United States Military Academy

“ The Military Academy continues to answer all the purposes of its establishment, and not only furnishes well-educated officers to the Army, but serves to diffuse throughout the mass of our citizens individuals possessed of military knowledge and the scientific attainments of civil and military engineering. ”

“ The studies that have now been enumerated, together with rhetoric and national and constitutional law, embrace the chief objects of attention at this institution. A cursory glance at this course of instruction will be sufficient to convince the observer, that it comprehends much useful information. Yet there are many, who profess to believe the academy not only useless, but absolutely injurious, in its effect upon the public interests. They maintain, that genius and courage alone are enough to insure distinction in the military profession. ”

“ If any other youth desired to pursue the same studies at the military academy, they might be admitted, only subsisting themselves. Those students should be instructed in what is usually called military discipline, tactics, and the theory and practice of fortification and gunnery. The commandant and one or two other officers of the standing regiment, and the engineers, making West Point their general residence, would be the masters of the academy ”

“ The effect of this provision is to exclude every young man in the United States who is above twenty-one years of age from the appointment of cadet, while the rules of the War department require that none except those educated at this academy can be commissioned in the army of the United States. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The course of instruction at the War Academy, or Senior Department, has been considerably modified; though still comprising many subjects of an entirely unprofessional character, their number has been reduced; the attention of the students is more concentrated upon military studies than formerly, and a larger amount of time is devoted to practical work. ”

“ With the organization of the staff there is equal cause to be satisfied. By the concentration of every branch with its chief in this city, in the presence of the Department, and with a grade in the chief military station to keep alive and cherish a military spirit, the greatest promptitude in the execution of orders, with the greatest economy and efficiency, are secured. The same view is taken of the Military Academy. Good order is preserved in it, and the youth are well instructed in every science connected with the great objects of the institution. ”

“ The corps of professors and teachers at West Point has always deservedly ranked high as instructors, but there is no "royal road" to knowledge, and it cannot be claimed that three or four years at the Military Academy would count for more, as general education, than the same period spent in any other good school. A very few men of high standing in the classes supplemented their education by obtaining appointments as temporary instructors in the academy after graduating, but most of them left their books behind them and began at once the subaltern's life at the distant frontier post. ”

“ In this way 1,622 officers were added to the service as temporary ensigns. The post-graduate school for officers, established in 1912 in the former marine barracks near the Academy, was suspended during the World War, but reopened in 1919 with about 50 student-officers. These spend a half-year or year at the post-graduate school before continuing their studies in civilian technical institutions. ”

“ There are periodical examinations at the end of every half-year, the second of which, by its results, determines whether the young man shall be allowed to go on to a commission, or be removed from the Academy.
The moral tone of this military college has never, we regret to say, been of a very high order. Excellent men have been at the head of it, and the ability of the professors and teachers appointed to instruct admits of no question. Yet few right-minded officers look back upon the years spent in the cadet barracks except with disgust. ”

“ The nation was given ample proof of the wisdom of Washington, Hamilton, and Knox in their efforts to establish a Military Academy wherein officers might be educated and trained to organize and discipline citizen soldiers, and lead them to victory. ”

“ The few 728 who now remain have seen more than half a century’s service in useful employments. Perhaps it should be mentioned to the advantage of the Military Academy, as a school of physical education, that at the end of half a century, twenty of its pupils out of eighty-nine, should be yet alive. ”

“ The condition of the Army itself, as relates to the officers and men, in science and discipline is highly respectable. The Military Academy, on which the Army essentially rests, and to which it is much indebted for this state of improvement, has attained, in comparison with any other institution of a like kind, a high degree of perfection. Experience, however, has shewn that the dispersed condition of the corps of artillery is unfavorable to the discipline of that important branch of the military establishment. ”

“ The War Academy has for its object the higher scientific and practical education of officers, in every branch of the military profession, on the staff, as also of the higher adjutants. It aims also at the development of all military scientific subjects.
The War Academy has three courses, each lasting nine months, and the intervals are employed in practical exercises.
The number of students in one course must, as a rule, not exceed twelve, and every upper or sub-lieutenant who has served not less than four years with the troops, can attend the academy. ”

“ Such revision should be made of the courses of study and methods of conducting and marking examinations as will develop and bring out the average all-round ability of the midshipman rather than to give him prominence in any one particular study. The fact should be kept in mind that the Naval Academy is not a university but a school, the primary object of which is to educate boys to be efficient naval officers. ”

“ But if possessed of an aptitude for mathematical study, of a vigorous realization of the attributes of manhood, and the courage to endure patiently present trials for future good, and finally, if possessed of an ardent desire for intellectual culture, with a view to after usefulness, nowhere can a youth become so well qualified by an educational course to be a man, as by becoming a Cadet at the National Military Academy. ”

“ The two thousand cadets who were appointed by patronage and failed to graduate, cost the government, directly and indirectly each year, a much larger sum than it would have taken to have excluded them in advance from the institution by competitive examination, and filling their places by better men; and their exclusion by substituting better material, would have been an incalculable gain to the Academy, facilitating its discipline, increasing the value of its instruction, and giving to the army a larger number of competent officers. ”

“ It is absurd not to graduate the midshipmen as ensigns; to keep them for two years in such an anomalous position as at present the law requires is detrimental to them and to the service. In the academy itself, every first classman should be required in turn to serve as petty officer and officer; his ability to discharge his duties as such should be a prerequisite to his going into the line, and his success in commanding should largely determine his standing at graduation. ”

“ A Military Academy was formed, principally with a view to bring forward extraordinary talents and employ them in the civil or military public service. Anyone was admissible. The children of the meanest mechanics and day-labourers, provided they had very extraordinary natural genius, a healthy constitution, and a good character, were educated. It was an establishment designed for the encouragement of genius, and for calling forth into public utility talents which would otherwise remain buried and lost in obscurity. ”

“ Although not a graduate, I have always had the greatest respect for the teachings and discipline of the academy. I believe the U. S. Military Academy has turned out the best officers known to the world's history. Schaff says, in "The Spirit of old West Point," that my class was not only the largest, but the most distinguished during that period. Of this class nine became general officers, and nine were killed in battle. ”