The Project Gutenberg eBook ofWest Point

The Project Gutenberg eBook ofWest PointThis ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this ebook or online atwww.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook.Title: West PointAuthor: Robert C. RichardsonAuthor of introduction, etc.: Hugh Lenox ScottRelease date: June 13, 2018 [eBook #57316]Language: EnglishCredits: Produced by MWS, Wayne Hammond and the Online DistributedProofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file wasproduced from images generously made available by TheInternet Archive/American Libraries.)*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WEST POINT ***

This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this ebook or online atwww.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook.

Title: West PointAuthor: Robert C. RichardsonAuthor of introduction, etc.: Hugh Lenox ScottRelease date: June 13, 2018 [eBook #57316]Language: EnglishCredits: Produced by MWS, Wayne Hammond and the Online DistributedProofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file wasproduced from images generously made available by TheInternet Archive/American Libraries.)

Title: West Point

Author: Robert C. RichardsonAuthor of introduction, etc.: Hugh Lenox Scott

Author: Robert C. Richardson

Author of introduction, etc.: Hugh Lenox Scott

Release date: June 13, 2018 [eBook #57316]

Language: English

Credits: Produced by MWS, Wayne Hammond and the Online DistributedProofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file wasproduced from images generously made available by TheInternet Archive/American Libraries.)

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WEST POINT ***

East View of West Point from the Hudson River

ToTHE CORPS OF CADETSREPRESENTATIVE OF THE BEST AMERICAN MANHOOD, HEIRS TOA CENTURY OF UNSURPASSED ACHIEVEMENT AND HONORABLETRADITION—THE MOST HIGHMINDED, LOYAL, ANDDISCIPLINED BODY OF STUDENT OFFICERS INTHE WORLD—I AFFECTIONATELYDEDICATE THIS VOLUME

West Pointplayed a great part in the gaining of American independence. It was strongly fortified as the key of the Hudson, and as long as it was held by the patriots of the Revolution the New England colonies could not be cut off from the others and conquered one at a time.

The lack of educated officers was greatly felt by the Generals of the Revolution, and this lack was but feebly supplied by trained officers from abroad.

It was mainly through the foresight and patriotism of Washington, Hamilton, and Knox that the Military Academy at West Point was founded, and their memory is still enshrined there.

The Academy had its inception in very small beginnings, first by the assignment of students to an Engineer regiment until the organic act of 1802 created an Academy with ten cadets. A firm establishment was not made, however, until the detail of Colonel Sylvanus Thayer in command in 1817, who laid down the fundamental principles which govern the Academy to this day.

The early graduates of the Academy suffered much from the jealousy of the old veterans of the Revolution who had no use for the educated soldier. These graduates were too few to make themselves felt in the War of 1812, and it was not untilGeneral Winfield Scott eulogized their services in the Mexican War that they began to be appreciated by the nation.

Their services in the Civil War were inestimable and are known to all who read history. After the Spanish-American War of 1898, the then Secretary of War, Mr. Elihu Root, reported that the services of the graduates of the Military Academy in that war alone had far more than repaid the cost of the Academy since its foundation in 1802.

For many years the Military Academy was what its name implies, an Academy, but it has expanded from time to time until it is a military university, giving instruction for all branches of the service except the Medical Corps, and securing for each graduate a broad foundation which enables him to specialize in any direction by means of the various special schools for each branch. The glory of West Point, however, is in the West Point character, now well known in every civilized country in the world, with its reputation for fidelity, efficiency, discipline, and general uprightness. The standing army of the United States has always been too small for the tasks that have been laid upon it, and at every crisis it has had to train large forces of citizen soldiers summoned from civil life for the emergency. These citizen-soldiers, as well as the Regular Army itself, rely upon the scientific education and high character of the West Point graduate to keep the art of war abreast, if not a little ahead, of the times, and forthe initiative and informing leaven to permeate the mass and to cause the firm progress of discipline and uprightness throughout the whole.

Shortly after the Mexican War a verse was added to the old West Point song of Benny Havens:

“Their [graduates] blood has watered western plainsAnd northern wilds of snow,Has dyed deep red the Everglades,And walls of Mexico.”

Since that time they have shed it copiously in Cuba, China, and the Philippines, and they are now about to take their places with comrades from civil life fighting for liberty and democracy on the battlefields of France.

Hugh L. Scott.

Washington, D. C.,May, 1917.

