassador Rufus King in London, was not accepted. Meanwhile, proposals and plans for a military academy were being sponsored by Henry Burbeck, a ranking artillery officer, Alexander Hamilton, and others. The most detailed plan was prepared by Hamilton, who presented it to the Secretary of War, james McHenry, on November 23, 1799. 3 9 A copy of the scheme was sent to Washington on the 28th of the same month. 3 6 Act of July 16, 1798. 3 7 Act of March 3, 1799. J. G. Swift's Diary. James A. Thompson, Count Rumford of Massachusetts (New York, 1935), pp. 186-90. See also The James McHenry Papers, Catalogue of Sale (New York, 1944), p. 34. 39 The Works of Alexander Hamilton, ed. Henry C. Lodge (New York, 1903), VII, 179-86. Hamilton was most energetic in publishing his plan, which he said was "close to his heart." 35

38

16

A STRATEGIC POINT

On December 12, 1799, Washington replied to Hamilton's proposal : The establishment of an Institution of this kind, upon a respectable and extensive Basis, has ever been considered by me as an object of primary importance to this country ; and while I was in the Chair of Government I omitted no proper opportunity of recommending it, in my public speeches and other ways, to the attention of the Legislature. But I never undertook to go into detail of the Organization of such an Academy, leaving this task to others whose pursuits in the paths of Science, and attention to the arrangements of such Institutions, had better qualified them for the execution of it. 40

Hamilton's plan contemplated the foundation of five schools : a fundamental school; a school of engineers and artillerists; a school of cavalry; a school of infantry; and a school of the Navy. This was only one of the many proposals circulated. The writings of American leaders with experience in the Revolution are replete with proposals and plans for military academies. General Benjamin Lincoln, Baron von Steuben, General Jedediah Huntington, Secretary of War Timothy Pickering, General du Portail, and many others put forward plans for one or more military academies. A number considered West Point as a favorable location. Washington had called for an academy in his last annual message to Congress.41 Hamilton's all-inclusive plan of 1 7 9 9 was not accepted, although it did influence the eventual development of the Military Academy. 42 In 1800, Secretary of War Dexter decided, with the support of John Adams, to execute the laws then existing for the instruction of the artillerists and engineers. The President expressed his willingness to appoint 6 4 cadets, four Washington's Writings, XXXVII, 473. James D. Richardson, comp., A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents, 1789-1890 (Washington, 1896-1904). See Washington's Eighth Annual Message, I, 202-3. 4 2 Hamilton's Works, VII, 184. Jonathan Williams, first Superintendent of the Military Academy, was familiar with Hamilton's plan and referred to it as a valuable document. 40 41

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17

teachers, and two engineers. He also planned to admit several midshipmen to the school in keeping with a suggestion from the Secretary of the Navy. 4 3 Finally, in January, 1801, George Baron was appointed by the President as a teacher of mathematics under the Act of 1798, to serve with the artillerists and engineers. Baron had been an instructor at the British military academy at Woolwich and he attempted to introduce English methods at West Point. Classes were held each morning ; afternoons were devoted to some brief military exercises or, more frequently, to field sports. Baron's civilian status in a military community gave him very little authority "and consequently the institution ran into disorder and the teacher into contempt." 44 He remained at West Point only thirteen months. When Thomas Jefferson took office as President in the spring of 1801, he was faced with problems of foreign policy, with the Mediterranean pirates, and with rumors of the restoration of French authority in Louisiana ; and he took practical steps which led to the establishment of the United States Military Academy. On the fourteenth of April, 1801, Henry Dearborn, Secretary of War, wrote to Lieutenant Colonel Tousard to advise him of his appointment as inspector of artillery. Anne Louis de Tousard, a graduate of a French artillery school, had served as an aide to Lafayette during the American Revolution, and had been welcomed into the American Army in 1795 as a trained artillery officer and an expert fortification builder. Dearborn directed that "when you shall not be otherwise necessarily employed you will give all the assistance in your power 4 3 John Adams's Works, IX, 65-66; letter to S. Dexter, Secretary of War, July 25, 1800. Adams was handicapped by the insuperable difficulty of finding qualified American teachers. He expressed his problem to Secretary Dexter: "Every one speaks well of Mr. Bureau de Pusy. But I have an invincible aversion to the appointment of foreigners, if it can be avoided. It mortifies the honest pride of our officers, and damps their ardor and ambition." 4 4 Thomas Jefferson, Message from, the President of the United States Transmitting a Report on the Subject of the Military Academy (Washington, 1808), p. 5.

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POINT

in the instruction of such officers and Cadets as m a y be at West Point."

45

On M a y 1 2 the Secretary wrote to General J a m e s

Wilkinson: " T h e President has decided on the immediate establishment of a military school at West P o i n t ; . . . Major Jonathan W i l l i a m s is to be inspector of fortifications ; . . .

he

is to be at West Point to direct the necessary arrangements for the commencement of the school."

46

A letter of the same date

to the military storekeeper at W e s t Point directed him to provide facilities for 2 0 or 3 0 pupils—officers and c a d e t s — a teacher of mathematics, and a " p r a c t i c a l teacher of g u n n e r y . " A s a matter of course, the Administration sponsored legislation to make its plans part of the l a w ; and on M a r c h 1 6 , 1 8 0 2 , the organic act of the United States Military A c a d e m y was passed by Congress. The pertinent sections of the law read as follows : Sec. 26. And be it further enacted, That the President of the United States is hereby authorized and empowered, when he shall deem it expedient, to organize and establish a corps of engineers, to consist of one engineer, with the pay, rank and emoluments of a major; two assistant engineers, with the pay, rank and emoluments of captains; two other assistant engineers, with the pay, rank and emoluments of the first lieutenants ; two other assistant engineers, with the pay, rank and emoluments of second lieutenants ; and ten cadets with the pay of sixteen dollars per month, and two rations per day ; and the President of the United States is, in like manner, authorized, when he shall deem it proper, to make such promotions in the said corps, with a view to particular merit, and without regard to rank, so as not to exceed one colonel, one lieutenant-colonel, two majors, four captains, four first lieutenants, four second lieutenants, and so that the number of the whole corps shall, at no time, exceed twenty officers and cadets. Sec. 27. And be it further enacted, That the said corps, when so organized, shall be stationed at West Point, in the State of New York, and shall constitute a military academy ; and the engineers, and assistant engineers, and cadets of the said Corps, shall be subject, at all times, to do duty in such places, and on such services, as the President of the United States shall direct. 4 5 National Archives, War Department Records, Letters of the Secretary of War, Vol. I. « ¡bid.

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Sec. 28. And be it further enacted, That the principal engineer, and in his absence the next in rank, shall have the superintendence of the said Academy, under the direction of the President of the United States; and the Secretary of W a r is hereby authorized, at the public expense, under such regulations as shall be directed buy the books, implements and apparatus for the use and benefit of the said institution. 47 T h e law a u t h o r i z e d a n a c a d e m y a p p r o p r i a t e t o that d a y a n d w a s a n i m p o r t a n t a c h i e v e m e n t of the J e f f e r s o n i a n a d m i n i s t r a tion ; it w a s the c o n s e q u e n c e o f the m i l i t a r y e x p e r i e n c e o f the R e v o l u t i o n a n d a step t o w a r d a c h i e v i n g the p l a n s o f K n o x , Adams, Hamilton, and Washington. 47 The Debates and Proceedings in the Congress of the United States, 7th Cong., 1st Sess., p. 1312.

WEST POINT'S MILITARY PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY 1802-1812

Scientia in Bello Pax1

a young cadet who arrived at West Point shortly before the academy was officially organized in 1802, described his impressions of the physical scene: JOSEPH G. SWIFT,

The buildings which I found on my first arrival at the Point were, at the [north] dock a stone house; on the brow of the hill above the first dwelling is the "White quarters," the residence then of the commandant, Lieut. Osborne,2 and his beautiful wife; and then the "Artillery Mess" of Lieuts. Wilson and Howard. The Academy is situated on the western margin of the plain, near the base of rocks on whose summit 400 feet above stands Fort Putnam. Near the Academy was an office on the edge of a small hollow, in which depression were the remains of a mound that had been formed at the close of the Revolution to celebrate the birth of a Dauphin of France, our great ally in those days. To the south of this relique were the "Head Quarters" that had been the residence of General Knox and the scene of many an humble meal partaken by Washington and his companions in arms, at this time the residence of Major George Fleming, the Military Store1 This motto was inscribed on an engraved diploma distributed to all United States Military Philosophical Society members. Jonathan Williams, who established the Society at West Point, translated it: "Science in war is the guarantee of peace." 2 West Point was the scene of three conflicting jurisdictions: it was the home station of the Corps of Engineers; it was a regular military post; and it had a military storehouse or magazine, each with a separate command.

MILITARY PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY

21

keeper. Farther south the quarters of Lieutenants J . Wilson and A. Macomb and a small building afterwards used as a laboratory. In front of these was the model yard, containing a miniature fortress in wood, used in the lectures on fortification, the handiwork of Colonel Rochefontaine and Major Rivardi. Around this yard Cadet Armistead and myself planted 12 elm trees. 3 To the south and at the base of Fort Putnam Hill also were Rochefontaine's quarters, now the residence of the family of Lieutenant-Colonel Williams; diagonally from the garden gate of these quarters Rochefontaine had constructed a paved foot walk to the barrack on the north-east side of the plain, now the Cadets' quarters. They are 240 feet in length and were constructed by Major Rivardi, whose quarters were in a building at the northern base of the Fort Putnam Hill, by the road leading to the German Flats and Washington's Valley. Below the plain at the northwest, near the river, were the military stores, two long yellow buildings, containing the arms and accoutrements of the army of Burgoyne and also numerous brass ordnance surrendered at Saratoga, and especially a couple of brass "Grass Hoppers" taken by General Greene in South Carolina, and by resolve of Congress presented to that very distinguished commander, all under the care of Major Fleming, who seemed to view them as almost his own property, he having served in the conquest at Bemis Heights and Saratoga. To the east of these stores was the armoury, and also the residence of Zebina Kinsley, the Armourer, and his exemplary wife. To the east was the hospital, under the charge of Dr. Nicholas Jones our surgeon, and brother of Mrs. Lieutenant Osborne. At the northeast angle of the plain was Fort Clinton, a dilapidated work of Generals Duportail and Kosciusko, engineers in the Revolutionary war. This work was garnished with four 24-pounder cannon, on seacoast carriages. The fort also inclosed a long stone magazine filled with powder "many years of age." The gloomy portals of these walls might remind one of Dante's Inferno. To the west, overlooking the plain and 500 feet of elevation, is Fort Putnam, a stone casemated castle, having on its platform a couple of 24-pounder field pieces of artillery.4

Swift was one of twelve cadets who reported for duty. Colonel Jonathan Williams, the first academy Superintendent, promptly issued books, organized classes, and established a routine for his staff. The texts were new in America: C. H. 3 4

In all likelihood, these are the old trees near the present Washington Hall. J. G. Swift, Diary.

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Hutton's Mathematics, used in the English military school at Woolwich; W. Enfield's Natural Philosophy; Marshal S. de Vauban's Traité de fortifications in the original French; and H. 0 . de Scheel's Treatise of Artillery. The curriculum accentuated practical field surveying and measurement. Williams gave lectures on fortifications and led the cadets in surveys of the country around the Point to familiarize them with the use of surveying instruments. Williams's assistants, Captain William Amherst Barron, a Harvard graduate who had tutored in mathematics at Cambridge, instructed the cadets in algebra, while Captain Jared Mansfield, a friend of Jefferson and a former instructor at Yale, was Acting Professor of Natural and Experimental Philosophy, and also taught geometry.5 On September 1, 1802, the first public examination was held, as a result of which Cadets Joseph G. Swift and Simon M. Levy were graduated. They were commissioned to rank as second lieutenants in the order named on October 12, 1802. In retrospect, this was an auspicious enough beginning for an institution which has grown for a century and a half, but Williams and his colleagues believed that they were doomed to failure. They felt restricted by the scope of the institution authorized by Congress and were agreed that, although they could give the few cadets under their supervision a good grounding in mathematics and surveying, their limited facilities could not produce professional artillerists and engineers. The demands for a body of trained officers prepared for command positions could only be satisfied by making several radical changes: setting standards for admission, increasing the number of cadets so that they could be arranged in distinct classes, holding regular examinations, getting appropriations for buildings and developing a proper curriculum which would include all of the mathematical sciences. The nature of the s The best picture of the infant academy may be found in Swift's Diary and in a report by Jonathan Williams in Thomas Jefferson's Message from the President of the United States Transmitting a Report on the Subject of the Military Established ai West Point.

MILITARY PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY

23

infant academy determined by Congressional legislation was not too far removed from the earlier regimental schools, and so Williams had to draw upon his own resources and almost single-handedly carry out the behest of Congress to "constitute a military academy." His character, personality, and background were decisive in determining the nature of the Military Academy for the first ten years of its existence. Jonathan Williams, a grandnephew of Benjamin Franklin, was born in Boston, on May 26, 1750.® Educated there and at Harvard, he went to London in 1770 and became involved in various commercial ventures which kept him in Europe. During the Revolution, he served as a representative of the American government in France; he did not return to the United States until 1785. Evincing an early interest in science and in military art, Williams worked with Franklin on several experiments, published a widely circulated treatise on thermometrical navigation, and contributed to the Transactions of the American Philosophical Society,7 of which he was an officer. In the military field, he aided the War Department by translating a French treatise on artillery. 8 Thomas Jefferson thought that Williams resembled Benjamin Franklin in many points of character and mind, for he was interested in experiment and theory and their practical application to everyday life. Jefferson was also impressed by Williams's knowledge of fortification construction, and on February 16, 1801, appointed him Inspector of Fortifications and Superintendent of the military post at West Point, with the rank of major. When Congress established the Military Academy in March, 1802, Williams, as the ranking engineer at West Point, automatically became the first academy Superintendent. He hoped to build 6 Mildred E. Lombard, "Jonathan Williams," in Dictionary of American Biography, ed. Allen Johnson, XI, 280-82. 7 American Philosophical Society, Transactions (Philadelphia, 1786-1809), III, 82; VI, 82. 8 Henri Othon de Scheel, A Treatise of Artillery, tr. Jonathan Williams (Philadelphia, 1800).

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an academy that could transmit to the cadets a spirit of scientific inquiry, a willingness to continue their studies after graduation, and a comprehension of the board horizon of their profession in a new, expanding, country. He felt that he could come closer to a realization of this goal, if he could bring to the isolation of West Point the very best in European and American scientific thinking and inventive genius. He proposed to do so by extending the authority granted him and establishing an organization superimposed upon the Corps of Engineers and the academy. 9 By Williams's order, the officers of the Corps of Engineers, on November 12,1802, assembled and discussed his proposals for setting up an association to be known as The United States Military Philosophical Society.10 Articles of organization were unanimously adopted at this first meeting. The Corps of Engineers, including the cadets, were the nucleus and governing body. Officers and cadets of the Corps were members of right; civilians were also eligible for membership. The expressed purpose of this organization was "promoting Military Science." On November 29, 1802, the first permanent officers were elected to serve for one year: President, Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Williams; Vice President, Major Decius Wadsworth; Recording Secretary, Lieutenant Simon M. Levy; Corresponding Secretary, Lieutenant James Wilson; Treasurer, Captain Jared Mansfield; and Keeper of the Cabinet, Lieutenant Joseph G. Swift. The officers included almost the entire membership. Williams held office as President for the entire period of the society's existence. Meetings were held twice each month in the Academy Hall at West Point, a little two-story 9 The United States Military Philosophical Society, MS Minutes and Records, Membership Lists, Correspondence and Papers Written for the Society, 18021812 (in 4 vols.). The manuscript is owned by the New-York Historical Society and used with their permission. See S. Forman, "The United States Military Philosophical Society, 1802-1812," The William and Mary Quarterly, July, 1945. 10 Present were Decius Wadsworth, William A. Barron, Jared Mansfield, James Wilson, Alexander Macomb, Joseph G. Swift, Simon Levy, Walker K. Armistead, and Joseph G. Totten. Williams led the discussion.

MILITARY PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY

25

house ordinarily occupied by the academy's classes. In numerous ways the society was completely dependent on the Military Academy; for example, meetings were not held during the long winter vacations. One of the first things done was to solicit the interest and patronage of the President of the United States, since his approval would give the society official status. A letter sketching the society's program was accordingly addressed to President Jefferson, on December 12, 1802. 11 Jefferson, approving the project, replied to Williams: A friend to Science in all its useful Branches, and believing that of the Engineer of great utility, I sincerely approve of the Institution of a Society for its Improvement. From the smallness of our establishment, its numbers will be small for a-while; but its pursuits being directly in the line of their profession, and entitled to all their time, they may render the Society important and useful. Altho' it is not probable that I may be able to render it any service, yet, I accept thankfully the Patronage you are pleased to propose, and the more justifiably as the perfect coincidence of its objects with the legal duties of the Members, will render the respects shown to the Society always consistent with the duties which I owe to their military Institution. . . ,12

The Military Philosophical Society and the academy were well launched, when a dispute arose over Williams's right to command troops. There were a few enlisted artillerists in the West Point garrison whose services were occasionally loaned to the Engineers for "making . . . practical experiments." An act of February 28, 1803, authorized Williams to enlist "for a term of not less than three years, one artificer and eighteen men, to aid in making practical experiments, and for other purposes, &c. &c." The artificer was a skilled military mechanic who prepared shells, fuses, and grenades. Williams was dissatisfied with this insignificant command. 13 Engineer officers then served as technical consultants subordinate to officers of 11

U.S. Mil. Phil. Soc. MS Minutes and Records. Ibid., Dec. 25, 1802. The Minutes include at least two hitherto unpublished letters of Jefferson. 13 A fuller treatment of the enlisted garrison at West Point may be found in S. Forman, The 1802nd Special Regiment (West Point, 1948). 12

26

MILITARY PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY

other branches of the service and were not authorized to command troops. Williams knew that this limitation stemmed from policies adopted during the Revolution, when foreign engineers were not trusted to command American troops, and he felt that to apply the regulation to his own position was insulting. He therefore resigned his commission on June 20, 1803. This caused a lapse in the continuity of the society's meetings and disrupted the Military Academy. Upon Williams's resignation, Colonel Decius Wadsworth took command. More concerned with his responsibilities as an engineer officer than with the academy, he was content merely to set up rules establishing a simple curriculum to be administered by his subordinates.14 Captain Barron taught mathematics and the theory of fortification each forenoon; the afternoons were devoted alternately to instruction in French and drawing by Francis D. Masson, a native of France, who joined the staff in 1804. Mansfield, the Professor of Natural and Experimental Philosophy, also left West Point soon after Williams did, for important work in remapping the boundaries of the Northwest Territory; he did not return until 1814. Williams's plans had offered the Jeffersonian administration a chance to encourage native professional skills in the science of war and at the same time to avoid any semblance of a standing army, then considered incompatible with republican government. Jefferson turned to Williams again in 1805 and persuaded him to accept a lieutenant-colonelcy by making several concessions as to his rights and status.15 As soon as Williams reassumed his command at West Point, he revived the United States Military Philosophical Society as if it were a branch of the Corps of Engineers and a part of the academy, and asked Jefferson for an allotment of money for his quasiofficial organization. Jefferson once more encouraged the Engineers' interest in 14 16

MS 1071. An order by Decius Wadsworth dated July 20,1804. Date of commission, April 19, 1805.

MILITARY PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY

27

the society, but in the matter of finance he rebuffed Williams and advised him that War Department funds were applicable only to objects known to the law. Money was essential, however, and Williams's personal contribution of the income of several shares of Eagle Fire Insurance Company stock helped to sustain the organization. The collection of a library was an important object of the Military Philosophical Society and the academy. Scientific works were treasured, and the Corps of Engineers and the cadets had access to the richest collection of technical books in the United States. They could also use Williams's private library, much of which had once belonged to Benjamin Franklin. Professor Ferdinand R. Hassler brought an extensive library to West Point as did other Engineer officers. The Military Academy had its own library, which was slowly enlarged by purchases authorized by the government. There were many foreign works, among them a ten-volume edition of Montalembert which was the only known copy in America. 16 The Military Philosophical Society's library grew largely through the gifts of its friends: General John Armstrong, Minister to France, presented it with Jomini's Traite de grand tactique; it received such authors as Francis Bacon, Saxe, Vignola, Villeneuve and other books and pamphlets on mathematics, fortification, architecture, and natural science. The library also included an extensive manuscript collection. One of its most valued items was Captain Richard Whiley's gift of eight manuscript volumes representing all the orders issued by General Anthony Wayne during his campaigns against the Indians. In order to meet the demand for books on military subjects, the Military Philosophical Society sponsored several publications. Among them was Major Alexander Macomb's treatise on martial law, which was announced as the first full-length study of the subject published in this country. It soon became 16 Marquis de Marc Rene Montalembert, La Fortification (Paris, 1776-1793).

Perpendiculaire

. . .

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MILITARY PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY

a standard work and was placed in all garrisons by government order. 17 An anonymous essay on the Military Constitution of Nations, which had appeared originally in the National Intelligencer was reprinted in pamphlet form in 1808. 1 8 Military men were deeply interested in another essay sponsored by the society, a study of the use of horse artillery, written by General Kosciuszko and translated by Jonathan Williams. 19 The cost of its publication was met by the sale of copies to the War Department and to the states of New York and Virginia. Both Robert Fulton, in his Torpedo War and Submarine Explosions,20 and Zebulon Montgomery Pike, in his An Account of Expeditions to the Source of the Mississippi,21 mentioned their association with the U.S. Military Philosophical Society on the title pages of their publications. The society eventually numbered in its membership the most distinguished men in the United States. Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, John Quincy Adams, James Monroe, John Marshall, DeWitt Clinton, Thomas Cushing, Benjamin Latrobe, Robert Fulton, Eli Whitney, Joel Barlow, Clement Biddie, and Bushrod Washington were listed on its rolls. It included such persons as Professor John Williams of Harvard, David Ramsey the historian of South Carolina, Samuel L. Mitchill, Professor of Natural History at Columbia College, and John Allen, a Litchfield, Connecticut lawyer. The Army, 1 7 Alexander Macomb, A Treatise on Martial Law and Courts-Martial; As Practised in The United States of America (Charleston, S.C., 1809). This was based on an English study of the same subject by Alexander Fraser Tytler, published in 1800. 18 A Short Essay on the Military Constitutions of Nations (New York, 1808). 1 9 Tadeusz Kosciuszko, Manoeuvres of Horse Artillery. Written at Paris in the Year 1800 . . . tr., with notes and descriptive plates, by Jonathan Williams (New York, 1808). 2 0 Robert Fulton, Torpedo War, and Submarine Explosions (New York, 1810). Fulton's application for a patent for the mechanism of the Clermont was drawn against a background of a view of the Hudson as seen from West Point. 2 1 Zebulon Montgomery Pike, An Account of Expeditions to the Sources of the Mississippi and through the Western Parts of Louisiana to the Sources of the Arkansas, Kans, La Platte, and Pierre Jaun Rivers . . . In the Year 1807 (Philadelphia, 1810).

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Navy, Marine Corps, and the militia were well represented. Edward Preble, the hero of Tripoli, who carried the war to the Barbary pirates, was an honored member as were William Bainbridge, Stephen Decatur, Charles Stewart, Isaac Hull and many other young officers who distinguished themselves in the struggle with the British Navy during the War of 1812. The society's archives reveal that it transformed West Point into a national center of scientific study, at which the most diverse subjects were eagerly explored. Williams defended the widely varied subjects brought before the society and encompassed in the Military Academy's curriculum. He defined military science broadly: Science is in its own nature so diffuse, that it is almost impossible to designate any dividing lines. Astronomy, geography and mathematics, run into each other at every step. Chemistry and mineralogy are inseparable. The laws of motion, mechanics, and projectiles are also interwoven, and in some way or other (although the extreme points may be distant) the gradations become insensible. Military science embraces all these branches. . .

Technical papers of the most varied content were read at meetings by the Engineer officers, with members, including cadets, for an audience. At the meeting of June 17, 1806, Williams described his observations of the solar eclipse of the day before. In October, 1806, he read a memoir on the construction of a floating battery, presented a detailed description of the harbor of New York, and an account of experiments proving that a musket barrel, reduced to 2 feet 6 inches in length, would send a ball through a 2-inch oak plank at 180 yards. Major Barron read a paper, on October 6, 1806, describing the Falls of the Ohio at Louisville; another dealt with the fusil of Montalembert, tending to prove the superiority of the breach-loading gun over the common muzzleloading musket. Introduction of the new gun into the armies of the United States was recommended and it was immediately 22

U.S. Mil. Phil. Soc. Minutes and Records.

30

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voted to have a model made in New York. Many of the papers were descriptive accounts of official tasks performed by the Engineer officer members. Williams went so far as to promise that "The Corps of Engineers, who have been dispersed over the union, will present to this Society descriptive accounts of all the works they have erected, attended with such observations as their own experience may have suggested." This made the society practically the official archive of the Corps of Engineers.23 At the meeting of October 9, 1806, Williams, for example, ordered placed with the society's records a report relative to the Corps of Engineers and the Military Academy of the United States, and, at a later meeting, a General Return of Fortifications from Massachusetts to Pennsylvania, collected from reports of their commanding officers. In October, 1807, Lieutenant Joseph G. Totten presented maps drawn by him of the Indiana territory and a "plan of the ancient works at Marietta"; Professor Francis D. Masson presented a "course of lectures on field and permanent fortifications," part of his ambitious program of translating into English "all that is known in Europe" on the subject of engineering.24 Williams later read "an account of the Heights of the Blue Ridge and Allegheny mountains in Virginia measured by the barometer, to which is added Captain Alden Partridge's Barometrical measurement of the Highlands on the North River." Perhaps one of the most significant papers was Professor Ferdinand R. Hassler's memoir on Gallatin's Report on Canals which led the way to the Coast Survey of the United 23 This fact vastly enhances the value of the society's records. The archives of the Corps of Engineers and of the United States Military Academy for the years before the War of 1812 were probably destroyed in a fire at West Point in 1838. The papers of the society supplement the records of the Corps of Engineers available at the National Archives and make possible a detailed study of the early Military Academy. 24 Williams stated his belief that "The theories of Europe are undoubtedly the basis of a military education. But, the practice of our own warriors in our own country, the experience and observation of men, who have had local circumstances in view, are far more essential. With this knowledge we may be able, in ease of invasion, to renew the scenes of Saratoga and York."

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States.25 Hassler also introduced analytic trigonometry into his West Point course—the first time the subject was taught in this country.28 In later years, when he became first Superintendent of the United States Coast Survey, he proposed to employ cadets as part of his technical staff. 27 By 1807 the society was of national importance. A growing membership roll, enhanced prestige, and Williams's driving enthusiam caused the organization to extend its activities. New civilian forces were brought into the leadership. William Popham, a former aide to General Steuben, was then elected treasurer, and General Charles Cotesworth Pinckney of South Carolina accepted the vice-presidency and represented the society's interests in the South. Although West Point continued as the official home of the organization, meetings were held in New York's City Hall, with Mayor DeWitt Clinton in attendance, and in Washington, at the War Office. Cadets were occasionally present at these sessions away from the Point. Just as substantial successes seemed to crown the society's efforts, the Chesapeake-Leopard affair of 1807—when a British ship seized part of the crew of the U.S.S. Chesapeake—shocked the nation. The war fever rose, and Jefferson considered measures to augment the Army and improve the Military Academy. He asked for a report on the status of the West Point school. Williams replied with a request that the Military Academy be no longer neglected and recommended that it be moved to Washington where it could be directly under the scrutiny of the administration. Williams proposed that the teaching staff be enlarged and a full academic and technical school be developed, not only for the Army but also for the Navy. He asked 25

Swift Papers. Florian Cajori, The Teaching and History of Mathematics in the United States (Bur. of Ed. Circular of Information, No. 3, 1890, Washington, 1890), p. 85. 27 Cf. Letter from Capt. Alden Partridge to the Secretary of War, July 6, 1817. Hitchcock Papers. Library of Congress. "I am informed that it is contemplated to employ several of the young Gentlemen from the Academy upon the grand survey of the Coast under the direction of Mr. Hassler." 26

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for an adequate staff to teach French, German, chemistry, mineralogy, mathematics, and engineering in all branches ; he suggested that nautical astronomy, geography and navigation be taught, and that a riding master and a sword master be employed. Jefferson referred the plan to Congress where it died in committee. In the next four years, the imminent possibility of war did not improve the status of the academy ; the officers of the Corps of Engineers had constant employment building fortifications which took them away from West Point. Williams accepted the responsibility of fortifying New York harbor, and his immediate subordinate Joseph G. Swift, then a Captain of Engineers, took charge of the academy as Williams's deputy. Duty frequently called Swift, too, away from West Point, and the academy was left in the hands of the senior instructor present. 28 Financial difficulties plagued the school's progress; almost every year when the Military Academy appropriation was proposed in Congress, doubts were raised as to the need for the academy, its constitutionality, and the propriety of its location. Even the Secretary of War, William Eustis, was hostile to its existence. But despite frequent changes in personnel, lack of a stable plan of organization and utter neglect, Williams and the officers of the Corps of Engineers exerted every effort to sustain the Military Philosophical Society with the result that as an educational and cultural medium it superseded the academy in its influence upon the cadets and officers of the Engineer Corps. In many ways the academy and the Philosophical Society became almost indistinguishable in their operation and educational objectives. A series of papers pre28 Alden Partridge, who had temporary charge of the institution in 1810, complained to President Madison: "And convinced as I am that under its present want of necessary buildings, requisite professors, and almost everything that should constitute a seminary of Military Science neither Benefit to the public nor honor to myself can be derived from it. . . ." MS 422. Draft of letter dated July 13,1810.

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sented to the society in 1810 by Captain Alden Partridge of the academic staff of the Military Academy illustrate this integration. Partridge's report included the results of meteorological observations, barometrical measurements of the heights of the Catskill Mountains, and experiments in the fire of artillery and infantry made at West Point.29 Cadets were active participants in these studies. A group of them had accompanied Captain Partridge on his Catskill expedition to the town of Windham in Greene County. The infantry and artillery fire experiments had been submitted by Captain Partridge to the Secretary of War "to guide his judgment in their [the cadets'] acquirements in the art of Gunnery." One test ascertained the number of shots a line of infantry would be likely to receive from artillery in marching over a given distance; another determined the time in which four and six pounders could be loaded with loose ball and fired. A third experiment established the time in which a given number of ball cartridges could be fired. In the face of Britian's provocative maritime policy and her encouragement of hostile Indian tribes of the American Northwest, Jefferson's policy of peaceful coercion, finally failed, and Congress approved entry into war with Great Britain on June 18, 1812, after months of debate. Immediately, there was a political scramble for positions of command. Williams sought the command of Castle William on Governor's Island in New York harbor, a position to which he felt entitled, since he had built that work. He was refused and he resigned from the Army on July 31, 1812, to enter the forces of Pennsylvania. The Military Philosophical Society also broke down. At the last recorded meeting, on November 1, 1813, at Washington Hall in New York City, only one vote, that 28 Captain Partridge published a detailed account of these experiments in a Philadelphia publication, The Home Journal and Citizen Soldier, of January 1844. He tells of having repeated these experiments with a new group of cadets in 1814.

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of Captain Sylvanus Thayer, was cast against dissolution.30 At the outbreak of the war there were but 89 graduates of Williams's institution; 6 5 were in the service. War was their business and profession, and the proportion of Military Academy graduates in the Army was an indication of their dedication to national service and of the manner in which the product of West Point differed from that of any other school or college. 31 Of the graduates serving in the field, one-sixth were killed in action ; one-fourth were killed or wounded ; and onefifth of the survivors received one or more brevets for distinguished services. The Chief of the Corps of Engineers was Joseph G. Swift, the first graduate of the United States Military Academy. He had been active in the Military Philosophical Society, an intimate friend of Williams, and chief engineer following Williams's resignation. The lieutenant colonel of the Corps was Walker Keith Armistead, the third graduate, who planned the defenses of Norfolk. Major William McRee, Chief Engineer to General Brown, constructed the fortifications at Fort Erie which cost the British General Gordon Drummond the loss of half his army. Captain Eleazer Darby Wood of New York constructed Fort Meigs, which enabled Harrison to defeat the attack of Proctor in May, 1813. Captain Joseph Gilbert Totten of New York was Chief Engineer to General Izard at Plattsburg, where he directed the fortifications that were an important factor in stopping the advance of Prevost's great army. None of the works constructed by a graduate of West 3 0 Swift Papers. Swift noted that he regretted the dissolution. Herman Fairchild, History of the New York Academy of Sciences (New York, 1887), pp. 109-12. The society's books and papers seem to be dispersed between the New York Historical Society and the United States Military Academy. The location of its museum collection has not as yet been discovered. 3 1 For example, the historian of Harvard College records that "Harvard men played little part in the War of 1812, the general sentiment of New England being strongly against it." Samuel E. Morison, Three Centuries of Harvard, 16361936 (Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1936) ; Columbia College students left their classes voluntarily and built fortifications in upper Manhattan. Brander Matthews, et al., A History of Columbia University, 1754-1904 (New York, 1904), p. 162.

