Read complete books and articles on: U.S. Military Academy

United States Military Academy - at West Point, N.Y.; for training young men and women to be officers in the U.S. army; founded and opened in 1802. The original act provided that the Corps of Engineers stationed at West Point should constitute a military academy, but the growing threat of war with England in 1812 resulted in congressional action to increase the corps and to expand the academy's facilities. Changes in curriculum and organization made by Sylvanus Thayer, superintendent from 1817 to 1833, earned him the title Father of the Military Academy. In the 19th cent. the military academy was one of the nation's major sources of civil engineers, and its graduates made excellent records in the Mexican War and especially in the Civil War. After 1866 the academy was no longer formally related to the Corps of Engineers. The academy is now under the general direction and supervision of the Dept. of the Army. Its enrollment has greatly expanded since its founding and at present is about 4,300 cadets. The curriculum, too, has been greatly modernized, notably under Douglas MacArthur, its superintendent from 1919 to 1922.

An applicant must obtain a nomination to be considered for an appointment to the academy. The sources of nomination are the President of the United States; the Vice President; U.S. Senators and Representatives; and the representatives of the District of Columbia and the U.S. territories. Special appointment categories include children of deceased and disabled veterans or of career military personnel, foreign students, regular U.S. army, U.S. army reserve, honor graduates of military and naval schools and ROTC, and children of Medal of Honor recipients. Candidates must be between the ages of 17 and 22 and must meet physical and educational qualifications.

Cadets undergo a four-year course of instruction on full scholarship, with summers devoted to practical military training, and are paid a monthly salary. Graduating cadets receive a bachelor's degree and a commission as a second lieutenant. Women have been admitted since 1975 and, in the 1990s, they constituted more than 10% of the academy's 4,000 cadets. The West Point Museum contains ordnance and military trophies of historical interest. It is one of the most important college museums in the United States. George W. Cullum compiled a valuable biographical register of West Point cadets.

See T. J. Fleming, West Point (1969); J. Ellis and R. Moore, School for Soldiers (1974).

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11 of the Best Books and Articles on: U.S. Military Academy

as selected by Questia librarians

1.

To the Point: The United States Military Academy, 1802-1902 » Read Now
by George S. Pappas. 535 pgs.

Collections: History, Education, Entire Library

This volume goes beyond military personalities to cover the first 100 years of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Pappas focuses on the institution itself--describing how the Academy was formed and who its early leaders were. He tells us of the central role of Jonathan Williams and Sylvanus...
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This volume goes beyond military personalities to cover the first 100 years of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Pappas focuses on the institution itself--describing how the Academy was formed and who its early leaders were. He tells us of the central role of Jonathan Williams and Sylvanus Thayer in ensuring that West Point would become both a military academy and a quality engineering school--despite many problems in its early years. Emphasis is placed on descriptions of events found in letters and diaries of cadets, officers, and family members. Myths and legends about the Academy without any factual basis are thoroughly debunked. Pappas also recounts the development of the instructors, the curriculum, and the cadet; the importance of honor; the creation of a library; the role of discipline; daily exams and weekly academic reports; life in the barracks; Benny Haven's Tavern--these and many other vignettes of West Point are brought to life in an unparalleled writing style. Including numerous photographs and maps, this book will both fascinate and teach. A must for all military historians, buffs, West Point graduates, and veterans.
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2.

The West Point Story, in The American Enterprise » Read Now
by Bill Kauffman. 18 pgs.

Collections: Education, Entire Library
3.

Preparing for Peace: Military Identity, Value Orientations, and Professional Military Education » Read Now
by Volker Franke. 216 pgs.

Collections: Education, Entire Library

Franke examines the extent to which military socialization at the U.S. Military Academy prepares cadets cognitively for shifting missions. Assessing the dynamic relationship between identity, values, and attitudes, he shows the importance of individuals' identification with social groups for their behavioral choices.
4.

Military Education: Past, Present, and Future (Chap. 4 "Sylvanus Thayer and the Ethical Instruction of Nineteenth-Century Military Officers in the United States") » Read Now
by Gregory C. Kennedy, Keith Neilson. 245 pgs.

Collections: Education, Entire Library

Often the only time a nation evaluates the education of its armed forces is during the aftermath of a great military disaster. This work brings together the ideas of international scholars, all recognized as leaders in their fields, to examine the professional military education experience of...
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Often the only time a nation evaluates the education of its armed forces is during the aftermath of a great military disaster. This work brings together the ideas of international scholars, all recognized as leaders in their fields, to examine the professional military education experience of various nations during the last 250 years. Case studies of each branch of the military reveal success and failure in the past and present, with a goal of improving military education in the future.
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5.

The Colored Cadet at West Point » Read Now
by Quintard Taylor, Henry Ossian Flipper. 384 pgs.

