West Point

“ How beautiful and far-reaching the scenery here at West Point. One finds it almost as difficult to get past these highlands as in the days when we found British men of war on the Hudson, for the ringing notes of the red coated cardinal again come like a renewed challenge from his fortress of grapevines to every lover of Nature to linger here, and the note of the thrush with his bell-like notes takes captive many a traveler. ”

“ 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. ”

“ No one afflicted with pulmonary disease should live at West Point.
The scenery, in its winter aspect, looked somewhat like a panorama done in Indian ink, or rather like a great etching: except that the sky formed a blue background to the snowy mountains, on which the leafless branches of the denuded forest seemed pencilled in black and gray. We had our winter walks too: and I never felt a more pleasant glow from exercise than in climbing Mount Independence, through the snow, to visit Fort Putnam. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The survey that I have given in this chapter will show that West Point is indeed fortunate in many ways. Few places have been so endowed by Nature with such wonderful beauty and picturesqueness, and, in addition, a generous Congress has adorned the place with magnificent buildings equipped with the finest that money can buy for the training of the future United States officers. ”

“ A road running between high-water mark and the park gate skirts the river in eccentric windings for five or six miles; the brows of the hills descending to the Hudson in the west and north are nobly wooded and threaded with circuitous paths; and all around lies the most romantic scenery of the most romantic river in the world.
The only fault of the views from West Point is that West Point itself is lost as a feature in the landscape. ”

“ At about a quarter to eleven, the buildings of West Point were seen, perched upon the rock side, overhanging the water; above, the woody rise, upon whose summit stands the large hotel, the favourite resort of visiters during the summer season; rising again above this, the ruins of Fort Putnam, poor André's prison-house, overlooking the Hudson and its shores; and, towering high beyond them all, the giant hills, upon whose brown shoulders the trees looked like bristles standing up against the sky. ”

“ During the Revolutionary War, West Point was fortified to control the river, and a heavy chain was stretched across the river to Constitution Island to prevent British warships from ascending the river. ”

“ The best way to study West Point, however, is not in voluminous histories or in the condensed pages of a guide book, but to visit it and see its real life, to wander amid its old associations, and ask, when necessary, intelligent questions, which are everywhere courteously answered. ”

“ West-Point proudly boasts that not one of her sons has ever disgraced himself, or his country, in the face of the enemy. She can, with equal pride, point to almost every work of importance in the country, and say, “There too, is their handywork.” While the noble works of defence on the frontiers and sea-board bear testimony to the talent and science of Totten, Thayer, and other gentlemen of the corps of engineers, the railroads, aqueducts and canals of the States bear equal witness to the energies of Douglass, McNeill, Whistler, and other officers, who have entered the walks of private life. ”

“ West Point, the property of the United States by purchase, possesses a primary interest from its military importance during the period of the American Revolution, and a secondary one from its being the seat of the National Military Academy. ”

“ To take a high place at West Point is to be a first-class man, or wrangler. The academy turns out a kind of military aristocracy, and I have heard complaints that the Irish and Germans are almost completely excluded, because the nominations to West Point are obtained by political influence; and the foreign element, though powerful at the ballot box, has no enduring strength. The Murphies and Schmidts seldom succeed in shoving their sons into the American institution. North and South, I have observed, the old pupils refer everything military to West Point. “I was with Beauregard at West Point. ”

“ THE REALIZATION OF AN ARCHITECT’S DREAM When the springtime rolls around and the Hudson River is at its best, the annual influx of visitors begins to arrive at West Point. Trains and boats disgorge official visitors, tourists, boy scouts, delegations of various brotherhoods and sisterhoods, and picknickers galore. Little groups of them appear in all corners of the Post, in the area of Barracks, on the Plain, in the Public Buildings, and along the famous Flirtation Walk. Their chief interest, of course, is to catch a glimpse of the cadets, either en masse or individually. ”

“ That is, thought moves in grooves day after day and day after day as walks in life do. The habit of retrospectant thought fastened itself upon me several years ago, and the habit confined itself largely and almost irresistibly to my life at West Point. ”

“ Every American boy takes a keen interest in the affairs of West Point. No more capable writer on this popular subject could be found than Lieut. Garrison, who vividly describes the life, adventures and unique incidents that have occurred in that great institution—in these famous West Point stories. ”

“ It is in the rooms of barracks that the next nine months must be passed, the severe unadorned rooms whose bareness, however, is forgotten in the ineffable sweetness of the friendship of one’s roommate. At no place, perhaps, are closer friendships formed than at West Point. They are not of the whirlwind kind so common elsewhere today, that sweep one off his feet for the time being. Nor are they like some great roaring wind that shakes one’s nature to its depths and then leaves him bruised and torn, but wide awake at last, to spend its force in other directions. ”

“ West Point itself saw no fighting, the great event of its early history being Benedict Arnold's treason. Across the river from the Point, and under the shadow of Sugar Loaf Mountain, is Beverly Cove, with a little wharf, where then stood Beverly House, previously the home of a prominent loyalist, Colonel Beverly Robinson of Virginia. Dr. Dwight, afterwards President of Yale College, was Chaplain of a Connecticut regiment at West Point in 1778, and he then climbed the Sugar Loaf, describing its view over the Highlands as "majestic, solemn, wild and melancholy." ”

“ Such is a picture of perhaps the most enjoyable day in all the season of summer camp―​the beginning of the bivouac in the mountains. Whether the practice is maintained at West Point to the present day the writer is not certain; but in Mark’s day (and his own) it was a regular and much enjoyed custom.
The site of the camp is between two small lakes, Long Pond and Round Pond. Drinking water is obtained from one; the other the cadets use to bathe in. During the ten days of the stay they live in army style and when not on duty have the freedom of the woods. ”