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35

Point during Williams's Superintendency was captured by the on

enemy. There were other men influenced by Williams's West Point training and Williams's Philosophical Society: Alden Partridge, founder of the Norwich Military Academy and many other schools, who probably did more than any other individual to introduce military instruction and exercises in schools not national or professionally military; 3 3 and Sylvanus Thayer, Superintendent of the United States Military Academy from 1817 to 1833, whose character and skillful leadership established the pattern of the modern Military Academy at West Point. 3 2 Henry Adams, A History of the United States of America (New York, 18891891), I X , 235-36. Adame offered the opinion that "had an engineer been employed at Washington by Armstrong and Winder, the city would have been easily saved." 3 8 This conclusion is reached by Henry Barnard in an editorial comment on the Report of the Board of Visitors, 1863 in the American Journal of Education, Χ Ι Π (n.s. Ι Π ) , 688.

SYLVANUS THAYER'S MILITARY ACADEMY

I had a solemn duty to perform and was determined to perform it whatever were the personal consequences to myself. SUPERINTENDENT SYLVANUS THAYER

1

THE LAW of April 29, 1812, set forth the general principles upon which the U.S. Military Academy has been conducted and controlled to the present day. It was the most important law in West Point history other than the act which established the institution.2 The cadets, who previously had been granted warrants as cadets for the regiments of cavalry, artillery, infantry or riflemen, were now directly appointed to the Military Academy under the Corps of Engineers. Their number was increased to 250. The authorized strength of the Corps of Cadets at the academy was no longer dependent on the number of regiments authorized by the periodic expansions and contractions of the Army. The act increased the Corps of Engineers by six officers and directed the recruiting of a force of 94 enlisted men to be formed into a Company of Bombardiers, Sappers, and Miners, to serve under the Engineer officers. The academy staff was 1 Letter from Thayer to his sister and brother-in-law, October 17, 1817. Copy by his nephew, J. B. Moulton. Cullum Papers. 2 This opinion was expressed by one of the few serious students of American military policy, Emory Upton, in his The Military Policy of the United States (Washington, 1917), p. 94.

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37

considerably enlarged: the Professorship of Natural and Experimental Philosophy was expressly created for Jared Mansfield, who returned to West Point in 1814; Andrew Ellicott, who had a wide reputation for his knowledge of astronomy and mathematics, was appointed Professor of Mathematics in September, 1813; Alden Partridge was appointed to the new Professorship of Engineering. These new officers, with the Teacher of Drawing, Christian E. Zoeller, and of French, Florimond De Masson, made up the academy faculty. The law of 1812 also placed the cadets under the discipline of academy regulations, which now required that they were to be organized by the Superintendent into companies, encamped three months each year, and were to be trained and taught "all of the duties of a private, a non-commissioned officer, and officer." This last provision, Emory Upton had said, was "a key to the character for efficiency and discipline which the graduates have since maintained." 3 In regard to admission standards, the law of 1812 which stipulated that candidates for the cadet warrant should be "well versed in reading, writing and arithmetic," differed from the almost universal college standard which required some knowledge of the classical languages.4 The requisites remained the same at West Point until July 22, 1866, when a knowledge of English grammar, United States' history, and geography was added. These elementary requirements for admission remained fixed until 1901. Perhaps the most far-reaching provision of the law of 1812 was that requiring the cadet to "receive a regular degree from an academical staff." This was the legal basis of the formation of the Academic Board, presided over by the Superintendent. After 1817, the Academic Board, consisting of the permanent 3

Emory Upton, The Military Policy of the United States, p. 94. For example, Columbia College, in 1810, required that a student "be accurately acquainted with the Grammar, including Prosody, of both the Greek and Latin tongues. . . . He shall also be able to translate English into grammatical Latin; and shall be versed in the first four Rules of Arithmetic, the Rule of Three direct and inverse, and decimal and vulgar Fractions." Matthews et al., A History of Columbia University, p. 88. 4

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professors, the equivalent of department chairmen at other schools, passed upon proficiency at examinations, deficiency, recommendations to branch of service, class standings, dismissals, rewards of cadets, and the whole complex of administrative policy upon which the Superintendents would consult them. During the war y e a r s — 1 8 1 2 to 1815—the academy was in a state of reorganization under the new law. The academic staff established itself, new cadets arrived, and the enlisted "Company of Bombardiers" was recruited and drilled. J. G. Swift took charge of the Corps of Engineers and the academy during the war. Swift wrote to Harvard President, the Reverend John Thornton Kirkland and other experienced educators for advice on how to run the Military Academy. However, his duties took him away from West Point so frequently, and for such long periods, that he had to give up any plans he may have had for the academy; he delegated his authority to Alden Partridge. Assigned to the academy as Assistant Professor of Mathematics upon his graduation in 1806, Partridge became full Professor of Mathematics in 1 8 1 3 , served as full Professor of Engineering from 1 8 1 3 to 1 8 1 6 , and as Superintendent from January, 1 8 1 5 , to July 28, 1 8 1 7 (although he had performed all the duties of the office from 1 8 1 0 ) . By the end of 1 8 1 4 , 1 6 0 cadets were in attendance, but as soon as a cadet absorbed a smattering of technical knowledge he was assigned to active service. The chief importance of the post arose from its being the rendezvous of the Corps of Engineers, and its garrison of Bombardiers, Sappers, and Miners. The Engineer officers at West Point analyzed the campaigns, developed plans of operations, and used the academy's technical books and instruments to prepare themselves by study and military exercises for their duties. As for the enlisted garrison, the "Bombardiers," as the detachment was most commonly known, were used as waiters and fatigue men on the post. In the spring of 1 8 1 3 their number was increased and

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39

they were formed into a company whose members performed guard duty and a regular round of garrison chores. On May 16, 1814, the "Bombardiers" were ordered to join the Northern army under General Jacob Brown. The new status of the academy under the 1812 law made additional buildings necessary. Contracts were let in 1814 for three stone structures of grey granite, roofed with slate: one was a refectory, one was to quarter cadets and the assistant professors, and the third to house lecture rooms, an experimental laboratory, and the library. These were completed and occupied immediately after the peace treaty was signed. Captain Partridge, who with Swift's advice directed the academy, was remarkably energetic.5 He was an excellent drillmaster, and under his direction the Corps of Cadets began to take shape. The soldiers' code of honor was strictly observed, military delinquencies were recorded, and written explanations for absences were required. Each cadet performed the duties of Officer of the Day in rotation. And after the "Bombardier" company left the post in 1814, the cadets posted a regular guard. Captain Partridge supervised a course of studies including mathematics, philosophy, geography and history, military science and French, all connected with practical experiments in the field. A cadet mess was established, governed by some of the present mess customs : the marching to and from meals, and the presence of carvers at each table. Regulations for parades, drills, and the daily routine were established and a military band was ordered to the post. One of Partridge's pupils, General George D. Ramsay, Chief of Ordnance, described him as well versed in the science and the practice of artillery, passionately fond of the field exercise of the infantry, and even the smallest minutiae of the manual of arms. "In appearance he was naturally austere and in his 5 Partridge Papers. Typed copies of original papers at Norwich University, Vermont. The Partridge Papers include a manuscript biography of Alden Partridge by his son, Henry V. Partridge.

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manner discovered little of the suaviter in modo. He was shy and diffident, evidently the result of his ascetic mode of life." 6 There is no doubt that the "gentlemen Cadets," as he used to call them, were greatly attached to him. As a drillmaster and teacher, Partridge served the Military Academy successfully. As Superintendent and administrator, his domineering nature led to faulty judgment and finally to his replacement. In these early years it was often necessary for the Superintendent to assume responsibility and authority in cases not provided for by law or regulation. All the material wants of the cadets had to be provided—food, clothing, fuel— and some of the arrangements to this end, made by Partridge, were subject to severe criticism. He was attacked for having mustered a number of fellow Yermonters as enlisted men in the "Bombardier" company; his uncle, Isaac Partridge, served the academy as steward ; his nephew, Lieutenant John Wright, was placed in command of the "Bombardiers" ; another relative enjoyed a virtual monopoly in the sale of uniforms and other supplies to the cadets; rumors circulated that Captain Partridge was selling wood from the public lands for personal profit ; the "Bombardiers" left on the post during the war were poorly disciplined, and the public stores were broken into several times. When the situation was brought to Swift's attention in the spring of 1815, he investigated enough to satisfy himself that Partridge was not personally profiting by the sale of wood and he discharged Partridge's uncle from his duties as steward. In the face of this unsatisfactory solution, vague charges continued to circulate of a "family compact," of Partridge's disregard of the provisions of the law of 1812, and of dissatisfaction with his overbearing attitude toward the cadets and his colleagues, all of which led to an exhaustive court inquiry in 1816. 7 Although the trial terminated triumβ Cullum Papers: George D. Ramsay to G. W. Cullum, in reply to a circular inquiry, 1872. 7 MS Proceedings of the Court of Inquiry on Captain Alden Partridge, March 15-April 12, 1816.

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phantly for Partridge and his conduct was generally vindicated, the court did criticize him for allowing the "Bombardiers" to accept employment from his uncle outside of regular duty, for not keeping regular order books, for disregarding the opinion of the academic staff and recommending cadets for commission without a regular examination or diploma. Mansfield, Ellicott, Douglass, and others of the academic staff who had direct contact with President Madison, and later with Monroe, kept up a continuous agitation against being subordinated to Partridge. The friction between Partridge and the teaching staff reached its climax on the occasion of a visit of President Monroe to West Point, in June, 1817. When he reached the post, the academic staff presented him with letters protesting Partridge's arrogant decisions, his interference with their courses, and his practice of graduating cadets without consulting them, as the law required. The President determined to clear up the situation by ordering a court-martial of Partridge and by replacing him with another Engineer officer, Sylvanus Thayer. Thayer came to West Point admirably equipped. Born at Braintree, Massachusetts, where an ancestor, Richard Thayer, had settled in the second quarter of the seventeenth century, 8 he had pursued a classical course at Dartmouth College from 1803 until 1807, when he was admitted to the Military Academy. He was graduated in February, 1808, and commissioned a second lieutenant in the Corps of Engineers. After his graduation he was engaged as an assistant in the design and construction of fortifications on the coasts of New York and New England. During the War of 1812 he saw service on the Canadian frontier and at Norfolk, Virginia, and he was brevetted a major. The war experience convinced Thayer that only by study of 8 The most valuable study of Sylvanus Thayer may be found in R. Ernest Dupuy's, Where They Have Trod, (New York, 1940) and in a shorter paper designed to present Thayer's claim to a place in the Hall of Fame, titled Sylvanus Thayer —Educator (West Point, 1940).

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European, particularly Napoleonic, military methods and European scientific treatises could the American officer be adequately trained. His interest in the scientific aspects of war was so intense that in 1 8 1 5 he went to Washington to request a leave of absence for study abroad. President Madison and the then Secretary of War, James Monroe, more than agreed to the proposal. Instead of sending Thayer abroad on furlough, he was ordered abroad on duty, in company with Brevet Colonel William McRee, USMA 1805, commissioned to study military and technical developments in Europe and to purchase books and instruments for West Point. Thayer spent a year in France, studying the methods of the famous École Polytechnique where France's military and civil engineers were trained. He examined the Artillery and Engineer school at Metz and its fortifications, as well as the fortifications at Lille, Cherbourg, and Brest, and he collected and arranged for the purchase, binding, and shipment of approximately a thousand technical books on military art, engineering, and mathematics, and five hundred charts and maps for the Military Academy library. 9 At the same time that Thayer went to France, Edward Everett, George Ticknor, and, later, Joseph B. Cogswell and George Bancroft sailed across the ocean to find the "truth" at Göttingen and bring German pedagogical methods and academic standards to Harvard. The parallels with the Thayer and McRee tour are remarkable in that Ticknor and Everett made purchases in Europe for the Harvard Library, and Cogswell brought back three thousand volumes and eleven thousand maps and charts. 10 Returning to the United States in May, 1817, Thayer found James Monroe in the Presidential chair. The President's personal directive sent the then Brevet Major Sylvanus Thayer to West Point. Monroe knew Thayer well and was familiar with » MS 1301, Swift Papers: W. McRee to Gen. J. G. Swift, Paris, Dec. 18, 1816; W. McRee to Gen. J. W. Swift, Paris, Jan. 26,1817. 1 0 S. E. Morison, Three Centuries of Harvard, pp. 225, 266.

THAYER'S MILITARY ACADEMY

43

his record in the War of 1812: "Your conduct," he wrote, "inspir'd me with great confidence, in your capacity, to manage a military institution." 11 Present on the post were about 400 persons: 240 cadets, 15 professors and teachers, 12 commissioned officers, and the company of "Bombardiers." Thayer took command of the academy on July 28, 1817, at the age of 32. He soon learned that the regulation limiting admissions to the month of September had been disregarded ; candidates had been examined and admitted whenever they presented themselves, thus interfering with the maintenance of regular classes. He also found that the cadets anticipated their pay by borrowing to support extravagances. Studies were imperfectly mastered ; and among the graduates, even among those who were appointed into the Corps of Engineers, many left the academy totally unacquainted with the French language, which Thayer considered "the repository of military science." 12 Too many cadets were absent on vacation or special leave. Immediately he had an order issued instructing all cadets to return by September l. 1 3 At the end of August, in the midst of Thayer's organizational activity, Captain Alden Partridge returned to the post and arbitrarily assumed command, an unauthorized act of choler and insubordination. General Swift, Chief of Engineers, ordered Partridge arrested and advised Thayer to consider himself "as continued in the command of West Point & the Superintendence of the Military Academy." 14 After about ten days, on September 10, 1817, Partridge left the post, escorted by 11 Monroe to Thayer, Nov. 1, 1826. In this letter Monroe asks for Thayer's views as to the administration of the University of Virginia. 12 Thayer to the Secretary of War, Aug. 20, 1817. 13 Thayer's program of education outlined here is drawn from his correspondence, over a period of years, with the Chief of Engineers and particularly with J. C. Calhoun, who served as Secretary of War for most of Monroe's two terms in office. Calhoun was active and enthusiastic in his support of Thayer. Thayer referred to Calhoun as the "energetic and ever vigilant Secretary Calhoun." Thayer to Capt. Geo. W. Cullum, March 2, 1853. " MS 338: Swift to Thayer, Sept. 1, 1817.

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sympathetic cadets and officers. Lieutenant Wright, his nephew, led the group who saw Partridge off at the wharf "with all the honors of musick." 13 Thayer then communicated with General Swift, described the mutinous situation, and closed, "The operations of the Academy have resumed their regular course & I do not apprehend any serious difficulties hereafter." 16 Partridge was tried by court-martial again on charges which included mutiny, conduct prejudicial of good order and discipline, contempt toward his commanding officer, disobedience of orders, and neglect of duty. He was found guilty of several charges and specifications and sentenced to be dismissed from the service. The court included in its sentence a recommendation for leniency "in consideration of the zeal and perseverence which the prisoner seems uniformly to have displayed in the discharge of his professional duties, up to the period of August last." 17 The President remitted the punishment and restored Partridge to duty to give him the chance to resign from the Army, which he did. Partridge's great error lay in his bitter reaction to displacement. His separation from West Point seems to have injured his good judgment in at least those things that pertained to the Military Academy and to the people he blamed for his loss of position—he felt that he was arbitrarily dismissed from an office in which he had spent the best years of his life. On March 15, 1818, he accused General Swift, the Chief Engineer, of waste of public funds and interference with the affairs of the academy. 18 As the Secretary of War refused to take up the charges, Partridge's malignity festered, and in a burst of temper he wrote Swift: You may rest assured the business will not rest (if my life is preserved) until the whole scene of iniquity . . . relative to the affairs of West Point be fully developed. . . . I am near thirty three years of age, and should I live to be seventy this subject shall never . . . be abandoned unless justice be done.19 I s MS 340: Thayer to Swift, Sept. 11, 1817. " ¡bid. MS Proceedings of a General Court Martial convened at West Point, on the 20th Oct. 1817, p. 168. « MS 1420. " MS 1425. April 11, 1818. 17

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45

His letter railed against the "efforts of my contemptible foes." Forty-five years later Henry Barnard, the educational reformer, noted that Captain Partridge more than any one man, and his pupils, were responsible for the popular criticisms of the United States Military Academy. 20 Thayer concentrated on his duties with a religious fervor. He discharged the incompetent cadets who came to be known in local parlance as "Uncle Sam's bad bargains," 21 for some who held warrants were deficient even in the rudiments of reading and writing. He organized the Corps into two companies, officered by their own members; one company was composed of tall, the other of short cadets. He appointed an officer of the Army as Commandant of Cadets who was responsible for their tactical instruction and soldierly discipline. He set up a system of weekly reports, adopted a merit roll, and arranged for the first five cadets in each class to have their names published in the annual Army Register. The grading was computed by assigning to each branch of study a multiplier or number corresponding with its importance. The numbers originally adopted were : Mathematics Natural and Experimental Philosophy Engineering Military Exercise and Conduct French Drawing Whole course of study

.2 .2 .2 .2

.1 .1 1.0

The class reports and merit rolls were found to encourage study at West Point. The ranking system at other schools aroused student objection and agitation and was abolished at Dartmouth and Bowdoin at that time. President Josiah Quincy initiated a ranking system at Harvard in 1829 but it was aban20

This conclusion was expressed by Henry Barnard in American Journal of Education, n.s. Ill (1863), 688. 21 John H. B. Latrobe, if est Point Reminiscences (n.p., May 4, 1887), p. 9.

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doned, to the delight of the students, exactly forty years later. 22 Thayer laid great stress on small classes so that individual progress could be observed daily, and he felt that his smallclass plan of "practical" instruction differed from "and was an improvement upon the method pursued at most of the colleges and universities in the United States." 2 3 Other schools, simply because they could not afford to have small classes, resorted to lectures by which, they claimed, "mature intellect and ripe scholarship should thus constantly be brought into contact with the pupil." 2 4 Before Thayer's program was fully functioning a disciplinary problem arose in which the application of martial law to the Corps of Cadets was questioned. Captain John Bliss, Commandant of Cadets, a hot-tempered man, was accused of striking a cadet. Before the incident was finally settled, it developed into a cause célèbre, with the Corps of Cadets delegating a grievance committee which questioned the authority of the Superintendent and appealed for Presidential and public intervention. Such "rebellions" seem to have been common enough in American colleges. Princeton still remembers her turbulent outbreak of 1817, when the students fired pistols and brandished cutlasses at the faculty. 25 The cadets at West Point published their views in An Expose of Facts Concerning Recent Transactions Relating to the Corps of Cadets of the United States Military Academy.26 The affair concluded with the decision of Attorney General William Wirt that the Corps of Cadets and the academic staff were subject to martial law, and with S. E. Morison, op. cit., p. 346. American State Papers : Documents, Legislative and Executive, of the Congress of the United States (38 vols., Washington, 1832-61), Class V, Military Affairs (7 vols.), II, 79. 2 4 Nehemiah Cleaveland and Alpheus S. Packard, History of Bowdoin College (Boston, 1882), p. 20. 2 5 Edwin M. Norris, The Story of Princeton (Boston, 1917), pp. 136-38. A history of Yale records a "Bread and Butter Rebellion" in 1828. Lewis S. Welch and Walter Camp, Yale (Boston, 1899), p. 399. 2 6 Newburgh, N.Y., 1819. 22 23

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censure of the cadets involved.27 Andrew Jackson Donelson, among many others, participated in this uprising with the encouragement of his uncle, Andrew Jackson. One of the later differences between Donelson and Jackson, on the one hand, and Thayer, on the other, began with this incident. Thayer was also troubled by the lack of discipline in the enlisted Company of Bombardiers, Sappers, and Miners, who behaved as if they were "composed of fugitives from justice and the refuse of society." 28 Before his term in office was completed, Thayer replaced them with local men or married soldiers who were more responsible and competent in performing the labor of the post. Superintendent Thayer invited public scrutiny of the Corps of Cadets and arranged public contact by summer marches to Hudson, New York, in 1819, 28 under Captain John R. Bell, then Instructor of Tactics; to Philadelphia in 1820; to Boston in 1821 where the cadets were dined at Harvard College and Faneuil Hall; and to Goshen, New York, in 1822, under the command of Major William J. Worth. The cadets were popular with the people wherever they went and the widespread publicity was favorable. 30 These marches were considered important from the standpoint of health and practical experience and were commemorated by published journals for 1819, 1820, and 1821.31 During the ensuing summers the cadets encamped on the Plain at West Point. 32 Another means of promoting favorable public relations was Thayer's cordial and hospitable reception to guests, official or otherwise, and more particularly, to the Board of Visitors who 27 MS 351. Wirt to Calhoun, Aug. 21, 1819. War Dept., Records: Thayer to Swift, June 28, 1818. 29 Cull um Papers: Hartman Bache to Gen. Cullum, May 2, 1872. 30 The Massachusetts Spy, June 27, July 25, Aug. 8, 1821 ; and The Boston Intelligencer, Aug. 22, 1821. 31 Published under the title A Journal of a March Performed by the Corps of Cadets (Newburgh, 1819, 1820; n.p., 1821). 32 The cadets set up their summer encampment on the West Point Plain each year from 1822 to 1942; since 1943, Camp Buckner, west of the post proper, has been used. 28

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appeared to examine West Point each June. This committee was invited to look into details of academic activity and the physical plant and report its findings to the Secretary of War. Leading officers of the Army, the Navy, the militia, members of Congress, and distinguished educators were invited as members of the Board. The first Board of Visitors in 1815 was composed of Major General Jacob Brown, Mayor De Witt Clinton of New York City (later governor of the state), Dr. Samuel L. Mitchill, a physician and naturalist, and Oliver Wolcott, financier and later governor of Connecticut. A Board of Visitors was not appointed again until 1819, after which the attendance of its members became an accepted part of the ceremony of June examinations. The members of the Board were chosen to represent various sections of the country, and it was arranged to have among them critics as well as friends of the academy. Thayer believed that criticism arose from prejudice which could be dissipated by personal contact, and he never failed to keep the public attitude in mind. Many improvements initiated by Colonel Thayer were designed to enhance the appearance of the post. He insisted on the purchase of the Gridley tract, immediately to the south of West Point, in order to enlarge the grounds and rid the area of a nuisance: Gridley's tavern had been a cadet resort since Partridge's day, and any cadet detected "Going to old Grid's" was dismissed. The land and buildings were purchased for $10,000 in 1824. Thayer installed running water by drawing on a mountainside reservoir through iron pipes, built the present Superintendent's quarters, and four stone houses for professors' quarters facing the beautiful upriver scenery, the beginning of the present Professors' Row. He also arranged for the construction of a new cadet hospital on the Gridley property, overlooking the Hudson to the eastward, with wings for surgeons and officers' quarters. He set out trees to adorn the borders of the Plain and initiated plans to build the original Storm King Highway.

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Thayer also directed the building of the West Point Hotel in 1829 on the edge of the Plain overlooking Newburgh Bay. Before the hotel was built, guests at the post had been inadequately cared for by a succession of caterers who held the contract in turn after Isaac Partridge was dismissed ; many of the guests sought accommodations in Newburgh or one of the near-by villages.33 New West Point traditions were established during Thayer's Superintendency ; his personality endowed the academy with what has come to be known as "The Spirit of West Point." In every aspect of administration he represented to the cadets impartial justice, rigid, uncompromising honesty, and literal, unquestioning obedience to order. The memoirs of the cadets who knew him remark that the spirit with which he endowed the Corps was more valuable than any course of study. George Woodbridge, USMA 1826, commented: General Thayer was one of the most remarkable men in the Army. His comprehensive mind embraced principles and details more strongly than any man I ever knew. The students seemed to feel that his eye was ever on them, both in their rooms and abroad, both in their studies and on parade. His object was to make them gentlemen and soldiers. And he illustrated in his own person the great object he sought to accomplish.8«

C. P. Buckingham, USMA 1829, recalled : "Col. Thayer was rigid in discipline, but was impartial and just. Was regarded with awe mingled with respect, and considered as the Father of the Institution." 35 Thayer's sixteen-year career as Superintendent was brought to an end in 1833 when he refused to subordinate himself to the interference of the Jacksonian administration in academy affairs. In January, 1833, Thayer offered his resignation; he 33 An account of many of the improvements initiated by Thayer may be found in T . J. Cram, Extracts from Recollections ( M S ) . 3t Cullum Papers: George Woodbridge, USMA 1826, to Gen. Cullura, Oct. 25, 1872. 35 Ibid.: C. P. Buckingham to Gen. Cullum, Oct. 30, 1872.

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was relieved at the close of the June examinations.36 The story was later told that Andrew Jackson Donelson, having taken sides against Thayer, had brought upon himself some penalty for the infraction of Thayer's rules of discipline. Donelson had supported Cadets Fairfax, Ragland, Vining, Loring, and Holmes in their disorderly protest against military subordination and Andrew Jackson supported and encouraged his nephew in his action.37 Donelson left the academy with a feeling of resentment toward Thayer. Since he later became aide to Major General Jackson in 1820-1821, and his private secretary when Jackson was President, from 1829 to 1837, if he wished to prejudice the mind of his chief he had ample opportunity to do so.38 Jackson himself held the opinion that "It was for the descendente of those revolutionary parents who died poor that the Military Academy was established." 39 Jackson's Secretaries of War, John H. Eaton and Lewis Cass, appreciated Colonel Thayer's services. This, combined with the fact that no officer of the Corps of Engineers coveted the Superintendency (although by law the choice of candidate was restricted to that group) in all probability saved the academy from losing Colonel Thayer in President Jackson's first administration. But throughout those four years all that a discharged cadet needed for reinstatement was to appeal in person, or through political friends, to President Jackson's prejudice against the authorities at the academy—more especially against its Superintendent. Jackson reinstated cadets dismissed by recommendation of the Academic Board for demerit in conduct and deficiency in studies, and even after dismissal by courts-martial. Once when General J. G. Swift asked for some amelioration of a ruling to favor his nephew Julius Adams, Thayer replied that he could do nothing about it. He dryly 36

USMA Order Book, 6, Engineer Order No. 1, April 2, 1833. Donelson Papers: Jackson to Donelson, Dec. 28, 1818. Lib. of Congress. 38 T. J. Cram, op. cit., p. 22. 30 Andrew Jackson, Correspondence, ed. John S. Bassett (Washington, D.C., 1926-35), V, 516; letter from Jackson to Poinsett, Oct. 19, 1837. 37

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referred Swift to the President: "The only source of hope is in the President who is in the habit of dispensing with the most important regulations of the Academic Authorities & the Secretary of War himself. I do not see why he will not be as likely to yield to any solicitations from the friends of Cadet Adams as to those of others in behalf of their relations." 40 Unwilling to countenance the spoils system and political favoritism, Thayer left West Point to continue his career in the Corps of Engineers. Four years later, President Van Buren's Secretary of War, Joel R. Poinsett, who felt that Thayer was essential to the Superintendency, tried to persuade him to take the office again.41 Thayer refused; but his close interest in and influence upon the academy continued.42 The greatest achievement of Sylvanus Thayer's career was his organization of the academic course at the Military Academy. The details of the course in 1832, the year before Thayer left reveals his contribution to American education.43 The cadets were arranged in four annual classes. Those in the first year's course, the Fourth, or Plebe, Class, served in the Corps as privates. They studied French, algebra, geometry, trigonometry, the application of algebra to geometry, and the mensuration of planes and solids. The military studies, taught during the first summer encampment—new cadets were required to report between the first and twentieth of June—were based on the standard Army regulations as revised by General Winfield Scott and were conducted by an instructor of infantry 40

Thayer to Swift, Feb. 29, 1832. MS 501 : Poinsett to Gouverneur Kemble, Nov. 15,1837. 42 He remained in the Corps of Engineers and was assigned to important coast defenses. From 1843 to 1846 he journeyed through France, across Europe and into Russia. When the Civil War came, although he was too old for active service, his advice was sought by the government. Finally in 1863, he retired with the brevet of brigadier general. In retirement he found the leisure to accomplish one of his favorite projects—an advanced engineering school. He gave Dartmouth College an endowment of $70,000 for the Thayer School of Engineering and personally supervised every detail of curriculum planning. He died at his home in Braintree, Mass., on September 7, 1872, at the age of 87. 43 The published USMA Regulations and Register of this year includes a detailed and authoritative description of the course. 11

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tactics under the direction of the Commandant of Cadets. On September 1, when the entire Corps returned to barracks, the new cadets turned their concentration to academic studies, French and mathematics. The French course was directed by a Frenchman, Claudius Berard, who came to West Point, January 3, 1815, from Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pa. Berard's title of Teacher of French was changed to Professor of French, August 8, 1846, which office he held until his death, May 6, 1848. Berard was also librarian—a considerable proportion of the books were in the French language. Continuing the practice of his predecessors, the Masson brothers, Francis Désiré (1803-1810) and Florimond (1810-1815), Berard developed his own grammar; 44 for reading exercises he assigned the first volume of Histoire de Gil Blas. George Ticknor was using Gil Blas in his Harvard classes at this time, but in some of the New England colleges, as an aftermath of the political prejudice aroused by the French Revolution, the French language was not taught at all. At West Point the subject was not only taught for its cultural value but as an essential professional tool. The textbooks and methods in the mathematics course were essentially French in origin. Bourdon's Elements of Algebra was translated by Lieutenant Edward C. Ross, Assistant Professor, 46 and Professor Charles Davies's revision (1839) established this as a West Point textbook until 1899. The geometry text was Legendre's Elements of Geometry. This great work, issued in 1794, had quickly replaced the classical Euclid in American schools and was already used by Professor John Farrar for the Freshman and Sophomore classes at Harvard. At West Point, Farrar's translation replaced the imported French texts until Professor Davies began to write his own texts and revisions for the use of the cadets and schools and colleges elsewhere. Legendre's work, in one form or another 44

Claudius Berard, A Grammar of the French Language (New York, 1826). Used until 1840. 45 Louis P. M. Bourdon, Elements of Algebra (New York, 1831).

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remained in use at the Military Academy until the present century. For the Fourth Class cadet in 1832, the mathematics course was completed by Davies's Treatise on Descriptive Geometry, another compilation of French origin which succeeded one of the same title by Claudius Crozet; and Legendre's text on trigonometry. Davies taught at the Military Academy for twenty-one years, fourteen years as Professor. When he took charge as Professor of Mathematics in 1823, he replaced Hutton's compendium of mathematics, philosophy, and mechanics, an English work, and followed the path of Farrar of Harvard in bringing the wealth of French mathematics to America. Davies resigned from the Military Academy to devote himself to textbook writing and eventually produced more than twenty volumes on the subject, more than any other American before 1850.4e His achievements were recognized by professorships at Trinity College, Hartford, at New York University, and Columbia College, and by honorary degrees from Princeton (1824), Williams (1825), and Geneva College, New York (1840). For purposes of instruction in both French and mathematics, the classes were divided into convenient sections of about twelve men, according to the practice prevailing in both France and Germany. The sections were counted off from the roll of merit in each subject so that the first section in mathematics, for example, consisted of the cadets most proficient in that subject. In mathematics, the instruction and text assignments were proportioned to the capacity of the different sections, the more difficult parts of the course generally being reserved for the higher sections. The first section was conducted by the Professor, and each of the others by an assistant. The Professors, in order to check the performance of their assistants, occasionally took over and instructed one of the other sections. To keep the classes small and achieve the maximum of individual tuition and recitation, the Superintendent would 48

Louis C. Karpinski, Bibliography of Mathematical ica through 1850 (Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1940).

