College of Arms

“ At the end of October there are annual manœuvres, and the graduation ceremony is in November, when the Emperor makes a point of being present. There is a Military staff college, designed to give further instruction in the higher branches of military science to junior officers of promise. Its students are lieutenants and sub-lieutenants of all arms who have been at least two years with their regiments or battalions, and whose physical health, intellectual qualifications, morals, diligence, and general conduct have shown them to be suitable recipients of the higher training. ”

“ The regents require enrollment and participation of ablebodied male students who are citizens of the United States. These courses include instruction in rifle marksmanship, scouting and patrolling, drill and command, musketry, combat principles, and use of automatic rifles. Arms, equipment, and uniforms for use of students in such courses are furnished by the War Department of the United States government.
These minors are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church and of the Epworth League and connected religious societies and organizations. ”

“ From his experience in the War of 1812 and service on Indian campaigns, General Andrew Jackson while President of the United States in a message to Congress said:
“I recommend to your fostering care, as one of our safest means of national defense, the Military Academy. This institution has already exercised the happiest influence upon the moral and intellectual character of our Army; and such of the graduates from various causes may not pursue the profession of arms will be scarcely less useful as citizens. ”

“ Their sharp cries and frightened exclamations were summarily drowned, however, by a new pandemonium of blood-curdling shrieks and groans which proceeded from the hall. Through the half open door leading into the hall came a menacing shuffle as of countless approaching feet. It was the final touch needed to demoralize the hazers. Forgetful of the two front windows, they bolted with one accord for the door opening into the hall, as nearly as each could locate it in the dark. Had a real enemy been present the hazers would have run straight into the arms of the hostile force. ”

“ It will be recalled that one of my justifications for applying war experiences to university conditions was the share which the college and university men had in building up our supply of officers. If we study why the college men made good officers, and make allowance for the fact that it is the kind of man who goes to college who is likely to make a good officer anyway, and all the other allowances we can think of, we can't dodge the conclusion that there is something outside of the college curriculum which has been an important factor in bringing about the results. ”

“ It is very well to take care of arms and ordnance stores and army stores which would be useful in time of war. It is necessary, I think, to have an army for that purpose. You may have as great a stock of science as you please, but it does not follow that you are bound to make an officer of every gentleman you educate at West Point. I do not think it would be wise policy to extend the army to suit the establishment of the Military Academy; but rather to suit the Military Academy to the interests and exigencies of the country. ”

“ All these schools were formed upon a military model, for, situated as France was, in the midst of monarchies, at heart hostile, he deemed it necessary that the nation should be universally trained to bear arms. ”

“ After the abandonment of the scheme for the amalgamation of Woolwich and Sandhurst, the Council of Military Education turned their attention to the subject of enlarging the latter establishment, with the view of making it a general military college, through which all candidates for commissions in any branch of the service, except the Artillery and Engineers, should be required to pass. ”

“ Here the officers and instructors of the college and the school attached were presented in due course to his Majesty, after which the foreign ministers arrived, and the proper civilities having been exchanged, the royal party adjourned to inspect the cadets working the heavy guns in the gun-shed of the college, a fine solid wooden building, mounting five seven-inch muzzle-loading rifled guns, of seven tons' weight and Armstrong design, similar to those in use in the British service. ”

“ All students are required to observe and conform to such regulations as may, from time to time, be promulgated by the Commandant; provide themselves with the university cap for ordinary wear, and with the blouse or fatigue cap for parade; and are 830 held to strict accountability for the proper use of the arms and other property issued to them. (3.) The practical instruction for all students embraces infantry and artillery tactics, and special exercises with the sabre, sword, and bayonet ”

“ The scholars formerly trained as infantry and are now at artillery practices.” Mr. Gilman very justly observes, that in a country like ours with no standing army, every able-bodied man should learn to bear arms, and there can be no cheaper or efficient way of doing this than by teaching boys in schools.
The Eagleswood Collegiate and Military School, near Perth Amboy, N.J., has been recently organized on the military plan. The scholars are formed into a battalion under a superintendent and colonel commanding, the rest of the officers being taken from the scholars. ”

“ The effect of the war on the college curriculum cannot be hastily measured. Institutions of collegiate grade are slow to make radical changes in the requirements for the bachelor's degree. Some have already shortened the college course to three years. Others have decided as a war measure that students ought to be through college by the time they reach conscription age. Some are offering opportunity for all-the-year-round work. Others are allowing war service to count toward a college degree. ”

“ They are educated for the Technical Academy, and to provide good non-commissioned officers for the Artillery and Engineers. They enter at 14 and leave at 16 years of age, at the end of their third year’s course of study. Those enter the Technical Academy who have most distinguished themselves; the others are sent either for a two years’ course to the Division Schools, or else to the Artillery Officers’ Aspirant Schools.
3. The Military College.
The course is for two years. This is chiefly intended as a preparatory school for the Military Academy at Wiener Neustadt. ”

“ The university which has extension courses in time of peace naturally has war extension courses. The prominent business man of Massachusetts who for years interested himself in state Y.M.C.A. work would naturally be expected to enlist, as he has, for Y.M.C.A. work in France. Now if the college or institution or individual serves in time of need because of a habit of serving, might it not be equally true that a somnolent individual or school, if once stirred to service, might through such service learn always to serve? ”

