Mr. Canon Mosely attests that the “qualifications of the whole” body of competitive candidates appeared to rise above the general “level of the education of the country.” It is stated in evidence before the commissioners for inquiring into the means of improving the sanitary condition of the army, that this was most decidedly so of the whole body of competing candidates for medical appointments in the East India service. Mr. Canon Mosely concludes his report on the last year’s experience in the following terms: “With reference to the general scope and tendency of competitive examinations, I may perhaps be permitted the observation, that the consciousness which success in such examinations brings with it in early life of a power to act resolutely on a determinate plan, and to achieve a difficult success, contributes more than the consciousness of talent to the formation of a manly and honorable character, and to success on whatever career a man may enter.”
Mr. Canon Mosely attests that the “qualifications of the whole” body of competitive candidates appeared to rise above the general “level of the education of the country.” It is stated in evidence before the commissioners for inquiring into the means of improving the sanitary condition of the army, that this was most decidedly so of the whole body of competing candidates for medical appointments in the East India service. Mr. Canon Mosely concludes his report on the last year’s experience in the following terms: “With reference to the general scope and tendency of competitive examinations, I may perhaps be permitted the observation, that the consciousness which success in such examinations brings with it in early life of a power to act resolutely on a determinate plan, and to achieve a difficult success, contributes more than the consciousness of talent to the formation of a manly and honorable character, and to success on whatever career a man may enter.”
The report of the last Board of Visitors at West Point, from which I have read, I believe has not yet been printed by Congress; I have read from a pamphlet copy of it printed in the Journal of Education. The Board was composed, as it usually is, of men of high character and ability. After a full and laborious examination of the whole subject, they unanimously and earnestly recommend the adoption of the competitive system.
If the appointments to fill and maintain the corps at this maximum [four hundred] can be selected out of the many American youths ambitious to serve their country in the Army, on the plan of an open competitive examination in the several States, the Visitors believe that ninety out of every one hundred thus appointed will go through the whole course with honor, and the average ability, scholarship, and good conduct of the whole corps will equal that now reached by the first ten of each class.
If the appointments to fill and maintain the corps at this maximum [four hundred] can be selected out of the many American youths ambitious to serve their country in the Army, on the plan of an open competitive examination in the several States, the Visitors believe that ninety out of every one hundred thus appointed will go through the whole course with honor, and the average ability, scholarship, and good conduct of the whole corps will equal that now reached by the first ten of each class.
With such experience of other nations, with such examples at home, I submit that we may safely in this republican country give our young men the privileges that are conceded in imperial France and in aristocratic England; that we may safely place competition against patronage, and give to modest merit a chance with pretentious imbecility. I would go somewhat further in the competitive system. I would not have the Army or the Navy officered exclusively by the graduates of the national Academies. If any young man, at his own expense, and by his own study and aptitude for the profession, has fitted himself for a command in either, let the competition be open to him equally with those who have been instructed at the public expense, and let the epaulets rest on the shoulders that are most worthy to wear them. But I do not propose to follow the subject to this extent at present. I shall be abundantly content if the Senate will adopt the competitive system, which has worked so well in other countries and so well here as far as it has been tried, in the Military Academy.
Table VII.—SUMMARY OF EXAMINATIONS FOR ADMISSION TO THE UNITED STATES MILITARY ACADEMY FOR FIFTEEN YEARS, FROM 1856 TO 1870, INCLUSIVE.
Cand Candidates.Acc Accepted, total.TR Total (rejected.PD Physical Disability15Y During fifteen years. [1856-1870: See second table]W Writing, including orthography.R Reading.A Arithmetic.Ge Geography.Gr Grammar.H History.
Cand Candidates.
Acc Accepted, total.
TR Total (rejected.
PD Physical Disability
15Y During fifteen years. [1856-1870: See second table]
W Writing, including orthography.
R Reading.
A Arithmetic.
Ge Geography.
Gr Grammar.
H History.
REJECTIONS FOR LITERARY INCOMPETENCY, BY YEAR:
Table VIII—Continued.—SUMMARY OF EXAMINATIONS FOR ADMISSION TO THE UNITED STATES MILITARY ACADEMY DURING THE YEAR 1871.