Works Printed in Amer-

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detail as an assistant professor or teacher, a qualified cadet, for whom the appointment was an honorable distinction which entitled him to receive ten dollars per month extra compensation. For pedagogical method in all courses, the greatest reliance was placed on textbook study and memoriter recitation, although the use of the blackboard was already thoroughly integrated into the West Point system. Merit rolls in each branch of study were carefully kept, and in the calculation of class standing mathematics was weighted twice as heavily as French. The cadet's final standing on the roll of merit was computed not only on his academic achievement but also on his conduct, based on a demerit system in which delinquencies were recorded. Delinquencies were weighted on the roll of merit for class standing, and if a cadet accumulated more than two hundred demerits he could be declared deficient in conduct and dismissed. The Fourth Class cadet was on probation from the time of his arrival in June until after the January oral examinations when, if successful, he would receive an official appointment or warrant as a cadet. His next big obstacle was the June examination, which was also oral, before the Board of Visitors. The commencement exercises which took place during the same week turned the event into a public holiday. The end of the Fourth Class academic year was followed by a second twomonth encampment, and again a return to barracks and academics without the usual college summer vacation. For the Third Class, mathematics was still the most important subject with a weight of three as compared to French with a weight of one, and drawing was now included with a weight of one-half. The drawing class met for two-hour sessions on alternate days and was based on a study of the human figure— casts and models were used. The Acting Drawing Teacher for this year, Lieutenant Seth Eastman, was one of a succession of distinguished incumbents. His predecessors were the French teacher Francis Désiré Masson, Christian E. Zoeller, a Swiss,

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and Thomas Gimbrede, an eccentric French miniaturist and lithographer. Lieutenant Eastman was succeeded, March 2, 1833, by Charles A. Leslie, who in turn was followed in June of the same year by Robert W. Weir. Weir, who served at West Point for forty-two years, until his retirement July 25, 1876, had studied in Italy from 1824 to 1827, and while at the Military Academy established himself as one of the important American painters of the century. His "Landing of the Pilgrims" hangs in the rotunda of the National Capitol. The French class spent its time reading and translating the last three volumes of Histoire de Gil Blas and Voltaire's Histoire de Charles XII (this also was being used at Harvard). The classroom period included study and recitation, and in the small classes a practical tutorial system prevailed. In Third Class mathematics, mensuration, and perspectives, shades and shadows were studied from Davies's texts on those subjects, while analytical geometry and fluxions were now studied in French from Jean Baptiste Biot, Essai de géométrie analytique (Paris, 1826) ; the course was completed with Lacroix, Traité elementaire de calcul différentiel et de calcul intégral. Biot had been one of the earliest graduates of the École Polytechnique. Francis H. Smith, a graduate of 1833, translated Biot's text and published it a few years later (New York, 1840) for the cadets at the Virginia Military Institute. After completion of the second academic year, the new Second Class cadets had a real vacation, a summer's furlough. They returned in September to landscape and topographical drawing, and for them natural philosophy and chemistry took the place of mathematics. The chemistry course was based on Edward Turner's Elements of Chemistry (Edinburgh, 1827), drawn from German sources and presented in Turner's University of Edinburgh chemistry lectures. At West Point, chemistry held to the pattern of three lectures a week, textbook study, and "hearing recitations." The course was under the guidance of the Profes-

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sor of Chemistry and Mineralogy, Lieutenant W. Fenn Hopkins. He served in the department from 1825 to 1835 and was the first academy graduate to head the course. His predecessors, who were also Military Academy medical officers, were James Cutbush (1820-1823), John G. Percival (March to July, 1824), and John Torrey, who later won fame as a botanist but first established the study of chemistry at the Military Academy. Torrey held office from August 25, 1824, to August 31,1828, leaving West Point to teach and study at Princeton and New York University. Hopkins, the professor in 1833, was overshadowed by his successor, Jacob W. Bailey, who came to the department in 1834 as assistant and held the professorship from July 8,1838, to February 26,1857. The Second Class natural philosophy course in 1832, took up statics, dynamics, hydrostatics, and hydrodynamics based on the writings of another École Polytechnique teacher, Louis B. Francoeur's Traité de mecanique (Paris 1807); for electricity, galvanism, magnetism and electromagnetism John Farrar's Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism, no less French in origin; for the study of light, Farrar's Treatise on Optics; and for the study of the solar system and astronomic calculation the same author's Astronomy. The teaching of natural philosophy followed the pattern of the pedagogy in mathematics. The professor was Edward H. Courtenay, of the Class of 1821, who came to West Point before he was fifteen and mastered the course in three years, an uncommon procedure, and remained to teach for three years, 1821-1824. After a period of field service he returned as Acting Professor and Professor of Natural and Experimental Philosophy, September 1, 1828, to December 31, 1834. While at West Point he produced a translation of J. L. Boucharlat's Elementary Treatise on Mechanics,47 Courtenay later taught mathematics, 47 Jean L. Boucharlat, An Elementary. Treatise on Mechanics (New York, 1833), translated with additions and emendations designed to adapt it to the use of the cadets of the U.S. Military Academy by Edward Courtenay.

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1834-1836, at the University of Pennsylvania, and after an excursion into the field of practical engineering held the professorship of mathematics, 1842-1853, at the University of Virginia. His Treatise on Differential and Integral Calculus was published after his death (1855). Courtenay's successor, William H. C. Bartlett, who led the department from 1834, to February 14, 1871, fixed the character of its course until the end of the century. The emphasis for the Second Class was again on science, natural philosophy bearing the weight of three, chemistry one, and drawing one. After the completion of the academic course, the Second Class cadets entered their third and last two-montli summer encampment as First Classmen. They not only practiced infantry tactics in the field but the Rules and Regulations for the Exercise and Maneuvers of US. Infantry were recited upon. The same was true of artillery studies, which included the theory of gunnery and, under pyrotechny, the manufacture, transportation, and testing of all kinds of weapons and powder. The text was Henri D. Lallemand's A Treatise on Artillery, translated from the French by James Renwick, a Columbia College professor 48 and friend of both Thayer and J. G. Swift. In academics, the First Class entered upon a complex of studies more directly professional. Engineering was the important course with the emphasis on civil engineering, although field fortification, permanent fortification, and the composition and organization of armies and principles of strategy were studied.49 The basic texts were again French: J. M. Sganzin's Programmes ou résumés des leçons du cours de construction (Paris, 1809) and Gay de Vernon's École Polytechnique text, 48 New York, 1820. Renwick was Professor of Natural Philosophy and Experimental Chemistry, 1820-1853. 48 In forming the merit roll, Engineering had a weight of 3 as did mathematics, natural philosophy, and conduct. Chemistry and mineralogy, rhetoric and moral and political science, and infantry tactics each had a weight of 2; artillery, French and drawing each carried a weight of 1.

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A Treatise on the Science of War and Fortifications in the translation prepared specifically for the use of the Military Academy cadets by Captain John M. O'Connor.50 The Professor of Engineering, Dennis Hart Mahan, had the reputation of being a rigid disciplinarian. He had graduated at the head of his class in 1824 and remained at West Point for two years teaching mathematics and engineering. August 1, 1826, he was ordered to Europe and remained there as a student of engineering, traveling widely for four years. By authority of the French Minister of War he was attached as a pupil to the Military School of Engineers and Artillerists at Metz, January 1, 1829, to March 10, 1830. He returned to the academy as Acting Professor of Engineering, September 1, 1830, to January 1, 1832, and then held the office of Professor until September 16, 1871. As suitable textbooks adapted to the American scene and American problems were lacking in his department, he undertook to supply the need by lectures from notes gathered from his European tour. While in France, Mahan had purchased a lithograph apparatus for the Military Academy; he now began to convert his notes into lithographed texts for the cadets,51 and from these into a stream of published works. His texts were used by most Volunteer and Regular officers during the Civil War, were reprinted by the Confederates, and were known and used round the world well into the present century. The course under the Department of Chemistry and Mineralogy was restricted to mineralogy, offered to First Class cadets from Parker Cleaveland's Mineralogy, the earliest American work on the subject.52 Cleaveland was a Harvard man who prepared his text while holding a professorship in Mathematics and Natural Philosophy at Bowdoin, Maine.53 50

2 vols., New York, 1817. The lithograph apparatus provided a medium for other members of the academic staff to publish their notes and place them in the hands of the cadets. 82 Parker Cleaveland, Elementary Treatise on Mineralogy and Geology (2d ed., Boston, 1822). Well received, the text established Bowdoin's academic reputation. " See Nehemiah Cleaveland and Alpheus S. Packard, History of Bowdoin College (Boston, 1882), pp. 126 ff. 01

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The First Class in rhetoric and moral and political science met under the administration of Chaplain Thomas Warner, in one large group, sometimes in two. His lectures were taken from Lindley Murray's Grammar (the various editions of which practically monopolized the field in the United States from 1820 to 1850) ; from Blair's Rhetoric, used in many New England schools, and from Paley's Principles of Moral and Political Philosophy, much favored at Harvard, which embodied the utilitarianism of the eighteenth century. For a study of the Constitution of the United States and the law of nations, the cadets read and the Chaplain lectured from James Kent's conservative Commentaries, which grew out of Kent's Columbia lectures. The teaching staff was completed by the Sword Master, N. Albert Jumel, a civilian, who taught fencing with the small sword, cut and thrust, broadsword, and sword exercise of the cavalry. A dancing master was employed each summer at the expense of the cadets. This was the substance of the academic course, which when completed, under severe military discipline and regulations, would give the cadet a diploma signed by the Academic Board and recommend him to the War Department for a commission. Cadets were uniformly clothed, uniformly fed, received sixteen dollars per month and an allowance of two rations per day, from which most of their expenses were deducted, and were quartered in barracks rooms, two or three in a single room which was a combination of the medieval bedroom and study. The bed was a mattress on the floor.54 There were no Greek letter fraternities, secret societies, or exclusive eating clubs, such as were beginning to appear on the American college scene. Life was governed by printed regulations and the cadet was called to his round of studies and military exercises by drum and bugle. Insofar as the most complex institutions, forged by generations of experience and adaptation, are commonly referred to M

Post Orders, I, 70, 95. Cadets were issued bedsteads, November 24, 1838.

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as the product of the genius of some one individual, it is appropriate to regard the United States Military Academy as substantially the product of one man, Sylvanus Thayer, Superintendent from 1817 to 1833. The basic elements of West Point organization and methods, of West Point principles, and of institutional spirit were firmly established under his administration. Thayer's work was continued by his successors who completely accepted his program of organization and who adapted the curriculum to new developments with conservatism.

THE MILITARY ACADEMY CRITICS AND THE MEXICAN WAR

1 give it as my fixed opinion that but for our graduated cadets the war between the United States and Mexico might, and probably would, have lasted some four or five years, within its first half more defeats than victories falling to our share, whereas in less than two campaigns we conquered a great country and a peace without the loss of a single battle or skirmish. GENERAL WINFIELD SCOTT

1

denunciation of West Point was so common as to be almost conventional, and censorious critics found willing ears. The sectional interests were goads to criticism. Some of the Southern state legislatures, which wanted military academies of their own, felt that the academy in New York was too distant, too far removed from an appreciation of their local requirements, and that funds devoted to West Point would be more effective if divided among the individual states. It was a handicap for a boy to travel from Louisiana to West Point BEFORE

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WAR,

1 Winfield Scott, July 25, 1860, in Report of the Commission Appointed under the Eighth Section of the Act of Congress of June 21, 1860, to Examine into the Organization, System of Discipline, and Course of Instruction of the United States Military Academy at West Point (Washington, 1860), 36th Cong., 2d Sees., Senate, Misc. Doc. No. 3, p. 176.

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with no certainty that he was qualified to matriculate until he had passed the oral examination in the three R's before the Academic Board. The militia system then in vogue provided another spur to the attack against the academy. In many states militia service called for periodic drills and parades, at which all citizens were expected to appear. For failure to attend the penalty was a fine, or, if the fine could not be paid, imprisonment. As a result, men who could afford to do so generally paid their fines; and the system degenerated into compulsory service with loss of time and wages for the poor man, and exemption on payment of fine for those to whom the fine was no great burden. Protest against these abuses usually called for abolition of the United States Military Academy and demanded that its funds be applied to ameliorate the militia system and to finance military instruction by the separate states.2 Another source of criticism grew out of the rising demand for free public education. Appropriation of public funds for the support of the academy was dubbed, by some of the proponents of this movement, class legislation which benefited the rich. Some of these critics demanded that funds first be made available for primary schools. Captain Partridge has been blamed for much of the caviling.3 His feeling of personal injury, his suspicion that a clique or collusive group was exerting itself to stain his reputation and injure his fortune never left him. Through the years succeeding his resignation, by word of mouth and by publication, he did everything he could to discredit West Point and the officers associated with it. Captain Partridge's major attack was launched in a pamphlet titled The Military Academy at West Point, Unmasked; or, Corruption and Military Despotism Exposed, published in Washington in 1830. Thousands of copies, signed with the pseudonym "Americanus," were widely 2 New York Military Magazine, Oct. 30, 1841, p. 329; The Citizen Soldier (Philadelphia), March 1, 1843. 3 MS 1045, D. H. Mahan to J. C. Spencer, Secretary of War, Nov. 10,1841.

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distributed, particularly among government officials and legislators. 4 Against the "monarchial, corrupt and corrupting" institution, as he characterized it, Partridge cited the following charges: 1. The War Department commissioned only graduates of the academy, precluding the commissioning of young men from other institutions who are as well or better qualified. 2. The Military Academy has brought a military aristocracy into existence which claims the privilege of filling all the vacancies which occur in the military establishment. 3. Academy regulations which allow encampment for only two months violate the law which says that cadets shall be encamped for at least three months. 4. The law says that cadets shall be organized into companies and officered by officers of the Corps of Engineers, whereas in actual practice the Commandant of Cadets and the Instructor of Tactics are either officers of Artillery or Infantry. 5. By provisions of the law of April 29,1812, eight instructors are allowed to the Military Academy, there are actually about thirty instructors at the academy paid by government funds. 6. No law authorized the unconstitutional expenditure of $10. per month for cadet assistant instructors. 7. At least two buildings were put up on the post without any congressional appropriation. Where did the money come from? Who collects the rent from the hotel? 8. The academic regulations restrict freedom of speech. 9. The cadets are subjected to such degrading punishments as "laboring at the wheelbarrow." 10. The Superintendent orders courts of inquiry to investigate the conduct of cadets without their request which is contrary to the articles of war. 11. During the year 1827, an individual not subject to martial law was seized by force at West Point and confined in the guard house. 12. The pay of cadets has been repeatedly stopped by order of the Superintendent, under the pretext of damages done to books, etc., in direct violation of the law. The pay of no individual in military service can be legally stopped, except by sentence of a court-martial.5 4 Norwich University, Partridge Papers : Letter from James Blain to Alden Partridge, May 22, 1830. • Op. cit. These charges contain the substance of the 28 page pamphlet.

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Partridge went on to accuse Thayer of being personally responsible for these and other violations of law and order. He also charged Claudius Berard, the teacher of French, of being guilty of profiting from the sale of cheap watches—six or seven dollar watches—to the cadets, thereby inducing them to violate regulations which prohibited the cadets from purchasing anything without written permission. Captain David B. Douglass, Partridge wrote, also went unpunished for having defrauded the members of the Company of Bombardiers, Sappers, and Miners of a part of their rations, while they were on their march, under his command, from West Point to Buffalo, in 1814. Partridge closed his attack with the statement that the system of education at the academy was effeminate, abstract, and pedantic—very different from the practical training under his administration. Partridge's solution was a complete reorganization of the Military Academy, and its conversion into a school of practical military training with candidates taken from the several states in proportion to their representation in Congress, and with provision for one-sixth of the vacancies to be filled by meritorious non-commissioned officers. These embittered arguments carried the authority of "an insider." Critics of West Point snatched them up eagerly, provided Partridge with a following, and supported and circulated his attacks far and wide. To the public he represented the militia interest as against the professional soldier and the Regular Army, a real or fancied difference which lasted too long. 6 On November 26, 1833, the legislature of Tennessee took up Partridge's line of criticism and passed resolutions in favor of abolishing the academy, saying, " a few young men, β The Army and Navy Register, June 17, 1944, includes a long communication from Maj. Gen. E. A. Walsh, National Guard of Minnesota and President of the National Guard Association. General Walsh is critical of current legislation and administration which he says favors Regular or West Point officers and disregards the interests of National Guard personnel.

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some of distinguished and wealthy families, through the intervention of members of Congress, are educated at this institution at the expense of the great body of the American people." 7 Similar resolutions were passed by the legislature of Ohio on March 3, 1834, saying the academy "is partial in its operations, and wholly inconsistent with the spirit and genius of our liberal institutions." 8 A few years later another virulent attack was launched by Congressman F. 0 . J. Smith of Maine, chairman of a committee to investigate the Military Academy, who issued a report which concluded by recommending its abolition and the establishment of a school of practice in its stead.0 Every possible issue was utilized by the critics of West Point who set forth their arguments in newspapers, books, and pamphlets.10 The frequency of resignation from the Army by West Point graduates before and during the Seminole Wars, in an inflationary period when high salaries were being offered to Army officers to serve as civilian engineers, architects, surveyors, and draftsmen, was also seized upon and subjected to criticism. Congressional economy was periodically paring the size of the Army and promotion was slow, the officers' future uncertain. George Washington Cullum, who was later to become Superintendent of the Military Academy, described the difficult choice that faced him in 1836: "After a hard struggle with myself, after rending my heart strings at the idea of separation from those, next to home, I hold most dear, I have almost made up my mind to leave the service. There is at present a great demand for civil engineers throughout the country, and from the offers that have been made me I know that I could advance my pecuniary affairs much." 11 7 Roswell Park, A Sketch of the History and Topography of IF est Point (Philadelphia, 1840), p. 119. « p. Π 9 . » American State Papers, Military Affairs, V , 120; March 1, 1837. 10 See Recollections of the United States Army (Boston, 1845). This fulllength hook, which was an attack against the War Department, the officer personnel, and West Point, went through two editions. n Cullum Papers: G. W . Cullum, to A l f r e d Huidekoper, Aug. 20, 1836.

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Some men did resign in the eighteen-thirties. The critics saw an opportunity to rip into the Military Academy by characterizing resignations as an act of disloyalty. In response, Congress passed the Act of July 5, 1838, which required the cadet to remain in the service for four years after graduation. 12 This rule is still in effect. The role of West Point graduates in the series of battles known as Seminole Wars was carefully neglected by the civilian critics. In the Florida War, out of 20 officers killed in battle 13 were graduates of the Military Academy. Captain George W. Gardiner and Lieutenants William E. Basinger, Robert R. Mudge, Richard Henderson, and John L. Keais, all of the Artillery, fell together in the unfortunate battle in which Major Dade's entire command was slain, December 28, 1835. Lieutenant James F. Izard, of the Dragoons, was mortally wounded when in command of the advanced guard of General Gaines's Army, near the Withlacoochee River, February 29,1836. Lieutenant Colonel Alexander R. Thompson, Captain Joseph Van Swearingen, and Lieutenants Francis J. Brooke, and John P. Center, all of the Infantry, fell at the victorious battle of Okeechobee, December 25,1837. Lieutenant William Hulbert, Sixth Infantry, was killed by the Indians while scouting, February 28,1839. Lieutenant Walter Sherwood was killed while defending the wife of a brother officer, for whom he commanded an escort. Major David Moniac, Mounted Creek Volunteers, was killed while leading the advance at the battle of Wahoo Swamp. He was a full-blooded Indian chief, who had graduated in 1822, returned to his people, and volunteered at the beginning of the war. But the officers killed in battle were only a small portion of those who died—through sickness from exposure, fatigue, or privation—during this conflict.13 The academy naturally developed a literature of defense. 12

Laws of Congress Relative to IT est Point and the United States Military Academy, Robert H. Hall, comp., p. 28. 13 For a full account of the services of graduates of West Point see article by Major Eben Swift in Centennial, I, 536 ff.

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Reports were constantly required of the Military Academy by Congress as to the comparative economy of a West Point education and the representative and democratic nature of the Corps of Cadets.14 George Washington Cullum, who was responsible for preparing some of these reports, described his problem to his sister: "Congress having nothing important to do are amusing themselves by attacking the Military Academy again and boring us to death for information." 1B It was suggested that the evils complained of in Congress could be remedied in Congress. The Reports of the Board of Visitors were almost always favorable and were frequently cited in support of the academy. 18 Roswell Park, USMA 1831, published a eulogistic defense of the academy in a pioneer study, A Sketch of the History and Topography of West Point and the U.S. Military Academy.*7 This was followed by another, A Guide Book to West Point and Vicinity, the anonymous author taking care to present himself as "Being unconnected with the Military Academy, and having no partial interests to serve, the writer wishes to be regarded simply as a looker on in Venice." 18 Every critical argument was analyzed and countered by the academy's friends. 19 They said that the cadets were primarily soldiers and their character as students was subordinate to their military character. The law required them to enlist for a term of years; allowed them pay and rations; required them 14

The Military Affairs volumes of the State Papers are replete with such reports. ls Cullum was then (1834-36) assistant to the Chief of Engineers. Cullum papers: Cullum to Catherine Cullum, Dec. 13, 1834; Cullum to Alfred Huidekoper, Jan. 9, 1835. 16 Gen. Cullura's Biographical Register, III, 660. In 1834 a number of protests were attached to the main report of the Visitors; there were several dissenters. In 1840 two reports were presented, that of the minority being in bitter opposition to the institution. In numerous instances, however, men who came to West Point with a prepossession against it endorsed favorable reports. 18 " Philadelphia, 1840. New York, 1844, p. iv. 19 The argument in defense of the Military Academy, a summary of the contemporary literature on the subject, is taken from Hamilton Fish, Military Academy (Washington, 1844), House of Representatives, 28th Cong., 1st Sess., Rep. No. 476.

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to do military duty in such places and on such service as the President of the United States required; recognized them as part of the military peace establishment; and subjected them to the rules and articles of war. They claimed further that the spirit and policy of our government always discouraged the maintenance of a large army in time of peace. But wisdom pointed to the necessity of preparation, not the preparation of a large force constantly in arms, but the preparation of the largest amount of military science and discipline, concentrated in an army barely sufficient in numbers to garrison the coastal fortifications and the frontier. Any excess of academy graduates served just this objective by their usefulness in providing training and uniformity for the militia or in strengthening national defense by their work on internal improvements. It was urged that educating cadets at public expense was a form of economy; for, while the officer was retained in the chrysalis state of a "cadet," his pay and subsistence were about one third of what he would receive were he attached as a commissioned officer of the lowest grade. A comparison of the expense of educating a cadet at the Royal Military College at Sandhurst and the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich was largely in favor of West Point. Another focal point of criticism grew out of the system of nomination and appointment to the Military Academy. Cadets were appointed by the President upon recommendation made by the Secretary of War. During the Jacksonian period, the Secretary generally accepted the candidates for the cadetships offered by members of Congress. This practice was regularized by the act of March 1, 1843, 20 by which Congress effectively distributed among themselves the right to nominate cadets. The law made of the cadetship, according to Sylvanus Thayer, "a coveted patronage." 21 It also served another purpose in the 20

Laws of Congress Relative to West Point . . . , pp. 34-35. See Thayer's criticism of 1865, published in the Report of the Board of Visitors, 1891, p. 777. 21

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days when it was believed that the existence of the Military Academy was at stake—it softened the attacks originating in Congress. The law, which was a democratization of the academy admission requirements when it was passed, was later called by Thayer, from his retirement, a "policy of aristocratical and monarchial governments." In his critique drawn up in 1865, he called for an "open competition" for the cadetship ''without distinction of class or condition, race or color." 22 The charge of aristocracy, frequently brought up against the Military Academy, was as frequently countered at West Point by tables showing the large proportion of cadets who were orphans, or whose parents were farmers, mechanics, clergymen, Army, Navy, or Marine officers. As for the argument that officers ought to be commissioned from civil life, the academy defenders reasoned that neither law, regulation, nor practice restricted the selection of officers to graduates. Academy friends maintained that military commanders would not spring up as occasion required; intelligence and moral character were not sufficient, and that because the science of war was vastly comprehensive, it was not enough for a commander to possess dauntless bravery, ardent courage, and a patient endurance of toil. These characteristics become dangerous attributes to a commander of an army in time of war, unless chastened and directed by military skill and science. Also events of the Mexican War were to prove nonsensical the idea that the militia would not serve under graduates of West Point. The War with Mexico in 1846 came after thirty years of peace and growth at West Point. The post was then a community of about 1,000 persons. When news of the beginning of hostilities reached West Point, it transfixed the academy as it did every community in 22 Ibid., p. 778. Thayer favored the open competition of the École Polytechnique. Henry Barnard, on the basis of an independent study of the Military Academy, also favored competitive examinations for admission.

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America. Varying opinions as to the justice of the undertaking were voiced there as elsewhere ; 2 3 but the duties involved were undertaken without hesitation, and with an underlying sense of eagerness to vindicate the academy, to prove West Point training and answer West Point's critics. At the outbreak of the war with Mexico, the Military Academy had over five hundred graduates in service and nearly as many more in civil life. None were general officers. In the vast confusion of mobilization, the mustering of considerable numbers of untrained men and officers, Military Academy graduates found themselves in subordinate positions. They were required to supply the new forces with skills, organization, and discipline. The leaders of the Army—Scott, Taylor, Worth, Twiggs, Wool, Quitman, Smith, and Shields—were not West Pointers. But they found West Point men essential for almost every technical assignment; they provided "knowledge, skill, and sometimes resolution." 24 The West Point community faced all the trials of war. On September 14, 1846, Company A of the Corps of Engineers, better known by its old designation, "Sappers and Miners," left with its officers to embark for the Mexican border. 25 Many families on the post were separated and the misery of war was deeply felt. When Captain Moses E. Merrill was killed in the battle of Molino del Ray, William Whitman Bailey's father brought from Cleveland Merrill's widow and three children to share the Bailey quarters. 26 Deaths were bitterly mourned ; 2 3 See W. W. Bailey, My Boyhood at West Point (Providence, 1891), p. 10; also U. S. Grant, Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant (New York, 1885), I, S3. Grant regarded the war " a s one of the most unjust ever waged by a stronger nation against a weaker nation." 2 i Justin H. Smith, The War with Mexico (New York, 1919), II, 320. 2 5 Post Orders, III, 23-24. For a full account of this unit which returned to the West Point garrison in 1848, see Gustavus W. Smith, "Company A, Corps of Engineers, U.S.A., in the Mexican War, 1846-'48," in Historical Papers Relating to the Corps of Engineers and to Engineer Troops in the United States Army (Washington Barracks, D.C., 1904). 2 6 W. W. Bailey, op. cit., p. 7.

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victories joyously celebrated. The Corps of Cadets was urged to emulate the deeds of their predecessors : 2 7 Order # 2 0 . April 14th, 1847. The Superintendent has been directed by the Chief Engineer to announce in orders to the Corps of Cadets, the brilliant victories recently achieved by the United States forces in Mexico at Buena Vista under Major General Taylor and Vera Cruz under Major General Scott. In the promulgating these splendid achievements of our arms, the Superintendent feels that he may be permitted to recur with just pride to the glorious part borne in these victories by the élèves of the Military Academy—not only those belonging to the regular Army, but of the graduates of this institution—among whom should be mentioned Colonel Jefferson Davis of the Mississippi regiment, and Colonel William R. McKee, and Lieut. Colonel Henry Clay of the Kentucky regiment, the first of whom was severely wounded gallantly leading his command against the greatly superior numbers of the Mexicans at Buena Vista whilst the two latter gloriously met their deaths on the same field bravely urging their men to victory. Of the regular army we have lost a distinguished graduate of the Academy and most accomplished officer, in Bvt. Major John R. Vinton of the 3rd Artillery who was killed in the trenches before Vera Cruz. Whilst we mourn the loss of these our companions in arms, they serve as bright examples of our imitation, and I can perform no more fitting duty on this occasion, than to point to the gallant acts of these your predecessors at the Institution, and to ask you to emulate them in deeds of valor should Fortune ever lead you to the battle-field. The Chief Engineer also directs that a National Salute of 30 guns be fired in honor of these victories.—This will be done to-morrow at half past 4 o'clock, P. M. All other military exercises will be suspended at that time. By order of Captain Brewerton. I . S . K . REEVES

Adjt

When the war ended a great celebration took place. The old North and South Barracks were brilliantly illuminated and the word "Victory" was formed by lighted windows. It was a joyous occasion too when the Engineer troops, under LieutenPost Orders, III, 78-79.

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ant George B. McClellan, returned to West Point. Bearded and thinned, they drew up on the pathway in front of the Superintendent's quarters to be welcomed home. 28 Great was the celebration which took place when the colors taken during the Mexican War were accepted to be preserved at West Point. The whole Corps marched down to the dock to receive the trophy flags and bore them up to the Plain amidst the roar of forty Impounders which echoed and reechoed through the Highlands. 29 Of 523 graduates in service, 452 were awarded brevets for gallant and meritorious conduct in battle, 92 were wounded and 49 killed. 30 No longer would the criticism "Holiday Soldiers, fostered by an aristocratic and useless Institution" receive serious consideration in any responsible circle. The press lent its columns for paeans of praise. Even the London Times commented on the excellent contribution made by West Point officers to victory. 31 General Scott said that without the service of the Military Academy his army, multiplied by four, could not have set foot in Mexico City, and Patterson, like Scott not an academy graduate, concurred in this opinion.32 Non-graduate officers developed a respect for and a confidence in West Point training; some graduates even felt that their successes had saved the Military Academy from destruction. 33 For some years after the war there was much talk at West Point about campaign experiences, about martial deeds. 28 MS 1495, Recollections of Bailey. 29 Letter of Phil. H. Sheridan to his brother, Feb. 17, 1849. Sheridan carried a flag taken at Chapultepeck. 30 The Centennial of the United States Military Academy at West Point, Neto York. 1802-1902 (Washington, 1904), I, 586, article on "The Services of Graduates in the War of 1812 and in the Mexican War (1846-48) " by Major William Shunk. 31 Edward D. Mansfield, The Utility and Services of the United States Military Academy with Notices of Some of its Graduates Fallen in Mexico (New York, 1847), p. 47. 32 J. H. Smith, op. cit., II, 320. 33 Alexander P. Stewart, USMA 1842, felt that, "Before the Mexican War the Academy at West Point was frequently assailed, both in Congress and on the stump; and but for the glorious results of that war, it is doubtful what might have been the fate of the Academy." Quoted by Col. W. Couper, One Hundred Years at V.M.I. (Richmond, Va., 1939), I, 255.

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Public interest turned away from the Military Academy and became occupied with the newly won territory, with American expansion, and with the problems of the Caribbean and the Pacific. Interest in the opening and control of an isthmian canal grew; and in domestic affairs, the acquisition of territory was reflected in political controversy relating to the slavery problem.

THE MILITARY ACADEMY AND CIVIL ENGINEERING

Science! meet daughter of old Time thou art Who alterest all things with thy peering eyes ! Why prey1st thou thus upon the poet's heart, Vulture! whose wings are dull realities! How should he love thee—or deem thee wise Who would'st not leave him in his wandering, To seek for treasure in the jewell'd skies Albeit he soar with an undaunted wing? CADET EDGAR ALLAN POE

1

the United States Military Academy was not only a school for training officers, it was also the national school of civil engineering. In terms of the history of technical education in America, it was the only school of civil engineering until 1835 and the leading center of such instruction until the Civil War. The potential utility and adaptability of a corps of military engineers for civil works had been foreseen by Secretary of War James McHenry as early as 1800. He had realized the varied uses to which the knowledge of the military engineers BEFORE THE CIVIL WAR,

1 First si* lines of a sonnet to science by Edgar Allan Poe, published in a little volume titled Poems (New York, 1831), dedicated to the U.S. Corps of Cadets. Poe was a cadet at West Point during the second half of 1830 and the opening months of 1831.

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could be put, and observed that their capacity extended beyond facility in fortification construction and could also embrace "whatever respects public buildings, roads, bridges, canals and all such works of a civil nature." 2 The question of technical training for civil pursuits was not seriously considered at West Point until the end of the War of 1812, after the ratification of the Treaty of Ghent, when American government, commerce, agriculture, and embryo industry were confronted with the need to break down local barriers to trade. Private and national interest called for canals, roads, railroads, the mapping and improvement of rivers, and the construction of lighthouses and beacon lights. The preliminary work of exploration, prospecting, and surveying had to be performed. The application of Treasury funds for such purposes was seized upon in the political arena and bitterly opposed on constitutional grounds. However, the pressure of national development finally influenced Congress to authorize the President, April 30, 1824, "to cause the necessary surveys, plans, and estimates to be made of the routes of such roads and canals as he may deem of national importance in a commercial or military point of view, or necessary to the transportation of the public mails." 3 This enabling act expressly directed the use of military engineers and considerably relaxed the bars to government participation in internal improvements. The law of 1824 added greatly to the Army's responsibilities and transformed the mission of the Military Academy, where requirements made upon the Army and the Corps of Engineers were quickly felt. In 1822, two years before Congressional legislation authorized Federal participation in internal improvements, Colonel George Bomford, Chief of Ordnance, notified the Secretary of 2

T. L. Casey, Letter from the Chief Engineer to The Secretary of War (Washington, 1876), p. 39. This pamphlet contains a brief history of the Corps of Engineers drawn from the legislation affecting the Corps. 3 The Debates and Proceedings in the Congress of the United States, 18th Cong., 1st Sess., II, 3217.