Thisbook is intended to give, aside from a brief historical sketch of West Point, something of the feelings of the cadet from the moment that he reports for duty until he graduates four years later. Perhaps some of my fellow West Pointers will disagree with me in regard to my interpretation of their feelings, but what I have written thereon is drawn from my own experience and from many conversations with cadets of to-day. The customs, traditions, methods of training of the Academy are, I believe, unique, and they make an unforgettable impression upon the cadet. Especially does he become imbued with an almost indefinable influence that we of the Academy call the Spirit of West Point, and in the pages that follow I have tried to seize and translate into words this spirit of the institution. I have greatly enjoyed writing these pages about West Point, a subject very dear to my heart, and I offer this book to the public in the hope that my fellow countrymen may become better acquainted with the aims and ideals of their National Military Academy.

It gives me the greatest pleasure to acknowledge here my appreciation and thanks to Lieutenant Colonel L. H. Holt, U. S. A., Professor of Englishand History U. S. M. A., not only for his helpful suggestions and criticisms, but for his encouragement and unselfish interest in the preparation of this book.

I also wish to acknowledge the courtesy of the Reverend Herbert Shipman of New York, formerly Chaplain at the Military Academy, in allowing me to use his poemThe Corps, with which I close the volume.

Since this book has gone to press, Colonel John Biddle, the Superintendent, has been promoted to the grade of Brigadier-General and relieved from the command of West Point. He has been succeeded by Colonel Samuel E. Tillman, Retired, who until 1910 was the Professor of Chemistry and Electricity at the Military Academy. Colonel Tillman perhaps more than any officer in the Army is better qualified for this important position. He is a graduate of West Point, to whose advancement he has devoted most of his life and he has made an exhaustive study of its needs. His appointment by the President seems to be particularly felicitous for he possesses a most intimate knowledge of the Military Academy. All West Pointers rejoice that West Point is in such good hands.

Robert Charlwood Richardson, Jr.

West Point, N. Y.,May, 1917.

The Spirit of West Point

Despitethe successful attempts of the architect to give to the magnificent new buildings at West Point a mediæval character, there is nothing about them to suggest a feeling of oldness, a feeling that they are linked with the history of the place. Not until one wanders among the ruins of old Fort Putnam, explores the crumbling works of the chain of Redoubts on the surrounding hills, or rambles over the débris of Fort Constitution on Constitution Island, does he feel the flavor of age, the romance of West Point of the past. It is only then that the imagination races back over the years to the days of the Revolution where it pauses to rebuild the stirring events that filled the daily lives of our ancestors in their desperate struggle for our independence. Looking backward through the vista of more than a century the most commonplacehappenings seem powdered with the golden dust of romance. Interwoven with each event are the names of the men who helped to make possible these free United States: Washington, Hamilton, Knox; and of him who was almost successful in thwarting their efforts, the traitor Benedict Arnold.

As far back as the time of the French and Indian Wars both the Americans and British recognized the great value of the control of the Hudson River. It would seem, therefore, that when the Revolution broke out both sides would take every means to seize and fortify the most strategic points along its banks. Strange to say, the Americans were as indifferent about its control as the British, so that the Revolution was in progress for three years before West Point, the natural key to the river’s defense, was fortified.

During the Revolution the British were operating from Manhattan on the south and Canada on the north as bases. Had they controlled the Hudson, they could have separated the eastern from the middle colonies, which division would have prevented the patriots from military combination and from interchanging the necessary commodities for both sections.

Immediately after the battles of Concord and Lexington, the Congress of New York, acting upon a suggestion from the Continental Congress, sent a commission to the Highlands to select “the most proper place for erecting one or more fortifications.”Constitution Island, and the sites where Forts Montgomery and Clinton1were afterwards built, were chosen. Nothing much was accomplished, however, in the way of fortifications despite the appointment of another commission that recommended the absolute necessity for works at West Point opposite Constitution Island.

Washington, accompanied by General Heath, finally sailed up the river in 1776, and General Heath tells us that “a glance at West Point without going on shore evinced that this post was not to be neglected.” Meanwhile the Revolution dragged on into its third year, 1778, but still no fortifications at West Point. Due to Washington’s persistence, work was begun there early in January, 1778. General Parsons with his brigade arrived at West Point on the 20th of January and began the erection of defenses. The weather was extremely cold, provisions were scarce, the men inadequately clothed, and the troops poorly supplied with the proper implements to carry on their labor. Altogether, a very depressing and discouraging situation confronted Parsons’s men as they debouched upon the Plain and surveyed their surroundings. If any thought could have given them courage it must have been the reflection that at least they were somewhatbetter off than their comrades in arms down at Valley Forge, who, despite their wretched condition, were bravely keeping alive the patriotic fires of the Revolution.

