Very near this Laboratory, on a terrace upon the steep, northern portion of the plain, is a neat gothic cottage where, for many years, the Post-office has been kept by the widow of Chaudius Berard who was the first Professor of the French language in the Academy after the passage of the act of 1840, creating such professorship. She was made post-mistress in 1848, and on the 4th of July, 1871, the President appointed her accomplished daughter, Miss Blanche Berard, to the same office. In addition to the buildings just mentioned, are nine spacious brick houses on the western side of the plain, and three double stone dwellings on its northern verge, for the accommodation of the Superintendent and Professors, and their families; also more than twenty smaller ones, a soldiers' church, six guard-houses, workshops, et cetera, and a hotel. These compose the structures of the military post at West Point. We may add to the list one of the old quarters for officers, which stood until this last spring, on the extreme northwestern part of the plain. It was a small but pleasant wooden structure in which several of the generals of the army had their dwellings when connected with the Academic staff. Among them were Generals Robert Anderson, C. F. Smith, O. O. Howard, Gibbon, DADE'S MONUMENT. BATTERY KNOX. Vogdes, and Rosecranz. The late Professor Mahan occupied it at one time. The officers' quarters are beautifully located at the foot of the mountain, surrounded by gardens and embowered in shrubbery; and in front is a broad street, shaded by noble trees, and a wide stone sidewalk which makes a pleasant place for an evening's promenade. According to the revised regulations for the Military Academy, adopted in 1866, the organization consists of a Superintendent, Commandant of Cadets, and Professors and Instructors; the latter, who have held their commissions as such for over ten years, being assimilated in rank to lieutenant colonels, and all others to majors. The members of the Academic Staff rank as follows: (1) Superintendent; (2) the Commandant of Cadets; (3) all Professors and officers of the army, according to their assimilated or lineal rank in the service. The Academic Board consists of the Superintendent, Commandant of Cadets, Professors, and the Instructors of practical Military Engineering, and of Ordnance and Gunnery. Three members form a quorum to examine candidates for admission. An officer of the army is detailed as Adjutant of the Academy, who has charge. of all the records and papers of the same, and acts as Secretary to the Academic Board. An officer of the army is also detailed as Treasurer of the Academy. In the appointment of cadets, each Congressional and Territorial District, and the District of Columbia, is entitled to one and no more. The candidate is usually nominated to the Secretary of War, by the representative in Congress from the district in which he and the applicant reside, yet it may be done by the candidate himself or his friends. The Secretary of War then makes the appointments. The President of the United States is authorized to appoint every year ten cadets in addition to those just named, according to his own will and pleasure, who are called "Cadets at large." No candidate for cadetship may be admitted, under seventeen or over twenty-one years of age, or who is less than five feet in height, or who is deformed, or by disease. made physically unfit for military duty, or who at the time of presenting himself shall be afflicted with any infectious or immoral disorder. All are subjected to the examination of a medical board composed of three experienced medical officers. The physical disqualifications are enumerated in detail in KOSCIUSCZKO'S GARDEN. FLIRTATION WALK. a printed circular which may be had by application to the Superintendent. It also contains full information concerning the method of applying for admission, qualifications, and the course of study. Any person who served honorably and faithfully not less than one year, either as a volunteer or in the regular service, in the late war, shall be eligible for appointment up to the age of twenty-four years. No married person shall be admitted as a cadet; or if a cadet shall marry before graduation, such an act shall be considered equivalent to a resignation. Each candidate must be able to read and write the English language correctly, and to perform with facility and accuracy the various operations of the four ground rules, of arithmetic, of reduction, of simple and compound proportion, and of vulgar and decimal fractions; and have a knowledge of the elements of English grammar, of descriptive geography, particularly of the United States of America, and of the history of the United States. Those selected by the War Department as candidates are ordered to report to the Superintendent, for examination, between the first and the twentieth of June, but they cannot receive their warrants and be admitted to full cadetship until after the January examination next ensuing their admission. The candidate must, upon being admitted, sign an agreement that he will serve in the Army of the United States for eight years unless sooner discharged by competent authority, and take the following oath: "I solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States, and bear true allegiance to the National Government; that I will maintain the sovereignty of the United States paramount to any and all allegiance, sovereignty, or fealty I may owe to any State, county, or country whatsoever; and that I will at all times obey the legal orders of my superior officers and the rules and articles governing the Armies of the United States." The usual term of the cadet begins with the first of July and continues four years. During this time the Government allows him about $500 a year in money, with the addition of one ration a day, commuted at thirty cents. Four dollars a month is retained, however, for the cadet, until his graduation, as an equipment fund. No money is allowed in the hands of a cadet, let his condition