Creation of the first military academy and first engineering school in the United States helped erode Federalist domination of the army’s officer corps and laid the foundation for a professionally trained officer corps.
Even after emerging victorious from the Revolutionary War (1775-1783), the United States faced potentially hostile forces from all directions. Monarchical European countries to the east were eager for the American experiment in democracy to fail. Native Americans menaced settlement and further advancement in the American West. Great Britain occupied the territory to the north and Spain the land to the south and southwest. The new nation obviously needed a system of national defense. However, many Americans had a strong suspicion of standing armies—a sentiment that dated back to England’s civil war in the seventeenth century. Many Americans regarded an aristocracy as the most formidable threat to their democracy, and they believed that aristocracies had their roots in standing armies. Some Americans thought an army of citizen-soldiers led by a trained officer corps might be the answer. The disloyal actions by Continental Army officers at Newburgh in the winter of 1782-1783 and the elitist, self-perpetuating, and politically dangerous Society of Cincinnati formed by Colonel Henry Knox
Knox was one of the earliest advocates of a national military academy. In 1783, Washington
At that time, France, the U.S. ally, was at war with Great Britain and Spain, and it was apparent that the United States would have to bolster its national defenses in order to remain neutral in that conflict. On May 7, 1794, Congress authorized an increase in the Corps of Artillerists and Engineers at West Point. Congress also established the rank of cadet for junior officers assigned to West Point to be trained in the arts of war. With other duties absorbing most of their time, however, the cadets received little actual training. Meanwhile, the war in Europe continued to expand, bringing pressures in the United States not only to enlarge the army drastically but also to found a military academy. On July 16, 1798, Congress empowered President John Adams
At that juncture, after years of failure, Federalist leader Alexander Hamilton
West Point on the Hudson River during the mid-1870’s.
McHenry received further advice in the form of a memorandum prepared by Louis de Tousard
Some historians believe that the final impetus for the establishment of the U.S. Military Academy was the desire to create a national university that would emphasize science over the classics. Thomas Jefferson
On March 16, 1802, Congress passed the Military Peace Establishment Act
In concert with his secretary of war, Henry Dearborn,
Although the new U.S. Military Academy began training cadets shortly after it was created, it would be nearly two decades before it became fully professionalized under the leadership of its third superintendent, Sylvanus Thayer
In the long term, the establishment of the U.S. Military Academy paved the way for the nation’s modern armed forces and helped solidify the unity of the young United States. In 1846, the federal government established the U.S. Naval Academy
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Ambrose, Stephen. Duty, Honor, Country: A History of West Point. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1966. A comprehensive and readable account of the history of the U.S. Military Academy up to the time of the Vietnam War that concentrates on the service of famous graduates. -
Crackel, Theodore J. Mr. Jefferson’s Army: Political and Social Reform of the Military Establishment, 1801-1809. New York: New York University Press, 1987. A well-argued and well-documented study of Jefferson’s attempts to “republicanize” the army officer corps. -
_______. West Point: A Bicentennial History. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2002. Comprehensive history of the academy with generous attention to its early years. -
Forman, Sidney. West Point: A History of the United States Military Academy. New York: Columbia University Press, 1950. A history of West Point from its beginnings as a fortification on the Hudson River to its transition to a military academy. -
Kohn, Richard H. Eagle and Sword: The Federalists and the Creation of the Military Establishment in America, 1783-1802. New York: Free Press, 1975. A contextual study useful for understanding the founding of West Point. -
Pappas, George S. To the Point: The United States Military Academy, 1802-1902. Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 1993. This history of the academy’s early years emphasizes Thayer’s efforts to make the institution a high-caliber military academy and engineering school.
Tripolitan War
War of 1812
Lincoln Signs the Morrill Land Grant Act
Sylvanus Thayer.