A more obvious and commonly remarked fruit of West Point, is the men, laboring in their vocations, which it has produced. It is impossible here, (though it would be a labor of love,) to note the individual examples of merit and usefulness, among those whom West Point has sent into the service of their country. We are here limited rather to a statement of general results. It may be done briefly; and since we have seen no Register later than 1850, we must deal in round numbers. These, however, will approximate the precise facts. They are there statistically:—
| Whole number of Graduates, (about) | 2,000. |
| Killed in battle, | 80. |
| Died in service, | 300. |
| In military service of the United States now, | 800. |
| Have been in political service (ministers, governors,) mayors, and members of congress, and of legislature | 80. |
| Other civil and state offices, | 100. |
| Lawyers, | 110. |
| Clergymen, (including two bishops,) | 16. |
| Physicians, | 110. |
| President of colleges, professors and teachers, | 100. |
| Authors, editors, and artists, | 25. |
| Civil engineers, and officers of R.R. and canals, | 180. |
| Merchants, financiers, farmers, and manufacturers, | 140. |
| Officers of militia, and volunteers, (not of the army,) | 110. |
Numbers have resigned, and died young, not above enumerated, and numbers of these also have died in the civil service. We have made this classification to show how largely West Point has contributed to education, civil engineering, and the professions. These were not the direct objects of the Academy; but, when long years of peace presented no duties but that of the garrison, and no glory to the profession of arms, it was natural and proper for active and ambitious young men to seek honor and usefulness in other pursuits. Nor did the government discourage this, for it foresaw what has happened, that these young men, so highly educated in science, would diffuse this knowledge throughout the country; elevate the standard of education, and be ready when their country needed their services. This has happened. 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. Why is this? Is there a want of sound morals? or, is loyalty no virtue there? Neither. A part, and a part only[10] of the graduates born and grown up in the south, have gone with their friends, families, and connections, into the rebel service. This was on account of social ties, and had no more to do with West Point, than had other rebels from Harvard, or Yale, with those institutions. The noticeable fact is that they were educated at the government expense, and therefore under peculiar obligations to the country. But we find a parallel in the numerous officers of the state, as well as of the army and navy, who had been honored and rewarded at the public expense, but who thought it no shame to betray their country, and conspire against its life. We in vain attempt to account for such crimes, except upon the principle of common depravity, of which history has furnished similar examples in all ages of the world.
We have come to the end of the work we proposed. The rise, progress, and fruits of the Military Academy, we have briefly, and, we trust, justly delineated. Certainly, we have no end to serve, no prejudice to gratify. We knew the Academy in its early and immature period. We have seen it grow up to usefulness and honor. We see its graduates taking their places among those who have well served their country, and well deserved its laurels. In this we are glad. But our memory is filled with other images. We see West Point, in the now lengthening shadows of time. We seem to see those with whom we studied freshly present, as they walk the green plain, or sit before the class, or strive to teach our dull and inattentive minds. They were men worth remembering, and when, in after times, we became their friends, rather than their pupils, still more pleasant memories gathered around them. We seem to see the venerable Ellicott, like Goldsmith’s schoolmaster, alike full of learning, and of kindly humor; the placid and intellectual expression of Mansfield, whose abstracted looks seemed to be searching the higher philosophy; the courtly and dignified Thayer, whose graceful manners and attractive conversation can not be forgotten by any who knew him; and the amiable Courtnay, who though of later date, will long be remembered. He left the world in doubt, whether he was the better scholar or the better man.[11]
Of these, and of those like them, do we think, when we think of West Point. Nor of those alone; the place itself, where nature delights in the sublime and beautiful, rises before us. No imagination is necessary to clothe it with the hues of poetry; no books to recall the lost passages of history; no labored eulogy to bring up the memories of the dead. You can no more forget them, than you can the Pilgrims, when standing by the rock of Plymouth. Yon gray and moss-covered ruin was once the fortress of the Revolution. Yon scarcely perceptible pile of stones marks the spot where its soldiers were hutted in the winter. Yon slightly raised turf, beneath the dark shades of the cedar, was his grave, and soon, perhaps even now, that slight memorial will be gone forever. Yon little valley under the shadows of the mountain, recalls the illustrious name of Washington. Yon blue mountain-top tells of the beacon fires he lit. All around are memories; all around are sacred spots. If the Greek remembers Marathon; if the Jew lingers at Jerusalem, or the Christian pilgrim grows warm at Bethlehem, so should the American remember West Point; linger round the ruins of Fort Put, and gaze with delight on the blue summit of Beacon Hill.
DEVELOPMENT OF INSTRUCTION AT WEST POINT.
1. Down to 1802, the instruction of the Cadets attached to the Corps of Artillerists and Engineers stationed at West Point, according to Act of Congress (May 7th, which was all that repeated recommendations of Washington and other experienced officers could obtain), was confined to military drill and practical exercises in common with other members of the Corps; but as that Corps was made up of the scientific officers of the army, and as military works were in construction under their plans and superintendence, these exercises were of great practical value, and the appointment of these Cadets in 1794, and their gathering at West Point, may be regarded as the nucleus of the Military Academy.
2. The Military Academy, established with that name, by Act of March 16, 1802, in pursuance of a Bill reported in 1800, by the Committee of Defense in the House of Representatives, of which Harrison Gray Otis was chairman, and to which an elaborate report of the Secretary of War (James McHenry, of Maryland), had been referred—consisted of the Corps of Engineers, which by the Act was organized distinct from that of Artillery, and could not exceed in officers and cadets, twenty members. The Corps was stationed at West Point, and its officers and cadets were subject to duty in such places as the President should direct. The principal engineer was made superintendent, and down to 1808 he was instructor in fortifications, field-works, and the use of instruments. Two officers of the rank of captain, appointed without previous military experience, but with special reference to their knowledge of mathematics, gave instruction in that branch, “one in the line of geometrical, and the other of algebraic demonstration.”
In 1803, two teacherships—one of the French language and the other of Drawing, was attached to the Corps of Engineers, and in 1804, F. De Masson was appointed to discharge the duties of both.