The records reproduced in this microfilm publication arefrom Record Group 94, Records of the Adjutant General'sOffice, in the National Archives and Records Service.

U.S. MILITARY ACADEMYCADET APPLICATION PAPERS

1805-1866

On the 2k2 rolls of this microfilm publication are reproducedapplication papers of cadets for appointment to the U.S. MilitaryAcademy, 1805-66. The unbound papers include letters from applicantsrequesting appointment, letters of recommendation, notifications fromthe War Department if the candidate was appointed, and letters of ac-ceptance from the candidates. The records are part of Record Group 9U,Records of The Adjutant General's Office.

After the British military victories in New York in October 1777,Gen. George Washington recommended the erection of military defensesalong the Hudson River in the area of West Point. Washington believedthat a fort on the plateau at West Point would secure the river fromattacks by the British and preserve communication between the coloniesby insuring their geographical unity.

Plans for the design of the military post at West Point weremade initially by a young French engineer, Lt. Col. Louis Deshaixde la Radiere. In January 1778 a brigade under the command ofBrig. Gen. Samuel Holden Parsons of Connecticut began constructingfortifications at West Point, on the west bank of the Hudson River inNew York. By June 1778 work was completed on Fort Clinton, one ofthe earliest forts erected on the site. In July 1779 Washingtonmoved his headquarters to West Point, where he remained until Novemberof that year.

The garrison at West Point by August 1782 consisted of artillery,sappers and miners, the 10th Massachusetts Regiment, and the Corps ofInvalids. The Corps was an early version of the organization thatbecame the U.S. Military Academy in 1802.

One of the earliest recommendations for a military academy camefrom Col. Henry Khox, Chief of Artillery of the Revolutionary Army.In September 1776 Knox suggested the establishment of an academy fortraining military officers in the theory and practice of their pro-fession. On October 1, 1776, the Continental Congress resolved thata committee of five be designated to prepare a plan for a MilitaryAcademy. The result was the appointment of an Invalid Corps by anact of Congress on June 20, 1777• The Corps, consisting of eightcompanies, was to be employed for garrison and guard duty and "alsoto serve as a military school for young gentlemen." Col. LewisNicola, a French officer, was elected Colonel of the Corps. Part ofthe Corps was stationed at West Point by November 1781 and the entireCorps by August 1782. An arsenal, an engineering school, and a li-brary were erected by the Corps. After the war, Congress dissolvedmost of the Continental Army, including the Corps, but a garrisonwas retained at West Point.

Little was done about founding an academy for training militaryofficers until May 9, 1791*, when an act of Congress provided for aCorps of Artillerists and Engineers to be stationed at West Point. Atthis time the rank of cadet was established. The act provided for fourbattalions of four companies and each company was alloted two cadets,which made a total of 32 cadets. They were to receive an apprentice-ship in military affairs rather than formalized training. The numberof authorized cadets was increased by an act of March 3, 1?99> thatestablished a regiment of infantry and a regiment of cavalry, each tohave 10 cadets, and a regiment of artillery, which was to have 32 cadets•

The U.S. Military Academy was established by law on March 16, 1802.Congress authorized the President to organize a Corps of Engineers thatwas to contain, in addition to the officers, 10 cadets who were toreceive a military education and who were to receive pay. The Corpswas stationed at West Point and constituted the Military Academy.Under the terms of the same act UO cadets were authorized for the Artil-lery Corps. By an act of April 12, 1808, 156 additional cadets wereauthorized when the Army was increased by five regiments of artillery,one of riflemen, one of light artillery, and one of light dragoons,and each company of the regiments was to have two cadets. An act ofJanuary 11, 1812, authorized an additional 10 regiments of infantry,two of artillery, and one of light dragoons, and also provided thateach regiment of artillery should have UO cadets and that the regimentof cavalry should have 2k cadets.

The Academy was reorganized by an act of April 29, 1812, whichprovided that the number of cadets appointed in the service of theUnited States was at no time to exceed 250 and that they were to beattached, at the discretion of the President, to the Military Academy.The sum of $25,000 was appropriated for buildings and equipment. Con-gressional regulations relating to the Academy remained stable untilan act of March 1, 18U3, which limited the number of cadets to thenumber of Representatives and Delegates in Congress and one from theDistrict of Columbia. In addition, the President was permitted toappoint 10 cadets on an "at large" basis.

