I learned this today. West Point is the United States Military Academy. It used to be a fort and is now the most famous military academy for officer training in America.
There are 5 American service academies and West Point is the oldest. The others are the US Naval Academy, the US Air Force Academy, the US Coast Guard Academy, and the US Merchant Marine Academy.
The fort at West Point was built from 1778, during the American War of Independence, to overlook the Hudson River. The British were using the Hudson River to sail ships from Lake George and Lake Champlain, which allowed them to control the area from Montreal down to New York. There were many battles along this river all through the revolutionary war. The West Point fort was built on a bend in the Hudson River where ships were forced to slow down, almost to a stop.
The fort was built by Tadeusz Kościuszko, who was a Polish-Lithuanian military leader who fought on the US side in the revolution. Interestingly, the highest mountain in Australia is named after him. Kościuszko wanted to build a series of forts along the Hudson River, but he was overruled and ended up building one major fort, 150m above sea level.
The fort became known as West Point because it was on the western most point of the bend in the Hudson River. The name has stuck. Many more people will have heard of West Point than will have heard of the United States Military Academy.
In 1779, George Washington transferred his headquarters to the fort when its importance became obvious. A 100 ton chain was slung across the river from the fort to Constitution Island on the other side, to stop British shipping. The chain was floated on logs. The fort was armed with canons and its height above the river, coupled with the chain and the natural curve in the river, allowed American soldiers to rain fire down on British ships as they tried to traverse the point. It effectively made the river impassable.
After the war finished, George Washington realized that America was still dependent on foreign military experts in the fields of engineering and artillery, and he wanted to create a military school in America. Congress never gave him approval, but in 1802, Thomas Jefferson signed legislation starting the academy. He wanted a national university that would be focused on science and engineering. In the beginning, it was not just a military academy but a school for the public.
The idea of military discipline and the shift towards a prominently military academy came about because of the superintendent from 1817 to 1833. He was Colonel Sylvanus Thayer and he is known as “the father of West Point”. Colonel Thayer served in the American military during the war of 1812 and then spent two years in France immersing himself in engineering. He collected many science and mathematics texts. When he came back to America, he was tasked with governing West Point, and he applied everything he had learned to make West Point America’s most prominent engineering university.
Colonel Thayer emphasized military discipline, but graduates did not necessarily go into the military. West Point graduates built many of America’s roads, bridges and railways in the early part of the 19th century.
It was after the Mexican war of 1846 to 1848, and the Civil War of 1861 to 1865 that the military power of the school became clear. West Point had been accused of creating an elitist aristocratic Officer Corps. However, in the Mexican War, many graduates proved themselves in battle. Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee, just to name two. Many of the leading figures on both sides of the Civil War were graduates of West Point. People grew to realize that West Point was actually producing military leaders who knew what they were doing.
After the Civil War, there was a growth in other specialist universities in America, and West Point began to focus more on military training, specifically command training. By the end of the 1800s, West Point was considered the first step on a career as a commissioned officer. In 1976, the school allowed women for the first time and these days, it is rare to find a commissioned officer in the army who didn’t graduate from West Point.
The Academy offers many different courses in its curriculum, but 75% of the faculty are made up of military officers. All cadets at the academy are commissioned as second lieutenants when they graduate. While students are at the academy, they are members of the US army, and they are paid a salary. Their university tuition is free, but they must serve a further 8 years in the army once they graduate. The section or branch of the army they will enter is decided by how they perform in the academy.
So, West Point is a military academy that started as a fort on the western bank of the River Hudson to stop British ships sailing up it during the War of Independence. Thomas Jefferson started the school so that America wouldn’t have to rely on foreign military engineering experts. And this is what I learned today.
By USMA Public Affairs Office – USMA Directorate of Communications Press Kit, Current Photos, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5781513
Sources:
https://www.westpoint.edu/about/history-of-west-point
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Military_Academy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hudson_River_Chains
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_United_States_Military_Academy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tadeusz_Ko%C5%9Bciuszko
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hudson_River
https://www.britannica.com/topic/United-States-Military-Academy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Kosciuszko
https://goarmywestpoint.com/sports/2015/7/14/ath_0714155634.aspx
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sylvanus_Thayer
https://courses.westpoint.edu/static/index.htm#t=Introduction_to_the_Redbook.htm