Cand Candidates.Acc Accepted, total.TR Total (rejected.PD Physical DisabilityW Writing, including orthography.R Reading.A Arithmetic.Ge Geography.Gr Grammar.H History.
Cand Candidates.
Acc Accepted, total.
TR Total (rejected.
PD Physical Disability
W Writing, including orthography.
R Reading.
A Arithmetic.
Ge Geography.
Gr Grammar.
H History.
Table VIII—Continued.—SUMMARY OF EXAMINATIONS FOR ADMISSION TO THE UNITED STATES NAVAL ACADEMY DURING THE YEAR 1871.
* A Japanese student.
HISTORICAL NOTICE.
TheArtillery School of the United States Army at Fortress Monroe, was organized and opened April 1, 1868, under a code of regulations and programme of instruction drawn up by Col. William F. Barry (who was placed in command from the start), and approved by the General of the Army. After two years of experience the code and programme were revised, and the present system established. The class of 1868 and of 1869, consisted, each, of twenty lieutenants of artillery, and of the whole number, thirty-eight were sent back to their regiments after having passed a satisfactory examination. To this number at the close of the school year (April) 1871, sixteen more out of the class of twenty were found qualified to return to their respective regiments; twenty more are now in the progress of instruction, constituting together one-half of all the officers of that grade belonging to the artillery.
COURSE OF INSTRUCTION.16
The course of theoretical instruction embraces the subjects of mathematics, ordnance, and gunnery, military engineering and surveying, military history, and military, constitutional, and international law. The method of pursuing these studies is very similar to that pursued at the Military Academy at West Point, viz., by recitations, questions, and demonstrations at the blackboard. In military history each officer is required, in addition to his regular recitations, to prepare and read before the class and staff of the school two essays or memoirs upon some battle, campaign, or the military events of some epoch of peculiar interest.
The topics for these essays are selected by the instructor in military history, with the approval of the commandant and superintendent of instruction, and are generally confined to events not prior to the last two decades of the eighteenth century.
The necessary maps, instruments, and apparatus for the elucidationor practical application of the various subjects of the entire range of the theoretical course have to a considerable extent been supplied to the school by requisitions upon the Engineer and Ordnance Departments of the Army. They are kept in active use, and are of the greatest value.
Instructions in the theoretical course is confined to the months of autumn, winter, and the early spring, except instruction in mathematics, which unavoidably has to be given during the months of May, June, July, and August.
The course of practical instruction is pursued, as the weather permits, throughout the entire year, but is more closely attended to during the months of summer and autumn. This course consists of the service of every species of gun, howitzer, or mortar in use in the United States military service; of the use of the various kinds of projectiles and fuses; the laying of platforms; the use of plane-tables, and telemeters, for ascertaining ranges; of mechanical manœuvres; transportation and other handling of all kinds of ordnance, and particularly of the 15-inch guns and their carriages, and of 13-inch mortars and their beds, and of other heavy material which has been adopted into the artillery of the United States.
The practical course also includes very full target practice with every description of ordnance; the duties of the laboratory, as far as they immediately concern officers of artillery; and the study of and recitation in the tactics for light and heavy artillery, and as much of the tactics for infantry as is essential for artillery officers.
Guns, carriages, ammunition, platforms, artillery machines, including hydraulic-jacks of greater or less power, and other appliances, are supplied by requisition on the Ordnance Department in such number and variety as may be desired. The school is compelled to be indebted to the Ordnance Department for the occasional use, when necessary, of some of its instruments and apparatus for determining initial velocities, pressures, densities, etc.
Instruction in the practical course is designed to be as thorough as possible, and no officer leaves the school who has not become practically familiar with the tools of his trade, and able to use them intelligently.