MaJ, Jonathan Williams of the Corps of Engineers was appointed asthe first Superintendent of the Military Academy in April 1802. TheAcademy was formally opened on July k of that year. Superintendentsof the Academy were selected from the Corps of Engineers until July 13,1866, when Congress authorized the selection of the Superintendent andthe officers on duty at the Academy from any arm of the service. Underthe same act Congress transferred the supervision of the Academy to theSecretary of War.

Under the provisions of the act of 1812, cadet appointments toWest Point were made at the discretion of the President, with the adviceof the Secretary of War. Applications for appointment could be madeto the Secretary of War by the candidate, his parents, guardian, or anyof his friends. Recommendations were received from relatives, friends,or Members of Congress.

The act of 1812 also required that candidates for appointmentshould be not younger than lU nor older than 21 years of age. By aJoint resolution approved June 16, 1.866, the age of admission ofcadets was thereafter to be between 17 and 22 years of age. Anotherprovision in the act of 1812 was that each candidate should be "wellversed in reading, writing, and arithmetic." These were the basicrequirements from 1812 to 1866.

Applications for cadet appointments for the 1812-66 period werereferred to the Engineer Department. Selections were made yearly bythe Secretary of War to fill the number of vacancies for the year, andthose selected were conditionally appointed as cadets. They were no-tified by letters of appointment and were directed to inform the Sec-retary of War of their acceptance. Before 181+3 appointments werecustomarily distributed throughout the country in proportion to thenumber of Representatives and Delegates in Congress, and they weremade upon the advice of the Congressman. Equal distribution of theappointments was required by a law passed by Congress on March 1, l8̂ 3>with the additional provision that the cadet who was recommended shouldbe a resident of the District, State, or Territory from which he wasappointed.

Most of the application papers in this microfilm publication arearranged by year and thereunder numerically by file number. The filedesignation for an applicant consists of the year in which the appli-cation was received and the number assigned to the file. Letters ofapplication that for one reason or another were not numbered have beenfiled by the National Archives as unnumbered letters at the end of theyear of the application and thereunder alphabetically by the name ofthe candidate.

In some instances errors were made by War Department clerks inassigning numbers to files and some numbers were repeated. Where thenumbers were repeated, the clerks added "1/2" to the number of thesecond letter to distinguish it from the first one bearing the samenumber. Where this has not been done, the National Archives has added,in brackets, "No. 1" and "No. 2" to the file designation.

Some cross-reference slips prepared by the War Department appearin this series. They Indicate the file number under which lettersconcerning the same applicant were consolidated.

The National Archives has not located application papers for theyear l8ll. During the war years 1810-12 few applicants were admittedto the Academy: 2 in 1810, 0 In l8ll, and only 12 in 1812. Secretaryof War William Eustis assigned the officers and the cadets of theAcademy to other duties In those years and academic instruction declined.

Reproduced on the first roll of this microfilm publication is aname index to the letters of application. The Index is arranged alpha-betically by the initial letter of the surname of the applicant,

thereunder by the initial vowel sound of the surname, and thereunderchronologically by the date of the application. The index containsthe name of the applicant, the year of application, the State fromwhich the candidate applied, and the file number of the applicationpapers. Entries for which correspondence has been found have beenmarked by the National Archives with an asterisk.

In some instances the name of the candidate has been spelled in-correctly in the index. The National Archives has not attempted tocorrect this type of error. For a few entries, the file number forthe correspondence has been omitted; where this has occurred theNational Archives has added the number to the index in brackets.

Not all names of applicants were entered in the index by the WarDepartment clerks. In those instances where names have been omitted,the National Archives has prepared supplemental index entries that arefilmed in the appropriate places.

A list of a number of early applications (180U-9), which wereforwarded to the Record and Pension Office in 1896, appears at thebeginning of the name index. Many of the papers to which the list re-lates are now filed among the letters received by the Secretary of War,Main Series, 1801-70 (Microcopy 221).

A list of applicants for whom no papers have been found in thisseries has been prepared by the National Archives. The list is filmedafter these introductory remarks. Cross-reference slips in the fileindicate that a few of the papers that were not found were withdrawnfrom the file or returned to the applicant.