“ Of course money wouldn’t make any difference to me at West Point. That’s one place where money doesn’t count. But if we had a few thousands mother could be nearer me, say in New York, and she could run up to see me once in a while. It’s going to be a long drill—two years at a stretch. But I guess I can stand it all right.”
Tom was about to proceed to the boathouse to hire a craft, when he was aware of a figure coming around a bend in the path that led to the river. A moment later he saw that it was Captain Hawkesbury. ”

“ The first class men were dreaming of their commissions in the more real Army beyond West Point; the present third classmen were looking forward with intense longing to the furlough that would begin as soon as they had stepped over the line into the second class. The new plebes were looking forward to summer encampment with a mixture of longing and dread—-the latter emotion on account of the hazing that might come to them in the life under the khaki-colored canvas. ”

“ As yet Tom had had little opportunity to look at the many points of interest around West Point, with its Revolutionary associations, and the part it played in the treason of Arnold. He made up his mind that some day he would take the time to visit all these spots and see those which history had made famous.
The four chums started off together, bent on having a good time. Money rattled in the pockets of Sam, at least. As a matter of fact, cadets are not supposed to have any cash. ”

“ Then, in looking up the river, the long perspective is closed at the utmost verge of the horizon by the far-off Taghcanoke mountains: the snows that still rest on their cold and lonely summits extending in streaks of whiteness half-way down their dim blue sides.
To a stranger at West Point the commencement of a summer’s day has many circumstances of novelty and excitement that are almost lost upon those to whom custom has rendered them familiar. ”

“ The boy was already an acceptable draftsman, and under the tutelage of Professor Robert Weir he made progress. West Point does not teach such a soft and feminine thing as picture-painting—it draws plans of redoubts and fortifications, makes maps, and figures on the desirability of tunnels, pontoons and hidden mines. ”

“ I certainly would give anything for the chance to go to West Point. But there! No use thinking about it!”
Tom seemed to blow the matter away as though it were some trifle, light as air, and he assumed a manner of indifference that he did not altogether feel.
“Come on, Mother,” he begged, tossing the money into her lap through the open window. “Take a half-hour off. You’ll be all the better for it. You haven’t been eating well lately. A walk to the woods will give you an appetite.”
“I believe I will go with you, Tom,” she said, with sudden decision. ”

“ A bath, a change of linen, and supper made Tom feel much better, and then came a long evening spent on the hotel porch where were many other lads, all eager for what lay before them—eager and anxious, most of them; some so much so that they went about with books in their hands, gluing their eyes to the pages every now and then. They were “cramming for exams,” and no greater torture can be devised for a young fellow.
Some of the boys told of having gone up to have a look at West Point that day, they having been at Highland Falls for some time, preparing for the ordeal. ”

“ The charms of Nature’s hand”
West Point, the seat of the United States Military Academy, is the property of the United States and situated in the State of New York in the Highlands on the west bank of the Hudson River, about fifty miles north of New York City. The grounds comprise 2,550 acres, of which about 200 acres are a plain, some one hundred and sixty feet above the river, the balance being mountainous. ”

“ But I think I can find something else to do. Business is picking up a little. I’m going to be on the lookout. Something is sure to turn up. And I do hope it will be something worth while, so I can, by some means or other, get enough ahead to go to West Point.”
“You haven’t forgotten your ambition I see, Tom,” said his mother, as she vigorously plied her needle, taking advantage of the last hours of daylight.
“Forgotten it, Mother? Indeed I haven’t! I never shall. I intend to go to West Point, and become an army officer.” ”

“ It is safe to say that in spite of all the talk about the severity of West Point discipline, if the commandant of cadets should take it into his head to wander through Camp McPherson every night for a week running, he would find some things to surprise him. He might not find any geological chemists hard at work, but he might find a small game of some sort going on on the sly, and he’d be sure to find a surreptitious banquet or two. He might also see occasional parties steal past an obliging sentry who was looking the other way. ”

“ Shortly before the three chums had been telling one another some of their experiences [Pg 77] before they came to West Point, and all had agreed that the fun they had had while camping in the summer was best of all.
“Oh well, we’ll have a taste of camp life here,” observed Harry, as he looked around the room, to make sure it was in perfect order against the unexpected inspection of some “tac.”
“Yes we’ll have a taste of it, and that’s about all!” Tom went on. “We’ll have to drill harder than we do now, and we’ll have to wait on some of the upper classmen like slaves.” ”

“ In the immense army that will soon be ours, the graduates of West Point will indeed be a small leaven, but I am confident they will bring to this mass of raw soldier material the ideals and the spirit of their Alma Mater. They will not forget the lessons learned at her knee, but will justify to the nation that has given them their education the soundness of West Point’s methods of training officers. ”

“ The hunt for more stones or something of the kind delayed their enemies, and when they next saw the birds winging up behind them, the white classical lines of the West Point administration building already loomed ahead, clear in the gathering gloom. ”

“ Those who go to Albany by steam have something the same idea of the scenery of West Point that an inside passenger may have of the effect of a stage-coach at top-speed. It is astonishing how much foreground goes for in landscape; and there are few passes of scenery where it is more naturally beautiful than those of the Hudson. In the accompanying drawing, the picturesque neighborhood of Undercliff, the seat of General Morris, lies between the river and the artist, and directly opposite stands the peak of Crow Nest, mentioned in the description of West Point. ”