The subject rested until 1802, when Congress made provision by law for such | an institution there. Yery little progress was made in the matter ixntil the year 1812, when, by another act of Congress, a corps of engineers and professors were organised, and the school was endowed with the most attractive features of a literary institution, mingled with that of a military character. From that time until the present, the academy has been increasing in importance, as the nursery of army officers and skilful practical engineers.

The buildings of the West Point Military Academy consisted, at the time wo are considering, of cadets' barracks, cadets' guard-house, academy, mess hall, hospital of cadets, chapel, observatory, and library, artillery laboratory, hospital for troops, equipments shed, engineer troops' barracks, post guard-house, dragoons' barracks, artillery barracks, cavalry exercise hall, cavalry stables, powder magazine, the quarters of the officers and professors of the Academy, workshops, commissary of cadets and sutlers' store, shops and cottages for the accommodation of noncommissioned officers and their families, laundresses of the cadets, &c. The principal edifices are built of granite.

The post is under the general command of a superintendent, who bears the rank of brevet-colonel. The average number of cadets was about two hundred and fifty. Candidates for admission arc selected by the War Department at Washington city, and they are required to report themselves for examination to the superintendent of the academy between the first and twentieth day of June. None are admitted who are less than sixteen or more than twenty-one years of age, who are less than five feet in height, or who are deformed or otherwise unfit for military duty. Each cadet, on admission, is obliged to subscribe his name to an agreement to serve in the army of the United States four years, in addition to his four years of instruction, unless sooner discharged by competent authority.