What a contrast was that first sight of West Point to Parsons’s troops to that offered today! Instead of the beautiful level parade ground surrounded by fine granite buildings they found an undulating plain covered by a growth of yellow pines ten or fifteen feet high, without house or habitation. The only point of similarity was the snow, waist high. After strenuous efforts to get logs from the neighboring hills, a few rude huts were hastily thrown together, and then, at the end of three weeks, the soldiers fell to work with a will, building Fort Clinton under the direction of a splendid young French engineer by the name of de la Radière. The cold was most intense, but the men went up the river, cut the timber for the Fort, and assembled it so that when the river was open, it might be floated down to the Point. Their hard daily toil was not relieved by any diversions in the evening, for West Point was a veritable wilderness. General Parsons, in writing to Colonel Wadsworth, said of West Point, “to a contemplative mind that delights in a lonely retreat from the world ’tis as beautiful as Sharon, but affords to the man who loves the society of the world a prospect nearly allied to the shades of death.... News arrives here by accident only.” The poor soldiers had to repairnight after night to their little log huts and get what pleasure they could from one another’s society.

The rigors of the winter and the hardships to which the Revolutionary soldiers were accustomed overwhelmed the delicate constitution of the brilliant young de la Radière. Unhappily, he contracted a severe cold that culminated in consumption from which he died the following mid-summer. Another European, attracted by the justice of the Revolutionary cause, succeeded de la Radière. Thaddeus Kosciusko, a Pole of education and culture, joined Parsons’s officers, with whom he became a great favorite, not only on account of his engineering ability but by reason of his charming manners, soft and conciliating, and by the elevation of his mind. One officer wrote that he took much pleasure in accompanying Kosciusko with his theodolite measuring the heights of the surrounding mountains.

Today Kosciusko’s name is more familiar to West Pointers than de la Radière’s, for an enchanting little garden, a tiny retreat hanging on to the cliff near the river, bears his name, and a monument, in the northeast corner of the Plain near Port Clinton that he helped build, commemorates his devotion to the Revolutionary cause.

Kosciusko’s presence and energy put new life into the work of construction. Shortly afterwards, when orders came from Washington to expedite the completion of all of the forts, Parsons and Kosciusko, under the direction of ColonelRufus Putnam, immediately commenced excavations for Fort Putnam.2The men now daily trudged up the small hill back of the Plain and began making clearings for the fort’s foundation. It was hard laborious work, extremely fatiguing, and, to add to the men’s discomfiture, they were greatly annoyed by large rattlesnakes with which the hill top seemed to swarm.

While the land defenses were being so well prepared, steps were taken to prevent enemy ships from passing up the Hudson. The topography of West Point and the adjacent country lent itself most admirably to the plan of obstructing the river.

The Hudson, as it comes down from Newburgh a straight course of nine miles, strikes West Point, where it is deflected eastward for a quarter of a mile, flowing between Constitution Island and the steep cliffs of the Point before again turning south. Any British sailing vessel coming up the river from New York would, upon rounding Gee’s Point, lose a great deal of its speed on account of the swift current, and if stopped by some obstruction could be held under the fire of the batteries on both shores. General Putnam, therefore, through his Quartermaster-General, contracted with the Sterling Iron Works of Noble, Townsend and Co., for an iron chain 500 feet long, each link about two feet long, to be made of thebest Sterling iron 2¼ inches square, with a swivel to every hundred feet and a clevis to every thousand feet, for which the government was to pay $440 for every ton weight of chain and anchors.3

Photo White StudioArtillery Target Practice

Photo White Studio

Artillery Target Practice

The chain was to obstruct the navigation of the river. It was stretched across the narrowest part on April 30, 1778, and fastened at West Point in the second small cove west of Gee’s Point, and on Constitution Island where the present small boathouse and landing-place stand. Very large logs, sixteen or more feet long, a little pointed at the ends to lessen opposition to the force of the water on flood and ebb, were used to buoy up the great weight of the obstruction. During the winter it was taken up, because the ice in the river was an effective blockade, but when spring came the work of 280 men was needed to lay it across the stream.

