Military schools and courses of instruction in the science and art of war, / in France, Prussia, Austria, Russia, Sweden, Switzerland, Sardinia, England, and the United States. Drawn from recent official reports and documents. Revised Edition

by Unknown

At the close of each examination the Academic Board reports to the Secretary of War the names of all cadets who are pronounced deficient in studies or discipline, to be discharged from the Academy unless otherwise recommended by the Academic Board.

The rule of discharge for deficiency, even in one solitary subject, is very rigidly enforced; unless where exceptional circumstances, such as loss of time on account of illness, or having been unavoidably prevented from joining the Academy until some time after the rest of his class, induce the Board to recommend that the cadet shall have another trial by being put back to the next lower class.

Some detail is necessary to explain how the marks obtained by a cadet at the daily recitations are employed to determine the credit he is to receive in any given branch of study at the period of his graduation.

Where a subject is studied for two years, the maximum time allotted to any branch of study, the marks gained during the first year help only to fix a cadet’s relative standing in his class for the year next ensuing. The credits shown by the weekly class reports of the second year alone are taken into account in determining the credit due to a cadet at the end of his residence.

The exact method of fixing the credits due for any one subject is as follows. The professor makes out a roll of the class in the order of merit finally fixed by the Academic Board at the June examinations. The first on the roll then receives credit for the maximum number of marks allotted to the subject; the last on the roll receives a credit of one-third of that maximum only. The common difference for all the members of the class between those limits is then calculated, and the remaining members receive credits varying from the first cadet and from each other by the amount of that common difference. The figures thus determined represent the credits assigned for any one subject at the period of graduation, and the figure of general merit for each cadet is made up of the aggregate credits obtained by him for all the branches of study, with one column included for discipline.

Proficiency in drill or riding does not affect the figure of general merit, except indirectly. Inattention or carelessness at these exercises would be noted by a certain figure of demerit, and would thereby diminish, as will be hereafter explained, the credit to be allotted for discipline at the final examination.

Graduation.

The qualifications required for obtaining an appointment to the army are simply graduation, or in other words that a cadet shall have passed through the four years’ course at the Academy without being found deficient in any one branch of study or in discipline. The proportion of cadets who fail to graduate is very considerable—nearly one-half. The present first class is a fair sample. It numbered 74 on entrance, and its members are now only 39, and of these three had belonged to the next higher class, and were put back for deficiency. From 1842 to 1852 the exact proportion who succeeded in graduating was 0.510. From 1852 to 1862 the exact proportion was 0.523.

Although the ultimate consequences of idleness in being declared deficient at the half-yearly examinations are generally sufficient to insure diligence, an immediate penalty is attached to any adverse report against a cadet for want of attention to study, or any misconduct in the recitation halls. The instructor of any section notes on his weekly class reports any cases of decided idleness and all infractions of discipline, and to each reported instance a double penalty is attached, as to every instance of misconduct at the Academy; the one immediate, in punishment according to the scale of the offense; the other prospective, consisting of a certain figure of demerit, which will rise up in judgment against the delinquent at the end of his residence, and diminish his credit for discipline.

The certainty of the penalty which attaches to idleness, both in the immediate punishment it entails, and its more serious ultimate consequences, is found to be sufficient, as a general rule, to attain the desired object; hence the character of the cadets for diligence is decidedly high.