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War, J. C. Calhoun, that he planned to apply for the assignment of a number of Military Academy graduates to be employed as topographical surveyors in the mining districts. He believed that the experience to be gained in the West would help the young officers to acquire a knowledge of geology and minerals, and stimulate new discoveries. Colonel Bomford reasoned that this knowledge would prove highly Useful to the government and would be the most economical means of procuring such services. As if to justify this employment of Army officers in non-military tasks, he reported that the Ordnance Department had been using its men in the past to survey the rich quarter sections and the mine lands in the Northwest Territory. 4 The pressing need for engineers had forced the Army to draw on comparatively young and inexperienced men. One example was Cadet Richard Delafield, USMA 1818, who received orders on April 15 to absent himself from the Military Academy for the purpose of "attending the Board of Commissioners on the Boundary line between the United States & the British Provinces until further orders." 5 He embarked on his duties as astronomical and topographical draftsman to the American Commission, organized under the Treaty of Ghent, more than two months before he was graduated and commissioned. Another was Cadet William H. Swift, USMA 1819, who was detached December, 1818, to accompany Major Long on his expedition to the Rocky Mountains. Swift did not return until February, 1821, more than a year after his class had been graduated. He was commissioned into the Army without the usual final examination by the Academic Board.6 Many other cadets and new graduates were hastily called to duty. Under the act of 1824, a Board of Engineers for Internal 4 American State Papers, Military Affairs, II, 461. Report of Lieut. Col. George Bomford, to J. C. Calhoun, November 12, 1822. The Ordnance Department was interested in the development of mining lands and particularly in the exploitation of metals essential to the Army, such as lead. » Post Orders, Vol. I, April 15, 1818. 6 Cullum's Biographical Register, I, 237.

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Improvements was established to direct the Army's participation in the expanding program in the interest of commerce and navigation.7 The Engineers' duties involved not only work on government projects, but also on private ventures in the field of railroad engineering, and the surveying and exploration preparatory to laying out railroad lines. American railroad building began in 1827 with the construction of the Baltimore & Ohio, the first important railroad undertaken in this country.8 The company asked for and received technical assistance from the government. Several Army officers were assigned to aid, and the company's report on their contribution was extremely favorable. The directors reported to the stockholders that "several able and efficient members of the Topographical Corps have been detailed in the service of the company." 9 The officers involved were Captain William Gibbs McNeill (USMA 1817), Lieutenants Joshua Barney (USMA 1820), Isaac R. Trimble (USMA 1822), Richard E. Hazzard (USMA 1824), William Cook (USMA 1822), Walter Gwynn (USMA 1822), and John N. Dillahunty (USMA 1824). Subsequently, the directors very fully acknowledged their obligation to the government and the Army "for the increasing and cordial support which the company continues to derive from the operation of that liberal and enlightened policy to which, from the commencement of their undertaking they have felt themselves so much indebted." 10 A section of this road, between Baltimore and Ellicott's Mills, was entrusted to McNeill and his Army assistants, by whom, says the report of July 7, 1828, "it has been accomplished with a degree of precision 7 T. L. Casey, op. cit., p. 19. β Edward Hungerford, The Story of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, 1827-1927 (New York, 1928). Hungerford writes that when the railroad was begun, "Recourse was had to the engineering resources of the Federal government.'' He notes, too, that, "It was quite customary . . . to call upon its [United States Military Academy] graduates for the technical skill required in the planning of large internal improvements" (p. 31). »Annual Report of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company, October 1, 1827. 10 Quoted in Cullum's Biographical Register, I, 163. Ibid.

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highly satisfactory to the Board." 11 This unusual "marriage" between government and business was a reflection of the fact that the nation had not yet developed a reservoir of technical skill to permit corporations to accomplish major projects of internal improvement without government aid, and the "issue of business versus government enterprise was posed much less sharply than in many modern controversies." 12 William G. McNeill's effective work on the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad won for him a high professional reputation and, until his resignation from the Army, November 23,1837, he directed the survey and construction of innumerable railroads. George W. Whistler, USMA 1819, another pioneer American railroad builder, concluded his career with the building of the railroad line from St. Petersburg, now Leningrad, to Moscow. Whistler is to be credited with a substantial contribution to the foundation of the Russian railroad system.13 West Point men were employed on the engineering staffs of hundreds of American railroads built before the Civil War, and they were occupied on similar projects in Canada, Mexico, Cuba, and Panama. Their work also included such widely diversified fields of engineering as river and harbor improvement, lighthouses, road surveying, railroad engineering, the construction of gaslight systems, water systems, exploration, prospecting, and a wide variety of related activities in both public and private employment. In response to the needs of the Army officer, the Department of Engineering and other academic departments at the academy allied to civil engineering enthusiastically devoted themselves "to prepare . . . for a greater sphere of usefulness," 14 11 Ibid. Carter Goodrich, "National Planning of Internal Improvements," Political Science Quarterly, LXIII (March, 1948), 44. 3 1 See Albert Parry, Whistler's Father (New York, 1939). Whistler worked in Russia from 1842 to the time of his death in 1849. His successor was another West Point graduate, Thompson S. Brown, USMA 1825. Whistler's son was the famous American artist, James A. McNeill Whistler. 14 See William H. C. Bartlett, Report on the Observatories, etc. of Europe, 1840 (West Point, 1841) ; MS. 12

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in the program of internal improvement. In this they were always supported by the academy Superintendents, who, being appointed from the Corps of Engineers, were thoroughly cognizant of the national needs.15 During Thayer's tenure, when peacetime economy reduced the openings in the Army for Military Academy graduates, he suggested to his chief, General Alexander Macomb, that if at any time some of the graduates were not needed for military service, "they might be usefully employed as Civil Engineers either in the service of the General Government or of the States." 18 The West Point engineering course may be said to have begun with Professor Claudius Crozet, who had been Assistant Professor of Engineering since October 1, 1816, and who followed Captain Partridge into the Professorship on March 16, 1817. Professor Crozet was born in France and received his education at the École Polytechnique. He introduced descriptive geometry (which had never before been taught in an American school) into the West Point curriculum as a necessary preliminary to the proper study of engineering. He not only made considerable use of the blackboard in demonstration, but also applied other teaching methods of the École Polytechnique. 17 Crozet introduced textbooks in the original French, Program £un course de construction by Sganzin, and Traité des machines by Hachette, and published his own Treatise on Descriptive Geometry "for the Use of the Cadets," the first English work of any importance on the subject.18 Because of 15 Under the organic act of March 16, 1802, the "principal engineer" or the person appointed by him was to be Superintendent. The practice continued and marked a period in the life of the Academy until July 13, 1866, when the amended law read, "That the superintendent of the United States Military Academy may hereafter be selected, and the officers on duty at that institution detailed from any arm of the services." 16 MS 369, Letter from Major Sylvanus Thayer to Major General Alexander Macomb, December 12, 1823. 17 Several American institutions claim to have been first to use the blackboard. See Leverett W. Spring, A History of Williams College (Boston, 1917), p. 133. 18 Florian Cajori, The Teaching and History of Mathematics in the United States, p. 117. The importance of mathematics at West Point may be inferred from many comments in D. E. Smith and J. Ginsburg, A History of Mathematics

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the severity of the climate, Crozet resigned on April 28, 1823, to continue his career in Virginia and at the Virginia Military Institute.10 David B. Douglass, who succeeded Crozet, extended and further improved the course in civil engineering during his incumbency from 1823 to 1831. 2 0 He was a graduate of Yale and was considered one of the most efficient among the younger instructors at the post. Douglass received constant encouragement from Sylvanus Thayer and the academy's Board of Visitors. The Board reported to the Secretary of War, June 19, 1824, that "when we consider the rising demand in our country for civil engineers, we must admit that the full endowment of this branch of study would be a great national economy." 2 1 The lack of technical skills among American artisans prompted the Board to recommend a study of stone-cutting, and even carpentry and machine-making, with provision for the necessary workshop, tools, and materials. In Congress it was proposed to send some of the cadets abroad to perfect their knowledge of civil engineering. Professor Douglass thought that the opportunity to study civil engineering in Europe ought to be extended to him and he directed a plea to General Joseph G. Swift for assistance in winning the approval of the Secretary of War for the trip. 22 in America Before 1900 (The Mathematical Association of America, 1934). One such note reads (p. 79) : "Unlike all other American colleges of the first half of the century, West Point specialized in mathematics." 1 9 Crozet exemplifies the great debt owed by the academy and America to France for her contribution to early American mathematical science, civil engineering, and military technology. European experience, and more particularly French teachers, and textbooks were much sought after by Americans who, at the same time, were fully conscious of the importance of cultivating native talent. See William Couper, Claudius Crozet (Charlottesville, Va., 1936), passim. 2 0 While holding his position as professor at West Point, Douglass served with surveys of the defenses of Long Island Sound, as astronomical surveyor with a commission to determine the Canadian boundary from Niagara to Detroit, and in the exploration of the Lake Superior region conducted in 1820 by Gen. Cass. Later he was employed as consulting engineer, or in charge of special projects, by canal and railroad corporations, as well as by the State of Pennsylvania. The Dictionary of American Biography, V, 405-6. 21 American State Papers, Military Affairs, II, 717. 2 2 MS 196: Letter from D. B. Douglass to Gen. Joseph G. Swift, Jan 31, 1825.

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Professor Douglass never achieved his purpose of a European tour, and he contented himself by dividing his time between private engineering engagements and teaching. He introduced his practical experience into his lectures, and, as the utility of his course increased, successive Boards of Visitors voiced their approbation with fulsome praise. The Board of 1830 fully accepted the idea that "a large portion of the cadets are destined to act as civil engineers." 23 To the original purpose of West Point "to furnish to the Army a supply of efficient officers; to the militia an intermixture of well-trained citizens," the Visitors added that of furnishing "to internal improvement a corps of engineers capable of giving wholesome direction to the spirit of enterprise which pervades our country. It ought to furnish science for exploring the hidden treasures of our mountains, and ameliorating the agriculture of our valley." 24 These last were not merely flamboyant expressions ; they were basic goals of the Military Academy. Professor Douglass resigned from the Army in 1831. The Board of Visitors for that year adjudged the effectiveness of the course in civil engineering at West Point and found the academy to be the only satisfactory training center for the technicians needed by the government and private business.25 Douglass's successor, Dennis Hart Mahan, USMA 1824, had the advantages of an extensive tour of professional duty in Europe. 20 Returning to the Military Academy as Acting Professor of Engineering, January 1, 1832, he added to the course in civil engineering and prepared a complete set of new textbooks. Instruction in the department under his direction included the properties, preparations, and use of materials for construction; elementary parts of buildings and the art of construction generally, including decorative architecture; the manner of laying out and constructing roads; construction of vari-·' American State Papers, Military Affairs, IV, 603. Ibid. -•· Ibid., IV, 737; Report of the Board of Visitors, June 21, 1831. -''Dictionary of American Biography, XII, 209-10; Cullum's Biographical Register, I, 319-25. R. Ernest Dupuy's Where They Have Trod, includes an excellent biographical study of Mahan.

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ous kinds of bridges; general principles which regulate the removal of obstructions that impede the navigation of rivers; survey, location, and construction of canals and railroads ; and formation of artificial and the improvement of natural harbors. The description of the course of civil engineering in the report of the Board of Visitors for 1835 significantly preceded the details of the course in military engineering. "Next in order," the Board reported, "is the course of military engineering." 27 Professor Mahan lectured from notes gathered while touring France and Italy, and from his notes and continued study, he prepared a series of lithographic texts which were published at the academy for the use of the cadets. These textbooks, used at the Military Academy and other technical schools in America for more than forty years, included A Treatise on Field Fortification, Notes on Permanent Fortification, Notes on Attack and Defense, Notes on Mines and Other Accessories, Notes on Composition of Armies and Strategy, Course of Civil Engineering, Notes on Architecture and Stone Cutting, Notes on Machines. His most important work was the Course of Civil Engineering,28 first published in 1837 and continually enlarged and improved. It found widespread use in America, was reproduced in England, was used in one of the government schools in India, and was translated in whole or part into several foreign languages. The other academic departments of the Military Academy also plunged into participation in the work of internal improvements. Professor William H. C. Bartlett, USMA 1826, head of the Department of Natural Philosophy, 1834-1871, 2 9 at his own request was assigned by the War Department to study the astronomical observatories of Europe in 1840 in order to equip American State Papers, Military Aß airs, V. 705. Dennis Hart Mahan, An Elementary Course of Civil Engineering jar the Use of the Cadets of the United States Military Academy (New York, 1837). 2 9 See W. H. C. Bartletl's MS Report on the observatories &c. of Europe, 1840. [West Point, 1841], for a complete account of his trip abroad. 27

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his department to instruct cadets to cope with the most difficult geographical problems. He spent part of a year examining the observatories and instrument makers' shops at Greenwich, Oxford, Cambridge, Dublin, Armagh, Edinburgh, Paris, Munich, and Brussels. Major Richard Delafield, then Superintendent, supported Professor Bartlett in his objective. Delafield's letter 3 0 to Colonel J. G. Totten, Chief Engineer, requesting permission for Bartlett's trip, details the academy's active interest: I enclose herewith a communication addressed to you from Professor Bartlett, expressing his desire to be authorized to proceed to Europe to prepare himself for a greater sphere of usefulness in some of the branches of Natural Philosophy now taught at this institution, than he has it in his power to do at present for the reasons stated in his letter. At the present time we are not enabled to give such instruction in the science of Astronomy, as to qualify the cadets for the higher branches of Topographical duty. The deficiency of this science, I believe is felt by the Government, whenever an important geographical fact has to be determined. Establishing Parallels of latitude, Meridians and great Trigonometrical surveys of the country, both sea coast and the interior together with other Geodesic operations, in which the practice of astronomical observations are so essential, are particulars that cannot be well taught here at the present time, are very desirable to be possessed by some Corps of the Army, and important that the nation should be able to command among its officers of the Staff Corps. So far as instructing the most proficient cadets in this science is concerned the matter may be accomplished here with comparative facility by the aid of the Department, particularly in putting it in the power of the Professor of Philosophy to visit several of the European Observatories, and collecting in person the important details and particulars connected with those establishments, their management and practical operations, as well as the best apparatus now known and constructed therefore. The academy is already possessed of several valuable astronomical instruments, that to this date have been in a great measure of little avail for want of a suitable position from which to use them with success. You may recollect that soon after being ordered to duty at this place, I designed and brought to your notice the plan of a building for 30

Letter included in Bartlett's Report.

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which appropriation had been made. Suited for the Library and Philosophical Apparatus, in which appropriate arrangements were made for such astronomical apparatus as was then in possession of the Institution and such additional instruments as would be necessary to instruct the cadets in the branches now brought to your notice. This building is progressing satisfactorily; and with the fostering aid of the Department, it may be made instrumental in securing to the nation all the advantages that Astronomical science can attain. If the first section of the class now taught Natural Philosophy be given instruction in practical as well as theoretical astronomy in a well arranged building may we not hope in the course of a few years to have inculcated such a taste for the science in the breasts of some, as to hope for not only highly valuable services to the nation, but eventually to secure to the country the distinction of men as learned in this science, as England, France, and Germany have been proud to enumerate among the ornaments and benefactors to their several countries. 31

The building referred to is the present Library building with three towers originally designed to house the astronomical instruments. The central tower was surmounted by a traveling dome, pierced by appropriate window openings and observing slits. The dome rested on six 24-pound cannon balls which turned in cast-iron grooves. An equatorial instrument and a telescope moved by clockwork were mounted in this tower. The east tower had a transit telescope and the west tower a mural circle. With these facilities, Professor Bartlett made a series of observations at West Point on the great comet of 1843 which were published in the Transactions of the American Philosophical Society. He was the first person in America to use photography in astronomical measurements. 32 Jacob Whitman Bailey, USMA 1832, Professor of the De31

Later when the West Shore Railroad tunneled under the Plain, vibration made the instruments useless and a new observatory building was constructed. The instruments have since been sold and the observatory building is no longer used for its original purpose. For a brief account of the West Point Observatory, see Elias Loomis "Astronomical Observatories in the United States" in Harper's New Monthly Magazine, XIII (1856), 25-52. The Library has Delafield's original plans for the building. 82 Edward S. Holden, Biographical Memoirs of William H. C. Bartlett, 18041893 (Washington, D.C., 1911), p. 181.

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partaient of Chemistry, Mineralogy, and Geology, 1838-1857, made his contribution by inventing many improvements of the microscope and distinguished himself in the examination of infusoria, algae, and other products of the deep-sea soundings of the Coast Survey, U.S. Exploring Expeditions, and the Atlantic Telegraph Plateau. Much of this work was done while Bailey was at West Point. He spent his time in the chemical laboratory, and published more than fifty scientific studies.33 The accent on civil engineering for Army officers changed the curriculum for the cadets and affected their perspectives as to careers after graduation. Parents encouraged their sons at West Point to qualify as engineers,34 and some of the cadets came to the academy solely for that purpose. 35 They were aware of the lucrative inducements offered in that profession —graduates were being paid from $5,000 to $16,000 per year. The cadets also sought extracurricular opportunities to extend their knowledge. On May 16, 1829, a group of twenty-four cadets formed a society called the American Association for the Promotion of Science, Literature, and the Arts. Soon after the election of a corresponding committee at West Point, Associate Societies were organized at Union College, University of Nashville, Tennessee, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, and many other places. The society founded at West Point was a direct forerunner of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.38 The Class of 1832 formed themselves into a society for the purpose of improving their knowledge of civil engineering. They held meetings every other Saturday evening to read essays on the subject and enjoyed the privilege of going to the Library two hours each day.37 In preparation 33

Cullum's Register, I, 501. MS 19, Letter from William Dutton, USMA 1846, to his cousin, Lucy J. Mathews, March 30, 1846. « MS 512, A. W. Hardie to G. Kemble, Feb. 6,1838; and MS 1487, J. F. Gilmer to A. L. Alexander, Sept. 5, 1850. 36 For a full account of these societies see S. Forman, "West Point and the AAAS," Science, CIV (July 19, 1946), 47-48. " Letter from Jacob W. Bailey to his brother, William M. Bailey, Sept. 25, 1831. 31

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for examinations, the cadets concentrated on civil engineering as the most important subject in the course. The stimulating environment of participation in national development encouraged the cadets in their studies and favorably affected discipline and morale. A British officer who toured West Point in 1854 noticed that "As a body, the American cadets are steady and orderly; for, as one said, 'We must get up early, for we have a large territory; we have to cut down the forests, dig canals, and make railroads all over the country.' " 38 Of course there were exceptions to this mania for engineering; not all of the cadets absorbed the course of mathematical sciences with equal receptivity. Professor Church was disconcerted when a cadet wittily told him "that the reason for + becoming — in passing through zero was that the cross piece got knocked off in passing through." 39 The course provoked another cadet, James J. Ewing, to the exasperated blasphemy which he inscribed on the fly-leaf of his calculus book : "God damn all mathematics to the lowest depths of hell!! May it be made capable of bodily suffering, and undergo such torments that the veriest fiend in hell shall shrink in horror at the sight." The burden of the course was too heavy for James McNeill Whistler. In later years the artist, best known in America for his portrait of his mother, explained that, "Had silicon been a gas, I would have been a major general." 40 Edgar Allan Poe, ex-cadet, Class of 1834, chided "Science" which preyed upon the poet's heart like a vulture. It must be said that he was doing satisfactorily in his academic work and may have enjoyed his brief military career, but was preyed upon by personal and home problems. 41 88 Sir J. E. Alexander, "United States Military Academy, West Point," United Service Magazine and Naval and Military Journal, 1854, Part III (London), 39 p. 14. Florian Cajori, op. cit., p. 124. « E. R. and J. Pennell, The Life of James McNeill Whistler (London, 1908), I, p. 33. « Hervey Allen, Israfel, The Life and Times of Poe (New York, 1927).

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Not ail of the aspiring graduates planned to become professional engineers. John M. Schofield came to the academy in 1849 because he thought that the West Point course would be an excellent preliminary education for a lawyer. He remained in the service long enough to become a Lieutenant General and to entitle his autobiography, Forty-Six Years in the Army.*2 U. S. Grant was determined to get through the course because he wished to secure a position as professor of mathematics in some respectable college. He blamed "circumstances" for his failure to achieve that goal. 43 It must have been circumstances which decided Dennis Hart Mahan's career. Mahan came to West Point to study drawing, but he remained in the Army after graduation to serve as Professor of Engineering for forty-one years, 1830—1871.44 It was a complex of circumstances which determined the Military Academy graduate's career and at the same time determined the character of the Military Academy. Economic advantage was a decisive factor for some men, the pressure of the times for others. For most graduates, and for the Military Academy, work and achievement were in response to the call of duty. Successive national administrations simply called upon the men and the institution they could command to solve the problem at hand, men and an institution whose training and skills were applicable and adaptable to "the age of improvement." An analysis of several thousand biographical sketches in Cullum's Biographical Register reveals that of the Military Academy graduates from 1802 to 1820, 19 percent (50 out of 261) worked as civil engineers; from 1821 to 1830, 27 percent (99 of 367); from 1831 to 1840, 26 percent (111 of 430) ; from 1841 to 1850, 24 percent (80 of 335) ; from 1851 to 1860, 16 percent (62 of 394) ; from 1861 to 1870, 17 per42

John McA. Schofield, Forty-Six Years in the Army (New York, 1897). U. S. Grant, Personal Memoirs, I, 39. 44 Third Annual Reunion of the Association of Graduates (New York, 1872), p. 18. 43

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cent (83 of 4 8 2 ) . For later decades, the proportion of civil engineers dropped to 5 percent and less. 45 Francis Wayland, President of Brown University, and a student of American higher education in the days when the Military Academy was so largely concerned with civil engineering, recognized West Point's role in technical education and reported in 1850 that of the 120-odd colleges in the United States, the academy did more "to build up the system of internal improvements in the United States than all the colleges combined." 46 The academy's influence was felt not only in the sphere of internal improvement but also in the classrooms of the American institutions concerned with technical education. The Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute was founded at Troy, New York in 1824. Lectures in civil engineering began a few years later and the first class of civil engineers, four men, graduated in 1835. 47 Many of Rensselaer's textbooks originated at West Point and it is a matter of interest that Amos Eaton, Rensselaer's first teacher, lectured at West Point in 1822. The Lawrence Scientific School was established at Harvard and the Sheffield Scientific School at Yale, both in 1847. Henry L. Eustis, USMA 1842, opened the engineering department at Harvard in 1849; William A. Norton, USMA 1831, filled the first chair in civil engineering established at Yale in 1852 and held that position for thirty-one years. These three were the 4 5 Richard S. Kirby and Philip G. Laurson, The Early Years of Modern Civil Engineering (New Haven, 1932 ). This study served as a guide to the definition of civil engineering. In it the authors included, rather broadly, surveying, canals, roads and pavements, railroads, bridges, tunnels and subways, waterworks and water power, sewers, river and harbor improvement and materials. Those graduates who were engaged in military construction, or who were occupied in the academic field as teachers of engineering or writers of civil engineering texts were not classified as civil engineers. Practical application of the principles of civil engineering was the criterion. 4 0 Francis Wayland, Report to the Corporation of Brown University on Changes in the System of Collegiate Education (Providence, 1850), p. 18. 47 Palmer G. Ricketts, History of the Rensselaer's Polytechnic Institute (New York, 1895), p. 79.

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major civilian engineering schools in the United States prior to the Civil War. 48 By 1870 there were nineteen technical schools, of which at least ten had direct West Point pedagogical affiliation. For example, the Columbia University School of Mines called upon the distinguished West Point graduates Professors Francis L. Vinton, William G. Peck, and later Pettit W. Trowbridge to give it "a thorough mathematical foundation for engineering studies characteristic of West Point." 49 Before the close of the century more than forty-five schools were giving degrees in engineering, and their ever-increasing number of graduates, well-endowed laboratories and advanced courses determined the passing of a phase in the Military Academy's history. 48

The Naval Academy was founded in 1845 but it had a highly specialized objective. 48 Brander Matthews, et al., A History of Columbia University, 1754-1904 (New York, 1904), p. 356.

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Come, fill your glasses, fellows, and stand up in a row To singing sentimentally, we're going for to go; In the Army there's sobriety, promotion's very slow, So we'll sing our reminiscences of Benny Havens, oh! Oh, Benny Havens, oh! Oh! Benny Havens, oh! So we'll sing our reminiscences of Benny Havens, oh!1

the particular demands of the military profession, and the geographical environment of the academy at West Point marked the details of cadet life before the Civil War. The four-year course, interrupted only by a summer furlough after the second academic year, arranged the cadets in four classes and enforced a rigid pattern. During the months of July and August, when the cadets were encamped in tents on the Plain, instruction was purely military. The remaining ten months of the year were devoted to academic exercises. The writings of the cadets, which follow, almost all dated prior to the War with Mexico, present the story of their training MILITARY TRADITION,

1 Sung to the tune of "Wearing of the Green." This is the first stanza of an almost endless Army song attributed to Dr. Lucius O'Brien who wrote it while visiting Cadet Ripley A. Arnold at West Point in 1838. "Benny Havens, Oh!" records the fame of Benjamin Havens, a seller of contraband liquor and viands to cadets at West Point. His establishment there and at Buttermilk Falls, now Highland Falls, was well known to succeeding classes of cadets from 1816 to 1859 when he closed his business.

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at West Point.2 They reveal the life of cadet contemporaries of Grant, Lee, Jackson and Sherman at the United States Military Academy. CANDIDATE

Ματsena R. Patrick, USMA 1835, to Mr. Oliver Baker, July 9, 1831: On arriving at the Steam boat wharf, here the Officer in Charge, supposing from my "Look" that I might be from 35 to 40 years of age, neglected to ask my name, and whether I was a Candidate for admission, as was his duty. This however, was of very essential advantage; as, in case he had discharged his duty, faithfully, I should have been conducted to Quarters, straightway, and not permitted to make observations or inquiries. Abner R. Hetzel, USMA 1827, to his father, John Hetzel, June 28, 1823: The Point & Country adjoining it far exceeds the most Sanguine expectations I had formed of it. I had anticipated entering a wilderness where there was nothing to gratify the optical sense but a few old Buildings used as habitations for the Cadets, but instead of that I find 7 or 8 large brick buildings occupied by professors & officers. Two very large Stone Buildings 2 Story High, one used as the Hotel & messhall for the Cadets, the other as a Library, Chapel & Examination Hall, & two very large Stone buildings one 3 & the other 4 Story High, used as barracks for the Cadets. There being but two, sometimes, three in a Room, at the most, & well calculated for Study. There are also a great many buildings of Inferior note, 2 Stores—Wash women, Suttlers, Doctors, Shoemaker, Taylors, Barbers, Shoe Blacks & a large framed building for the Musicians & Regular Soldiers. Abner R. Hetzel, USMA 1827, to his father, John Hetzel, June 17,1823: The first day after my arrival I was taken out 2

The extracts quoted are largely representative of the unpublished collection at West Point. Some of these extracts were published by the writer in a limited edition under the title, Cadet Life before the Mexican War (West Point, 1945).

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to drill & sure you never saw a more awkward creature in your life than I was or appeared to be. Indeed every new Cadet appeared to have gyves on. To display the Chest, draw in the Corporation, draw the Chin in perpendicular to the Chest, hold the hands down so as to touch the seam of the Pantaloons, & take care dont bend the elbows, keep the Shoulders drawn back & always be sure to keep the feet in an angle of 4 5 ° etc., etc. Indeed I had so many things to learn that I almost despaired of ever being a Soldier. . . . Abner R. Hetzel, USMA 1827, to his father, John Hetzel, June 28, 1823: I was examined for admission into the Institution last Saturday in Co. with nearly 100 others. We remained Ignorant of the Result of the Examination until the next day morning, when we were order'd to drill before the Barracks. The Captain called all those who had been admitted by name & order'd them to Step three paces in front. Among the rest my name was called. The rejected amounting to 12 or 15 remained in the Rear rank, 4 out of 9 were rejected that came up with me on the Steam Boat, one of whom came from Louisiana, a distance of 2 3 0 0 miles. We then received our Knapsacks, pack'd up our clothing & marched into Camp. ENCAMPMENT

Marsena R. Patrick, USMA 1835, to Mr. Oliver Baker, July 9,1831: After our Examination, we (that is the 4th Class "Plebs," as we were termed) were marched into camp from our Quarters. Here, we shall be kept until the First of September, Studying Tacticks of all kinds, Infantry, heavy and light, Rifle, Artillery, etc., etc., etc. Jacob Whitman Bailey, USMA 1832, to his mother, Mrs. Jane Keely, June 27,1829: The place where we are encamped is near Koziusko's monument. The camp is named in honour of our last Commandant "Camp Worth." We live 4 in a tent and are allowed for the furniture of the tent, 1 pail, 1 wash bowl, 1 broom, 1 candle box, and candle stick, 1 looking glass,

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for each occupant, 1 Chair, 2 blankets, 1 Canvass bed cover, 4 Shirts, 2 pair shoes, 4 pair socks, 1 bandbox, etc. There has been a great improvement made this year, viz the introduction of board floors to the tents, which keep us perfectly guarded from the dampness of the ground. John Pope, USMA 1842 to his mother, Mrs. Lucretia Pope, July 7,1838:1 was obliged to stand Guard 4 hours in the Day & 4 hours in the night. I tell you about 3 O'clock at night walking Post both Cold & Dark and raining I thought of my Dear Mother & home & wished that I were with them but as the old saying is, Whatever is, is right, and with that I console myself, although it is but poor consolation. James W. Burbridge, USMA ex-1831, to a friend, June 10,1827: We have the best band of musick in the United States which keeps a fellows spirits up. William Dutton, USMA 1846, to his uncle, John W. Mathews, July 31, 1842: You may think I do not like it here —if so you are mistaken— However I would like to see Mecklenburg—& a field of corn—or wheat or some such thing & would above all things like to get into Aunt Dorcas's cupboard a moment. John Pope, USMA 1838, to his mother, Mrs. Lucretia Pope, July 7,1842: The skin is coming off my face up to my nose on account of standing Guard yesterday for four hours during the most intense heat and we are obliged to wear those tall bell crowned leather Caps which with the brass trimmings weigh about 5 Pounds and hurt my head extremely and the rim also coming just to the nose. William Davidson Frazer, USMA 1834, to the Rev. James P. Wilson, December 1,1852: When at first us new Cadets stood post the old cadets used to come round at nights and try to fool us in trying to cross our post, and to frighten us at night, but some of our fellows run at some of them and came very near running some through, Immediately after guard mounting we had Artillery drill, we had six large brass field pieces, at first

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it used to almost deafen me, it would have astonished you I think to see little boys not 5 feet high touching off a large cannon, and performing all the different duties necessary to man a piece. William Dutton, USMA 1846, to his cousin, Lucy J. Mathews, February 18, 1843: Many a time I have seen the "Guard turned out" & some man being missed—find him, snoring on the ground without a blanket just like a hog— I never had sweeter sleep than I have had—in that way— But our duties are so arduous together with walking one hour in 3 for the 24—that exhaustion is the result— All I want of those Editors who say—that "that lily fingered cadets, lounge on their velvet lawns—attend their brilliant balls & take pay for it" as I saw in a paper yesterday—is that they may go through but one "plebe" encampment. George W. Cullum, USMA 1833, to Alfred Huidekoper, June 21,1832:1 wish you could be here one night when I am on guard to visit with me some of those raw plebes on post. I can assure you I have some rare sport with them. Sometimes we get into Fort Clinton which is close by the line of posts, and flash powder at them or wrap ourselves in sheets and then run across their posts on our hands and feet muttering some undiscovered language, which they, poor simpletons, take to be ghosts or the devil himself. To their challenges of "Who comes there" we always answer something outlandish such as a "Steamboat and file of men," "Thunder and Lightning with an escort of two plebes," "The devil's chariot drawn by four mud-turtles" or something of the kind.—An old cadet the other night put on his accoutrements, placed himself on the post of one of the plebes as soon as his back was turned and immediately commenced challenging the plebe ordering him to advance and give the countersign, knowing which he visited the other posts and played them a variety of tricks. George W. Cullum, USMA 1833, to Alfred Huidekoper, July 30,1832: We are now instructing the Plebs in firing can-

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non which affords us no small quantity of amusement. Never being accustomed to hear so many pieces discharged at once so near them they make as much fuss as though they had an arm or two shot off. Some get so frightened that it is almost impossible to get them again to their duty before ten minutes— As soon as the Artillery Drill is over we attend the Laboratory where we are instructed in making all sorts of things for doing mischief such as Cartridges, fire balls, Congreve Rocketts, etc., etc. William Dutton, USMA 1846, to his uncle, J. W. Mathews, July 12, 1842: Since we pitched our tents the Point has been thronged with visitors of every rank and description from "Boz" 3 who was here sometime since. George W. Cullum, USMA 1833, to Alfred Huidekoper, July 30, 1832: It is rather a dry business dancing without ladies, however we cannot complain for the want of them in the evening. The Cholera in New York has driven legions of girls here who generally, if they are not true orthodox or cripples, attend our cotillion parties very willingly. Jacob W. Bailey, USMA 1832, to his brother, William M. Bailey, August 21,1829: We shall go into Barracks next week, the day before we move we are to have a Grand Fancy Ball, all Cadets who will wear fancy dresses will be allowed to attend, the others will see the fun. The objections which exist against Fancy Balls in cities, do not exist here. In the city any ragamuffin can obtain admittance, here all the actors are Cadets. It really seems like "old times" to get into a room with men, women, girls and boys, dressed as they used to when we were in the World. BARRACKS

William Dutton, USMA 1846, to his cousin, Miss Lucy J. Mathews, February 18, 1843: I believe I have never given 3 A pseudonym assumed by Charles Dickens in his Sketches by Boz first published as a collection in 1836.