Meanwhile, Kosciusko labored strenuously on the forts, so that by June, 1778, the work on the fort in the northeast corner of the Plain begun by de la Radière in the January past, was completed and given the name of Fort Arnold. Later, when Benedict Arnold turned traitor, its name became Fort Clinton. A small portion of the wall stands today. Washington, on a visit to West Point in September, 1778, paid Kosciusko a great compliment, stating to General Duportail,his chief engineer, that he need have no uneasiness as to Kosciusko’s ability.

Additional troops were at this time sent to West Point because Washington feared an attack by the British. In the spring of 1779, General McDougall was at West Point with three brigades; there was one on Constitution Island, and the main body of the Army was near Haverstraw under General Putnam. Washington, ever watchful, viewed with great concern the presence of the British in the strong position of Stony Point because he considered this post a serious menace to West Point. Wishing to be rid of them he sent for Anthony Wayne, gave him a corps of light infantry, and directed him to capture the British fort. A better man than Wayne could not have been selected for the job. On the 15th of July, Wayne paraded his troops for a minute inspection, after which, instead of dismissing them, he marched upon Stony Point, which at midnight he successfully assaulted with the bayonet. The news of his brilliant exploit was conveyed to Washington in the following refreshing message:

West Point, 16 July 1779.2 o’clock a. m.

Dear Gen’l:

The fort and garrison with Colonel Johnston are ours. Our officers and men behaved like men who are determined to be free.

Yours most sincerely,Ant’y Wayne.

To supervise better the defenses of the Hudson River, Washington moved his headquarters to West Point, in July, 1779, where he remained until November of that year, occupying “Moore’s House,” a structure that stood in Washington valley near the shore of the Hudson, a short distance from the northeast corner of the present cemetery. It was built by John Moore prior to 1749, and called by all the people in the vicinity “Moore’s Folly” on account of its pretentiousness.

General Clinton tried to draw Washington out into the open country for a campaign, but the American Commander was too astute and Clinton dared not attack the Revolutionary forces at bay at West Point because of the dangers of a campaign in the Highlands.

Spurred on by Washington’s presence and by his orders, Kosciusko and the troops completed Fort Putnam and Redoubts Webb and Wyllys in the summer. This work necessitated for fatigue duty each day 2500 men, a large percentage of the garrison. Even at this early period, West Point was the Mecca for distinguished Americans and foreigners. Nearly every Revolutionary commander visited the Post at one time or another during the war, and while Washington was here, Count de Luzerne, the French minister, was his guest.

Before Washington left the Post in late November, the troops in the Highlands were distributed to their winter stations. Little money was availableto equip properly the soldiers but they struggled on bearing their burdens and hardships that we of today might be free. That they were not fighting for the present alone, without a thought as to those who would come after them, is revealed to us by an entry in a diary of General Heath who was then in command of all the troops and Posts on the Hudson:

25th Nov. 1779. The troops were moving to their different places of cantonment; many of the soldiers (as fine men as ever stood in shoes) were marched barefooted over the hard frozen ground, and with an astonishing patience.Remember these things, ye Americans in future times!

Remember these things, ye Americans in future times!

In the spring of 1780, Washington sent Baron Steuben to West Point to drill the troops, for he feared an attack by the British. This accomplished officer, a Major-General in the American Army, had seen seven campaigns in the service of Frederick the Great, so that he brought to his task a ripe experience. With Prussian thoroughness he commenced drilling both the old soldiers and recruits of the command, with the result that by summer he was able to write to Washington that he had formed a corps of light infantry “that I dare flatter myself will be the admiration of our allies as much as the terror of our enemies.”

Notwithstanding the patriotic work of the officers and men of the Army, Washington wasaware that America as well as Great Britain was getting tired of the war. “There never has been a stage of the war,” he said, “in which dissatisfaction has been so general and so alarming.” Governor Reed of Pennsylvania said in August, 1780: “It is obvious that the bulk of the people are weary of the war.”

The stage was therefore set for the most dramatic event of the Revolution, the treason of Benedict Arnold. Had Arnold succeeded at this period of the Revolution, the hour of darkness and depression, in selling West Point to the British, we would probably still be English colonies. The loss of the Post would have shaken the morale of the American commanders, not to speak of the paralysis of any movement upon which Washington’s army might have been engaged at that particular time.

