A good common-school education is required for admission to the Academy, with physical soundness, the age to be not less than sixteen years nor over twenty-one, and the proper hight is five feet or more. Each cadet signs an agreement to serve eight years in the army of the United States, and obey all the rules of the institution.

The course of instruction, which occupies four years, embraces military tactics, natural sciences, mathematics, French, history and other English studies, and drawing; to the latter of which great attention is paid. The oldest class is called the first, the next the second, and so on.

The commencement is on the 1st of July. During this and the following month the cadets have the encampment, of which you will have a glimpse from one of their number. The daily allowance of time for study is not less than nine, nor more than ten hours.

The annual examination of classes commences on the first Monday in June, before an Academic Board, which consists of the Superintendent and professors, with a Board of Visitors appointed by the Secretary of War. A careful record of every recitation is kept, and in the Annual Register is published a conduct-roll-a complete statement of the violations of rules.

There are seven grades of crime, whose mark of demerit is from 1 to 10. To give an illustration: Absence from reveille roll-call is 3; bringing ardent spirits into barracks, 8. When the number of demerits in a year exceeds two hundred, the cadet is recommended to the War Department for expulsion from the Academy.

The cadets are allowed but one absence during the four years' course, usually at the end of the second year, and during July and August. But only a quarter of the whole number can go at any one time, and none whose demerit is over one hundred and fifty for the preceding twelve months.

The dress, which is gray, is a coatee, white drilling pants, white gloves, and black dress cap.

The punishments for misconduct are of three kinds: Privation of recreation, extra tours of guard duty, repri mands, or confinement to room or tent; confinement in

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light or dark prison; and dismission with the privilege of resigning, or public dismission.

The superintendent can inflict the first variety of punishment, and a court-martial the second.

Disobedience and disrespect toward officers and instructors expose the offender to expulsion.

Card-playing and the use of intoxicating drinks are forbidden. The cadets are not allowed to pass over the road surrounding the plain of West Point (including the sidewalk), without special permission. On Saturday afternoons, and during the encampment on other days, leave can be obtained to walk upon certain parts of the public lands, including Mount Independence and Crow's Nest.

No cadet can visit any family, except on Saturday afternoon, without a written invitation and the special permission of the superintendent, or go to the hotel without a written permit, specifying the time of the visit, and the name of the person on whom he may wish to call. No cadet can enter any room or hall of the hotel except the hall and drawing-rooms of the first story, or, when there, take dinner or any other meal.

The cadets are allowed twenty-eight dollars a month each; of which sum about one-half is required for board, and the remainder is credited to him, or may be expended for clothing, books, and furniture; two dollars of the amount are reserved for a fund to defray the expenses of uniform, when the graduated cadet is promoted. In four years there accumulates a purse of one hundred dollarssufficient to give the young officer a handsome "fitting out" for the field.

In the summer-time there is daily drill, excepting Saturdays, after 4 P. M., and a dress parade at sunset, and parade and inspection every Sunday morning before church. The cadets are firemen also, drilled to the use of engines, and called out when the alarm of fire is sounded.

The following is the order of business :

Rereille at 5 A. M. in summer and 6 in winter. Rollcall immediately after. Then cleaning arms and accouter

ments. Inspection of rooms thirty minutes after roll-call. This is followed by study of the lessons to be recited during the morning.

At 7 A. M. the signal for breakfast is given. "Troop" and guard-mounting at half-past 7. Morning parade at 8 (in camp).

From 8 A. M. to 1 P. M., recitation and study.

Dinner at 1. Recreation until 2.

From 2 to 4 P. M., recitation, or study, or drawing. After 4, military exercises for an hour or longer, and recreation. At sunset, evening parade. Supper immediately after. Call to quarters thirty minutes after supper. From that time till half-past 9, study. "Talloo," a preparatory signal, at half-past 9. Lights extinguished and inspection of rooms at the signal "Taps," at 10 P. M.

As the studies are not pursued during the encampment, the hours allotted to recitations and study are then devoted to recreation or military drill, and the evenings to merry-making in the dancing parties and in other amusements.