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you a description of our room—etc. If not it may not be uninteresting to give you an "Order" posted on eyery door— "Bedstead—against door—Trunks—under iron bedsteads— Lamps—clean on mantel—Dress Caps—Neatly arranged behind door—Looking Glass—between washstand & door— Books—neatly arranged on shelf farthest from door—Broom —Hanging behind door—Drawing books—under shelf farthest from door—Muskets—in gun rack and locks sprung— Bayonets in scabbards—Accoutrements—Hanging over muskets—Sabres—Cutlasses & swords—hanging over muskets— Candle Box—for scrubbing utensils—Against wall under shelf nearest door, & fire place—clothes—neatly hung on pegs over —bedsteads—Mattress & Blankets neatly folded—Orderly Board—over mantel—chairs—when not used under tables— Orderlies of rooms are held responsible for the observance of the above mentioned arrangement. By order of Lieut. E. J. Steptoe—1st Lieut. 1st Art. & commd't A compy. William, Dutton, USMA 1846, to his brother, C. Dutton, June 19, 1842: We have five in our room, which you know is but about 10 by 12. At 5 A. M. which is % an hour after the morning gun, the drums are beat by the barracks, & the cry grows—"fall in there," when we all have to be in the ranks or be reported. The roll is then called, we go to our rooms & have 15 minutes to roll up our blankets put them up, wash, clean the room etc., when every thing must be in order. We have no mattresses & only 2 blankets to lay on the floor and cover ourselves with, & when we all five spread ourselves out we just cover the floor—(In camp, we have no more.) We then remain in our rooms until the drums beat for breakfast, again if missing we are reported. We then march to the mess hall, & if one speaks, raises his hand, looks to the right or left (which is the case on all parade) we are reported indeed we are reported for everything. I have been so fortunate as to escape as yet. When we arrive at the tables, the command is given "take seats," & then such a scrambling you never saw.

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For breakfast we have the remains of the meat of the former days dinner, cut up with potato with considerable gravy— & not more than two thirds of them get a bit.—bread cut in chunks, butter and coffee. We have to eat as fast as we can, & before we get enough, the command is given "Squad rise," at dinner we have "Roast Beef," & boiled potato, & bread— no butter, At Tea, bread & butter & tea. We have to drill twice a day, & a good many faint away. It is terrible, but I like the whole of it, after we have marched from tea, we stay in our room till V2 hour past 9 when we can go to bed if we choose, & at taps at 10 every light must be out & after that the inspector happens in all times of night. MS Journal of Samuel Peter Heintzelman, USMA, February 18,1825: Last evening I fixed up a blanket so that I might keep a light after taps. George W. Cullum, USMA 1833, to Alfred Huidekoper, September 9, 1830: Fortunately I live with a Cadet Professor who is entitled to a light after taps (10 O'clock) by which I am very glad to profit until about 12, as it requires all of that time for me to get my lessons. William Dutton, USMA 1846, to his brother, C. Dutton, June 19, 1842: There are about a dozen or 15 of splendid talent who have been ábout through the course, a graduate of Yale, & if I take a place near the head it must be by tremendous exertion. James W. Shureman, USMA 1842, to his sister, October 14, 1840 (in the Library of Congress): We have had some most beautiful experiments. I took an electric shock a few days ago which nearly shook me to pieces. The electric machine which we use is about six feet long and about four wide and is perhaps about as good an one as any in the United States. The instrument by which the shocks are given consists of a small glass jar not more than 8 or 10 inches high lined on the inside and outside with tin foil, and a few other arrangements are made which you could not understand as you have never

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studied electricity. This jar is charged by means of the electric machine and is then in a condition to give a shock. A few of the jars placed together and connected with one another constitute what is called an electric Battery. W e have experiments now in the different kinds of gases which are very interesting. George W. Cullum, USMA 1833, to his sister, Miss Catherine Cullum, A pril 24,1831 : Monday morning April 25th.— I have just returned from a hard morning's work, of surveying. I have been taking a plan of the point, for the sake of a little practice and still more for some fresh air. It is delightful working on the field instead of on the blackboard, particularly as we sometimes have a peep at some of the fair sex, when taking the positions of their dwellings. MS Journal of Samuel Peter Heintzelman, Ό SM A 1826, April 27, 1825: The whole Corps supped on bread and milk to-day.4 George W. Cullum, USMA 1833, to his sister, Miss Catherine Cullum, April 11, 1830: Mrs. Alden would like that I should come to board with them at the same price that I get boarding at the Mess Hall which is $10. pr month. I think I shall accept the proposal when the plain becomes a little free'd of mud. William Dutton, USMA 1846, to his cousin, Miss Lucy /. Mathews, March 11, 1843: It is truly a lovely day & as our arms glittered in the sun at morning inspection I could not help contrasting in my mind the difference between a Sunday morning at home and here. There all is peace and quiet. Here accoutrements must be in their best order, & then SÁ of an hour spent in evolutions. But then from Inspection till the Church Drum, one can call home his thoughts or let them rove on home if he chooses without interruption, as there's no visiting on the sabbath. 4 Complaint against the quality and quantity of food was recurrent. Board wa9 provided by a caterer; the names of Partridge and Cozzens have become legends. A t this period, with permission, a f e w of the cadets ate at various private homes. Mrs. Thompson's became well known.

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George W. Cullum, USMA 1833, to Alfred Huidekoper, November 22, 1829: I have just got back from church, after hearing rather a dry sermon. Going to church is very different from what it used to be at good old Meadville. If I had not there the pleasure of hearing a good sermon, I had at least the pleasure of seeing all my young friends, particularly my female acquaintances; but when I go to church here, I am obliged to sit for two hours on a bench without a back, squeesed up among a parcel of Cadets, and squeesed up more with my belts, as we have all to wear our side arms to church. William D. Frazer, USMA 1834, to his brother Reah Frazer, April 24, 1833: We have finished our course for this year and are now reviewing, we went as far as Spherical Projections in Descriptive Geometry, it is a study which is studied no other place but here, the object is to represent all Geometrical Problems on planes, the objects are given in space, we have to find the Projections of them on planes. I drew yesterday the intersections of two cylinders. I will send them to you just to show you what it is like, may be Mr. Findley can explain it to you. Jacob W. Bailey, USMA 1832, to his brother, William M. Bailey, August 21, 1829: I hardly know which to prefer, Encampment or Barracks, there is one thing however about the former which suits me very much, viz, the privilege of walking on Public Ground on Saturday afternoons. I make the same use of Saturdays that I used of Sundays at home. Rain or shine I start upon a ramble, There is scarcely a place near the Point which I have not visited, from the highest point of the Crows Nest, to the muddiest marsh on the shores of the Hudson, I have been three times upon the Crows Nest, and intend to go again next Saturday, if I am not on Guard. James W. Schureman, USMA 1842, to his sister Mary, February 14, 1840 (in the Library of Congress) : Every moment is nearer than the preceding to that happy time known as furlough time, it is a period ever welcome to a cadet, its

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joys constitute his dreams by night, his thoughts by day. It is the climax of his wishes and the boundary of his imagination, it is a period calculated to awaken the strongest idea of human happiness, it is liberty sweetened by confinement, and ease enhanced by previous labours. Long and ardently have I wished for that happy moment to arrive when I can say farewell 0 West Point with all thy grandeur and thy halls of science and to say mind rest for a season from thy laborious occupation, home and friends are far more endearing than you all. EXAMINATION

George W. Cullurn, USMA 1833, to Alfred Huidekoper, January 21 [ i # 3 2 ] : Attendant upon a West Point Inquisition. In preparing for this last, I believe for two weeks previous, that I scarcely lifted my eyes from my book except to eat and sleep my six hours, and even then after such close application I shuddered to obey the call of "turn out first section second class." This however was not the trying time, although my heart palpitated strong enough to have shaken the Alleghenies had they been placed upon it. William Dutton, USMA 1846, to his cousin, Miss Lucy J. Mathews, June 22, 1843: The long agony is at length over, & it may well be called "The agony" : for I have never seen more anguish depicted in the countenances of any than the U.S. Corps of Cadets have manifested. William Dutton, USMA 1846, to his brother, C. Dutton, June 19, 1842: The closing up of the Examination was signalized by a display of fire works etc. In the PM. horses were attached to all the cannon on both sides of the plain & the way the cannon balls & bombs flew about was like hail. It seemed as if the earth would open, & the echoing from hill to hill produced an effect. Astonishing. In the evening they sent up rockets from every quarter & the air was full of them, while every now and then large fire bombs were fired from the mor-

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tars shaking the earth, & lighting the vale as far up as Newburg & when several hundred feet from the ground would burst & those fragments would again burst with a noise. They then placed candles around a hollow square and danced. R E C R E A T I O N

James W. Schureman, USMA 1842, to his sister, January 24, 1841 (in the Library of Congress) : But nevertheless we do once in a while have something to break this monotony. On Saturday we have the sweet sound of music from our well organized band headed by Mr. Kendall a brother of the celebrated bugler, and how sweet after poring for a week over a dry mechanics or optics does it fall upon the ear. Jerome N. Bonaparte, Jr., USMA 1852, to his parents, February 3, 1850 (Maryland Hist. Soc.) : The concert last night was delightful—it consisted almost entirely of stringed instruments, and Appelles played one or two solos on the violin beautifully. The Cadets behaved better than usual, although they talked pretty loudly during the solos. MS Journal of Samuel P. Heintzelman, USMA 1826, October 24, 1825: They mounted an 18 & a 24 pounder to assist in the celebration of the Completion of the Grand Canal. 5 One is placed on the east bank & the other on the north. MS Journal of Samuel P. Heintzelman, USMA 1826, February 15,1825: Last night at Taps I went down to Havens to get a supper, there were six of us, two went down before tatoo to engage the supper, it was very dark and muddy we had a pretty good supper we started to return at one o'clock. MS Journal of Samuel P. Heintzelman, USMA 1826, November 10, 1825: Three Cadets arrested for going to Havens after Taps. MS Journal of Samuel P. Heintzelman, USMA 1826, February 5, 1825: Temp. 4% below zero Went skating . . . 5 West Point participated in the celebration of the opening of the Erie Canal. The professors went to New York City for the ceremonies.

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I broke in several times, once up to my middle there were over a dozen broke in. It was on the flats where the water is not deep. I played chess this evening the first time for a long time and beat a man six or seven times in succession. MS Journal of Samuel P. Heintzelman, USMA 1826, July 29, 1825: A bear and three cubs were seen in the mountains and about a half dozen cadets took their muskets and went after them but did not see them. Jacob W. Bailey, USMA 1832, to his brother, William C. Bailey, September 27, 1831: I went on a mineralogical excursion last Saturday, I went to the ruins of Fort Montgomery which are about 6 miles below West Point and directly opposite Anthonys nose. This fort was taken by storm by the British during the Revolution, but was of no use to them as they could not get West Point. I did not think it so interesting a place as Fort Putnam is. It is merely a fort built of earth and is now entirely overgrown with trees of considerable size. I found several interesting minerals. I never saw grapes in such abundance as I found them Saturday. When I was returning I picked some branches which were so loaded with clusters of grapes, that I could not carry them 5 minutes in one hand with out being obliged to change hands from the fatigue. I think I shall go next Saturday to Cotton Rock on the opposite side of the river. This (is) a rock which contains considerable quantities of Asbestos which has caused the country people to give it its name. MS Journal of Samuel P. Heintzelman, USMA 1826, November 5, 1825: The Cadets played Foot-Ball to day. Jacob W. Bailey, USMA 1832, to his brother, William M. Bailey, April [25], 1832: I went up to Crow's nest last Saturday and found a party of 10 or a dozen Cadets already on the top. When they started to come down, I appointed myself pilot and for my own amusement led them home by one of the most frightful ways which I knew, there is in reality not much danger in the path I chose, but it would make one not

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used to climbing feel somewhat queer. I pretended to lose my way and led them to the brink of a precipice some hundred feet high. MS Journal of Samuel P. Heintzelman, USMA 1826, May 7,1825: Our barber has finished the addition to his shop, he has his soda fountain playing. MS Journal of Samuel P. Heintzelman, USMA 1826, December 3, 1825: This evening I attended a meeting of the Lyceum of which I had been elected a member. Jacob W. Bailey,e USMA 1832, to his brother, William M. Bailey, March 11, 1844: We have had some fun here last week in a course of lectures by a Prof Grimes on Animal Magnetism and Phrenology I was delighted to witness such a transparent piece of humbuggery, for I expected to be perhaps puzzled to account for the results, but to convince one that miracles are performed I must see something that I can only account for by a miracle. The most that this fellow could do, was to get a man who was unknown to any of the audience into a state in which he would do what Grimes told him to do, Oh wonderful—The magic of money would easily effect this— Grimes told some good stories, and we got our moneys worth of laughter, to say nothing of being confirmed in ones previous opinions concerning Animal Magnetism and Phrenology. George W. Cullum, USMA 1833, to his sister, Miss Catherine Cullum, February 11, 1833: I believe I never told you that our class was called the Carroll class. Every Saturday evening we have a meeting for the purpose of literary improvement as our course of education here is almost purely scientific, which does not fit one very well to palaver in the world. We have regular debates and recitations. Many voluntary compositions are made by a reader selected by the society. The pieces are handed to him so that nobody but him knows the authors. You would be surprised to hear so many stories, essays etc., etc., serious and comic written in one week be8

Bailey wae then Professor of Chemistry, Mineralogy, and Geology.

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sides attending to our other studies. There are scarcely ever less than ten or twelve good compositions. Our debates are very interesting and instructing: perhaps you would not judge so from the one I have just been on. That was chosen as a kind of relief as we had had a very long run of serious ones before. In addition to this we have another society, called the United Carroll Club : its object is to keep up the present generous and noble feeling, which characterizes our class, by having a grand meeting of the whole class once in four years in Baltimore, on the anniversary of our graduating day.7 MS Journal of Samuel P. Heintzelman, USMA 1826, February 22, 1825: To day it was proposed by the Corps to illuminate, we obtained permission from the Superintendent to do it. We prepared a transparency with the name of Washington. At 9 o'clock the signal was given to light candles, in the South Barrack we closed the window shutters and lighted the candles before the time, so that at the instant that signal was given we threw open the window shutters. MS Journal of Samuel P. Heintzelman, USMA 1826, July 4, 1825: At 11 o'clock we marched to the chapel where the Declaration of Independence was read by Cadet Allen, and an oration delivered by Cadet Henderson (Β. N.) it was a very eloquent one, at 3 o'clock we marched to the mess-hall to an excellent dinner served up by Mr. Cozzens, many patriotic toasts were drunk & many would have been drunk but the new-cadets became very noisy so that we retired (at half past 5 o'clock) much sooner than is usual on such occasions & before all the toasts were drunk (if I can obtain them I will record them) some few got tipsy.8 7 See United Carroll Club: Constitution and Bylaws, 1833. MS. This volume was owned by Francis Henney Smith, U S M A 1833, Virginia, later Superintendent of V.M.I., and includes a number of poems written that year by cadets. Many classes took or received names. T h e Class of 1833 was designated " T h e Carrolls" in honor of Charles Carroll, then the sole surviving signer of the Declaration of Independence. 8 " T h e celebrations of the 4th of July by a Public dinner, with wine having been sometimes permitted, and having nearly as often, led to much inebriety and

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William D. Frazer, USMA 1834, to his brother, Reah Frazer, July 9, 1833: We had splendid celebration here on the 4th. Just as the sun began to peep over the mountain we fired a salute of 13 guns from the Cadets battery, at eleven oclock the procession began, it was in the following order, 1st colours and escort, 2d cadets of the 4th class 3d Cadets of the 3d class, 4th cadets of the 2d and 1st class, 5th invited guests, 6th citizens. We marched to the chapel where a very fine address was delivered by Cadet Pope of Kentucky. In the afternoon at 4 oclock we had a splendid dinner, all the Officers were there and also General Scott, there was a great many elegant toasts drank, among them the following struck me the most. Poland the land where justice sleeps and liberty lies bleeding. The spirit of 76, 9 cheers, tune Yankee doodle. The Union esto perpetua, tune a hymn. We had claret and champagne but not a drop of it touched my lips, and may God grant that it never will. Pledge signed by 49 Cadets, dated February, 1824: We the undersigned conscious of the alarming degree to which the drinking of spiritous liquor has been carried in the Corps, and knowing full well that if continued it must prove the destruction of the most valuable Institution, do set our countenances against it, and do pledge our word and honor that we will not in any wise use Wine or Spiritous liquor so long as we remain members of the Institution except when sanctioned by the Superintendent.9 disorder among Cadets, it was, with their cheerful acquiescence, omitted in 1838, and may now be considered as permanently discontinued at the Military Academy." Excerpt from Opinion of a Court of Inquiry, General Winfield Scott, President, July 6, 1840, in Engineer Department Orders, February 1838 to April 1842, p. 64. Whiskey was a regular part of Army rations until November 2, 1832. During the same years Harvard celebrated her Class Days with drunken orgies. See S. E. Morison, Three Centuries of Harvard, p. 250. 9 The custom of an entire class taking a pledge to refrain from committing some act of delinquency in order to save guilty classmates from dismissal lasted for about a hundred years. Other schools followed the same procedure.

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William Dutton, USMA 1846, to his cousin, Miss Lucy J. Mathews, March 29, 1846: You may remember what I wrote you some-time since, respecting the effort of Mr. Parks to make a Choir of the Corps—it has been perfectly successful—and we have met every Sunday morning and evening since I wrote you about it— The families of many of the Profs, attend and this evening it was so glorious ! FIRST

CLASSMAN

George W. Cullum, USMA 1833, to Alfred Huidekoper, June 21, 1832: One year more and my pilgrimage will be completed. When I think of the three last and particularly of the past year, all seems a dream. It appears but as a month since I was receiving the warm greetings of relatives and friends at my own beloved home. It is astonishing how constant employment gives wings to time. I can hardly realize the fact that we are first class-men, lords of the land, independent as journey-men shoe-blacks, under half pay, turning neither to the right or left for favour from Uncle Sam or any of his numerous progeny, and fearing not even Black Hawk and his thousand warriors. Edward L. Hartz, USMA 1855, to his father, September 7,1854 (in the Library of Congress) : I have learned to throw off that feeling of humbleness which the treatment ones superiors give to him when a "plebe" imbues him with. Having no longer any superior class to bow to, while all others at the academy grant our supremacy. We acquire that air of importance, that show of dignity and condescension to our inferiors, which forms the great characteristic of first class men. Jacob W. Bailey, USMA 1832, to his mother, Mrs. Jane Keeley, January 13, 1832: I thought when I entered the first class that we should have a comparatively easy time, but the contrary was the case, we have been obliged to study this year, almost as hard as when Lacroix' Algebra was our trouble. I have had so much writing to do, that I am heartily tired out.

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Memoir after memoir, and note after note, have been required of us, ever since last September. . . . We shall (have) a very busy time between now and next June, it will take about a week to examine my class, next June we shall have so many subjects to be called upon, Civil engineering is the most important of them, and the one to which I shall pay the most attention. The number of Railroads constructing in all parts of our country will furnish employment for many engineers, and if I do not get stationed at West Point, I think I should try to get employed on some one of them for a while. Richard S. Ewell, USMA 1840, to his brother, November 8, 1836: Several of the first Class have desired me to ask you for information about engineering they wish to enter into something of the kind. How do you like Engineering. I hope you continue to be pleased with it. They say here if a person wants to make money and is not afraid of giving up the ghost that he can make more money in the south than any where else in the United States. But then he is very apt to catch his death just in time to leave a good sum to his heirs. James W. Burbridge, USMA ex-1831, to W. G. Hawkins, March 18,1828:1 am well aware that engineering at this time is one of the most lucrative & honorable proffessions that a young man can get in to but on the other hand it takes a man of superior tallente to get into that body, there is not more than 10 out of 100 of the graduates of this place who immediately get into that Corps. MS Journal of Samuel P. Heintzelman, USMA 1826, February 1, 1825: This evening there was read out an order from the Secretary at War that the vacancies in the Marine Corps should be filled from the Military Academy and that the Marine Corps should be put on the same footing with the other Corps composing the army. Henry W. Halleck, USMA 1839, to Theodore Miller, July

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6, 1838: The new army bill will give me a better situation when graduating than under the old one provided that the President does not fill up the present vacancies with citizens. It is hard for us to be placed under citizens who have spent no time in preparation for their commissions, while we have spent four or five years here at hard toil fitting ourselves for the various duties of our stations. From the diary of John Bratt, ΌSM A 1837, April 7, 1837: My class has given orders, measurements, etc. for a class ring —a heavy gold, a red carnelian stone with a sunken design— a book with a sword passed thro', the owner's name engraved enmity to "Artillery," vide "Notes on Artillery," a book of much trouble and sorrow to many a West Pointer.10 From, the diary of John Bralt, lìSMA 1837, January 29, 1836: Received a letter from Lieut. J. W. Morgan, with the sad details of a horrid massacre at Tampa Bay on the 28th of December last. The news has caused much excitement among us, and the present first class have taken a very decided and commendable course in offering their services in advance of their graduation, to the Government, to revenge their fallen acquaintances and friends. Jacob W. Bailey, USMA 1832, to his mother, Mrs. Jane Keeley, June 1, 1832: The examination is over and I have graduated at last. I am 5th this year which is as high as I wished, and higher than I expected. I suppose you expect me in Waterville soon, there is a chance however of your being disappointed. The Indians in the west have been making bad work and General Scott, has orders to proceed immediately to the scene of action and he wishes to take my class with him. If he concludes to do so, I shall be informed of it in a few days. The Indians will probably be put down long before the ex1 0 As far as can be ascertained, class rings in the United States were first used at West Point. T h e custom began about 1835. The presentation itself was made the occasion for a ceremony and since 1929 there has been a specially designated Ring Hop during the early part of October.

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pedition under General Scott, can get to the seat of war, So that you need not dream of tomahawks and scalps. Jacob W. Bailey, USMA 1832, to his brother, William M. Bailey, April [25], 1832: It would take a fortune almost to furnish a graduate with his dress etc. if he purchased it here for instance, the price of boots here is $7.00, of leather trunks $20.00 Which I'd be shot before I'd pay. Coat $30.00 to $34.00 I shall buy as little here as possible I have spoken for a coat in New York. MS Journal of Samuel P. Heinizelman, USMA 1826, June 22,1826:1 have sold my accounts: July to Mr. DeWitt; August to Mr. Wilton; September to Mr. Sparrow; Oct. & Nov. to Mr. Wilton.11 MS Journal of Samuel P. Heinizelman, USMA 1826, August 2, 1826: I received my appointment as Lieutenant. It came from the Post Adj at West Point. My station is at Belle Fontaine Missouri. I belong to the 3rd Reg. of Inf. I am Furloughed to the 31st of Oct. 11

This was not an uncommon procedure of anticipating one's pay.

SECTIONALISM

We are children

of the Union.

. . .

CADET J O S E P H RITNER, USMA 1 8 3 0 , IN AN ADDRESS TO THE CORPS, J U L Y 4 , 1 8 2 9

which divided the nation and led to the Civil War were reflected at the United States Military Academy. In this matter West Point faithfully mirrored American political development, public debate, and legislative compromise. The cadets brought with them to the academy the feelings current in their home communities, in every Congressional district and in every state. Correspondence, home-town newspapers and furloughs kept the localist spirit alive. The tendency toward unity, growing out of the nature of the Military Academy as a national institution, overcame sectional division. Living together made for a community spirit. Lasting personal friendships were established between cadets of different states and the institution became an important unifying factor, an effective catalyst, a nationalizing influence during a period in American life in which divisive forces were strongest. Succeeding Boards of Visitors at West Point appreciated and recorded the value and effectiveness of this amalgamation and national consciousness. As early as June 19, 1824, they reported to the Secretary of War that "cadets coming from every section of the country contribute much . . . to T H E ISSUES

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the extirpation of local prejudices and sectional antipathies." 1 A few years later, on November 30, 1829, Secretary of War John H. Eaton advised the President that the Military Academy "may be looked to as one of the strong bonds of our union. Two hundred and sixty young men, associated for a time with all those attachments which early friendships inspire, cannot fail to secure for the future increased strength and durability to the government." 2 The West Point mission of preparing officers for national service also influenced the psychology of the individual cadet and broke down his provincial attitudes. The examples of political exhortation and oratorical persuasion which quickened this tendency are innumerable. In a speech delivered at the academy on June 11, 1825, James Barbour, then Secretary of War, said : There is one other subject to which I wish to invite your most serious attention. Our country from its extent, and for the purpose of Geographical discrimination, is divided into sections, East, West, North and South. To this let the division be confined ; and not to its prejudices and jealousies—scowl into contempt every term and every effort to keep them alive. 3

Four years later in a Fourth of July address Cadet Joseph Ritner of Pennsylvania said : We are the children of the Union ; and whatever tends to promote the interest of the whole, should receive our ardent and unqualified support. . . . And should ever faction raise the fire-brand of sedition, and spread conflagration, turmoil and confusion through our devoted land, then let it also be recorded, that from her army, at least, our country received a firm, devoted support. 4 American State Papers, Military Aß airs, II, 716. Ibid., IV, 152. 3 Address to the Officers and Cadets, puublished in the Springfield (Mass.) Republican, Vol. I, No. 50, August 17, 1825. * Joseph Ritner [USMA 1830], An Address Delivered before the Corps of Cadets of the United States Military Academy at West Point on the Fifty-third Anniversary of American Independence (Newburgh, 1829). 1

2

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How West Point life affected thinking and bound together cadets representing various sections of the nation may be seen in a letter from Isaac Ingalls Stevens, USMA 1839, Massachusetts, to his father, December 20, 1835, " I am acquainted with many Westerners, who generally are very fine fellows. They are generally very generous and open hearted, and it is very easy to get acquainted with them." 5 Cadet Edwin W. Morgan 6 wrote to Lieutenant James Duncan,7 July 9, 1835, questioning his friend then serving in Florida, "How do you like Southerners and Southern manners? Well without a doubt. I have had the good fortune to make many friends among them both here and at College and I find in them almost everything you would wish in a gentleman. You have observed, however, as well as myself, at West Point rather too much of sectional feeling on some occasions." There was sectional feeling and division, at times deep, ingrained and cultural. Cadet Stevens, nicknamed "Yankee," was raised in a family of abolitionist sentiment and was sensitive to at least one aspect of antipathies between men representing the North and the South: Many of the cadets, chiefly those who come from the slavery States, have a great contempt for our Yankee farmers, and even pretend to compare them with their slaves. They have the greatest contempt for all those who gain a subsistence by the sweat of their brows. For my own part, I shall always respect every man who is honest and industrious, and more particularly those who live in the manner that has been ordained by God himself; and whenever any man, in conversation with me or in my hearing, compares that class, of which I am proud to be one, with slaves, I shall always consider it as an insult offered to myself, and shall act accordingly. 8

Division in the Corps assumed a variety of forms. Sometimes a thoughtless and unpremeditated word or deed revealed Hazard Stevens, The Life of Isaac Ingalls Stevens (Boston, 1901), I, 32. « USMA 1837, Pennsylvania. ' USMA 1834, New York. 8 Cadet I. I. Stevens to his uncle, July 6, 1836. Hazard Stevens, op. cit., I, 37.

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the national cleavage. Narrow-minded ignorance and provincial prejudice were brought to West Point by the unthinking Southern cadet who considered the Yankee penurious,9 or by Northern man who referred to the Southerner with an epithet.10 Albert Ensign Church, USMA 1828, Connecticut, refers in his reminiscences to one of his fellow candidates as "a slack-twisted, rough-looking, tobacco-chewing customer from Georgia, boastful in his talk, doubtful only of his ability to exist on the pork and molasses which he understood was the principal food of the Yankees." 11 Name-calling was not confined to any one section. Another factor contributing noticeably to division at West Point was a feeling of academic inferiority which affected some of the new Southern cadets. Initially handicapped by the comparatively poorer educational facilities available in the South, they felt that the Northern men were better prepared for the course of study. 12 Richard S. Ewell of Virginia, USMA 1840, complained, "There are several Yankees here who know the whole mathematical course. Of course they will stand at the head of the Class. A person who comes here without a knowledge has to contend against those who have been preparing themselves for years under the best teachers and who have used the same class books. The Yankees generally take the lead in almost every class." 13 Samuel Gibbs French, USMA 1843, appointed from New Jersey, wrote to a friend, January 15, 1840, "Half the class have graduated at colleges and most of the other half, myself excepted, have been at 9 Richard S. Ewell, USMA 1840, writes to his sister. May 6, 1838, " I am sorry Mother thinks me such a Yankee as not to write on account of postage." From Percy G. Hamlin, ed., The Making of a Soldier (Richmond, 1935), p. 24. 10 William Dutton, USMA 1842, refers to visitors from the South as "southern lackies" in a letter to his uncle, J. W. Mathews, July 12, 1842. 11 Church, Personal Reminiscences of the Military Academy from 1824 to 1831 (West Point, 1879), p. 10. 12 Ellsworth Eliot, Jr., West Point in the Confederacy (New York, 1941), p. 1. Ellsworth lists a number of Southern cadets who had attended colleges and 13 universities. Letter, August 29, 1836.

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school all this time . . . most of those deficient were from the South." 14 Sectional feeling was not only brought to West Point, it was also forced into academy life in the course of "outside" political disputes. A clear case of such intrusion may be seen in one of the incidents relative to the South Carolina nullification proceedings. President Jackson issued a proclamation on December 10, 1832, in which he denounced nullification as rebellion and treason and warned the people of South Carolina that he would use every power at his command to enforce the laws. In a message to Congress, he urged the passage of a "Force Bill" to authorize him to use the Army and Navy. 15 During these heated events, South Carolina papers falsely reported that cadets from that state were being court-martialed for their nullification sympathies. Colonel Thayer and a cadet from South Carolina were impelled to write letters to the editors protesting the dissemination of such lies. Cadet George Washington Cullum expressed his opinion of the "hum bug" news reports : "We have some Nullifiers here more from sympathy than principle, but I am proud to say that 4%oths would unsheath the sword in defence of the Union against Nullifiers, Indians or anything else." 16 The Dialectic Society debates, which were almost a part of the curriculum, reflected the ferment of the time. Topics of current interest constantly came up for discussion. Cadet Stevens reports such a debate : 1 4 From MS Letters Written While a Cadet, 1839-40, to Omar Borton. The reports of the Boards of Visitors from the post-Civil War years reveal that limited educational opportunity in the South influenced the decision to keep West Point admission requirements low as compared to other institutions of a college level. 1 5 At West Point, the class to graduate in June of 1833 felt that it would be a "painful duty" to obey the call to defend the country against mistaken views. Letter of George W. Cullum, USMA 1833, Pennsylvania, to his sister Catherine Cullum, December 6, 1832. 1 6 Letter of George Cullum, to Alfred Huidekoper, January 24, 1833. The reference to the reports as "hum bug" is Cullum's.