“ The arms used are manufactured chiefly in the United States arsenals. The arsenals at Springfield, Mass., and Rock Island, Ill., manufacture rifles and carbines; and that at West Troy, N.Y., cannon and mortars.
The United States Military Academy.—The United States Military Academy at West Point was founded in 1802. The corps of cadets is made up of one cadet from each of the Congressional districts, one from each of the Territories and the District of Columbia, and one hundred from the United States at large. Prior to the year 1900 there were only ten cadets at large. ”

“ The knowledge of the military sciences acquired at the War schools is on a very modest scale, nor is it, indeed, the business of these schools to give higher education in such subjects. Hence it is all the more deplorable that the higher intellectual training of our Cavalry Officers practically ceases after the War School, because the practical day-to-day duties of their profession furnishes them with nothing which can replace the need for a higher theoretical training. ”

“ Artillery Schools, institutions established for the purpose of giving a special training to the officers, and in some cases the men, belonging to the artillery service. In Great Britain the artillery schools are at Woolwich and Shoeburyness. The Department of Artillery studies at Woolwich give artillery officers the means of continuing their studies after they have completed the usual course at the Royal Military College, and of qualifying for appointments requiring exceptional scientific attainments. ”

“ Military drill is taught at the present time in many schools and colleges, but the intention of the Alabama University authorities was not merely to drill students, but to hold them under military restraint, as is effectually done at West Point, and, I may add, as cannot be done in any college designed to qualify young men to become civilian members of a great republic. ”

“ Having arrived at the conclusion that professional military education as hitherto given in this country has been begun at too early an age, we are met by what may be called the extreme opposite view, which would suggest the desirableness of giving up altogether education in military colleges previously to entering the army, or to entering a purely practical class or college for the special corps of Artillery and Engineers. ”

“ Officers of the permanent force are, in the main, graduates of the Royal Military College, Kingston, an institution second to none in the Empire. Field officers of Militia can also take a training course at the college, but the numbers who can avail themselves of this opportunity are limited. ”

“ There are in addition schools of musketry, a school for instruction in machine-gun practice, instruction in infantry battalion practice, a school of military gymnastics, of military equitation, officers’ riding-schools, a military technical academy at Charlottenburg, where officers may study the technical engineering and communication services, an artillery and engineer school at Munich, a field-artillery school of gunnery, a foot-artillery school of gunnery, a cavalry telegraph school, and the staff colleges. ”

“ It has more schools in the Art of War than I can remember, and every School has an Instructor who deserves to rank as a full-time Professor. To graduate in one of those schools you must get a fortnight's leave from your trenches or your battery, at the end of which time you return to do a little post-graduate work of a very practical kind with the aid of a machine-gun or a trench-mortar. At the beginning of the war higher education at G.H.Q. was somewhat neglected, and the company officer who desired to improve himself in the lethal arts had to be content with private study. ”

“ It has been alleged by many of the opponents of the West Point Academy, that military instruction is of little or no advantage to a general;—that in the wars of Napoleon, and in the American Revolution, and the American war of 1812, armies were generally led to victory by men without a military education, and unacquainted with military science;—and that in the event of another war in this country, we must seek our generals in the ranks of civil life, rather than among the graduates of our Military Academy. ”

“ Would not the officers of the corps be of a much higher scientific tone, if they spent a longer time at the University, and a shorter at the Academy? While admitting the fact that from the Academy there have come officers who have so pressed forward with the great army of Science, that they have become Captains and Generals in its ranks, it would be flattery to say that the Academy could ever be a rival to the Universities, although it might certainly be an honoured and useful helpmate. ”

“ The enlargement and improvement of our military colleges, the creation of an adequate historical section, are the first and most essential steps towards army reform. At the same tune, we have to provide not only for the politicians and for the leaders of armies, but also for the ordinary voter and for the common soldier. Some form of military education which will make the ordinary man realize something of the general meaning of Imperial Defence, and acquire something of the spirit which is essential to the effective conduct of war, must be brought to bear upon the whole body of citizens. ”

“ He can choose whichever arm he prefers, when he goes to the Military College, as there are departments for infantry, cavalry, field artillery, fortress artillery, Engineers, and military train. He may select his own regiment, subject to the consent of the commanding officer of that regiment, and should the number of candidates exceed the number of vacancies the choice falls on those who have won most marks, in rotation. ”

“ A better knowledge of the exact sciences has been carried into the colleges; the railroads and canals have been built by engineers ready furnished by the government; and now when half a million of men have been suddenly called to war, they have been largely officered by the graduates of West Point. Here we may briefly allude to the most grave fact which has been urged against the Military Academy. The best officers of the rebel army were educated there. ”

“ In fact, so great has become the interest of college students in athletics that much fear has been expressed about its influence upon scholastic work, and voices are not lacking demanding its curtailment. [1] Military training is a phase of physical education which, though it had earlier found a place in the land-grant institutions, came to the fore as a part of the colleges' contribution to winning the world war. Students' Army Training Corps were established at many of the higher institutions of the country, and the academic studies were made to correlate with the military work as a nucleus. ”