The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1865-06-23
WEST POINT.
Gen. Grants "reminiscences of the
Academy.
An Interesting and Cosby Account
Of the Great Military School.
ITS EXPENSE TO THE GOVERN.
MENT.

West Point Correspondence June % of the New
York World.
While Grant was here yesterday, he
picked up in the library-room a bound
copy of the Academy list. There he
might have seen the names of many of
his acquaintances in familiar and foreign
association.
Among the Secretaries of War who have
been absolute here were Calhoun, j. B.
Floyd, Jefferson Davis, Winfield Scott, and
Joseph Holt. The last three are living,
one of them may sit in judgment upon the
life of another, while the third is looking
over eighty years of warfare to see this
among the last of the tragedies in which
he has participated.
1t was Calhoun who ordered five of the
most meritorious cadets to be annually
placed upon the regular army register.
This register, thus prepared, is brimful Of
suggestions. Here is A. D. Bache, whose
soundings have made our waters inhabit-
able, foe of Scylla and CLarybdis, the
new saint to whom the mariner makes his
applications; Francis VintOn, who still
adheres to the church militant; Henry
Clay, blood kinsman of that orator whose
memory speaks silvery as his hushed
voice; Van Vliet, who has fed many ar
mics and grown rubicund upon his own
charities; Warren, whose quarrel with
Sheridan has not at all impaired his fame
Henry Coppee, who writes for the soldier
and lectures for the student; George B.
Mcclellan, whose route in Europe is follow
o1 hu Thousands Of hiS ntrup onI
whose personal popularity is greater than
any mans in the Union; Jerome Bona
parte, who ought to be prouder of his
mothers blood than that of that father who
forsook her; Robert E. Lee, whose mar
velous management of troops almost makes
US forget the cause for which he handled
them; Slocum and Ewell and host more
stand in these telling rolls, each line of
which is glimpse of history.
Among the adjutants of the post have
been "handsome Joe" Hooker, Irwin,
Mcdowell, Seth Williams, the industrious
adjutant general of the army of the Po-
tomac through all its history and James
B. Fry, whom New York will not forget
until she forgets conscription. The in
structors of cavalry and artillery here
comprise Robert Anderson, George II.
Thomas, and gallant abused Fitz John
Porter. Lee and Beauregard have been
West Point superintendents. the latter
down to the beginning of the war and
W. J. Hardee has been instructor of in
fantry tactics.
Not long before the war, special COM
mittee appointed to examine West Point,
comprised jeff Davis, Foote, John Coch-
rane, II. W. Davis and Robert Anderson.
All these records Gen. Grant glanced at,
while the young cadets, many of whom
are to be as famous as those whose names
he read, went on with their recitations.
The detection of West Pointers at the
beginning Of the rebellion has furnished
staple for much opposition to the institu-
ton. But it was not true that the south
absorbed the appointments to the acade-
my. New York has turned out nearly
three hundred and fifty graduates; Vir-
ginia only one hundred and fifty Mas
sachusetts one hundred and forty; South
Carolina sixty; Rhode Island twenty-five;
Florida only six. Moreover the propor-
tion of southern West Pointers who went
into the rebellion are not nearly so great
as that Of southern civil officeholders who
went into it. The academy on this
ground was the best conservator of loyal
ty OF any institution We possessed. Sy-
mods, presbyters, conferences and general
conventions, could not keep as many
clergymen steadfast as did this military
school cadets. Thirty per cent. of the
southern cadets stood by the country, and
the man who fred the first gun for the
Union was Kentucky West Pointer.
The association of this school with the
rebellion is a curious chapter of history,
however. John @. Calhoun, the political
father of secession, was, when secretary
of war, the most resolute champion of
West Point, and said in 1918: I'm fu-
ture wars the nation must look to the
academy for the skill to conduct valor to
victory"
This prophecy has been literally fulfilled
during the rebellion, and the man who
made it, had he lived, might have seen q
West Point artillerist planting batteries in
Charleston bay to honeycomb the walls OF
the city where he was to be inferred, and 9
West point infantrymsn riding pell MEL
through South Carolina and hosting the
stars and stripes over its capital.
There is scarcely a name of prolonged
prominence in the course of the war which
NAV not be found in the rolls Of West
Point. And some of the best Of them