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We had quite an animated discussion the other evening on the justice of lynch law. We got very warm; indeed, the debate came very near merging into the discussion of abolition. This, you are aware, is a very tender subject, and, for our society, a very improper one. For my own part I got very much excited, and my free avowal of abolition principles did not tend to allay the feeling which existed among the members. 17

The fervor of the log-cabin and hard-cider Presidential campaign of 1840 reached West Point and it was proposed to debate, "Ought the South to prefer William Henry Harrison to Martin Van Buren at the coming Presidential election?" 18 The argument was a popular one, as the South was trying to decide which was more friendly to abolition, Harrison or Van Buren. 19 To avoid the partisanship engendered in such a controversy, Cadet Charles Kingsbury, gave notice 2 0 that at the next meeting he would propose to amend the 20th article of the constitution of the Dialectic Society to read: "That no question which brings into discussion the tenets of any religious denomination or which involves the Party Politics of the day shall be debated in the Society." Mr. Kingsbury's resolution was rejected. 21 The sectional issue is recorded again in the society's minutes for the following year when the topic of debate for March 6 , 1 8 4 1 , was "Whether a state has a right to secede from the Union." " I s Texas justifiable in the conquest of Mexico" was the subject for debate on March 11, 1843. On March 18,1843, the question was " H a s a State under any circumstances the right to nullify an act of Congress?" The Superintendent, Richard Delafield, intervened and characterized the subject as unconstitutional, and it was decided 1 7 Hazard Stevens, op. cit., I, 55; letter of I. I. Stevens to his father, Nov. 17,1838. 1 8 USMA Dialectic Society, MS Journal 1840-44; April 25, 1840. The discussion was postponed indefinitely. 1 9 Freeman Cleaves, Old Tippecanoe: William Henry Harrison and His Time (New York, 1939). 2 0 Dialectic Society Journal, May 9, 1840. 2 1 Ibid., May 16, 1840.

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to substitute what may then have been considered a more inocuous issue, " W o u l d a state of uninterrupted peace be conducive to the glory and perpetuity of a civilized nation?" A t this point in the Dialectic Society records there is a break in the continuity of the weekly meetings until June 16, when the substituted proposition was debated. Then there is a lapse until M a y 11, 1844, when a more or less formal meeting was held to award diplomas to the society members in the graduating class. The manuscript minutes then end ; presumably the cadet society was dissolved. The formulation of the Superintendent's Order No. 101 of November 7, 1845, reorganizing the Dialectic Society, is pregnant with meaning in the light of the last f e w irregular meetings recorded. The order directed that "Application having been made to the Superintendent on the part of the Corps of Cadets, for the re-vival of the Dialectic Society, and believing that if governed by wholesome rules and the discussion of subjects is confined within proper limits, the Society may be productive of benefit as a literary exercise the Superintendent authorizes the re-organization of the Association."

22

Political and sectional manifestations during the succeeding years at West Point were frequent. Morris Schaff, U S M A 1862, Ohio, remembered being stopped by Samuel T . Cushing, U S M A 1860, Rhode Island, in 1858: Cushing fastened his eye on me and then asked, his prominent white teeth gleaming through his radiant smile, "What is your name, Animal?"—the title given by the third-class men to all new cadets. "Schaff," I answered demurely. "Come right down here, Mr. Shad," commanded Cushing. Well I went, and had the usual guying and subsequently was conducted over to a room in the second or third division, where I was ordered to debate the repeal of the Missouri Compromise with another animal by the name of Vance, from Illinois. 23 =2 Post Orders, II (2d Ser.), 279. 23 Morris Schaff, The Spirit of Old West Point, p. 29.

1858 -1862 I Boston, 1907),

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Schaff also reported a later incident at which politics were broached to him for the "first time": W h e n politics was broached to me for the first time—and I may say it was the only t i m e — i t gave me quite a complete surprise. I was passing through the Sally P o r t just after our first encampment in 1 8 5 8 , and, falling in with Willis of Georgia, I was accosted with the question, " W h a t State are you from, Mr. S c h a f f ? " I answered, " O h i o . " " W h a t are you, a Democrat or a R e p u b l i c a n ? " " A D e m o c r a t , " I replied. Then, with the cordial fascinating Southern manner, he observed, " Y o u are all r i g h t , " and passed on. 2 4

When news of John Brown's raid reached West Point, the excitement was considerable. The "trial and the execution of Brown, with its upheaving effect on the country, followed rapidly; and in each scene of the tragedy West Point was deeply engrossed." " George W. Turner, a West Point graduate of the Class of 1 8 3 1 and at the time a farmer in Jefferson County, Virginia, was killed in the course of the raid. 2 6 Speeches made at West Point as the crisis approached offer some insight into what the individual cadet was thinking. Cadet William W. McCreery's July Fourth speech in 1 8 5 9 is representative of a number of addresses to the Corps: W e may have sectional differences, but they are magnified by our fears. This noble Union will not be dissolved. Superior to every local or temporal consideration, and underlying all the clamor of the discontented, is the love of liberty, deep and abiding, and loyalty to the confederation of these States, tried and reliable. . . . Let us put from us the seeds of sectional strife and draw closer and c loser the bonds of this glorious union. 2 7

In June of 1860, Republican Representative George P. Marsh of Vermont spoke for the Board of Visitors to the graduating class and dwelt on the same theme. He outlined the two -4 Ibid.., p. 140. « Ibid., p. 142. See biography of C. W. Turner, Cullum's Register, I, 473. -7 An Address Delivered by Cadet i f . W. McCreery of The U. S. Military Academy, Ifest Point, I\I.Y., on 4th July, 1859. McCreery was dismissed in 1861 for offering his resignation, joined the forces of his native state and was killed at the battle of Gettysburg, aged 27.

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opposing views of the states' rights controversy. While Congressman Marsh credited both schools of thought with elements of plausibility, he emphasized the Federal nature of the academy and advised that no matter which political party was right or justified, the cadet's acceptance of a Federal commission was to determine his loyalty to the Federal government. 28 The nomination of Lincoln for President increased the strain by accentuating sectional groupings, and cadets took sides openly in the approaching election. A Presidential straw vote held at West Point in October, 1860, served to embroil the Corps. A box was set up, presumably by some bitterly partisan Southerners, in which cadets could deposit their preferences for President. 29 When the ballots were counted, it was found that with approximately 2 1 0 cadets present, sixty-four voted for Lincoln. At once, the self-constituted supervisors of the election appointed tellers to smoke out those whom some of them designated as "the Black Republican Abolitionists in the Corps." 30 The Superintendency of Peter G. T. Beauregard, USMA 1838, Louisiana, also added to political restlessness at West Point. Beauregard assumed his office by an order which read, in part, An order of the President of the United States, communicated through the W a r Department under the date of the 8th November 1 8 6 0 appoints Brevet Major Peter G. T. Beauregard, Captain of the Corps of Engineers, Superintendent of the Military Academy, and directs him to relieve the present Superintendent at the close of the approaching examination of the Class. That examination having closed yesterday, the present Superintendent now retires from the post. 3 1 23 George P. Marsh, Address Delivered before The Graduating Class oj the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, June 1860 (New York, 1860), passim. 2 9 Morris Schaff, op. cit., pp. 164 ff. Schaff does not recall the exact number of votes for each candidate. 30 Ibid., p. 165. The father of John Lane, a cadet who subsequently joined the South, was running for Vice President on the ticket with Breckinridge. 3 1 Post Orders, V, 404 (Order No. 6, January 23,1861 ). Beauregard left the Post five days later and signed his last order: "In compliance with War Department

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Beauregard served for five days, January 23 to January 28, 1861, 3 1 before he was ordered back to Louisiana. He gives this explanation for his dismissal from the academy: Owing to a serious disagreement between Mr. Holt, Secretary W a r , and the Hon. M r . Slidell, 3 3 my brother-in-law, the former to indulge his pique against the latter and probably having heard of my intention to resign my commission in the United States service should Louisiana secede, relieved me of the superintendency. 3 4

Joseph P. Farley, USMA 1861, roomed with a classmate who came from the State of Louisiana and who visited Major Beauregard, during his brief Superintendency, for counsel and advice. Farley reports that Beauregard hesitated to advise the young men from the South further than to suggest that as long as he himself remained in the Regular Army of the United States he thought they should all do so. 35 The resignation of Southern cadets from West Point began even before the fall of Fort Sumter. The South Carolina cadets supported the lead taken by their state. They boldly published a manifesto, November 9 , 1 8 6 0 : To the Editor of the Columbia (S.C.) Guardian. Mr. E d i t o r — S i r : F r o m what we have seen and heard, South Carolina will undoubtedly, at an early period, redeem her assertions, take her destinies in her own hands, and proceed at once to organize for herself a new and separate government ( a government of which our beloved Calhoun would approve were he with us at this t i m e ) , one in which the benefits are equally distributed to all. S.O. No. 19 of January 25, 1861, revoking S.O. No. 238—Adjutant General's Office, of Nov. 8, 1860—-appointing me Superintendent of the Military Academy, I transfer back this day the said Superintendency."' Order No. 8, January 28, 1861 (Post Orders, V, 407). •·'- Post Orders, V, 405, 407. :i:i United States' Senator from Louisiana. 34 From an autobiographical fragment quoted by Hamilton Basso. Beauregard, the Creai Creole (New York. 1933», p. 61. Joseph Pearson Faili-y [USMA 18611, fi est Point in the Early Sixties (Troy, N.V.. 1902), p. 24. Schaff tells a more highly colored story of the same incident, with Beauregard saying. "Watch me; and when I jump, you jump. What's the use of jumping too soon." This was reprinted by Beauregard's biographer and others, but is hardly representative of "The Great Creole." See Hamilton Basso, op. cit., p. 62,

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Now, we, her sons and representatives at the United States Military Academy at West Point, are eager to manifest our devotion and affection to her and her present cause; so will we, simultaneously with her withdrawal, be found under the folds of her banner, fighting for liberty or equality. Though the reception of a diploma here at the National Academy is certainly to be desired by all of us, yet we cannot so stifle our convictions of duty as to serve Lincoln as commander-in-chief, and to be subjected at all times to the orders of a government the administration of which must be necessarily unfriendly to the Commonwealth which has so far preserved a spotless record, and of which we are justly proud. We hereby swear to be true to her lone star in the present path of rectitude; and if, by chance, she goes astray, we will be with her still. All we desire is a field for making ourselves useful. 36

In November of 1860, Henry S. Farley, USMA ex-1862, from South Carolina, offered his resignation to take effect on the 19th of that month.37 His state had already raised the palmetto flag of secession. Before the end of the year, he was joined by his fellow cadets from South Carolina (with the exception of John Y. Wofford), three from Mississippi, and two from Alabama. Two others resigned January, 1861: Wofford of South Carolina and Felix H. Robertson of Texas. During the month of February, Samuel C. Williams of Tennessee and John F. O'Brien, Edward S. Willis, and James Barrow of Georgia resigned. The following month Pierce B. Young, Joseph G. Blount, Joseph A. Alexander, and John West followed suit. -,« P e t e r S. Michie, The Life and Letters p. 27.

of Emery

Upton

(New York, 1885),

• ' M i l i t a r y Academy Orders, O r d e r No. 18, Engineer D e p a r t m e n t , 1856-1866. C a d e t R e s i g n a t i o n s and Leaves of Absence, etc. MS. None of the O r d e r s disc h a r g i n g c a d e t s mention the reason for d i s c h a r g e other t h a n resignation, except one w h i c h was worded as follows: Engineer Department W a s h i n g t o n J u l y 19, 1861 Military Academy O r d e r No. 49 Cadet J o h n C. K e n n e t t , of Missouri, having declared t h a t he would not lis* willing to b e a r a r m s against the S o u t h e r n S t a t e s is hereby discharged f r o m the service of the United States. By O r d e r of the Secretary of War Jos. G. T o t t e n , Bvl. Brig. Gen. Ch. Eng.

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The fall of Fort Sumter completed the division between Northern and Southern cadets. Tully McCrea, USMA 1862, Ohio, wrote: W h e n the news of the firing on F o r t Sumter was received the effect was instantaneous, every Northern cadet now showed his colors and rallied that night in H a r r i s ' room in the Fifth Division. One could have heard us singing " T h e Star Spangled B a n n e r " in Cold Spring. It was the first time I ever saw the Southern contingent cowed. All of their Northern allies had deserted them, and they were stunned. 3 8

A considerable number left for the South the following day by way of Albany. By April 22, almost all the cadets from the Southern states had withdrawn as did Lieutenant Fitzhugh Lee, USMA 1856, of Virginia, and Captain Charles W. Field, USMA 1849, of Kentucky, who had been on duty as officers. Farley noted that "Between the men of the several sections of the country there was no bitterness manifest, nothing but expressions of sorrow and disappointment." 39 General 0 . 0 . Howard recorded that the line of separation was less marked at West Point than elsewhere.4" Schaff reported the same spirit and described the pathetic farewells of those who resigned. In one instance a Southern cadet was carried down to the South Dock on the shoulders of his classmates.41 The total number of cadets present at the academy on November 1, 1860 was 2 7 8 ; of this number 86 were appointed from the Southern states. Of these, 65 were discharged, dismissed, or resigned from causes connected with the Civil War, leaving 21 at the academy from the Southern states.42 The Harvard, Yale, Columbia, and Union College graduates from the South espoused the Southern cause almost en masse. From Princeton, which boasted that, geographically, it had a most representative student population because it was the "principal 3 9 Farley, op. cit. Morris Schaff, op. cit., p. 220. Autobiography of Oliver Otis Howard (New York, 1908), I, 99. 41 A case study of a cadet's reaction to the sectional split at West Point may be found in Edward W. Anderson, "Letters of a West Pointer," American Historical Review, X X X I I I (1928), 602-16. 42 Edward C. Boynton, History of West Point, p. 252. Boynton was adjutant and quartermaster at the Military Academy during the war years. 3S 40

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resort of American youth from the Hudson to Georgia," 43 the Southern students departed without exception. General George W. Cullum offered the opinion that the Southern cadets at the Military Academy, who remained faithful to their oaths, were "rescued from treason by West Point influences." 44 With the outbreak of war every section of the post—officers, cadets, and enlisted personnel—was immediately involved. Lieutenant Charles Griffin took command of the Military Academy Detachment of Dragoons on January 7, 1861, organized a battery of four pieces with six horses to each piece and caisson, and drilled enough men to make a command of seventy, with the object of preparing a battery for eventual field service. 45 The detachment left West Point by way of the Erie Railroad for Washington on the morning of January 31, 1861; it was known as Griffin's Battery throughout the Civil War. The Engineer troops at West Point, one of the best trained units in the Army, were ordered away later in the year.4® On May 6 , 1 8 6 1 , the First Class was ordered to Washington without graduation. 47 The new First Class circulated a petition addressed to the Secretary of War, requesting that they be allowed to graduate at an early date in order to take the field. The petition was favorably received and a few days thereafter the class was hastily examined, graduated, and reported for duty June 24, 1861, to General Winfield Scott at Washington, D.C. President Lincoln welcomed the group into the service at General Scott's office, and after the brief ceremony the newly commissioned officers reported for assignment as instructors or drill masters of the "three months' regiments," encamped in and around Washington, Georgetown, and Alexandria. 48 The following month the course of study at West Point was reduced, and on July 27, 1861, the First Class—the third First Class of that year—was ordered to begin recitations and pre43 45 46 48

44 Edwin M. Norris, op. cit., p. 110. G. W. Cullum, op. cit., p. 13. Post Orders, V, 400, No. 3, J a n u a r y 7, 1861. 47 Post Orders, VI, 37, S.O. No. 121. Post Orders, V, 14, No. 15. Joseph P. Farley, op. cit., pp. 100-101.

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pare for graduation. 49 This hasty decision was rescinded on July 30 and graduation was postponed until the next year. 60 For the remaining war years, classes graduated regularly but were in the heat of battle in less than a month after they were commissioned. Along with these kaleidoscopic changes, the officer personnel of the academic and tactical staff at West Point changed rapidly. Alexander McCook left for the field, followed by Warren, Vincent, Holabird, Benton, Hascoll, Symonds, and DuBarry; in the summer and early autumn Reynolds, Williams, Breck, Biggs, and Carroll departed. 51 As the war progressed, ablebodied officers were replaced by those who were disabled, or by appointees from civil life. 52 In 1864, when Congress permitted men up to the age of 24, with war service, to enter the Corps, several of the new cadets were bearded men with a record of a dozen pitched battles and some had held commissioned rank as high as a captaincy. Many were awarded cadetship for gallantry on the battlefield. 53 Academic studies were continued without interruption during the whole course of the war, except for one brief interval during the New York City draft riots in the summer of 1863. The depredations of the mob threatened the entire community. Telegraph wires were cut, rails were torn up, and soldiers from the forts in the harbor, with reinforcements from the Navy Yard and West Point, were called in to restore order. New York's Seventh Regiment was in Maryland, while nearly all the other militia companies of the city and state had been sent to Pennsylvania to aid in repelling Lee's invasion. Captain W. P. Chambliss and Lieutenant C. G. Parsons, with a dePost Orders, VI, 38, No. 25. Post Orders, VI, 38, S.O. No. 122. Morris Schaff, op. cit., pp. 255-56. 52 If est Point Monument: . . . Oration of Major-Gen. McClellan (New York, 1864), p. 18. See also Post Orders for the war years. 53 Post Orders, VI, 265, S.O. No. 100, August 5, 1865. See also Birdsey G. Northrup, Twenty-Seventh Annual Report of the Massachusetts Board of Education (Boston, 1864) ; pp. 90-124 refer to West Point in an interesting study of the war's effect on the Military Academy. 51

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tachment of fifty-nine men, were sent from West Point to the arsenal at Seventh Avenue and Thirty-fifth Street, New York City, in the midst of the riot-torn district. 54 At West Point an unfounded rumor reached the authorities of the intention of the "copperhead" element of New York City to destroy the Cold Spring Foundry, noted for the production of the effective Parrott guns. The mob, it was believed, also would be led to visit and burn West Point. Ball cartridges were issued to cadets, pickets with field guns were established at the South and North Docks and Gee's Point, and guard duty was performed by civilians and employes attached to the academy. Vigilance was maintained for several days and nights, but no attack was made. 55 Inflationary war prices impoverished the Corps of Cadets. During the winter of 1863 more than one third were excused from military duty as being shoeless and in rags. Caps were made from discarded shakos, by cutting them down and roofing the frame with oilskin; pillow cases were put to use as shirts. The food at the mess hall steadily deteriorated. 56 But no one seemed to mind; all interest was concentrated on the war. Each campaign, every battle, and every skirmish was followed with close attention at West Point. Spirits rose and fell with the fortunes of war and the President's proclamation for days of fasting, humiliation, and prayer were solemnly observed. 57 On these occasions academy schedules were suspended, the Chapel was opened, and the regular Sunday 54

Post Orders, VI, 187, July 14, 1863. Annual Report of the Superintendent, 1896 (Washington, 1896). The account of this affair was prepared by Lt. Col. Samuel M. Mills, then Commandant of Cadets. He reports that the incident was never recorded and closes his account with the statement, "From this time dates the present custom of armed sentinels patrolling the post night and day." The records show sucli patrols at various times for many years before the Civil War. 56 Charles King, "West Point in the War Days," from a series in the Illustrated Sunday Magazine, July 10-Aug. 15, 1910. " Post Orders, VI, 52, S.O. No. 160, Sept. 25, 1861; ibid., p. 173, S. O. No. 10, April 30,1863; and ibid., p. 265, S.O. No. 98, Aug. 3, 1864. 55

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program was followed. In the latter years of the war, the days of victory were celebrated with thanksgiving and rejoicing. In the fall of 1 8 6 4 , one-hundred gun salutes were fired in honor of the victories at Mobile Bay, of the naval and land forces under Admiral Farragut and General Granger, 8 8 and of General Sherman's success at Atlanta." 9 In December of that year, a salute of thirty-six guns were ordered in honor of "General Sherman's gift to the nation of the city of Savannah." 6 0 As the Union tide swept forward, the phraseology of the Orders announcing victories achieved a high-flown, triumphant quality. The capture of Richmond evoked the following statement: S. 0 . No. 54 April 4,1865 Amid the universal exultation of the Nation for the recent magnificent triumphs of our arms over the mightiest rebellion on the page of History, the Military Academy with lofty pride can claim that she has worthily fulfilled the ardent anticipations of her admirers. That under the leadership of her dauntless Grant, the rebel Capitol is ours and her best army fleeing from destruction ; that her indomitable Sherman, is about to complete the most marvellous march of modern War, and that her sturdy Thomas, and many other distinguished sons, are severally performing their allotted parts in the grand drama of our national regeneration. Believing that the present élèves of our noble Alma Mater are of the same heroic stock with their world renowned predecessors, and hoping that by future devotion to duty they may prove worthy of such a lineage, the Superintendent is pleased, in this happy hour of our Country's joy, to forgive many past offences, and to remit all punishments awarded by him for Cadet delinquencies to this date.61 By Order of General Cullum Edward C. Boynton Capt. & Adj. 5 8 ¡bid. 60 Ibid., p. 299. ss Post Orders, VI, 274. Post Orders, VI, 189. The Fortieth Annual Reunion of the Association of Graduates (Saginaw, Mich., 1909), pp. 21-22, includes a letter from Cadet F. L. Hills, USMA 1866, to his mother describing the boisterous demonstration which took place at West Point when the news of the capture of Richmond arrived. 81

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Toward the end, new victories followed in quick succession, each accompanied by an appropriate order of the day. Lee's final surrender, expected for some time, was announced April 10, 1865, in a comparatively reserved Special Order: A Salute of One Hundred guns will be fired from the ruins of F o r t Putnam, and One Hundred guns from Battery K n o x with the least possible delay in honor of the unconditional surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia under the rebel General R. E . Lee, to the U. S. F o r c e s under the c o m m a n d of Lieutenant General U. S. Grant. 6 2

The victory celebration was followed almost immediately by that tragic climax in the drama of American sectionalism, the assassination of Lincoln, which plunged West Point into gloom. The Post Orders announcing the assassination suspended all academic and military duties except guard. 6 3 Three days later the War Department order, officially announcing the President's death, was read to the military personnel of the post assembled in front of the Superintendent's quarters. 6 4 Only once, in 1862, had the President visited the Point to consult with General Winfield Scott. Lincoln had towered above the officers who escorted him around the post. While visiting he stopped in the hallway of the seventh division of barracks to say a few words to the cadets whom he had appointed. 65 When the seven-car train bearing Lincoln's body passed through the Hudson Valley on its way to Springfield, the academic and military staff, with the Corps of Cadets, the Band, and the remnants of the Engineer and Dragoon Detachments crossed the Hudson from the South Wharf to Garrison's Landing to pay their tribute of respect. The train moved through the Highlands to the accompaniment of minute guns from Battery Knox, 6 6 symbolic of the close of an era in the life of the academy. Of the living graduates when the war commenced, including Post Orders, VI, 322, S.O. No. 57. 6 4 Ibid., β» ¡bid., p. 323. pp. 324-25. 8 5 New York Times, June 26, 1862, p. 4. «« Post Orders, VI, 325, S.O. No. 67, April 25, 1865.

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the two classes of 1861, 89 percent served in either the Union or Confederate Army. The remaining 11 percent were deterred by physical infirmities, business relations, and a few from apparent desire to remain neutral. Of those who served actively, more than 73 percent were in the Union Army. Of the graduates in civil life, 55 percent reentered the Army on one side or the other. During the war, one graduate rose to the rank of lieutenant general, specially revived for him; six to that of major general, and one hundred twelve to brigadier general. More than one-third of those engaged rose to the grade of general officer, while nine received the thanks of Congress for conspicuous service in battle. Of approximately eight hundred graduates involved, one-fifth were killed and one-third of the whole number were wounded more or less severely. During the war, and for many years afterwards, West Point's role in the conflict was brought to the public eye through newspaper, magazine, and pamphlet. The cadet resignations from the Military Academy provoked criticism and discussion of the sectional issue or Army activities and frequently led to the hostile reference to the academy. While the resignations were still fresh, the expression of feeling reached a high point in the Report of the Secretary of War by Simon Cameron.87 He characterized the resignations of the Army as "extraordinary treachery," and turned this criticism into an attack against West Point: T h e large disaffection at the present crisis, of United States army officers, has excited the most profound astonishment, and naturally provokes inquiry as to its cause. But for this startling defection, the rebellion never could have assumed formidable proportions. T h e mere accident of birth in a particular section, or the influence of a belief in particular political theories, furnishes no satisfactory explanation of this remarkable fact. The majority of these officers solicited and obtained a military education at the hands of the government—a mark of special favor, confined by the laws of Congress to only one in seventy thousand inhabitants. At the National Military Academy they were 67

Issued July 1, 1861, p. 27.

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r e c e i v e d , a n d treated a s the a d o p t e d c h i l d r e n of the r e p u b l i c . B y the p e c u l i a r r e l a t i o n s thus e s t a b l i s h e d , they v i r t u a l l y b e c a m e b o u n d , by m o r e t h a n o r d i n a r y o b l i g a t i o n s of h o n o r , t o r e m a i n f a i t h f u l to their flag. T h e q u e s t i o n m a y be a s k e d , in view of the e x t r a o r d i n a r y t r e a c h e r y d i s p l a y e d , whether its p r o m o t i n g c a u s e m a y not be t r a c e d to a r a d i c a l d e f e c t in the s y s t e m of e d u c a t i o n i t s e l f ?

There may be some connection between the bitterness of this attack upon West Point and Simon Cameron's feeling against " a cumbrous and dangerous standing a r m y , " as he referred to the Regular Army. 6 8 He was joined in his criticism by the radical wing of the Republican Party which called for the abolition of the Military Academy and accused it of causing the rebellion! 0 9 One reply, designed for the consideration of the Administration and Congress, was soon forthcoming in the form of a letter to the editors of the National Intelligencer by Major John G. Barnard, a graduate of 1833. 7 0 Pointing to the reputation of West Point graduates and the role they played as engineers, legislators, jurists, agriculturists, merchants, and ministers of the gospel, he argued that the academy was the teacher of the purest patriotism, of the most fervent love of country. He wrote: "It has been one of the very strongest bulwarks against disunion. In whatever spheres the graduates have acted, there has partisan spirit and sectionalism, to a great extent, been banished. The ties formed at the academy between youth from all sections have endured unimpaired after leaving it, and have been a powerful means of restraining sectional hostility." In his letter, Major Barnard analyzed the list of resignations in the Army since the commencement of the "secession" movement in the Southern states. To bolster his argument he referr ed to a speech made during debate on the Military Academy B i l l 7 1 88

Ibid., p. 23. Harry Williams, "The Attack upon West Point during the Civil War," The Mississippi Valley Historical Review, XXV (1939 ), 497. 7 0 Major John Gross Barnard, Letter to the Editors of the National Intelligencer (New York, 1862). 71 Ibid., pp. 16-17. 89

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in which Senator Grimes had said: "Nearly one half of those who were appointed into the Army from civil life were disloyal, whilst there was not quite one third of those who had been educated at the Military Academy." 72 Other defenses appeared in book-length studies. Captain Edward C. Boynton, the academy Adjutant, published an excellent History of West Point in 1863. 7 3 General Cullum's Biographical Register, a monumental legacy to American history, first published in 1 8 6 8 , was an apologia designed to answer the probing critics for all time. 74 Both works have determined the pattern of West Point historical writing to this day. Another and entirely new argument concerning cadet loyalty appeared as late as 1904. Robert Bingham, in a work defending the principles of the Old South and of some of her leaders, attempted to prove as a historic fact that from 1 8 2 5 (the year during which Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis entered the Military Academy) to as late as 1840, and probably later, the United States government taught its cadets at West Point from Rawle's View of the Constitution that the Union was dissoluble, and that if it should be dissolved, allegiance reverted to the states. All of the evidence offered for this conclusion by Bingham is circumstantial testimony, all from recollection or reference prepared about 50 years after 1840, when Rawle's text was supposedly last used at West Point. 75 Two officers replied to Bingham's charges. One reply was drafted by Brevet Lieutenant Colonel James W. Latta, 7 " and • - Ibid., p. 16. Edward C. Boynton, History of West Point (New York, 1863 ; 2d ed.. 18711. 7 1 George W. Cullum, Biographical Register of the Officers and Graduates of the U.S. Military Academy (3 vols., New York, 1868; New York, 1879; 3d ed. rev. and enl., 1891 .

of the United States Military Academy

( West

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fessional courses, closely approached that of the larger technical schools of the country. The course included mathematics; one foreign language selected from French, Spanish, Portuguese, German, or Russian; English, which included English and American literature, a course in military instructor training, and a series of lessons in military correspondence; military topography and graphics; physics, chemistry, and mechanics, based on standard college texts; electricity with an introductory course in electronics and communications; military hygiene; law; social sciences, including elementary economics with their application to the problems of war, international relations, political and economic geography, surveys of the history of modern Europe and the Far East, Government of the United States, contemporary foreign governments, and military government; ordnance, to provide an understanding of the proper maintenance and intelligent employment of ordnance equipment; and military art and engineering, which might more appropriately be called military history and Army engineering. Of the time devoted to academic studies, roughly 60 percent was given to the sciences and 40 percent to the humanities. The Department of Tactics conducted the requisite basic military training; this included physical education and leadership training in the form of a new four-year course in the psychology of military leadership. The Department of Tactics also supervised the demerit system for cadet derelictions or failure to comply with regulations, and an aptitude rating system. Cadets are subject to discharge for deficiency in either conduct or military aptitude. Approximately 40 percent of the curriculum was allotted to military training with the bulk being presented during three summer periods. In the first year, July and August were devoted to orienting the new cadet and to a program of basic military instruction very similar to the basic training given Army enlisted men. With the beginning of academic study in the fall, military

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training was curtailed so that each cadet received only two periods of military instruction each week. The Fourth Classman learned the tactics of the infantry squad, rudimentary artillery gunnery, and the use of individual weapons such as the rifle, pistol, and grenade. At the completion of Fourth Class year, cadets were given a leave of absence of one month, after which they returned to West Point for two months of military instruction at Camp Buckner on the West Point reservation. Here the cadet was afforded the opportunity of actually firing artillery, tank weapons, and weapons of the infantry regiment. The program also included practical military engineering, signal communications, quartermaster operations, field exercises of the infantry squad, tank and wheeled vehicle driving, tactics of mechanized cavalry, and anti-aircraft artillery. During the Third Class academic year the level of training was raised to include courses in tactics and technique of the infantry platoon and organization and functioning of artillery and armored units. The Second Class summer training period, following a onemonth leave, consisted of a three-week indoctrination course on the Air Force, one week of air-borne training, and two weeks of training in amphibious operations. For the Air Force indoctrination, the cadets were flown to Air Force stations ranging from Langley Field, Virginia, to Biggs Field at El Paso, Texas. Instruction was presented in the organization, equipment, and tactics of all types of Air Force units. Shortly after returning to West Point from the air training trip the class joined the Second Class from the United States Naval Academy for two weeks' training in amphibious operations at the Navy's Amphibious Training Base at Little Creek, Virginia. During Second Class academic year, military training, increasing in scope, included instruction in troop movement, supply, staff procedure, and the tactics of the infantry company.

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At the beginning of the summer, the First Class cadets were taken on another air trip to Army and Air Force posts for advanced instruction. The remainder of the summer was spent in assisting in the administration and training of the under classes, when First Classmen performed the duties of junior officers and thereby learned by doing. To complete the four-year military training program, the instruction included the supervision and operation of a mess, the handling of organizational funds and supplies, and the planning and supervising of unit athletic programs. To supplement the programs of instruction conducted by the academic departments and the Department of Tactics, the General Lecture Committee arranged lectures by leading figures in military and civilian fields for presentation throughout the academic year. The majority of the 52 lectures presented during the academic year 1947-1948 were of the departmental series and were allied with the field of social science. While there are variations in the specific methods used in teaching the different academic subjects, the following general policies 3 apply to practically all subjects: a. The average number of men in each section is 12 for the Fourth Class (Freshman) year, 13 for the Third Class (Sophomore) year, 14 for the Second Class (Junior) year, and 15 for the First Class (Senior) year. b. Cadets are arranged in sections according to their standing in each subject, those with the highest standing being in the first section. Sections are rearranged monthly on the basis of current standings. The lowest sections are usually smaller than the highest, so as to permit of more individual instruction. c. In most departments instructors are rotated monthly among the sections. d. Through regular conferences the department heads coordinate the instruction and secure uniformity. 3 U.S. Military Academy, Report of the Superintendent on the Three Year Course of Instruction at the United States Military Academy ( We9t Point, 1943), Exhibit I, pp. 1 - 2 ; these policies are repeated verbatim in Post War Curriculum, p. 27.