Most of the records of the Office of the Chief of Engineers re-lating to the Military Academy were forwarded to the Office of TheAdjutant General in 1867. Other related records In the same recordgroup include a series of records relating to the U.S. Military Academy,1812-67 (Microcopy 91). Additional records concerning the MilitaryAcademy may be found in Record Group 77, Records of the Office of theChief of Engineers, and Record Group 107, Records of the Office of theSecretary of War.

The records reproduced in this microcopy were arranged for filmingby Violet M. Alexander, Ellen S. Garrison, and John L. Matias. AlohaBroadwater wrote these introductory remarks and provided the othereditorial material.

LIST OF APPLICANTS FOR WHOMNO PAPERS HAVE BEEN FOUND

IN THIS SERIES

Abbott, Henry L.Alexander, DeAlba E.Aycock, Thomas B.Ayres, DouglassBagly, John C.Batchelder, A. G.Baylor, John R.Blair, Lewis H.Boyd, 0. B.Bunker, Daniel, Jr.Burke, John G.Butts,Cheves, Francis F.Clark,Coss, GeorgeCowles, SamuelDavis, JeffersonDinsmore, SilasDudley, Allanson W.Easley, Thomas W.Emory, A. W.Forsythe, Benj. D.Gannell, W. C.Gibbs, RobertHale, John R.Hammett, John P.Hanson, R.Hearn, F. P.Hearn, Theo. 6*Henderson, Thomas J.Hendrel, C. B.Higgins, EugeneHopkins, James, Jr.Hughes, William B.Hulburt, William W.Inglio, Thomas M.Irvin, William W.Johnson, William W.Jones, Adam W.King, JohnKingsbury, George S.Lee, Robert E.

181*9/1186U/273181*5/11826/209181+5/26181*6/381858/21*181*9/111863/20181*6/351865M1829/1*31850/501823/31827/93 1/2181*2/200l82i*/30?1821*/1*1*1818/113181*9/111181*6/79181*3/1601853/1071818/118U8/U6181*9/11*91850/118l85l*/2?21828/171181*1/169181*9/11*11850/1281861/3911851/12718U6/1051850/150lQ2h/kOk185V255181*5/2181*8/166181*9/188I82l*/ll6

McAlester, Miles 1852/18?McDuffee, Franklin 18̂ 5/19̂McHenry, William 1863/231Merchant, Silas 181*2/199Miller, John 181*7/18?Moffitt, 181*1»/152Moore, Samuel H. 1862/206Nelson, P. J. 181*6/205Nouman, Joseph D. 181*5/169Ormstreet, James T. 181*1/236Parker, E. T. 181*8/326Parker, H. S. 181+7/211*Parker, Thomas 181*9/263Ferine, Henry C. 181*6/223Poe, Edgar Allen 1829/156Risteau, 181*5/21*3Robb, 0. D. 18U2/311Robinson, John M. 181*9/28?Rodgers, John K. l82l*/l*3Rogers, W. T. 1850/339Ross, Harvey P. 181*8/236Russell, Albert 1852/21*3Saunders, F. W. 181*7/258Shepperd, Thomas P. 1852/252Sidney, J. N. 1856/278Smith, Horace 1821/6Smith, W. P. 181*3/271Steptoe, Edward J. 1833/136Sumner, Charles 1825/106Surles, Wm. 1863/1*38Taylor, George 1832/71*Trapier, Paul 1830/158Vanderverken, Charles 1856/316Ward, Robert A. 181*9/361*Ward, Thomas 1853/295Ward, Thomas 1859/278Wheeler, Thomas W. 1855/223Williams, Thomas 1832/269Williams, W. W. 1850/327Wolfenden, John 1828/172Wood, S. W. 181*9/386