in life be what it may. His expenses are all paid by the treasurer, and charged to him. The permanent charges against a cadet are: For board, twenty dollars a month; washing, two dollars and fifty cents; postage, various; barber and shoe-blacking, sixty-five cents; baths (two a week), thirty-nine cents; making fires and police in barracks, sixty cents; printing, twelve cents; and gas fund, fifty cents. All damages are charged extra. There is a Commissary of Cadets appointed by the Superintendent, who furnishes all articles needed, at or about their cost. The life of a cadet is not a monotonous one by any means, for he has a daily round of changing duties and recreations, spiced with adventures after "taps," when it is officially assumed that every student is in bed. He is aroused from a sound sleep at five o'clock by the morning gun, and the reveillé summoning him to early roll-call. He must be in the ranks a few minutes later. At half-past five he must have his room in order. He is not allowed a waiter, horse, or dog, and must perform all the sweeping, folding of bedding, dusting, and work of that kind himself. This done, he proceeds to study until the drum taps for breakfast roll-call at seven o'clock. Then he marches with a platoon to the mess-hall, VOL. IV.-18 BENNY HAVENS, OH ! where he is allowed to remain twenty-five minutes. Then he has half an hour for recreation during guard-mounting, when at eight o'clock the bugle calls "to quarters," which means five hours of recitations, classparades, et cetera. From one to two o'clock is the time allowed for dinner and recreation. At four o'clock the work of the Academy is over. Drill occupies an hour and a half, when a season of recreation follows, and the pleasant dress-parade takes place at sunset. Supper over, he has thirty minutes for recreation, when the bugle calls him to quarters and study. Tattoo beats at half-past nine, and taps at ten, when the lights are extinguished. This comprises the usual daily routine of a cadet's life. The Academic term, as we have observed, consists of four years, and the student passes gradually from the fourth to the first class. During the first year his studies are confined to mathematics, the French language, tactics of artillery and infantry, and the use of small arms. The second year he is instructed in mathematics, the French and Spanish languages, drawing, and infantry and cavalry tactics. In the third year natural and experimental philosophy, chemistry, drawing, artillery, cavalry and infantry tactics, and practical military engineering are taught him. The fourth year is occupied with the study of military and civil engineering and the science of war, mineralogy and geology, ethics and law, artillery, cavalry, and infantry tactics, ordnance and gunnery, and practical military engineering. If a not neatly shaved at inspection." Thoughtlessness, carelessness, and inattention are not tolerated. For every, even the least, offense, the cadet is reported to the Commandant, and, after being allowed to explain, is punished or acquitted as the circumstances may warrant. He is continually under the eye of a superior, who, like his shadow, is always with him, whether on military duty, at his meals, in his room, or at recitation, and whose business it is to report every departure from the requirements of the Rules. This, in the slang vocabulary of the Academy, is called "skinning." A cadet so "persecuted" wrote thus concern It will be perceived that the number of studies are few, as compared with collegiate institutions, and the consequence is that the mind is not overburdened, and everything is learned well. The methods of instruction are so thorough and rigid, that a cadet is generally qualified, at the end of each year, to pass the ordeal of the Examining Board, without which he may not ascend into the next higher class. The discipline is so exact, and rules for the promotion of order and personal cleanliness and neatness are so strict, that the cadet acquires habits that are extremely useful to him during the remainder of his existence. The use, occupation and care of his accouterments, bedstead and bedding, clothes-press, and the furniture, floors, walls, and wood-work, heat-ing his "shadow: "— ing apparatus, screen and top, in his room in the barracks, are all subjected to prescribed regulations. By the Conduct-Roll his standing is daily determined; and to the Code of Regulations, which is severely rigid, he must be obedient to the letter, or be the subject of damaging demerit marks, or punishments. The delinquencies for which demerit marks are given might seem trifling to the casual observer, but they form a part of a necessary whole. For example: "collar not neatly put on; shoes not properly blacked; coat unbuttoned; hair too long at inspection; pipe in possession at 8 A. M.; washbowl not inverted at morning inspection; CHURCH OF THE HOLY INNOCENTS. He sought me out at early dawn And skinned me for my "bedding down," Said "dusty! Mr. Case!" The winter recreations of the cadets are more limited than those of summer, and consist chiefly of social gatherings in their rooms, or with the families residing at the Post, on Saturday evenings, when studies are always omitted; also of occasional private theatricals and literary entertainments. In a lively volume, entitled The West Point Scrap-Book, by Lieutenant O. E. Wood,* which contains a collection of stories, songs, and legends of the Military Academy, are many clever pictures of cadet-life there, from which I have culled "bits" for the embellishment of this paper, among others a vivid sketch of the incidents of a theatrical performance there, late in 1866. The play was "The Melancholy Drama of 'Lend me Five Shillings,' during the performance of which no levity will be allowed in the audience," said the play-bill. It was also announced in a nota bene that "Those of the audience who wish to weep may draw handkerchiefs, provided they are out of debt. During the intermission between the Second *Published by D. Van Nostrand. 1 |