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MISSION

e. Each cadet recites every day and is marked on his recitation. The marks are published weekly. In addition, monthly, term (semester), and yearly standings in each subject are computed and published. Combined standings for all subjects are computed at the end of the academic year. f. On the average, a review is held after each three "advance" lessons. At the end of each semester, written general reviews are given, each of which covers the material contained in from 5 to 10 lessons. The general reviews have double weight. A cadet deficient in a course at the end of the general reviews is required to take a final examination on the work of the semester. If he fails the examination, he is either discharged or—in a small number of cases—is turned back to join the next class. Cadets discharged for deficiency in only one subject are allowed to take a reexamination at the end of 60 days. Those who pass the reexamination join the next lower class. g. In order to be eligible for corps athletic squads and other extracurricular activities, cadets must maintain proficiency in all subjects. Otherwise they are barred from participation. h. Additional instruction is given those cadets who apply for it. Usually no more than three cadets are assigned to one instructor. This instruction, which is given late in the afternoon each day, is not conducted as a formal recitation, but the time is spent in answering questions and in explaining points that have not been understood by the cadets. i. In general, the length of morning periods is approximately 80 minutes for the sciences and 70 minutes for other subjects. Afternoon periods are approximately one hour. Laboratory periods last for about two hours. A cadet ordinarily attends two classes in the morning and one in the afternoon. T h e teaching staff is drawn largely from Military A c a d e m y graduates. A f e w p r o f e s s i o n a l teachers are represented in most departments and m o r e p r o b a b l y will be added since, in 1 9 4 6 , the W a r Department granted authority for the Superintendent to r e c o m m e n d q u a l i f i e d c i v i l i a n instructors in the Officers Reserve Corps for duty at the a c a d e m y . 4 T h e a c a d e m y is now far removed from the small, neglected school of Jonathan W i l l i a m s ' s day, with its itinerant Engineer 1 Maj. Gen. Maxwell D. Taylor, Survey of the Current Situation States Military Academy (West Point, July 16, 1946).

at the

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officers as a teaching staff, and its irregular financial support. It is certainly far removed from the school of Alden Partridge's day, the school of practical military training where book learning could not have been of great importance. In those formative years, the Military Academy paralleled closely the development of professional education in the United States. Just as the prospective clergyman in early America gained his knowledge of theology before the pulpit of his master, the aspiring physician studied in the office of a physician, and the law student read in the lawyer's office, so the young apprentice to the military profession sought the situation of cadet to gain experience in the company of his preceptor. It was only with the administration of Sylvanus Thayer that military education entered its modern phase and the United States Military Academy emerged as the professional school of the American Army officer. No doubt that is why Thayer, who took office after the Military Academy had been in existence for fifteen years, is referred to as its " F a t h e r . " In its early days the academy was not only unique in its objective of training American Army officers, it was also unique in the American educational scene in that it recognized the right of science to equal or superior rank as compared with the classical discipline in college training. It may have been a coincidence that the training necessary for the professional Army officer was also useful for the civil engineering work of a new and undeveloped country and that West Point teachers and graduates were sought after by the technological schools. For almost half a century West Point held a monopoly on engineering education in the United States and brought to the raw, sprawling giant of a nation a graft of the technical theory and technological art of that product of the French Revolution, the École Polytechnique. Sylvanus Thayer's amazingly successful transplantation of French language, texts, and methods upon American youth and within the framework of the American political, social, and economic scene reached its fruition

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in the years before the Civil War. Because of the achievements of West Point graduates in the vast engineering projects of internal improvement, and because of the reputation for military ingenuity won by them in the Mexican War, the Military Academy successfully lived through all opposition to its existence in democratic America. The Civil War further revealed West Point's achievement in another field, the training of Army officers who subordinated themselves to the leadership of a democratic Republic for national service. This mode of behavior stemmed from the professional tradition of the Army officer, from his oath of allegiance, from the wearing of the uniform, from the daily subordination to seniors who had devoted their years to national service, and from schooling which held out only the promise of a commission as an officer in the United States Army. After 1865 West Point gloried in the achievements of its graduates, expressed self-satisfaction, and relaxed in its relative maturity. West Point no longer levied on the culture and military art of the world ; and the academy remained relatively undisturbed for a long period of peace. Other colleges were adding many new courses; faculties were diversifying their interests and schools competed for students; the ideas of Emerson and Wayland on elective studies, and more particularly those of Charles Eliot of Harvard on the elective system and on laboratory methods were winning over more and more schools. Inbreeding in the academic and administrative staff isolated the Military Academy from the world of civilian education. West Point felt that it differed from civilian institutions in that it had a single, clear, practical object in view —that of preparing junior officers for service—and that as this object had never changed, the curriculum need not change. It was felt that change would be injurious and that the system which had been so successful in the past should be preserved intact. Administration by an Academic Board of long and undisturbed tenure made this possible. But warfare was changing,

WEST POINT'S MISSION

217

science and technology were changing, the body of knowledge was expanding, military expenditures were growing, and the Army was growing in power and importance. By the tum of the century, officers were called upon to govern whole peoples in tropical service. There were gigantic engineering projects to look to—a Panama canal, perhaps a Nicaraguan canal. Service schools and graduate study had expanded to the point that the academy could no longer be certain that its graduates were fully trained junior officers. The organization of the General Staff and the Army War College, and, in the field of technology, the development of specialized schools of engineering forced the academy to accept what it felt to be a diminished role in the American scheme of military and civilian education. In self-defense, and almost as a form of justification, the academy authorities pointed to their superior honor system and their emphasis on character training. At the same time, hesitantly and tentatively, they began to cast about to see what civilian colleges were doing, to study their courses, their methods, their textbooks, their staff organization, and to adapt them conservatively to the now fixed and traditional ways of West Point."' Adaptation to the expansion of knowledge and the broader role of the Army officer lagged, and it is small exaggeration to say that it was the impact of World War I and its aftermath which reformed the Military Academy mission so that it has now come "to provide a balanced liberal education in the arts and sciences, and to provide a broad basic military education," which includes an extensive physical education program involving every cadet. The Military Academy cannot claim to be a perfect instru5 One may well take paragrapli three of the Regulations for 1902 as marking the change at the Military Academy from extreme introversion to a return to the mainstream of American education. This regulation provided for sabbatical leaves for the professors for their general professional improvement and for tours of observation of educational methods pursued at other institutions in the United States and elsewhere.

218

WEST POINT'S MISSION

ment for its object; nor does it make such a claim. Continuous self-criticism would be necessary to approach such a goal. Nor ought the Military Academy be free of well-informed public criticism. In recent years persistent attacks have revolved around the question as to whether his training fits the graduate to comprehend the nature of democracy and the role of the military in a democracy. The public mind seems to be receptive to statements about West Point's "authoritarian and dictatorial temper." 6 Strangely enough nothing is said about the system of Congressional nomination to the academy, whereby most appointments are still in the realm of political patronage. In a historical sense this system seems to have operated toward a democratic end, in that every section of the country has reaped the benefits from the national academy, and no one party holds a monopoly of its appointments. The standard for admission, which provides no great hurdle for the average secondary school graduate, has also operated to the same democratic end. West Point is not comparable to any other military school. It does not serve the same purpose as the Royal Military College at Sandhurst or the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich, which until very recently were 18-month schools of application, associated with an army in which commissions were obtained by purchase until 1871, and where at least until 1938 social and economic station played a role in the selection of the officer candidate. West Point has never been comparable to the French military schools like the École Polytechnique in Paris or the École Speciale Militaire at St. Cyr, which draw their students from civilian sources by special examination and in effect draw upon the intellectual élite of the nation.7 6 Arthur E. Morgan, "Conscription and the West Point Mercury, February, 1946, pp. 159-68 ; Merle E. Curti and The University of Wisconsin (Madison, 1949), I, 415. 7 Colonel H. B. Beukema, op. cit.; Henry Barnard, Courses of Instruction in the Science and Art of War (New

Mind," The American Vernon R. Carstensen, Military Schools and York, 1872). Barnard's

WEST POINT'S MISSION

219

The Military Academy is now an undergraduate school which aims to give a broad foundation of culture to its cadets; it does not attempt to produce finished second lieutenants of any arm of the service. In order to fulfill its role in the scheme of American military and civilian education, the academic standards for admission are adjusted to the level of the secondary school graduate; the four-year course is closely coordinated with that of service schools where the graduates, shortly after leaving West Point, receive specialized training to qualify them as second lieutenants in the various arms and services. As for a comparison with civilian institutions, West Point is unlike any of the liberal arts schools which have a multiplicity of objectives for their students, or the private military schools, whose main objective is the production of men for the civilian professions. In academic content, many parallels can be drawn between West Point and the major technical schools of America, but certainly none in physical regimen, military and professional training, nor in its emphasis upon leadership, soldierly honor and character training, all pointed toward the single goal of forming a professional American Army officer.8 study is the most detailed comparative study of military schools ever made by an American. 8 Maj. Gen. Maxwell D. Taylor, West Point, Its Objectives and Methods (West Point, November, 1947).

APPENDICES

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226

APPOINTMENTS AND REQUIREMENTS III: APPOINTMENTS AND ENTRANCE REQUIREMENTS

of the Military Academy is 2,496 cadets. Normally, about 700 vacancies are available each year. Candidates may be nominated for these vacancies within the year preceding the regular date of admission—the first weekday in July. Appointments to the Corps of Cadets are made on the basis of established quotas, by United States Senators and Representatives in Congress; by the President and Vice President; by the Departments of the Army and Air Force; and by other nominating authorities. About 85 percent of appointments are controlled by Senators and Representatives. Many of these Congressmen hold competitive examinations to select the best-qualified applicants. Every year appointments are also available to the enlisted personnel of the Regular Army and of the National Guard. The number of these allotted appointments, 180, is second only to the Congressional authorization. In a normal year approximately 50 vacancies are available in these categories. The number of candidates nominated may be four times the number of vacancies. The available vacancies are awarded to those competitors (found qualified physically and in physical aptitude) who attain the highest proficient scores on a competitive examination. Eighty-nine appointments, commonly referred to as Presidential appointments because they are made by the personal selection of the Chief Executive, are normally reserved for the sons of members of the Regular Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps. In an average year there may be about 25 vacancies available from this source. Two other types of appointments are those allotted to sons of deceased veterans of World War I and II and those allocated to honor military schools. Vacancies of the first group are reserved for the sons of members of the land, air, or naval forces who died as a direct result of war service. Just as for the Regular Army and Presidential appointments, candidates must undergo the regular entrance examination in March, and those receiving the highest scores are selected. Vacancies available to honor military schools are distributed to schools which have qualified for inclusion on a roster maintained by the Adjutant General. In the same manner as is followed for Congressional vacancies, the head of each school concerned may nominate four honor graduates, who are subject to the same mental and physical tests as are Congressional appointees. T H E AUTHORIZED STRENGTH

APPOINTMENTS AND REQUIREMENTS GENERAL

227

REQUIREMENTS

On the day of admission to the Military Academy (first weekday in July) a candidate must have attained the age of 17 years and must not have reached the age of 22. This upper age limit is raised in the case of a veteran of World War II who has served honorably in the armed forces for at least one year; such a veteran is eligible for admission until he attains the age of 24 years. Every candidate must undergo three types of examination : mental, medical, and physical aptitude. There are two basic educational requirements: 1. All candidates are required to take the West Point aptitude test. This is a one-hour examination requiring no special preparation and consisting of an elementary mathematics section and a language section. 2. All candidates must qualify in United States history, either by presenting evidence that they have satisfactorily completed a standard course or its equivalent (one year in secondary school or one semester in college), or by passing the special examination.

A candidate who seeks to qualify under a competitive appointment must undergo the regular examination in mathematics and in English, regardless of the extent and quality of his scholastic record. There are four methods by which a candidate may qualify mentally for a noncompetitive appointment, the method, depending largely upon the extent and quality of his scholastic record. ]. If a candidate is unable to present an acceptable secondary school certificate (see next paragraph) he must pass the regular examination in mathematics and in English. 2. A candidate whose secondary school record is accepted may qualify by passing the validating examination in mathematics and in English. An acceptable secondary school record must indicate graduation from the school with satisfactory grades accounting for not less than 15 units' credit. Seven of the 15 units' credit must be in the following required courses: Mathematics (algebra, first year). Mathematics (algebra, second year). Mathematics (plane geometry). English, first year. English, second year. English, third year. History, American. 3. A candidate who is in his final year in secondary school may have his record accepted subject to his attaining good grades, and being graduated from the school, provided his record indicates that he will have the required 15 units described above. 4. A secondary school certificate as described above, supplemented by a report from the college entrance examination board indicating that the candidate has attained satisfactory grades in its scholastic aptitude test on a date prior

228

APPOINTMENTS AND REQUIREMENTS

to the scheduled validating examination, may be accepted by the authorities of the Military Academy as adequate evidence of the mental qualifications of the candidate. In such instance the validating examination will not be required. A candidate may qualify mentally by passing only the West Point aptitude test if he is able to present an acceptable record of at least one semester's credits earned at a recognized college, university, or technical school, provided that he was admitted to the college after having earned in secondary school the 15-unit credits described above. PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS

Every candidate is required to undergo a thorough physical examination at the conclusion of his mental examinations. In order to pass this physical examination, a candidate must be in excellent health and have no disqualifying defects. His hearing must be normal ( 1 5 / 1 5 ) , each ear for the whispered voice, and the ears must be free from acute or chronic disease. Vision must not fall below 2 0 / 3 0 in either eye without glasses, correctible with glasses to 2 0 / 2 0 in each eye. Both eyes must be free from disease. No candidate will be accepted unless he has a minimum of twelve masticating teeth and eight incisor teeth, all of which must be so opposed as to serve the purpose of incision and mastication. PHYSICAL APTITUDE TEST

Every candidate will be required to take a one-hour test in physical aptitude designed to measure neuro-muscular coordination, muscular power, endurance, and flexibility. The candidate will be required to obtain a passing score on the total examination in order to qualify for admission. 1 1 For more detailed information about appointments and entrance requirements, address The Adjutant General, Department of the Army, Washington 25, D.C.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

MANUSCRIPT SOURCES

Official UNITED STATES ARMY

Judge Advocate General. Proceedings of the Court of Inquiry on Captain Alden Partridge, March 15-April 12, 1816. Details of Partridge's administration, for which few records exist, may be gleaned from this and the following court record. Proceedings of a General Court Martial Convened at West Point on the 20th October, 1817. Record Books. Orderly book kept in and near New York, April, May, and June, 1776. Orderly Book kept at West Point and vicinity, July-August 22, 1780. Order Books Nos. 62, 69, 70, 77, 86, 9 4 , 9 7 , and 98 include General, Brigade, and Garrison Orders dated at West Point and the West Point area. Manuscripts Division, Library of Congress. The New-York Historical Society also has a number of Order Books associated with West Point. Orderly Books of the Corps of Artillerists and Engineers, May 7, 1795-May 19, 1799. 4 vols. Orderly Book for the Company of Bombardiers stationed at West Point, June 18,181S-February, 1817. Contains also accounts, roster, etc. West Point. West Point Letter Books, 1784-1790. Quartermaster's Store Waste Book, West Point, N.Y., 1785-1806. UNITED STATES MILITARY ACADEMY

Adjutant General. General and miscellaneous letters received. Register. 15 vols. 1838-1910. Manuscript and letter press copies. Letters. 4 4 vols. 1838-1910. Manuscript and letter press copies. Register of letters received. 3 vols. 1838-1856. Board of Appraisers, 1790-1797. Manuscripts Division, Library of Congress. Reports and letters preliminary to the purchase of West Point.

230

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Board of Visitors. 3 vols., 1819-1850; 1 vol., 1901-1905. This series includes the reports of the first board of 1815. The reports are available in print. Corps of Cadets. Headquarters. Orders. 10 vols. 1838-1899. Register of Delinquencies. 61 vols. 1818-1909. Department of West Point. Letter book. 2 vols. 3 / 3 / 1 8 7 7 - 8 / 3 1 / 1 8 8 2 . Order Book. Vol. I : 3 / 3 / 1 8 7 7 - 8 / 3 1 / 1 8 8 2 . Vol. I I : June, 1 8 8 2 Aug. 31,1882. Dialectic Society Journal. 1840-1844. Economics Department. A Wartime History of the United States Military Academy. Typed. Headquarters. General orders, special orders, memoranda, circulars. Index. 1866-1905. 12 vols, in 3. West Point, 1866-1905. General orders, special orders, special and general court-martial orders, circulars and memoranda, 1905-1947. 20 vols. West Point, 1905-1947. — - Post Orders. 7 vols., 1817-1838; 16 vols., 1838-1904. The building housing the Adjutant's office was burned on the night of Feb. 19, 1838. The next day new Order Books were used, initiating a new series of records. A few days later the old order books were retrieved but other types of records appear to have been destroyed. General Bailey, William W. Diary. The USMA Library has fragmentary diaries, recollections and memoirs of Bailey under various dates. Bartlett, William H. C. Report on the Observatories, etc., of Europe. West Point, 1841. Bonaparte, Jerome N. USMA 1852. Papers. The Maryland Historical Society, Baltimore. Jerome N. Bonaparte was the grandson of Jerome Bonaparte, king of Westphalia, who was the brother of the Emperor Napoleon I, of France. Chamberlain, Gen. John L. USMA 1880. Cadet Reminiscences. Typed. Clinton, Sir Henry. Clinton Papers. Extracts from Vols. 34, 80, 132. 136 of the Clinton Papers, and maps concerning the history of West Point and vicinity, 1778-1781. Microfilm. William L. Clements Library, University of Michigan. Cram, Thomas J. USMA 1826. Extracts from Recollections . . . as a Cadet . . . and as an Officer. Typed. Cullum, George W. USMA 1833. Papers. Manuscripts Division, Library of Congress. Letters for the period of Cullum's cadetship, 1829-1833, are at the USMA Library.

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231

DOrmieulx, Mrs. Theophile M. Recollections of West Point Life in 1853, by an Officer's Wife. French, Samuel G. Letters written while a cadet, 1839-1840, to Omar Borton. Hartz, Edward L. USMA 1855. Papers. Manuscripts Division, Library of Congress. A complete collection of cadet letters. Heath, Maj. Gen. William. Papers. Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston. Heintzelman, Samuel P. Journal . . . while a cadet in the Military Academy, West Point, New York, from January 1, 1825, to July 22, 1826, and to August 2,1826. Hitchcock, Ethan A. USMA 1817. Papers. Manuscripts Division, Library of Congress. Knox, Henry. Papers. Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston. McCIellan, George B. USMA 1846. Papers. Manuscripts Division, Library of Congress. Includes a representative collection of cadet letters. New York Provincial Congress. Journal, May 25, 1775, to June 13, 1776. Typewritten extracts from papers in the New York Historical Society. Partridge, Alden. Papers. Typed copies of papers at Norwich University, Vermont. United Carroll Club, Constitution and Bylaws, 1833. The United States Military Philosophical Society. Minutes and Records Membership Lists, Correspondence and Papers Written for the Society, 1802-1813. 4 vols. New-York Historical Society. Includes records of the Corps of Engineers for the years 1802-1812 not available elsewhere. Williams. Charles W. West Point. N.Y. 1899. Brief historical sketch and room by room description of all buildings on West Point.

PRINTED BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS Official UNITED STATES CONGRESS

American State Papers. Documents, Legislative and Executive, of the Congress of the United States. 38 vols. Washington, 1832-1861. Class V: Military Affairs. 7 vols. lst-25th Cong., 2d Sess.. Aug. 10. 1789-March 1. 1838.

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Annals of the Congress of the United States. 42 vols. Washington, 1834—1856. Commission Appointed under the Eighth Section of the Act of Congress of June 21, 1860, to Examine into the Organization, System of Discipline and Course of Instruction of the United States Military Academy at West Point. Report (36th Cong. 2d Sess.; Senate Misc. Doc. No. 3 ) . Washington, 1860. House of Representatives Hearing on Expulsion of Cadets from the Military Academy, Feb. 7, 1871. (41st Cong. 2d Sess. H.S. Report No. 28.) Washington, 1871. Select Committee to Investigate Hazing at the Military Academy. Hazing at the Military Academy. (56th Cong. 2d Sess. Report No. 2768.) 3 vols. Washington, 1901. There were Congressional hearings concerning hazing cases in 1909, 1910, and 1914. Senate Hearing Before the Committee on Military Affairs, U.S. Senate. S. 2747. A Bill to Authorize Reduction in the Course of Instruction at the United States Military Academy, Sept. 4, 1942. (77th Cong. 2d Sess.) Washington, 1942. U.S. Continental Congress. Journals, 1774—1789. 34 vols. Edited from the Original Records in the Library of Congress. Washington, 1904—1937. U.S. Laws, Statutes, etc. Laws of Congress Relative to West Point and the United States Military Academy. U.S.M.A. Press, n.d. Vol. 1 from 1786-1877, with additions to 1907. Vol. 2 from 1905-1922. UNITED S T A T E S M I L I T A R Y ACADEMY. ASSOCIATION O F GRADUATES

Bulletin. Nos. 1 - 9 . December, 1900-August, 1941. 2 vols. Assembly. Vols. 1 - 5 . April, 1942-January, 1947. 5 vols. Annual Reunions, lst-46th, 48th-72d; June 17, 1870-June, 1941. 25 vols. New York, 1870-1941. Sylvanus Thayer—Educator. West Point, 1940. UNITED STATES M I L I T A R Y ACADEMY, W E S T POINT

Annual Report of the Superintendent. 1877-1935, 1 9 4 2 - 1 9 4 7 . Washington, 1877-1947. Report year irregular. None published 1 9 3 5 1942. Published also in the Annual Reports of the War Department. The Report for 1896 included the most thorough study of the academic departments and the curriculum ever done.

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Class of 1899, 30th Anniversary Reunion. West Point, New York, 1929. Many classes published histories and anniversary and reunion publications. Department of Mathematics. Information Pamphlet. West Point, 1948. Official Register of the Officers and Cadets. 1803-1947. New York, 1803-1947. 20 vols. Published annually, in June. The first published Register was issued in 1819, for the academic year terminating in June. The records of the Academic Board supplied data from which the Register of 1818 was printed, in 1871. These, together with several other Registers, were reprinted in 1884. Report of the Board of Visitors. Annual Reports, 1819-1826, 18281830, 1832-1834,1839, 1857, 1861, 1863,1868, 1870-1889, 18901895, 1906-1909, 1921-1922, 1934. Washington, 1819-1934. 15 vols. No Report issued from 1935 to 1948. Scrapbook about Athletics, 1902-1913.3 vols. Scrapbooks of Clippings, Programmes, Photographs, etc., concerning Football. West Point, 1890-1911. 3 vols. Shields, Inscriptions and Statuettes, Administration Building. West Point, N.Y., 1911. UNITED STATES WAR DEPARTMENT

Annual Report. . . . 452 vols. Washington, G.P.O., 1824^1941. Various reports made by the Secretary of War, 1789-1837, appear in the volumes of the American State Papers, Military Affairs, Vols. I-V. General Adams, Henry. A History of the United States of America. 9 vols. New York, 1889-1891. Adams, John. Works. Ed. Charles F. Adams. 10 vols. Boston, 1856. Alexander, Gen. E. Porter. The Confederate Veteran. New York, 1902. Alexander, Sir J . E. "United States Military Academy, West Point." Colburns United Service Magazine and Naval and Military Journal (London), Part III (1854), 7-23. Allen, Hervey. Israfel, the Life and Times of Poe. 2 vols. New York, 1927. American Philosophical Society. Transactions. 6 vols. Philadelphia, 1796-1809. Anderson, Edward W. "Letters of a West Pointer." American Historical Review, Vol. X X X I I I (April, 1928).

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Andrews, George L. "West Point and the Colored Cadets." International Review, Vol. IX (November, l o 8 0 ) . Andrews, Avery DeLano. My Friend and Classmate John J. Pershing. Harrisburg, Penn., 1939. Army and Navy Register; the U.S. Military Gazette. Washington, 1883-1947. Bailey, William W. My Boyhood at West Point. Providence, 1891. Barbé-Marbois, Marquis François de. Complot d'Arnold et de Sir Henry Clinton contre les États-Unis d'Amérique et contre le General Washington, September, 1780. Paris, 1816. Barnard, Henry. American Journal of Education, n.s. Vol. III, 1863. Military Schools and Courses of Instruction in the Science and Art of War in France, Prussia, Austria, Russia, Sweden, Switzerland, Sardinia, England and the United States. Rev. ed. New York, 1872. Barnard, Maj. John Gross. Letter to the Editors of the National Intelligencer. New York, 1862. Basso, Hamilton. Beauregard, the Great Creole. New York, 1933. Baumer, William H. Not All Warriors. New York, 1941. Baxter, Sylvester. "The New West Point." The Century Magazine, Vol. LXVIII (July, 1904). Beauchamp, William M. "Aboriginal Place Names of New York," New York State Museum. State Educational Dept. No. 108, Albany, 1907. Berard, Augusta B. Reminiscences of West Point in the Olden Time. East Saginaw, Mich., 1886. Berkey, Charles B., and Marion Rice. "Geology of the West Point Quadrangle, N.Y." New York State Museum Bulletin (University of the State of New York, Nos. 225, 2 2 6 ) . Albany, 1919. Bernhard, Karl, Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach. Reise sr. Hoheit des Herzogs Bernhard zu Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach durch Nord-Amerika in den Jahren 1825 und 1826. Weimar, 1828. Beukema, Colonel Herman. The United States Military Academy and Its Foreign Contemporaries. West Point, 1944. Bigelow, Poulteney. Seventy Summers. 2 vols. London, 1925. Bingham, Robert. "Sectional Misunderstandings." Reprint from the North American Review of September, 1904. Boynton, Capt. Edward C. Guide to West Point and the United States Military Academy. New York, 1867. History of West Point. New York, 1863; 2d ed., 1871.

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Bruce, Philip A. History of the University of Virginia, 1819-1919. 4 vols. New York, 1920-1921. Butler, Benjamin F. Speech of Benjamin Franklin Butler in the House of Representatives, February 14, 1871 n.p., n.d. Cajori, Florian. The Teaching and History of Mathematics in the United States. Washington, 1890. Carter, Gen. William H. West Point in Literature. Baltimore, 1909. Casey, T. L. Letter from the Chief Engineer to the Secretary of War. Washington, 1876. Centennial of the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York. 2 vols, Washington, 1904. Church, Albert E. Personal Reminiscences of the Military Academy from 1824 to 1831. West Point, 1879. Cleaveland, Nehemiah S., and Alpheus S. Packard. History of Bowdoin College. Boston, 1882. Cleaves, Freeman. Old Tippecanoe: William Henry Harrison and His Time. New York, 1939. Cockle, Maurice J . D. Bibliography of Military Books up to 1642 and of Contemporary Foreign Works. London, 1900. Connor, Maj. Gen. William D. Statement of Major General William D. Connor, Superintendent, U.S. Military Academy, before Sub-committee No. 1, of the Military Committee of the House of Representatives on May 1, 1935. West Point, 1935. Couper, William. Claudius Crozet. Charlottesville, Va., 1936. One Hundred Years of V.M.I. 4 vols. Richmond, Va., 1939. Coxe. Macgrane. The Sterling Furnace and the West Point Chain. New York, 1906. Cresson, William P. James Monroe. Chapel Hill, 1946. Cu Hum, George W. Biographical Register of Officers and Graduates of the United States Military Academy at West Point, N.Y. 3 vols. New York. 1868: 2d ed., 1879; 3d ed. rev. and enl., 1891. Supplements have been published each decade since 1900. Curti, Merle E., and Vernon R. Carstensen. The University of Wisconsin. 2 vols. Madison, 1949. de Scheel, Henri Othon. A Treatise of Artillery. Tr. Jonathan Williams. Philadelphia, 1800. Dickens, Charles. American Notes. Philadelphia, 1895. Dickinson, H. W. Robert Fulton. London. 1913. Downing, Andrew J. Rural Essays. New York, 1853. Dudley, Colonel Edgar S. "Was 'Secession' Taught at West Point?" Century Magazine (August, 1909).

