The Best School: West Point, 1833-1866

268 Pages·1998·12.254 MB·English

by  James L. Morrison Jr.

"The Best School"
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''The
Best
School''
*
West Point, I833-1866
*
James L. Morrison, Jr.
The Kent State University Press
KENT, OHIO, & LONDON
© 1986, 1998 by The Kent State University Press, Kent, Ohio 44242
All rights reserved
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 98-13132
ISBN 0-87338-32 I -4 (cloth)
ISBN 0-87338-6I 2-4 (pbk.)
Manufactured in the United States of America
05 04 03 02 01 00 99 98 5 4 3 2
All photographs courtesy of the U.S. Military Academy Archives and Special Collections.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Morrison, James L., I923-
"The best school": West Point, 1833-1866/ James L. Morrison, Jr.
p. em.
Originally published: "The best school in the world." 1986.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN o-87338-612-4 (pbk. : alk. paper) oo
I. United States Military Academy-History-I 9th century.
I. Morrison, James L., 1923- "The best school in the world."
II. Title
U410.LIM67
355' .007 I' I 73-dc21
British Library Cataloging-in-Publication data are available.
To my comrades of the regular army,
my colleagues at York College of Pennsylvania,
and my students.
*
I believe [the U.S. Military Academy is]
the best school in the world.
-Andrew Jackson
Contents
*
Preface 1x
I. The Old Army, 1833-1860
II. The Military Academy: The External Hierarchy of Control,
1833-1854 23
III. The Men Who Governed at West Point 37
IV. The Corps of Cadets: Socioeconomic Composition and the
Military Environment 61
V. The Corps of Cadets: Activities, Honor, and Religion 75
VI. The Academic Environment, 1833-1854 87
VII. The Military Academy in Its Educational Context 102
VIII. The Era of the Five-Year Course, 1854-1861 114
IX. West Point and the Civil War 126
X. The End of an Era 141
Appendixes
I. Occupational and Financial Status of Parents, 1842-1854 155
II. Subjects by Semester, 1833-1854 160
III. Deficiencies by Class and Subject, 1833-1854 164
IV. The Five-Year Program in 1860 166
V. Academic Failures During the Five-Year Course 168
VI. Staff and Faculty, 1850-1861: State of Residence,
Regional Groupings, Confederate Service 173
VII. Cadets at West Point, 1830-1860: Census Statistics,
Failures by State, Failures by Region 177
CONTENTS
Vlll. Participation in the Civil War, Graduates, Classes of
1833-1861 183
IX. Academic Failures by Class and Subject, 1861-1865 185
X. Admissions and Graduations, Classes Entering Between
1866 and 1870 188
XI. Academic Failures, Classes Entering Between
1866 and 1870 189
XII. Contemporary Foreign Military Schools, 1833-1866 192
Abbreviations Used in Notes 198
Notes 199
Bibliography 228
Index 250
Vlll
Preface
*
The military academy at West Point
represents the oldest continuing experiment in federally sponsored higher
education in the United States. Although founded during the administra
tion of President Thomas Jefferson, the academic scope of the institution
never broadened sufficiently to fit the great Virginian's concept of a na
tional university, but in its accessibility to boys of all classes and its dedica
tion to measuring human merit with mathematical precision the academy
did in a peculiar and limited way promote the aristocracy oftalent so cher
ished by Jefferson. Yet West Point is something more than a quaint relic of
the American Enlightenment and therefore deserves study for reasons
quite apart from antiquarianism. Through its graduates who played major
roles in some of the most crucial events in the history ofthe United States,
the institution has left its mark on the American experience. The reverse
also applies; the flow of American history has molded West Point.
Throughout its existence the corps of cadets has mirrored with fair accu
racy the socioeconomic composition, the tensions, and the prejudices of the
American middle class. Because of this it is no exaggeration to say that an
understanding of the military academy is essential to a full appreciation of
the history of the United States.
For the student of institutions the academy holds a special appeal. In
some respects a typical creature of the government, West Point makes a
convenient vehicle for analyzing the evolution of a bureaucracy in action.
Close examination of the military academy reveals the degree to which a
formally designated control structure conforms to the actual distribution