Collections: History, Education, Entire Library

Henry Ossian Flipper was one of the 19th-century West's most remarkable individuals and the first African American graduate of West Point. Although Flipper's record of accomplishment was significant, he was court-martialed and dismissed from the service in 1882. This is Flipper's own account of his...
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Henry Ossian Flipper was one of the 19th-century West's most remarkable individuals and the first African American graduate of West Point. Although Flipper's record of accomplishment was significant, he was court-martialed and dismissed from the service in 1882. This is Flipper's own account of his career, along with a biographical essay by Quintard Taylor Jr.
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6.

The Class of 1861: Custer, Ames, and Their Classmates after West Point » Read Now
by Ralph Kirshner. 280 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

Ralph Kirshner has provided a richly illustrated forum to enable the West Point class of 1861 to write its own autobiography. Through letters, journals, and published accounts, George Armstrong Custer, Adelbert Ames, and their classmates tell in their own words of their Civil War battles and varied...
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Ralph Kirshner has provided a richly illustrated forum to enable the West Point class of 1861 to write its own autobiography. Through letters, journals, and published accounts, George Armstrong Custer, Adelbert Ames, and their classmates tell in their own words of their Civil War battles and varied careers after the war.
Two classes graduated from West Point in 1861 because of Lincoln's need of lieutenants, forty-five cadets in Ames's class in May and thirty-four in Custer's class in June. The cadets range from Henry Algernon du Pont, first in the class of May, whose home is now Winterthur Gardens, to Custer, last in the class of June. "Only thirty-four graduated", remarked Custer, "and of these thirty-three graduated above me". West Point's mathematics professor and librarian Oliver Otis Howard, after whom Howard University is named, is also portrayed.
Other famous names from the class of 1861 are John Pelham, Emory Upton, Thomas L. Rosser, John Herbert Kelly (the youngest general in the Confederacy when appointed), Patrick O'Rorke (head of the class of June), Alonzo Cushing, Peter Hains, Edmund Kirby, John Adair (the only deserter in the class), and Judson Kilpatrick (great-grandfather of Gloria Vanderbilt). They describe West Point before the Civil War, the war years, including the Vicksburg campaign and the battle of Gettysburg, the courage and character of classmates, and the ending of the war.
Kirshner also highlights postwar lives, including Custer at Little Bighorn; Custer's rebel friend Rosser; John Whitney Barlow, who explored Yellowstone; du Pont, senator and author; Kilpatrick, playwright and diplomat; Orville E. Babcock, Grant's secretary until his indictment in the"Whiskey Ring"; Pierce M. B. Young, a Confederate general who became a diplomat; Hains, the only member of the class to serve on active duty in World War I; and Upton, "the class genius".
The book features eighty-three phot
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7.

Bullies and Cowards: The West Point Hazing Scandal, 1898-1901 » Read Now
by Philip W. Leon. 212 pgs.

Collections: History, Education, Entire Library

When Oscar Booz entered West Point in 1898, the older cadets decided that he did not conform to their image of what a cadet should be. After four months of constant torment, including a beating in an organized boxing match, ridicule for reading his Bible, and the forced consumption of hot sauce in...
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When Oscar Booz entered West Point in 1898, the older cadets decided that he did not conform to their image of what a cadet should be. After four months of constant torment, including a beating in an organized boxing match, ridicule for reading his Bible, and the forced consumption of hot sauce in the cadet mess hall, he resigned. When Oscar died a year and a half later from tuberculosis of the larynx, his family claimed that the West Point cadets had killed their son by scarring his throat and creating a fertile field for the fatal infection. This is the story of the ensuing scandal that brought West Point under fire in the press nationwide.
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8.

Forgotten Valor: The Memoirs, Journals & Civil War Letters of Orlando B. Willcox (Chap. Two "West Point: 'No Gate of Heaven'") » Read Now
by Orlando B. Willcox, Robert Garth Scott. 720 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

The papers of Major General Orlando Bolivar Willcox, one of the most prominent division commanders in the Union army, were recently discovered locked in a trunk in a Washington, D.C., attic. Editor Robert Garth Scott has sifted through what is arguably the largest collection of Civil War -- related...
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The papers of Major General Orlando Bolivar Willcox, one of the most prominent division commanders in the Union army, were recently discovered locked in a trunk in a Washington, D.C., attic. Editor Robert Garth Scott has sifted through what is arguably the largest collection of Civil War -- related material to surface in fifty years. From Willcox's childhood in Detroit through his cadetship at West Point; his service in the Mexican, Seminole, and Civil Wars; and his post -- Civil War experiences in the West, his story is published here for the first time.
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9.

Righting a Historical Wrong: West Point Cadet Drummed out of School More Than a Century Ago Gets Posthumous Commission, in Ebony » Read Now
by Ebony. 3 pgs.

Collections: Education, Entire Library
10.

Of Poe and Lee and Other West Points, in The American Enterprise » Read Now
by Bill Kauffman. 2 pgs.

Collections: Education, Entire Library
11.

Duty, Honor, Country: Molding Citizen-Soldiers, in Policy Review » Read Now
by Wesley Allen Riddle. 1 pgs.

Collections: Education, Entire Library