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INDEX

Abercrombie, 140 Abstinence, pledge of, 105 Academic Board, 135, 139, 142-43, 151, 166, 168, 194; re competitive athletics, 185; Lecture Committee, 202; office of Dean created, 209 f. Academic Building, exercise hall, 178 Academic Building, East, 201 Adams, Henry, 35n Adams, John, 15 Adams, Julius, 50 Adams, Samuel, l l n Administration, conservatism of, 142 Administration Building, 143, 165-66 Admissions, standard of, under Mills, 167; physical requirements for, 178, 189, 226-28; see also Candidates Air Corps Activities Project, 203 ff. Air Force, 212 Air-pilot training, 203 f. Alabama, 120 Alexander, E. Porter, 133 Alexander, Joseph Α., 120 Allin, George R., 157 American Association for the Promotion of Science, Literature, and the Arts, 85 American Revolution, 5ff. Anderson, Robert, 132 André, John, 13 Andrews, Frank M., 158 Andrews, George L., 136 Animal magnetism and phrenology, lecture on, 103 Anthony's Nose, 5,102 Appointments, system of, 157, 169; types of, 226-28 Architecture, competition for design of new buildings, 165,187,201

Armistead, Walker Keith, 34 Armory-Field House, 201 Armstrong, John, 27 Army, resignations of West Point graduates, 65 ; whiskey rations, 105/1 ; vs. West Point, 130; post-graduate schools, 136 f. ; officer casualties, World War I, 173 "Army Blue," song, 147,149 Army Officer's Athletic Association, 185 Army Reorganization Act (1920), 199 Army song, 90 Army War College, 138 Arnold, Benedict, headquarters, 4; at West Point, 13 Arnold, Henry H., 205, 207 Arnold, Fort, 12 Artillerists and Engineers, Corps of, 14 Artillery drill, 93 ff., 177 Artillery fire, studies of, 33 Artillery School, Fort Monroe, 136 Association of Graduates, 132 f., 157 ; centennial tables, 163 Astronomy, 82 f. Athletics, program of, 177 ff. ; competitive, 185; formal recognition of teaching of, 187-88 Atkins, Joseph Α., 157 Aviation, instruction in, 203 f. Bailey, Jacob W., 56,84-85,95, 99 Bailey, William Whitney, 70 Baker, Newton D., re soldierly honor, 155n Ball games, 176 Baltimore & Ohio, 77 Bancroft, George, 42 Band, 93

244

INDEX

Bangar, Goldsbrow, 3 Barbour, James, 111 Bare knuckle fights, 171 Barnard, Henry, 35η, 69η, 218n; re Partridge, 45 Barnard, John E., re the Academy, 128 f. Barney, Joshua, 77 Baron, George, 17 Barron, William Amherst, 22, 26 Barrow, James, 120 Bartlett, William H. C., 57, 82-83; observations on the comet of 1824, 84 Baseball, 182,186 Basinger, William E., 66 Basketball, first game, 186 Bass, Edgar W„ 136 Battalion officers, West Point graduates, casualties in World War 1,173 Battle Monument, 130 f. Baxter, James P., 209 Beauregard, Peter G. T., 118 f., 131 Beecher, Edward, 150 Beecher, Henry Ward, 150 Bell, John R., 47 Benedict, Jay L., 157 Benton, 123 Berard, Claudius, 52; Partridge's charges vs., 64 Berrien, John, 8η Beukema, Herman, 194n Biggs, 123 Biggs Field, 212 Bingham, Robert, 129 f. Biot, Jean Baptiste, 55 Black, Roger D., 157 Blakely, Charles S., 157 Bliss, John, 46 Blount, Joseph G., 120 Boat house, 182 Boats for rowing, 181-82 Bombadiers, Company of, 38 f. Bomford, George, 75-76 Bonaparte, Jerome N., Jr., 101; re cadets at play, 179 Boom and chain, as river obstruction, 7 ff. Booz, Oscar L., 168 Boucharlat, Jean L., 56

Bourdon, Louis P. M., 52 Bowdoin College, 45 Boxing, 182 Boynton, Edward C., 121n, 125; History of West Point, 129 Bradley, Omar N., 207 Bratt, John, 108 Breck, 123 Brewerton, Henry, 179 Brooke, Francis J., 66 Brown, Jacob, 39, 49 Brown, John, 117 Bryden, William, 157 Buckingham, C. P., re Thayer, 49 Buckner, Simon Bolivar, 192 Buckner, Camp, 47n, 212 Buildings, 143-44, 164-66; additions to, 39, 48 f., 201 Bullard, General, 173 Burbeck, Henry, 15 Burbridge, James W., 93, 107 Butcher, Edwin, 157 Buttermilk Falls, 90n Cadet, rank of, created, 14 f. Cadet Hospital, 143, 201 Cadets, early quarters, 21; participation in early meteorological studies etc., 33; status under law of 1812, 36 ff. ; number of, 38 ; life in early days, 43 ; summer marches, 47 ; Jackson's reinstatement of, 50; living conditions, 59, 68, 90-109, 124-144; Army service, 66 ; conditions of service, 67 f.; pay, 68; Class of 1832, 85; choice of career in engineering, 85 f. ; graduate careers, 87-88 ; letters from, 90-109; military tradition, 90 ff.; hazing, 93,168,171 ; duties, 93 f. ; Southern, 113; resignation of Southerners in the Civil War, 119 f. ; service in the Civil War, 122 ff., 126 f.; age limit raised in Civil War, 123; remission of delinquencies in 1865, 125; resignations in the Civil War, 127; postgraduate expirations, 140; Negro, 141-42; Hospital, 48, 143, 201; new traditions, 147; enlarged privileges of, 187; rejection for physical ina·

INDEX bility, 189; confusion of Classes, 194; new extracurricular activities, 200 Cadets, Corps of, 39; reorganization under Thayer, 45; democratic nature, 67, 69; division in the Civil War, 112f.; trips away from West Point, 140-41; adherence to honor code, 154 ff.; in 1918, 172; June Week parade, 188; enlarged by Congressional Act, 201 ; increase in, 203 Cadets, Commandant of, see Commandant Calhoun, J. G, 76 Cameron, Simon, 127 f. Camp, Walter, 185 Canby, 140 Candidates, Congressional nomination of, 157, 167, 169, 218; entrance requirements, 178,189, 227-29 Carroll, Charles, 104n Carter, James C., 178 Carter, William V., 157 Casey, 140 Cass, Lewis, 50, 80n Cavalry, 180 Cavalry tactics, 177 Centennial, The, 162 Centennial celebration, 162-63 Center, John P., 66 Chain, see Boom and chain Chain Battery Walk, 150 Chamberlain, John L , 132« Chambliss, W. P., 123 Chapel, services in the Civil War, 124 f. Chapel building, 164,166 Chapel of the Holy Trinity, 144 Chaplain, 151 Character training, 150 ff. Chemistry, Dept. of, 85, 138, 196 Chesapeake-Leopard affair, 31 Chicago, University of, 162 Choir, cadet, 200 Church, Albert Ensign, 86, 113 Church attendance, 99 Civil engineering, the Academy as a school of, 73 ff., 107; enabling act, 75; course in, 79 ff.; course under

245

Mahan, 81-82; effect of stress on, 85; spread of courses in, 88-89 Civil War, 216; repercussions in sectionalism at the Academy, 110 ff. ; Academy's special order on April 10, 1865, 126; experience with disease, 184 Clark, Mark W., 207 Class cup, 149 Class rings, 108 Classroom instruction, see Teaching methods Cleaveland, Parker, 58 Clemens, Samuel, 146-47 Clinton, De Witt, 48 Clinton, Sir Henry, 9 Clinton, James, 7 Clinton, Fort, 7,12,21,168 Clitz, Henry Β., 179n Coach, football, first, 185 Coast Guard Academy, 210 Code of honor, see Honor system Cogswell, Joseph B., 42 Cold Spring Foundry, 124 College of the City of New York, 132 "Color line entertainment," 148 Columbia (S.C.) Guardian, 119 f. Columbia University, 121; School of Mines, 87, 167 Combat, unarmed, 189 "Come fill your glasses," Army Song, 91 Commandant of Cadets, 151, 153 f., 179η, 188; list of, 224-25 Competitive examinations, 69n, 109, 214,227 Compton, Karl T., 209 f. Congress, and the Military Academy, 32; law of 1824, 75; nomination of candidates, 157, 169, 218; act of 1901 re admissions to West Point, 167; act vs. hazing, 171; appropriations for a gymnasium, 183; conferral of B.Sc. degree, 199; appropriation for additional land, 201 Congreve, Charles, 4 Constitution, Fort, 8 Constitution Island, 6, 13-14, 178; acquisition of, 166

246

INDEX

Constitution of the U.S., Rawle's View of the Constitution, 129 Consultants, special boards of, 209 ff. Cook, William, 77 Cooke, 140 Corbin, Margaret, "Captain Molly," 14 "Corps, The," West Point hymn, 161 Courses, see Curriculum Courtenay, Edward H., 56 Cozzens, 98n, 104 Crain, James K., 157 Cram, Goodhue, and Ferguson, 165, 187, 201 Cret, Paul Philippe, 201 Cricket clubs, 179 Criticisms of the Academy, 61-73; demand for abolition, 62; Partridge's attacks, 62-65 ; legislative resolutions vs., 64-65 ; Congressional attacks, 67 ; Academy defenders, 68 ; charge of aristocracy, 69; effect of the Mexican War on the critics, 71-73 Crooke, 140 Crow's Nest, 102 Crozart, Claudius, 53, 79 f. Cubbison, Donald C., 157 Cullum, George Washington, superintendent, 122 ; re resignation from the Army, 65; reports re the Academy, 67; letters, as cadet, 94 ff., 114; Biographical Register, 129, 133n; Memorial Hall, 131, 144, 165 Cullum Hall, 131, 144, 165 Curriculum, 138 ff., 180, 184; early, 22, 26, 27 ff., 31 f., 39; under Thayer, 45, 51 ff.; merit-roll rating of subjects, 54 ff. ; reduction in the Civil War, 122 f. ; changes at the turn of the century, 137 ff., 158 ; "every man proficient in every subject," 140; Hubbard's criticisms of, 142; character training, 151 ff.; under Mills, 166-67; under Scott, 168; wartime acceleration, 172, 194, 203; post-World War II reorganization, 193ff.; four-year course reestablished after World War 1, 195; advanced courses, 199 ff.; revision (1939-11), 202; return to four-year course after World War II, 208 ff.; recommendations by

Board of Consultants, 210 f.; see also Specific courses, e.g., Civil Engineering Cushing, Samuel T., 116 Custer, 140 Cutbush, James, 56 Dancing, 176 Dansford, Robert M., 157, 194re Dartmouth College, 45, 51n Davies; Charles, 52 f. Davis, Jefferson, 129, 140 Dearborn, Henry, 17 f. Debating Club, 200 Degree, academic, 199 Delafield, Richard, 76, 115; letter to Totten re Bartlett, 83-84; Superintendency, 180 De la Radiere, Louis Dashaix, 10, 11 Delinquent acts, class pledges vs., 105n DeMasson, Florimond, 37, 52 DeMasson, Francis, 26, 30, 52, 54 Demerits, 54, 211 Dexter, 16 Dialectic Society, 114 ff., 148, 200 Dickens, Charles, 95 Dickman, 173 Dillahunty, John N., 77 Discipline, 59, 86; Thayer and, 49f.; Bliss affair, 46 f. Discharge, reasons for, 211 Donelson, Andrew Jackson, 47, 50 Doubleday, Abner, 182 Douglass, David B., 80 f.; Partridge's charges vs., 64; as surveyor, 80n; resignation, 81 Dragoons, Detachment of, 122 Drawing, 159 f. Drawing, Professorship of, 138 Drill Regulations, 142 Drinking, 104 f. DuBarry, 123 Dudley, Edgar S., 130, 161 Duncan, James, 112 Dunderberg, 5 Duportail, 16, 21 Dupuy, R. Ernest, 41n Duruy, J. V., 161 Dutton, William, cadet letters, 93 ff., 113re

INDEX Eastman, Seth, 54 f. Eaton, John H., 50, 111 École Polytechnique, 42, 55, 56, 69η, 79, 215, 218 École Speciale Militaire, 218 Economics and Government, course in, 195 Education, higher, transition in, 136 ff. Eisenhower, Dwight D., 207 Electives, absence of, 158; new attitude toward, 216 Eliot, Charles W., criticisms of West Point, 193, 216 Eliot, Ellsworth, Jr., 113n, 132π Emergency officers, World War I, casualties, 173 Emmeline, 145 Empie, Adam, 151 Encampment, summer, 176, 184 Enfield, W., 22 Engineering, Dept. of, 138, 139 Engineering and Ordnance Laboratory, 202 Engineers, Corps of, 24, 75n; and the Philosophical Society, 29 ff. ; archives, 30n; status under the law of 1812,36 f. ; and the Superintendency, 50; in the Mexican War, 70; duties, 77; see also Artillerists and Engineers, Corps of Engineers, foreign, 9, 10 English, study of, 138, 159, 215; chair of, 196 Entertainment, 101 ff., 147 Entrance requirements, 167, 178, 189, 226-28

Equitation, see Horsemanship; Riding hall Erie, Fort, 34 Erie Canal, opening, 101η Ernst, Oswald 0., 135 Essigke, George, 161 Ethics, 139; textbooks in, 151-52 Eustis, Henry L., 88 Eustis, William, 32 Evans, John, 4 Everett, Edward, 42 Ewell, Richard S., 107, 113 Ewing, James J., 86

247

Examinations, 100f.; competitive, for appointment, 69n, 109, 214, 227 Execution Hollow, 182 Exercise hall, 178 Extracurricular activities, 200 Fancy ball, 95 Farley, Henry S., 120 Farley, John, 170 Farley, Joseph P., 119 Farragut, , 125 Farrar, John, 52, 56 Farrow, Edward S., 183 Fencing, 176, 181; Carter's accidental death, 177-78; dropped from curriculum, 190 Fenton, Chauncey L., 157 Fiebeger, Gustave J., 16 Field, Charles W., 121 Field House, 189, 201 Fighting, bare knuckle, 171 First Class, 148, 151, 160f.; letters of classmen, 106-8; (1861), 122; re breach of honor code, 154f.; gymnastics, 181; trips to Army and Air Force posts, 213 Fish, Hamilton, 67re Fisher, Irving, 159 Fleming, George, 20 Flipper, Henry O., 141 Flirtation Walk, 150 Florida War, 66 Food, 14546 Football, 178,179; intercollegiate, 184; first organized, at West Point, 185 Fort, see specific name, as Arnold, Fort Fourth Class, 54,148,158 f.; "customs" devised by MacArthur and Sladen, 172; gymnastics, 180; military training, 211; leave of absence, 212 Fourth of July, celebration, 104 f. Four-year course, post-World War II return to, 208 ff. France, contribution to early American scientific education, 80n, 215 Francoeur, Louis B., 56 Frazer, William Davidson, 93-94, 105 French, John William, 152 French, Samuel Gibbs, 113 f.

248

INDEX

French language, 138, 159, 196; in U.S. colleges, 52 Fulton, Robert, 28 Fulton, Walter S., 157 Furlough, 99 f., 147 Fusil of Montalembert, 29 f. Gardiner, George W., 66 Gardner, Fulton Q. C., 157 Gatchell, O. J., 205 Gee's Point, 150,178 Geography, 138 Geometry, descriptive, 99. Georgia, 120 German Flats, 144 German language, 202 Gettysburg, 133 Ghent, Treaty of, 75 f. Gillmore, Quncy Α., 157 Gimbrede, Thomas, 55 Glassford, Pelham D., 157 Glee Club, 200 Gordon, William B., 160 Graduates, casualties in the Indian Wars, 140; service in World War I, 172-73; casualties, 173-74; B.Sc. retroactively conferred, 199; service in World War II, 207 Graduates, Association of, 132 f. Graduation, early, in wartime, 156,172, 194 Granger, 125 Grant, Ulysses S., 87, 132, 135, 140 Grant, Ulysses S., 3d, 157 Grant, Hall, 146 Great Britain, War of 1812, 33 Greene, 21 Gregory, Edmund B., 157 Gridley House, 4 Gridley tract, 48 Griffin, Charles, 122 Grimes, 103, 129 Gruber, Edmund L., 157 Guard duty, 93 f. Gwynn, Walter, 77 Gymnasium, 143, 165, 177, 183, 187, 190; west wing, 201 Gymnastics, systematic course in, 18081

Hachette, 79 Halleck, Henry W., 107 f. Hamilton, Alexander, 14; proposal for a military academy, 15 ff. Hancock, John, 8 f., 146 Hanson, Thomas G., 159 Harling, W. Franke, 161 Harper, William R., 162 Harrison, William Henry, 115 Hartz, Edward L., 106 Harvard College, 34n, 45-46, 52, 59, 105n, 121, 157; Library, 42; Lawrence Scientific School, 88,167 ; gymnasium, 177, 183 Hasbrouck, H. C., 131 Hascoll, 123 Hassler, Ferdinand, 27, 30 f. Havens, Benny, 90n Hayes-Tilden campaign, 132 Hazing, 93, 170; Congressional investigation, 168,171 Hazzard, Richard E., 77 Heintzelman, Samuel Peter, Journal, 97,101 f., 130π Heiskeil, H. L., 178 Hetzel, Abner R., 91-92 Highlander, 145 Highland Falls, 90η Highlands, Hudson, 5 if. Hills, F. L., 125n History, Geography, and Ethics, Professorship of, 138 History, Dept. of, 196 Hobbies, 200 Hockey, 188 Holabird, 123 Holden, Edward S., 161 Holt, 119 Honeycutt, Francis W., 157 Honor Committee, 155,195 Honor system, 39, 150-151, 195, 217; breaches of, 154 f. Hopkins, W. Fenn, 56 Horsemanship, 176,182 ; dropped from curriculum, 190, 202 Hospital, 48, 143, 201 Housing, 201 Howard, Oliver Otis, 121, 135 Howe, Robert, 13 Howitzer, 148, 200

INDEX Hubbard, Elmer W., 142 Hudson River, 5ff.; scheme to close by chain and boom in the Revolution, 7ff.; boats, 145; rowing boats, 18182 Hulbert, William, 66 Hundredth Night, 148 Hungerford, Edward, 77n Hunter, George B., 157 Huntington, Jedediah, 16 Hutton, C. H., 22 Hygiene, military, 184 "Illumination, camp," 71, 104, 148-49 Indian wars, 108,140 Infantry Tactics, 179/1 Intercollegiate sports, 184 ff., 203 Irving, Sir Henry, 147 Izard, James F., 34, 66 Jackson, Andrew, 47; vs. Thayer, 50; re reason for establishing the Academy, 50 Jefferson, Thomas, 14 ; steps toward establishment of the Academy, 17; letter to, re U.S. Military Philosophical Society, 25 Johnston, Albert Sidney, 130, 140 Jones, Nicholas, 21 Jumel, N. Albert, 59 June week, 188 Keais, John L., 66 Kelton, John C., 180 Kemp, 141 Kennett, John C., 120n Kent, James, 59; Commentaries, 130 Kentucky, 121 King, Charles, 146 King, Rufus, 15 Kingman, John J., 157 Kingsbury, Charles, 15 Kingsley, Edward V., estate, 144 Kinsley, Zebina, 21 Kirkland, Thornton, 38 Knox, 14, 20 Knox, Fort, 126 Koehler, Herman J., 161, 175, 18384

249

Kosciuszko, Thaddeus, 11, 21, 150; treatise on horse artillery, 28 Kriegsspiel, Prussian, 137 Labberton, R. H., 161 Labor disputes, 134 Lallemand, Henri D., 57 Lane, John, 118n Langdon, John,8 Langley Field, 204, 212 Larned, Charles W., 135 f., 142, 160 Latta, James W., 129 f. Law, Dept. of, 139 Law of 1812, 36 ff. Lawrence Scientific School, 88,167 Leavenworth, Fort, 136 f. Lecture Committee, cadet, 200; general, 213 Lee, Fitzhugh, 121 Lee, Robert E., 129, 131; Superintendency, 180 Legendre, 52 Leslie, Charles Α., 55 Levy, Simon M"., 22,24 Library, 161 f.; collected by the Military Philosophical Society, 27; augmented by Thayer, 42; French collection, 52; building, 84,143,164 Liggett, 173 Lincoln, Abraham, 118, 122, 124; visit to West Point, 126; assassination, 126 Lincoln, Benjamin, 16 Livingston, Robert R., 8 Long, 76 Longstreet's Corps, 133 Louisiana State University, 209 Ludlow, Henry H., 159 Lyceum, 103 Lynch law, 115 MacArthur, Douglas, 157, 207; re teaching of Athletics, 187; reorganization after World War 1,194 f. McCall, 140 McClellan, George B., 72, 131 McCook, Alexander, 123 McCreery, William W., 117 McDougall, 13 McHenry, James, 15, 73

250

INDEX

Machin, Thoraas, 11 MacKenzie, 140 McKim, Mead, and White, 131/t, 165 McNair, Leslie J., 157, 207 McNeill, James Whistler, 86 McNeill, William Gibbs, 77 f. Macomb, Alexander, 21, 27 f., 79 McRee, William, 34, 42 Madison, James, Partridge letter to, 32η Mahan, Dennis Hart, 58, 81, 87, 161 Maine, 65 Maine (battleship), 156 Mandeville's mansion, 5 Mansfield, Jared, 22, 24, 26; return in 1814,37 March, Peyton C., 173 Marine Corps,-107 Marsh, George P., 117 f. Martelaer's Rock Island, 6 Martial law, and the Academy, 46 f. Martyr's Rock, 6 Mary Powell, 145 Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 167, 209 Masson, Francis, see DeMasson Master of the Sword, 176, 188 Mathematics, 52; textbooks in, 52 f.; importance of, 79n, 138 f., 142; Department, 159 Meigs, Return J., 12 Meigs, Fort, 34 Mercur, James, 136, 161 Merit roll, 54 ff. Merrill, Moses E., 70 Merritt, Wesley, 135, 146 Mess Hall, 143, 146, 201 Mexican War, 61-72, 179, 216; Academy graduates in, 70 f. ; Army leaders, 70 ; casualties, 72 Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, 85 Michie, Dennis Mahan, 188 Michie, Peter S., 135, 153, 160 Middleton, Troy H., 209 Midshipmen, plan to admit, 17 Military academy, early proposals for, 14 f. Military Academy Bill, 128 f. Military Calisthenics, 189 Military education, changes in, 136 f. Military Hygiene, 158, 184; Professorship in, 167

Military science, professional training in, 139; accent on, 156 Military Service Institution, 137 Military training, reexamination of objectives re, 197; World War II, 202; basic course in, 211-12 Militia, state, 62 Mills, Albert L., 165; Superintendency, 166-68 Mills, Samuel M„ 124n, 146, 153 Mitchill, L„ 48 Mobile Bay, 125 Modern Languages, Dept. of, 138, 158; courses in, 196, 210 Molasses, called "Sammy," 146 Molly, Captain (Margaret Corbin), 14 Moniac, David, 66 Monroe, James, 42 f. ; visit to West Point, 41 ; and Partridge, 44 Monroe, Fort, 136 Montalembert fusil, 29 f. Montgomery, Fort, 7,102 Moore, John, 4 Moore, Stephen, 4 Moore's House, 12 Morgan, Edwin W., 112 Morrill Land-Grant College Act, 136 Motor vehicle instruction, 202 Mudge, Robert R., 66 Murray, Lindley, 59 Museum, 166 Nashville, Tenn., University of, 85 Natural Philosophy, 83, 138, 143, 196 Negroes, 141-42; cavalry detachment, 169 New York, harbor fortifications, 32; draft riots, 123 New York, College of the City of, 132 New York Provincial Congress, 7 North Athletic Field, 187 North Barracks, 164, 201 North House, 4 Norton, William Α., 88 Norwich Military Academy, 35 Nullification, 114 f. O'Brien, John F., 120 O'Brien, Lucius, 90re Observatories, astronomical, 82 f. Observatory Hill, 145

INDEX O'Connor, John M., 58 Officer Corps, see Staff Officers' Mess, 165 Ohio, resolutions vs. the Academy, 65 Okinawa, 192 "Old Canary, The," 186 "Old Provost, The," 15 Orchestra, cadet, 200 Ordnance and Gunnery, Dept. of, 139, 158 Ordnance Compound, 164 "Orioles, The," 194 Paine, Robert Treat, 8 Palay, William, 59, 151 Papanti, dancing master, 177 Park, Roswell, 67 Parke, John G., 135 Parks, 106 Parrott guns, 124 Parsons, C. G., 123 Parsons, Samuel Holden, 10 Partridge, Alden, 30, 33, 35, 37, 152, 215; complaint to Madison, 32n; offices held, 38; duties in Swift's absence, 38 ff. ; charges vs., 40 ff. ; assumption of command and courtmartial, 43 ff. ; criticism of the Academy, 62 ff. Partridge, Isaac, 40, 49 Patrick, Marsena R., 91, 92 Patton, George S., 207 Patterson, 72 Peck, William G., 89 Percival, John G., 56 Pershing, John J., 173 Phillips, Andrew W., 159 Phillipson, Irving J., 157 Physical aptitude test, 228 Physical education, program since 1885, 175ff.; Director of, 176; first regular course in, 180-81; post-Civil War neglect of, 182f.; intensification before Pearl Harbor, 189; postWorld War II curriculum, 189 Physics, Dept. of, 196 f. Pickering, Timothy, 16 Pike, Zebulon Montgomery, 28 Pinckney, Charles Cotesworth, 31 Pitcher, Thomas G., 135,154 f. Pitt, Fort, 13

251

Plain, The, 47, 165, 166; "graduation ride" across, 180; baseball field, 182 Plebes, hazing of, 170; see also Fourth Class Pledge of abstinence, 105 Poe, Edgar Allan, 86; quoted, 73 Pointer, 200 Political issues, 116 f. Polo Flats, 186 Pope, John, 93 Popham, William, 31 Portail, du, see Duportail Porter, 183 Post-graduate studies, 137 Postlethwaite, 161 Practical and Military Engineering, Dept. of, 158 Pratt, Henry C., 157 Presidential campaign of 1840, 115 Presidential straw vote (1860), 118 Princeton, 121 f., 185 ; outbreak of 1817, 46 Professorships, 138, 196 Professor's Row, 48 "Provost, The Old," 15 Public relations, 47 f. ; H. L. Scott and, 168-69 Putnam, Israel, 9 Putnam, Fort, 12, 20, 21, 145, 168 Quartermaster Garage, 202 Quincy, Josiah, 45 Railroads, Academy engineers and, 77 f. Rains, 140 Ramsay, George D., description of Partridge, 39-40 Randolph, John, 14 Rawle, 129 Recreation, 101 ff., 147 Reeves, I. S. K., 71 Reinstatement, 154 Religious training, 151-52 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 88, 167 Renwick, James, 57 Republican Party, re The Academy, 128 Resignations, in the Civil War, 119 ff. Rhodes, Charles Dudley, 141,149

252

INDEX

Richards, Samuel, 10 Richardson, Robert C., 157 Richmond, Va., 125 Riding Hall, 165, 180 Ring Hop, 108 re Ritner, Joseph, 111 Rivardi, Major, 21 Robertson, Felix H., 120 Robins, Thomas M., 157 Robinson, Beverly, House, 4,13 Rochefontaine, 21 Romans, Bernard, 7 f. Roosevelt, Theodore, 162, 165; quoted, 134 Root, Elihu, 137f., 156f., 165f.; reorganization of the Army, 138 Ross, Edward C., 52 Rowing, 182 Ruger, Thomas H., 135, 143 Rugertown, 143 Rumford, Count, see Thompson, Benjamin "Rush," 149 Sage, Mrs. Russell, 166 St. Cyr, 218 "Sammy," name for molasses, 146 "Sappers and Miners," See Engineers, Corps of Sargent, D. Α., 183 Savannah, Ga., 125 Schaff, Morris, 116 f., 118n, 119n, 121, 132re Scheel, Η. O. de, 22 Schofield, John M., 87, 135; re admission of Negroes, 141 ; re hazing, 170 Scott, Hugh L., Superintendency, 168 ff. Scott, Winfield, 51, 72, 105n, 108, 122, 126, 140 Second Class, 55 ff., 148, 157, 159 f., 200; gymnastics, 181; military training, 212 Sectionalism, 61,110 ff. Seminole Wars, 66 Sganzin, J. M., 57, 79 Sheffield Scientific School, 88, 167 Sheridan, Phil Η., 72n, 146 Sherman, W. T., 125, 146; re hazing, 170 Sherwood, Walter, 66 ,

Shipman, Herbert, 161 Shureman, James W., 97 ff. Skating rink, 188 Slidell, 119 Smith, Charles, 159 Smith, F.O. J., 65 Smith, Francis H., 55, 104π, 133, 135n Smith, William, 9 Smith Rink, 188 Soldiers' Hospital, 143 Somervell, Brehon B., 207 Songs, 147, 149-50, 161 ; football, 186 South, the, cadet resignations from West Point, 120 ff. South Barracks, 194 South Carolina, nullification proceedings, 114; cadets' manifesto, 119 f. Southerners, 112 f. Spanish-American War, 156 Spanish language, 138, 142, 158, 196 Stadium, 188 Staff, 52 ff., 196 ; increased under the law of 1812, 36 f. ; friction with Partridge, 41; Civil War changes in, 123; status of department heads, 135 f. ; leaders in character training, 151-53; duties in World War I, 172; post-World War II recommendations re, 209; graduates as members of, 214 Standing guard, 93 States Rights, 133 Steuben, Baron von, 13, 16, 176rc Stevens, Hazard, 114 Stevens, Isaac Ingalls, 112 Stevens College, 185 Stewart, Alexander P., 72ra Stewart Field, 204 Stilwell, Joseph, 157 ; basketball coach, 186 Stirling, Lord, 8 f. Stony Point, 12 Storm King Highway, 48, 145 Strikes, 134 Strong, George V., 157 "Student Officer Class," 194 Summer encampment, 90 ff., 99 Summer vacation, 55 Sumter, Fort, 121 Superintendency, changed to routine

INDEX tour, 135 Superintendents, 79; quarters, 48; legal choice of, 50; post-Civil War, 135; office, 143; as leader in character training, 151ff.; list of, 222-23 ; see also individual names Swift, Innis P., 157 Swift, Joseph G., impressions of West Point in 1802, 20-21; cadet, 22, 175 f.; active in the Military Philosophical Society, 24; Chief of the Engineer Corps, 32, 34, 38, 43; ordered Partridge's arrest, 43; appeal for his nephew, 50 f. Swift, William H., 76 Swimming, 181, 190 f.; escapade in 1838, 178 Sword Master, 176 Symonds, 123 Tactics, Dept. of, 139, 151, 153, 188, 211; air training, 203 Taft, William H., 166 Tappan, Christopher, 7 Taylor, 141 Teaching methods, 53 f. ; general policies, 213-14 Tennessee, resolutions vs. the Academy, 64 f. Tennis, 182 Terry, Ellen, 147 Texas, 115, 120 Textbooks, 55 ff., 79, 129 f., 151, 159, 161 ; early, 21-22 ; in 1832,51ff.; civil engineering, 82 Thayer, Sylvanus, 34, 35, 132, 135, 152 f., 165 ; as Superintendent, 36ff.; improvements initiated by, 48 f., 215 ; career, 41 f., 51 ; resignation, 49 f. ; and J. G. Swift, 50-51 ; last years and death, 51/t; Partridge's charges vs., 64; re civil engineering, 79 "There's to the man that wins the cup," 149-50 Third class, 54 f., 147, 148, 157; gymnastics, 180; military training, 212 Thomas, Pierre, 176 Thompson, Alexander R., 66 Thompson, Benjamin, Count Rumford, 15

253

Thompson, Charles F., 157 Thompson, Henry Α., 170 Thompson House, 4 Three-year course, 194, 203 Ticknor, George, 42, 52 Tillman, Samuel E., 136, 142-43, 160, 194 f. Titus, Calvin P., 162 Torrey, John, 56 Totten, Joseph G., 30, 34, 120n Tousard, Anne Louis de, 17 f. Traditions, "Fourth Class Customs," 172 Treat, Charles G., 159 Trigonometry, analytic, introduced in the U.S., 31 Trimble, Isaac R., 77 Trinity College, 185 Trophy Point, 130 f. Trowbridge, W. Pettit, 89 Tryon, Gen. William, 9 Turner, Edward, 55 Turner, George W., 117 Twain, Mark, 14647 Unarmed combat, 189 Union College, 85,121 United Carroll Club, 104 United States Coast Survey, 30 f. United States Military Academy, first discussion of a military school, 14; Hamilton's proposal, 151ff.; organic act of, 18 f. ; early years, 20ff.; and the War of 1812, 31 ff.; law of 1812, 36 ff.; traditions established by Thayer, 49; criticisms and defense, 61-73; Partridge's charges vs., 62-64; resolutions vs., 64-65; comparative economy of education at, 67 f. ; replies to criticisms, 67 f. ; system of appointments, 68 f. ; charge of aristocracy, 69; observatory, 84; special order on April 10, 1865, 126; defenders, 128ff.; monuments and memorials, 130f.; transition period at the turn of the century, 134ff.; visitors, 14647; mission to prepare for war, 156, 197, 208 ff.; hymn, 161; Harper re spirit of, 162-63; priority in physical education, 175; pacifist

254

INDEX

U.S. Military Academy (Coni.) criticisms, 192; Eliot vs., 193; criticisms, 199; reexamination of objectives, 197 ff. ; and other educational institutions, 198 ; physical expansion after World War I, 200f.; changes after Pearl Harbor, 202if.; Regulations (1902), 217n; unlike other military schools, 218 United States Military Philosophical Society, organization and functions, 24 ff. ; first permanent officers, 24 ; letter to Jefferson, 25; library, 27; membership of distinguished men, 28 f. United States Naval Academy, 89n, 167; organized athletics, 183; football (1890), 185; exchange of instructors with, 210; training in amphibious operations, 212 Upper Classmen, methods of harassing plebes, 171 Upton, Emory, 37, 153; The Military Policy of the United States, 137 Van Buren, Martin, 115 Van Swearingen, Joseph, 66 Vanban, S. de, 22 Vernon, Gay de, 57 Verplanck's Point, 9, 12 Vigilance Committee, 155 Villard, Oswald Garrison, 169 Vinton, Francis L., 89 Virginia, 121 Virginia Military Institute, 133 Visitors, Board of, 47, 146; Reports, 67, 114re; re sectionalism, 110f.; re hazing, 171; re equitation, 177; efforts toward a gymnasium, 183 Wadsworth, Decius, 24, 26 Wainwright, Jonathan M., 158 Wallace, Lew, 146 Walsh, Ε. Α., 64n War Department, re objectives of the Academy, 197 f. Warner, Anna B., 166 Wamer, Thomas, 59 War of 1812, 31 ff.

Warren, 123 Washington, George, 6 f., 20; letter to Putnam re West Point, 9 f . ; headquarters at West Point, 12f.; re a military school, 14; reply to Hamilton's proposal for a military academy, 16 Washington, Fort, 14 Washington Hall, 187, 201 Wayland, Francis, 88, 151 Wayne, Anthony, 12, 27 Webb, Charles, 12 Webster, "Deannie," 141 Webster, Horace, 132 Weir, Robert H., 55 "We're going home on furlough, boys," 147 Wesleyan College, 185 West, John, 120 West Academic Building, 144 West Point, geography and history, 3 ff. ; Revolutionary relics, 5 ; first occupation, 10; immediately after the Revolution, 13 f. ; described in 1802, 20-21; environs, 102, 145, 176, 206; see also United States Military Academy West Point Hotel, 49 West Point Players, 200 West Shore Railroad, 145, 186 Whistler, George W., 78 Wilby, Francis B., 157, 208 Wiley, Richard, 27 Wilkinson, James, 18 Willets Point, 136 Williams, Η. H., 185 Williams, Jonathan, 18, 21, 30, 123, 152, 214; career, 23-26 ; dispute over right to command troops, 25 f. ; resignation, 26; resumption of command, 26f.; in the War of 1812,33 Williams, Samuel C., 120 Williams College, 177, 209 Willis, Edward S., 120 Wilson, James, 21, 24 Wilson, John M., 135 Wirt, William, 46 Wofford, John Y., 120 Wolcott, Oliver, 48 Wood, Charles Erskine Scott, 146

INDEX Wood, Edward E., 159 Wood, Eleazer Darby, 34 Woodbridge, George, re Thayer, 49 World War I, effect on the Academy, 172, 187, 193 ff., 217 World War II, physical conditioning for, 189; changes effected by, 192 ff. Worth, William J., 47 Wright, Horatio G., 140 Wright, John, 40

255

Wright Field, 204 Wyllis, Samuel, 12 Yale, 121; Sheffield Scientific School, 88; first gymnasium, 177 Yonkers Y.M.C.A., 186 Young, Charles, 141 Young, Pierce B., 120 Zoeller, Christian, 37, 54