Year: 1874




in Its best sense is discipline. Military
science, in so far as it is distinctive sci
ence, is an application OF the higher
mathematics, which is one of the sever
est methods of discipline. Military tao
tics are discipline of the body, usually
pleasing to youth, therefore advantage
GUS to the best development of the body,
which is essential to the best develop
ment of the mind. The military branch
does lot exclude any other branch OF
education, but oD the other hand almost
every department of knowledge is essen
tial to complete military education.
The responsibility of military position
in the highest grades requires the broad
est culture. The great defect of our mil
itary schools in this country including
the West Point Academy, has hitherto
been the limited scope of the curriculum.
The graduates have not been educated
men in liberal sense. Until within a
recent period the common schools of
Vermont afforded sufficient prepara-
ton IN their ordinary course of study,
for boys to enter West Point, and in four
years they have come out with com
pleted school education, and entered a
| profession, the duties of which, in its
lower grades, required no additional
book knowledge, but tended rather to di-
vert the mind from study. And so up
on this class of men starting with a very
limited education except in purely
military sense, and growing in years and
rank in a pursuit not particularly re-
quiring or adapted at first to scholarly
investigation, until the highest grades
being reached, the vast responsibility is
finally committed, of performing the nu-
merous and difficult duties connected
with the military department of the re-
public, where oftentimes the greatest
learning and broadest craftsmanship are
uCihahuVus III auuitlOH w dbLhluuicutS III
military science and art in their strict
sense. But fortunately the remedy for
this defect is being applied. The stand
ard at West Point and elsewhere in mil
itary schools, is being raised. Our mill.
tary men will hereafter as rule be men
of better preparation and greater learn.
ing. One advantage which military
school has over other schools having in
other respects the same general course OF
study, is the habit of exactness, precision
and method, which pertains to military
system everywhere. The Importance Of
this habit in all departments of business
is well understood in business circles and
recognized among teachers. 1t is in fact
the aim of all schools, to accomplish the
same result in this respect. 1t is proba
bly, no where so well attained as in a
school where the military system is the
basis of discipline and exercise. The
requirement of military knowledge is
also conducive to, and promotive of a
spirit of loyalty and patriotism, without
which no government can long be up
/ held.


The natural thought of the boy in ac-
quiring this knowledge, is the advantage
it will afford him as the defender of his
country in the hour of national peril.
1t would rarely if ever occur to him that
he would throw the advantage of his
military education in the scale against
his country. In his military studies he
fights the battles of his country, in i'm
agination, with youthful ardor. and
finally comes to look upon the old flag
with the affection and enthusiasm Of a
veteran, who has followed it in victory
and defeat on hundred fields. By a
more general diffusion of military edu-
cation there would not be an increase of
the number who would follow the pro-
fession of arms as business. That num-
ber will always necessarily be limited
by the demands of the country in times
of peace. The effect would be to fill the
country measureably with militarily ed
ucated men. The great want of the
country in the emergency of war is lead
ership. The American is an apt soldier
and brave almost to a fault, but this by
no means enables him to dispense with
instruction and skilled leadership. An
army can never dispense with training
and ability in its officers and be efficient
Says an eminent military writer: His
tory is full of examples Of the weak de-
feating the strong by superiority of
knowledge in conducting troops" Dur
ing the war of the rebellion every tyro
in military knowledge found immediate
employment in drilling and offering
troops. The military schools we're drain
ed of their pupils for this purpose. 1t
is said that StOnewall Jaekson's famous
brigade which he first took into the Con-
federate service was mainly if not wholly
ofFieered by students from the military
school at Lexington, Virginia, and the