The arrangements are such that, besides numerous inspections by the army "officer in charge," and the cadet "officer of the day," there are at least four rollcalls daily.

The same systematic order prevails throughout every thing that is done. The different sections march in silence to and from their recitations, under the charge of the best of their number as squad marcher. The companies also march to the mess-hall, "with slow and solemn tread," and there take their seats in regular order, preserving a constant silence.

The morning parade, at 8 A. M., during the encampment only, is followed by the ceremony of guard-mounting, and is like the evening parade, except the firing of the cannon.

With a diploma in hand, the cadet is ready for promotion, beginning second lieutenant; or, if there be no vacancy, brevet second lieutenant-a complimentary position till a regular appointment can be made.

In reply to an inquiry respecting the story which had

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been current in the periodical press, that he had a personal encounter with an officer of the cadets, Mr. Jesse R. Grant wrote the following:

"The story about his 'flogging' the captain is untrue. He is said to have never had a personal controversy in his life. The nearest approach to it was with General II— at the siege of Corinth. He says he desired moving on the enemy's works ten days before General H was ready, and saw that, by delay, they would lose the chance of bagging the rebel army, then completely in their power. He is sure he used stronger language to General Hthan he had ever used before to any person, and expected to be arrested and tried. But the General said to him: 'If I had let you take your own course, you would have taken the rebel army. Hereafter I will not dictate to you about the management of an army.' It was a common remark among the boys, when Ulysses got his appointment, that 'Lis' would make a good cadet in every respect but one; that was, if he ever was engaged in war, he was too good-natured to be kicked into a fight. In addition to freedom from personal controversy, it is believed he never used a profane word, nor told a deliberate falsehood--at least, under the parental roof. He was brought up in a Methodist family."

In his habits he was simply a quiet, reserved, and studious youth, marked with that decision which has given harmony and power to all the other high qualities of character. He was not conspicuous for intense application to study, nor was he an idler; and his medium rank in the graduating class indicated that unrecognized greatness, by himself and others, not a rare fact in the history of distinguished men. Indeed, it is well known that brilliant promise in academic experience, oftener than otherwise, fades in the life of manhood, as if nature exhausted her resources by the premature activity of the brain. Our Washington and Lincoln are examples of a growth in intellectual and moral stature so gradual, that no prophet of their pre-eminence announced the future destiny in early history.

CHAPTER III.

GRANT'S CLASSMATES.-HIS SERVICE IN THE MEXICAN WAR.

Cadet Grant's Classmates and Companions.-He is created Lieutenant.-Goes to St. Louis to Guard the Frontier.-The Indian Depredations and their Wrongs. -The comparative Monotony of the Regular Service in time of Peace broken.— The War with Mexico.-The Lieutenant's First Engagement.-Marches.-Palo Alto.-Resaca de la Palma.-Vera Cruz.-Molino del Rey.-Chapultepec.— Testimony to Grant's Bravery.-Close of the War.-Leaves the Army for Business in St. Louis.

THE school companions of great men are very often mixed up with their after-life, and this statement is the more applicable to the West Point cadets who graduate in the same class. And it may be a matter of interest to the reader to know who were General Grant's fellow-graduates, and what their relative positions were subsequently, in the civil war.

The cadet who graduated first in the class was William Benjamin Franklin, who entered the Topographical Engineer Corps; and, having passed through a series of adventures under various commanders, was, at the beginning of 1864, the general commanding the Nineteenth Army Corps, in the Department of the Gulf, under General Banks.

The names of the next three graduates do not now appear in the Army List of the United States.

William F. Raynolds graduated fifth in his class, entered the infantry service, and was appointed an aid on the staff of General Fremont, commanding the Mountain Department, with the rank of colonel, from the 31st day of March, 1862.

The next graduate was Isaac F. Quinby. He had entered the artillery service, and had been professor at West Point, but had retired to civil life. The Rebellion, however, brought him from his retirement, and he went to the field at the head of a regiment of New York volunteers.