For more than a year previous to his assumption of the command of West Point, Arnold had been hatching nefarious schemes to betray the Americans. He needed money badly, due to his extravagances while in Philadelphia. His conduct had not been entirely satisfactory while in that city and open resentment was expressed on account of his preference for the British faction, but because of his military capacity he was held in high esteem by Washington. His abilities led Washington to offer him the command of the left wing of the army then in the field, but he pleaded that he was unfit for field duty by reasonof the wound that he had received at Saratoga, and requested the command of West Point. His desires were respected and on August 5, 1780, he assumed command of his new post with headquarters at the Robinson House.4

Once at West Point, Arnold saw his chance to gain rank and pay from the British. He immediately entered into a lively correspondence with Major André, the Adjutant-General of the British forces in America, who was addressed as “Mr. John Anderson, Merchant.” Arnold’s communications were all signed “Gustavus.” When negotiations for the betrayal of West Point had reached a crisis, Arnold requested a personal interview with a representative of the British. General Clinton then sent Major André up the river on the sloopVulturewhich anchored near Haverstraw. An agent of Arnold’s, one Joshua Hett Smith, returned at midnight, September 21, with Major André in full uniform, a landing being made a short distance north of the West Shore Railroad tunnel south of Haverstraw. Arnold and André then went to Smith’s housein West Haverstraw. They were challenged by an American sentinel and it was here that André entered the American lines.

While the two officers were in consultation, the American commander across the river brought a four-pounder within range of theVulture, and opened a heavy fire upon her, causing her commander to shift his anchorage downstream. Great was André’s dismay at seeing his vessel forced away, for now he was in the American lines and far from New York. He had been assured of a safe return to his own lines, and disliked the idea of traveling alone by land to New York. Moreover, he was very reluctant to take off his uniform but at Arnold’s advice he changed into civilian clothing, thereby foolishly placing himself in the light of a spy, if caught within the American lines. Arnold also gave André important papers regarding the strength of West Point defenses.

It is not difficult to imagine the state of André’s mind at finding himself in a false position and at the same time disobeying General Clinton’s orders, which were not to change his uniform under any circumstances nor receive any papers from Arnold. Under the guidance of Joshua Smith, he crossed the river at King’s Ferry (near Stony Point of today) and proceeded south toward New York.

Although furnished with a pass by Arnold, he was detained by three American patriots nearTarrytown, searched, and turned over to Colonel Jameson at North Castle.

Meanwhile, Arnold was at his Headquarters at the Robinson House awaiting events, and Washington was on his way from Hartford to West Point. Had Arnold succeeded it is probable that Washington would have fallen into the enemy’s hands at this time, an accident that would have ruined the Revolution. When Washington was opposite West Point he sent two aides to inform Arnold of his arrival. They proceeded to the Robinson House and were enjoying Arnold’s hospitality at breakfast when Jameson’s messenger arrived with a note announcing André’s capture. The news must have fallen upon Arnold like a thunderbolt, but with perfectsangfroidhe excused himself, rushed upstairs to tell his wife of the danger, ordered his horse, sent for the coxswain of his barge, and then calmly returned to his guests whom he told it was necessary for him to cross to West Point to prepare for the reception of General Washington. Instead, he rapidly made his way down the river and boarded theVulturewhich took him to New York.

Major André was tried by court-martial, found guilty of being a spy, and sentenced to be hanged. Numerous letters were written to Washington begging that André’s life be spared. Arnold himself addressed to his former chief a long communication exonerating André and taking upon himself the blame for André’s presencein disguise within the American lines. Even Hamilton was touched, saying: “Never perhaps did any man suffer death with more justice or deserve it less.”

André accepted his fate like a brave soldier but he revolted from the ignominy of being hanged. When all efforts to change the mode of his death failed, he personally appealed to Washington in the following splendid letter:

From Maj. André to General Washington, 1780.

Tappan.The 1st. of Oct., 1780.

Sir:

Buoy’d above the terror of death by the consciousness of a life devoted to honorable pursuits and stained with no action that can give me remorse, I trust that the request that I make to your Excellency, at this serious period and which is to soften my last moments will not be rejected.

Sympathy toward a soldier will surely induce your Excellency and a military tribunal to adapt the mode of my death to the feelings of a man of honor. Let me hope, Sir, that if aught in my character impresses you with esteem towards me, if aught in my misfortune marks me the victim of policy and not of resentment, I shall experience the operation of those feelings in your breast by being informed that I am not to die on a gibbet.