A school for non-commissioned officers, and for such other enlisted men as may desire to avail themselves of its advantages, is also established. Every non-commissioned officer belonging to the five instruction batteries is required to attend the school for one year’s full course of instruction; all other enlisted men are permitted to attend. But their attendance upon school is entirely voluntary.Enlisted men of good character, and belonging to batteries not stationed at the post where the Artillery School is established, are also permitted to enjoy the benefits of one year’s course of instruction at the school. Such men, on their own application, are nominated by their battery commanders to their regimental commanders, on whose approval they are detached from their batteries, by orders from the head-quarters of the Army, and directed to report themselves in person to the commanding officer of the school. Of this last-named class of men twenty-two have undergone or are now undergoing instruction at the school.
The course of instruction for the non-commissioned officers is both practical and theoretical. The practical course is pursuedpari passuwith that of the commissioned officers, but is not carried to the same extent, being restricted to the scope of the necessary duties and requirements of non-commissioned officers of artillery, and to the average capacity of enlisted men of that grade in our Army.
The theoretical course of instruction for the non-commissioned officers embraces mathematics, history of the United States, geography, reading, and writing. The subject of mathematics includes the entire field of arithmetic, and, for the more advanced scholars, it is carried as far as equations of the second degree in algebra. The instruction in most of the branches is conducted as in the school for commissioned officers, by recitations at the blackboard, and by questions.
Since the commencement of the duties of the Artillery School one hundred and three enlisted men (chiefly non-commissioned officers) have gone through the entire course of practical and theoretical instruction for one year, and have been awarded by the staff of the school engraved certificates, signed by each of its members, setting forth that fact.
The following-named officers constitute the staff and instructors at the school at the present date, and, with the above-stated exceptions, have been thus on duty since its first establishment:
Commandant.—Colonel W. F. Barry, Second Artillery.Superintendent of Theoretical Instruction.—Lieutenant-Colonel I. Roberts, Fourth Artillery.Superintendent of Practical Instruction.—Major G. A. De Russy, Third Artillery.Member of Staff.—Major T. G. Baylor, Ordnance Department.Adjutant of School and Secretary of Staff.—First Lieutenant I. C. Breckinridge, Second Artillery.Instructor in Mathematics, Ordnance, and Gunnery.—Captain R. Lodor, Fourth Artillery.Instructor in Military, International, and Constitutional Law, and in Tactics.—Captain S. S. Elder, First Artillery.Instructor in Mathematics and Military Engineering.—Captain S. N. Benjamin, Second Artillery.Instructor in Mathematics and Military History.—Captain E. R. Warner, Third Artillery.Instructor in Tactics.—Captain J. W. Piper, Fifth Artillery.
Commandant.—Colonel W. F. Barry, Second Artillery.
Superintendent of Theoretical Instruction.—Lieutenant-Colonel I. Roberts, Fourth Artillery.
Superintendent of Practical Instruction.—Major G. A. De Russy, Third Artillery.
Member of Staff.—Major T. G. Baylor, Ordnance Department.
Adjutant of School and Secretary of Staff.—First Lieutenant I. C. Breckinridge, Second Artillery.
Instructor in Mathematics, Ordnance, and Gunnery.—Captain R. Lodor, Fourth Artillery.
Instructor in Military, International, and Constitutional Law, and in Tactics.—Captain S. S. Elder, First Artillery.
Instructor in Mathematics and Military Engineering.—Captain S. N. Benjamin, Second Artillery.
Instructor in Mathematics and Military History.—Captain E. R. Warner, Third Artillery.
Instructor in Tactics.—Captain J. W. Piper, Fifth Artillery.
A library of books of reference, professional instruction and general reading, to the number of 2,050 volumes, belongs to the school, made up of duplicates from the libraries of the War Department and the Military Academy, and a bequest of Col. Archer.
A museum of field, siege, and sea-coast artillery; specimens of primers, fuses, and projectiles; different varieties of small arms of this and other countries; instruments for inspecting cannon and projectiles, has been commenced by the Superintendent, as a useful aid to the course of practical and theoretical instruction in the school. It now numbers over 4,000 articles.
The Artillery School has been organized and conducted thus far to the satisfaction of the Department, and favor, with this arm of the service, without any special pecuniary expense to the Government by the present Commandant, Col. William F. Barry—who closes his annual Report with the remarkable paragraph:—“No special appropriation (beyond the ordinary requirements of this Military Post) for the maintenance of this school are now needed, and none are required.”