To Major Thayer, appointed Superintendent in 1 8 1 7 , the Academy owes more than to any one man for the ground j^lan of its s\'stem of work and the first great impulse towards its present efficiency. He was Superintendent for sixteen years, during which time 570 cadets were graduated, -- men who were soon to test the value of their instruction and training under the skies of Mexico, where, in two campaigns, according to General Scott's tribute, "we conquered a great country and peace without the loss of a single battle or skirmish." In no war that has occurred within the knowledge

372 The Hudson River

of man has such a display of mihtary skill been exhibited bythe leaders on both sides, through a series of operations of such magnitude and extending over so long a period of time, as made the American Civil War for ever memorable. We cannot forget that the list of those who won distinction in that deplorable but unavoidable strife, in the Confederate as well as the Federal armies, was mainly from the roster of West Point graduates. McClellan and Jackson, Burnside and Beauregard, Hooker and Pemberton, Sherman and Johnston, Grant and Lee, -- the list rolls on. In blue and grey, for conscience sake, they fought a good fight, and fought it better because the old Academy with its training was behind them. The mihtary post at West Point formerly was distinct from the Academy, and, until 1842, was sometimes under separate command; but at that time Congress very wisely put an end to contentions arising from a conflict of rank and authority between the Commander of the post and the Superintendent of the Academy, by providing that the latter should also command the post. While the requirements for examination, both for admission and graduation, have increased, and the training has become more thorough and proportionately severe with each decade of the history of "the Point," the superstructure has been reared, as we have already suggested, on the foundation laid by Major Thayer.