I have the honor to be your Excellency’s most obedient and most humble servant,

John André,Adj. General to the British Army.

His request, however, was not granted and in the early afternoon of October 2, 1780, arrayed in full dress uniform he paid the penalty on the scaffold. His body was buried beneath his gibbet but removed to England in 1831 where it rests in Westminster Abbey.

West Point and the Revolutionary cause was saved to the Americans! The shock of Arnold’s traitorous act with its narrowly averted consequences caused Washington to take even more stringent measures for West Point’s defense. Orders were issued to continue work on all of the fortifications and during 1781 and 1782, the garrison labored faithfully and uncomplainingly notwithstanding the great sufferings of the men from lack of provisions. At times the stores on hand were numbered by a few barrels of salt pork and a little flour.

Major-General Knox now assumed command of the Post. After the cessation of hostilities he was very busy mustering out troops and putting the garrison in shape.

Despite the poverty that prevailed at West Point, Washington ordered a celebration to be held in honor of the birth of the Dauphin of France, Louis Joseph, the son of Louis XVI., born October, 1781. A magnificent fête was arranged in which all of the troops stationed in the Highlands participated. Upon the Plain at West Point, Major Villefranche erected a curious edifice, an improvised temple with a grand colonnade of118 pillars made of the trunks of trees. The entire building was festooned with American and French flags, with designs and emblems, muskets and bayonets fancifully arranged. Washington, with a party of five hundred distinguished guests, assembled in the colonnade for a banquet. A series of thirteen toasts were drunk, each one accompanied by a salute of thirteen cannon. During the evening there was a grand display of fireworks for the troops and a ball for the officers and their guests. This dance, led by General Washington, was the first real West Point hop.

The various details left over from the Revolution were now disposed of by General Knox and his successor, Lieut.-Col. Rochefontaine. The genesis of the Military Academy was foreshadowed by the presence of the Invalid Corps which by act of Congress, 1777, was, among other things, “to serve as a military school for young gentlemen previous to their being appointed to marching regiments.”

The dark days of the Revolution were over and the troops could now rest from their strenuous labors. There were important matters, however, to occupy the leaders, not the least of which was the establishment of an institution for training officers for the Army. No lesson of the war was so well learned as the need for such educated leaders, and immediately the Revolution was over, Washington, Hamilton, and Knox began urging Congress to establish a National MilitaryAcademy. Although Washington never lived to see his recommendations carried out, he would have rejoiced, I am sure, to know that Congress three years after his death founded the United States Military Academy, at his favorite Post, West Point.

Whenat last the colonies found themselves free, and realized that they were in no immediate danger from any foe, the thoughts of the people, so long occupied with war, eagerly turned toward the establishment of their new government. It was only natural that the Army, weary of the long struggle for independence, should gladly welcome their release from service, and resume once again the peaceful pursuits of civil life. For seven long years their days had been filled with arduous marches through heat and through snow, with tedious vigils on outposts, or with bloody encounters with the British, and the great mass of the people joyfully hailed the piping times of peace, and without ado they turned their battle-axes into billhooks, and their helmets into beehives.

It could not be expected that during the reaction that followed the Revolution much attention would be given to the subject of military education. As a matter of fact, for seven years this question was allowed to sleep; but Washington,ever on the alert for the welfare of the new country, suggested in his annual message of 1790 to the Congress the establishment of a National Military Academy. In spite of the great prestige that he enjoyed both as President and as the man who had successfully waged the Revolution, his words were not heeded by Congress until some years afterwards.

The Congress of those days apparently was like our own and needed to have a matter brought to its attention many times before any definite action was taken. Washington undoubtedly appreciated this condition for we find that on numerous occasions he spoke of his plan, telling Congress that “it is an inquiry that cannot be too strongly pursued.” His efforts were not without reward, for in 1794 the grade of Cadet was created, and a military school was established at West Point. This school was composed of the cadets who were by law attached to the Engineer and Artillery Corps of the garrison. In each company there were two of these young men styled “cadets of the Service,” whom the Government aimed to train to become commissioned officers of the Army. There was, however, no organization to the school, nor scientific system of instruction, so that the cadets did about as they pleased, pursuing their studies in a desultory manner.

