Guide to West Point, and the U.S. Military Academy

by Edward C. Boynton

Taken at Columbia, S.C., Feb. 17, 1865,
By the troops of the United States, under
Major-General W.T. Sherman.

FOURTH FACE.

Presented to the U.S. Military Academy,
By Major-General Wm. B. Hazen,
April 1, 1865.

The centre of the room is occupied by a model of the Silver Mine of Valenciana, in Mexico, purchased in the City of Mexico in 1847, by subscription among the officers of the army, whose names are affixed. The upper surface represents the operatives, made of silver amalgam, practising their several divisions of labor, while the sides exhibit the galleries of the mine, with the miners at work. The case contains, besides, many mineral specimens, and models of Aztec idols. The whole is surmounted by an eagle and a portion of drapery taken from over the Vice-President's Chair in the Mexican Senate Chamber.

In the Chapel, east of the Academic building, may be seen a fine picture over the chancel, by Professor Weir, typical of Mars and Minerva. On the west side, the walls present memorial tablets of the general officers of the Revolution, and the guns presented by Congress to Major-General Greene, implanted beside a niche of trophy colors taken from English and Hessian regiments. On the east side are memorial tablets of all the officers of our army who fell in the Mexican War, and trophy guns and colors taken by Generals Scott and Taylor, during their campaigns in the same war.

The Library Building contains temporarily the offices of the Superintendent, Adjutant, Quartermaster, and Treasurer. On the second floor, which is not usually open to visitors, is situated the Lecture-room and apparatus of the department of Philosophy and Astronomy. The dome contains an equatorial telescope, and the flank towers a transit instrument and mural circle. The Library occupies the east end of the building. It contains about 20,000 volumes, chiefly on professional and scientific subjects, and several fine portraits of former Superintendents and Chiefs of the Engineer Department.

The capacious Riding Hall stands on the bank of the river, a little below the Library; and from the interesting exercises therein, it is deservedly regarded as one of the most attractive points at the Military Academy. The hours for riding are from 11 A.M. to 1 P.M., except during the period of the Cadets' encampment, with occasional interruptions, when the evolutions of a squadron are practised on the Plain. The course of instruction embodies running at the heads, running at the ring with poised sabre, exercises with pistols, leaping bars and hurdles, and many other feats which afford little room for monotony or wearisome interest, even among those accustomed to witnessing equestrian displays.

Northward from the Library a path leads down the bank to Kosciuszko's Garden—a shelving terrace overhung with shrubbery, and rendered inviting by a cool spring of water, and a tradition that the patriot Pole, whose name the spot bears, here sought retirement and seclusion. The Monument to "Dade and his Command" tells its own story, and American history has yet to furnish an example of devotion to duty similar to that exhibited by those whose names are here inscribed. A little beyond is seen Battery Knox, whose armament proclaims the tidings on all occasions of national joy or sadness. From this point, the lower pathway, called the "Chain Battery Walk," conducts the visitor through a delightful ramble to Gee's Point and the North Wharf, or by a branch, to the Hotel above. The upper path returns to the road along the crest of the bank, and a few steps brings the tourist to Fort Clinton.

Within the latter, on the extreme angle nearest the river, stands a marble column, sacred to military virtue in the person of Kosciuszko, and forming in itself by reason of the ideas it evokes, a striking contrast to the dark halo of despite and shame that hovers around the name of Arnold, whose apostasy is inseparably connected with the very name of West Point. Thaddeus Kosciuszko was a native of Poland, whose education began at Warsaw and was completed at Paris. Having determined to cast his lot with the Americans, then struggling for liberty, he was furnished by Franklin with letters to Washington, and came to America. He was appointed Aide-de-Camp to Washington, and subsequently commissioned as Colonel of Engineers. Highly distinguished for his courage and skill in the campaign against Burgoyne, and as the directing Engineer at West Point, he returned to Poland at the close of the Revolution, rewarded by the thanks of Congress and the commission of Brevet Brigadier-General, to serve as a General of Division under Poniatowski. In the Polish Insurrection of 1793 he was chosen Generalissimo, with the powers of a Roman Dictator. He immediately issued a decree, authorizing the insurrection, and at once proceeded to unite the Polish divisions, and in a few days the Russians were driven from the Palatinate. Meantime, the Prussians having joined Russia, the rest of the struggle was a continuous resistance against superior forces, until at last, at Maciejowice, on the 10th of October, 1794, he was completely defeated and overwhelmed by the Russians. He fell wounded from his horse, with the bitter wail on his lips, "Finis Polonie." Taken prisoner, and conveyed to a fortress near St. Petersburg, he underwent a long confinement until the accession of Paul I., who, feeling an admiration for his character, restored him to freedom, and presented him with his sword.

"I have no longer occasion for a sword," sadly replied Kosciuszko, "since I have no longer a country." He visited America in 1797, and was triumphantly and warmly welcomed by the grateful people. He returned to Switzerland and resided at Solothurn, where he died on October 15, 1817. His body was interred at Cracow with great pomp in the funeral vaults of the Kings of Poland, between the coffins of Poniatowski and Sobieski. The Senate decreed in his honor the erection of an enormous mound on the Heights of Bronislawad. The gratuitous labor of all classes succeeded in raising this "Mound of Kosciuszko" to the height of 300 feet in three years, and it will remain for ages a noble monument of his country's gratitude. Kosciuszko was never married, and the simple column at West Point, in full view of thousands of travelers, will long serve as a memorial of gratitude from the American nation, and an enduring protest against the destruction of Poland, and the ruin and death of many freedom lovers as noble and virtuous as Kosciuszko himself.