CONTENTS OF MICROCOPY 688

Roll

1

Range and Price

Name Index $3Application Papers

2

3

4

5

6

789

101112

13Ik1516

1718

18051-5

18061-8

18071-8

18081-10

18091-3

18101-2

18121 andUnnumbered

1813Unnumbered

18141-108 andUnnumbered

18151-89 andUnnumbered

18161-96 andUnnumbered

18171-108 andUnnumbered

18181-59

60-129130-19818191-69

70-129130-204 andUnnumbered

18201-59

60-129130-190191-25U18211-79

80-145

2

6

3

4

4

444

333

3443

45

Roll Range and Price

19202122

2324252627

2829303132333^35

363738394o

414243444546

4748495051

5253545556

18221-29

30-59 1/260-99 1/2

100-15718231-59

60-112113-179180-249250-319

18241-69

70-119120-149150-201202-256257-318319-364365-42118251-44

45-124125-189190-230231-286 andUnnumbered

18261-58

59-106107-157158-189190-225226-255 andUnnumbered1827l-45

46-9697-13^ 1/2

135-175176-21318281-49

50-9495-133

134-176177-234

$3443

44434

34333343

34333

433333

43334

33333

Roll Range and Price Roll Range and Price

1829 183557 1-30 $3 98 1-44 $458 31-71 3 99 45-101 459 72-112 3 100 102-149 460 113-162 3 101 150-196 and 461 163-197 3 Unnumbered62 198-226 3 183663 227-245 3 102 1-57 464 246-274 3 103 58-106 465 275-293 3 104 107-159 4

1830 105 160-208 466 1-35 2 106 209-250 end 367 36-67 3 Unnumbered68 68-115 3 183769 116-151 3 107 1-44 370 152-204 3 108 45-94 471 205-226 3 109 95-143 472 227-248 3 110 144-183 473 249-269 3 HI 184-225 3

1831. 112 226-275 474 1-35 3 113 276-315 375 36-79 4 183876 80-118 4 114 1-56 477 119-153 3 115 57-101 378 154-191 3 116 102-157 379 192-210 2 117 158-207 3

1832 118 208-245 480 1-32 3 119 246-262 481 33-66 3 183982 67-104 3 120 1-65 583 105-149 4 121 66-115 484 150-191 4 122 116-170 485 192-234 4 123 171-203 486 235-271 4 1840

1833 124 1-4& 587 1-38 3 125 49-105 588 39-78 3 126 106-165 589 79-118 3 127 166-215 490 119-162 4 128 216-268 491 163-211 4 129 269-309 k

1834 130 310-360 492 1-38 393 39-77 4 131 1-73 494 78-132 4 132 74-105 495 133-170 4 133 106-154 396 171-209 4 134 155-212 397 210-252 and 4 135 fe!3-26l 4

Unnumbered 136 2t£-3l8 4

Roll

137

138139l4o141142143144

1*5146147148149150

151152153154

155156157158159

160161162163164

165166167168169

170171172173174

175176

Range and Price

319-361 and 4Unnumbered

18421-61

62-133134-201202-262263-302303-348349-38418431-58

59-121122-169170-222223-288289-331 andUnnumbered1844

1-7475-136

137-222223-27518453-79

80-130131-198199-259260-31018461-71

72-138139-210211-281282-325

18471-83

84-160161-235236-302303-33518481-79

80-160161-214215-278279-33018492-77

78-165

*

4443323

344444

4353

44354

44443

44444

44433

44

Roll Range and Price

177178179

180181182183

184185186187

188189190191

192193194

195196197

198199200

201202203

204205206207

208209210211

212213214

166-240241-348349-41418501-77

78-161162-260261-34518511-75

76-162163-243244-294 andUnnumbered

1 Q r-/"\lO52

1-7879-153

154-230231-32918531-88

89-226227-329 andUnnumbered

18541-86

87-204205-273

i OccJ-QjQ1-91

92-169170-23918561-101

102-235236-35318571-100

101-207208-299300-38518581-75

76-150151-271272-35118591-115

116-224225-316

$445

4455

4443

4445

455

454

444

555

4434

3355

45

Roll Range and Price Roll Range and Price

1860 231 314-400 $4215 1-92 $4 232 401-480 3216 93-170 4 1864

1861 233 1-101 4217 1-135 5 234 102-235 5218 136-29^ 5 235 236-339 4219 295-381 4 236 340-428 4220 382-492 5 186̂221 493-641 5 237 1-139 5222 642-752 4 238 140-255 4223 753-851 b 239 256-360 4224 852-973 5 240 361-434 3

1862 1866225 1-114 5 24l 1-120 4226 115-228 5 242 121-200 3227 229-345 5

1863228 1-100 4 -total $908229 101-200 5230 201-313 ^

DC 6 9 - 2 5 4 2 10