It was not until the 16th of March, 1802, that the United States Military Academy was definitely established by law. Congress then authorizedthe President to organize the Corps of Engineers whose cadre contained, in addition to the officers, ten cadets. West Point was designated as the station of the Corps which was to constitute the Military Academy. The next year forty cadets, to be appointed from the artillery troops of the Army, were added and in 1808, 156 additional men.

During the first ten years of its existence the Military Academy was in a most chaotic condition. It was in reality “a foundling barely existing among the mountains, out of sight of, and almost unknown to, its legitimate parents.” It is greatly to be wondered at that the Academy ever survived the terrible throes of its birth. Almost no provisions for its existence were made by Congress. The cadets were lodged in an old barrack of the Revolution, called the “Long Barrack,” that occupied the site of the present hotel, and their instruction was given in a wooden building called the “Academy” that stood on the spot of the present Superintendent’s quarters. They were allowed to board around promiscuously, really living from hand to mouth. Among the student body there was very little discipline, but a great deal of idleness and dissipation.

In 1812, a new law placed the school on a firm basis and furnished the principles upon which the institution has been conducted to this moment. Two hundred and fifty cadets were authorized and the respectable sum of twenty-five thousanddollars appropriated for buildings. To offset this good fortune, the Academy had to fight against the hostility of Madison’s Secretary of War, Eustis, who tried his utmost to strangle the new-born institution. But happily the exigencies of the War of 1812 frustrated his hostile designs.

Despite insuperable difficulties, the Academy began to grow, not scientifically, but in a muddling sort of way. Where the Superintendent had heretofore been a rover up and down the Hudson Posts, he now became permanently located at West Point. The professors began to work together with more harmony, going so far as to recommend a broadly planned course that included most of the subjects studied today. By the Regulations of 1815, the cadets were required to mess at a common table, instead of boarding at private houses, their age limit was fixed at fourteen to twenty, and their uniform was definitely prescribed. A little order was being brought out of chaos. Annual vacations were granted, to commence immediately after the examination in July and to end on the first day of August. Notwithstanding the excellence of the above features, the general condition of this infant school was far from satisfactory. A picture of its inner life is revealed in a letter written in 1815 by Andrew Ellicott, the Professor of Mathematics, to the Secretary of War, in which he states:

Until I came here the Academy was abandoned bythe Professors and a great part of the students from the first of December until, the first of April following every year. This practice I immediately put a stop to, and kept the Academy open two winters, not even excluding Sundays, without the aid of any other Professor or regular assistant. The winter before last, I kept together more than twenty students, 16 of whom were commissioned last July, and last winter more than 80, some of whom would do credit to any country or nation, and will be found among our future rulers. These extra services are not ideal—they are substantial.

Although Professor Ellicott rather emphasizes his assiduity in his application for extra compensation we must be grateful, at least, for the glimpse he gives us of the state of affairs in 1815.

Better days, however, were in store for West Point. That the War Department was not entirely insensible to the handicap under which those at West Point were working, is proven by the circumstance that at this particular time there was in Europe an officer, Major Sylvanus Thayer, who had been sent abroad “to prosecute inquiries and examinations calculated for his improvement in the military art.” He was given five thousand dollars for the collection of books, maps, and instruments for the Military Academy. Shortly after his return, he was made Superintendent, relieving Captain Alden Partridge whose administration had not been popular nor very successful. Although Captain Partridge wasmuch criticized by the professors and cadets his farewell address to the “Gentlemen Cadets of the Military Academy” was so high-minded that I am tempted to quote it in full:

Before I take my leave of you, gentlemen, permit me to impress anew upon your minds some precepts to which I have frequently before this called your attention. Be attentive to your studies, and correct and gentlemanly in your deportment. Pursue with undeviating course the paths of virtue and true honor; and rest assured that although the vicious and the vain may affect to ridicule and despise, they will inwardly respect you, and that you will thereby ensure the applause of the good and the great, and, which is of more importance, the approbation of your consciences and of your God.

With the advent of Major Thayer began the golden age of the Academy. This officer was a veteran of the War of 1812 in which he had served with great distinction; he had studied the military schools of France, and had profited by his unusual opportunities to acquire a profound knowledge concerning the conduct of an institution such as the military school over which he was chief.

The great talents that Major Thayer possessed were well employed. For sixteen years he shaped the destiny of the Academy, and with such wisdom and foresight that the broad fundamental principles which he laid down for the school’s guidance, govern the institution today.

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