The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1866-02-05
Military Education.

The assaults Of the New York Triban> upon
ne West Point Military School have elected
II reply, some facts which are not without
interest in their bearing upon the question
rhpther regular education for the profession
Of arms is important 10 the military efficiency
If people.
There were twelve hundred officers in the
regular army when the war began. OF these,
eight hundred and twenty were graduates Of
West Point OF this number, one hundred
nd ninety resigned and joined the South.
;ix hundred and twenty one remained in the
,rmy of the Union. Of which mum Der one hun
bred and thirty eight, or nearly rs many a.
those who resi- gned, We're natives Of the South
I'm States. OF the officers who were in thc
United States regular army when the wal
began, five were killed at Manassas; twenty
our during McCLBLLAS's Peninsula cam
>aign; six at Antietam; nine ~ MuTfrees.
boro': seven at Shiloh five in New Mexico :
twelve at Chickamsuga; seven n Chanc"l-
:orsville two al Fort Wayne; four ~ Nicks-
Durg; seven at Fr edericksburg, five NJ Second
Manassas thirty-fiv al Gettysburg and th'
cavalry fight preceding; forty-1ive during
GRANTS operations against Richmond in
1854; eight in SHERaAS's Georgia and Caro-
lima campaigns; in all, one hundred and eight
killed outright. and nearly five hundred
wounded or, in other words, more thHn on"
ont OF every two killed or wounded. We are
unable TO give the casualties among the West
Point officers on the Coufcdertte side, but II is
reasonable 10 conclude that they We're as larg"
"a in the United States army.
All this, however, il not decisive or the
strange question which has been started ny
me Tribune An examination OF the killed and
wounded among the volunteer officers and the
volunteer soldiers on both sides would no
doubt show the same kind Of proofs Of courage
and hard fighting No one ever pretended,
we suppose, that military education was OF
value III impar,ing TO men sighting qualities
But war is a science as much rs Law, medicine,
or theology. There are exceptions TO every
rule. and there have been natural geniuses
who became great in al! these departments
without much previous training. They are
not numerous enough, however, 10 warrant
us III aboli.bing all law, medical, and theologi-
cal schools military school cannot create n
NAPOLEON but NAPoLsoSs appear only once
in a thousand years; and even that great
natural soldier did rot disdain The advan tages
of n military education, but was the most iLde-
fatgable OF cadets IN the study OF us PROBES
sion The late war ought 10 have put such
question as this a. rest, What would The
United States have done without GRANT,
SHERMAN, MEADE, THosas, SHERIDAS, and
Others or the South without LEE, JACKSON,
BEArREaARp, and LoNGsTREEr' Would either
of the heIligerents have been willing that the
armies of the other should have been led by
West Point graduates, and its own by volun-
teer generals? Would the very men who
claim that military education is unnecessary
have consented TO such an arrangement
There is 10 royal road to any science. Even
the Superintendent of Education in Maryland
will find his great poutooning, tuHncllng, ana
macadamiziug machine for the attainment of
knowledge inadequate 10 such an achieve.
ment