Highlights of Past Issues
We are pleased to share with you highlights
from past issues of New York Archives magazine, including
one feature article in its entirety from nearly every issue. New
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Explosion on Wall
Street - Beverly Gage
The 1920 attack in Lower Manhattan is remembered with an eye to
recent history
West
Point, The "Key to America" - Joseph P. Franklin, Major
General, U.S. Army (Retired)
Recalling the origins of the United State Military Academy as
it celebrates its 200th year
Buffalo Pop: American
Dreams, Local Success - William Graebner
Buffalo's home-grown popular music of the 50s and 60s almost-but
not quite-attracted a national audience
A Tie That Binds:
Three Centuries of Family in One Place - Leila Philip
A family's history in the Hudson Valley includes a slave who fought
along side his former master
Martha Matilda Harper:
The Business of Beauty - Sally Parker
An early female entrepreneur from Rochester invents the franchise-and
empowers women in the process
West Point, The "Key to America"
- Joseph P. Franklin, Major General, US Army (Retired)
Recalling the origins of the United State Military Academy
as it celebrates its 200th year.
In 1775, New Yorkers Christopher Tappan and James Clinton visited
and surveyed the Hudson River Valley after the Continental Congress
charged the New York Assembly with defense of the Hudson River
against British forces in the colonies. Fifty miles above New
York City, Tappan and Clinton discovered that the wide, tranquil
river suddenly narrowed into a sharp, S-shaped bend with steep
cliffs rising to rocky terrain on either side. The swift water
and limited space forced ships to slow down so they could negotiate
the dangerous passage. Maps taken from Tappan and Clinton's surveys
named the promontory on the western bank of the river "West Point."
Recognizing the strategic value of this terrain in controlling
navigation on the Hudson, local militia began to build forts on
the surrounding hills south of West Point, near Bear Mountain.
Inexplicably, West Point itself was not fortified. The intent
of these defenses was to prevent the British from using the waterway
as a means to isolate New England, considered the heart of the
rebellious colonies. To further impede British navigation, an
iron chain was forged and stretched bank to bank across the river.
Called the "Great Chain," or the "West Point Chain," the links
were attached to log booms, since the huge chain would have sunk
without these floating supports.
Foreign Aid at West Point
However, the American rebellion was confronting an experienced
and numerically superior force, and in 1777 British troops captured
and destroyed the forts and the Great Chain. Fortunately, the
American victory at the Battle of Saratoga persuaded the British
to withdraw to New York City. But as the opposing armies went
into winter quarters at the end of 1777, the outcome of their
conflict was far from certain.
Then a series of events centering on West Point set the stage
for the eventual triumph of the fledgling United States. In January,
1778, General Samuel Parsons marched a garrison of troops from
Peekskill across the frozen Hudson to occupy the ground that today
is the site of the United States Military Academy. Thaddeus Kosciuszko,
the Polish nobleman who had come to America in 1776 to design
the fortifications at Saratoga and to help plan the defenses of
the Continental Congress in Philadelphia, was given the rank of
colonel and traveled to West Point in 1778 to complete its defenses,
which had been designed by the French engineer Lieutenant Colonel
Louis de la Radiére. Captain Frederick von Steuben, the
Prussian Army officer who had journeyed to America to join the
rebellion in 1777, arrived at West Point in 1779 to begin drilling
and disciplining America's untrained Continental Army troops in
the manner he had begun the previous winter at Valley Forge. These
technical skills brought to the battlefield by foreign friends
made a difference for the American army. To keep an eye on British
attempts to move up the river, in 1779 George Washington established
his headquarters at West Point, calling it the "key to America."
A Traitor in Their Midst
But the road ahead was not without perils. Major General Benedict
Arnold persuaded Washington to give him command of West Point.
Arnold had earned his rank by courageous service in many major
battles, including Saratoga. He was reputed to be one of Washington's
best commanders, and West Point was seen at the time as America's
strongest military post. However, Arnold's second wife was from
a Philadelphia family loyal to the British Crown, and he may have
begun to plot his treason as early as 1778, when he commanded
the defenses of that city. In addition, many grievances were shared
by the officers of the Continental Army, among them low pay and
lack of political support, which undoubtedly contributed to Arnold's
traitorous behavior.
By 1780, Arnold had found a British officer, Major John André,
to help him carry out his scheme: turn West Point over to the
British, and profit personally in the bargain. But André
was caught in civilian clothes with the plans of West Point's
fortifications--in Arnold's handwriting--hidden in his stocking.
André was hanged as a spy at Tappan, New York, but Arnold
escaped on a British ship and lived out the rest of his life with
his family in England. The British did not ultimately test the
defenses of "America's strongest military post," Washington eventually
marched south to victory at Yorktown in 1781, and the new United
States found a temporary peace with its fractious trading partners
in Europe.
No Support for an Academy
Historians, poets, and philosophers have recorded since time immemorial
that the end of war quickly erodes support for all things military.
For America, it meant the fading from memory of Washington's Continental
Army, the trained and disciplined units that had ultimately been
victorious. With so many other pressing matters to address, the
people and their political representatives soon came to believe
that the militia--the "Minute Men" who had won the battle of Bunker
Hill so brilliantly in 1775--could be the guarantors of America's
military defense. This opinion fit conveniently with the lingering
fear that a standing army would become an elite force that supported
exactly the sort of dictatorial regime Americans had risked their
lives to escape. None of this bode well for the establishment
of a military academy, so from 1785 until 1790, with New York
City serving as the United States' capital and Washington elected
its first president in 1789, there was faint support for any sort
of regular army.
As commander of the Continental Army, General Washington had envisioned
the creation of an academy to train the nation's military leaders
in the art of war. As president, he continued to press for an
academy, citing the risky and unsatisfactory alternative of depending
on foreign professionals to provide the expertise for modern warfare.
Critical among the technical skills needed were gunnery; aiming
and adjusting artillery fire; and engineering, situating and building
fortifications. Nonetheless, reflecting the politics of the day,
Thomas Jefferson, Washington's secretary of state, argued that
the Constitution did not grant power to the government to provide
for a national academy of any sort. Jefferson was also opposed
to the creation of an elite class of military professionals commanding
the power that a standing army could wield.
The Need for Education
World events would eventually bring changing attitudes. In addition
to the threats posed by hostile foreign interests, education in
America became a central concern for the country's future prosperity.
While major institutions of higher learning had been educating
a small portion of the populace for over a century, their curricula
were focused on scholarship, philosophy, and religion. There were
no universities for scientists, engineers, or builders. In recognition
of the need to impart some technical skills to the country's small
army, Congress in 1794 authorized the grade of cadet, and a military
school was finally built at West Point. The Army's tiny Corps
of Artillerists and Engineers was moved there, and Colonel Henry
Burbeck, Chief of Artillery, set up a school in rudimentary gunnery
and engineering for cadets and junior officers.
Unfortunately, the school burned down in 1796, and the idea of
a military academy languished. In 1799, one of Washington's last
earthly acts was to write a letter to Alexander Hamilton, then
commanding general of the Army, seeking to endorse a previous
correspondence from Hamilton to the secretary of war that laid
out plans for establishing a military academy at West Point. President
John Adams was a strong supporter of the Navy, since he felt that
plying the seas for trade was the lifeblood of the colonies and
that using resources to support the nation's merchant and warships
was sound policy, unhampered by sensitive domestic issues. But
Adams harbored grave doubts about a standing army. Like many of
the Founding Fathers, he perceived the threat such an army could
pose to the hard-fought liberties they had created and protected;
thus the idea of a military academy did not move President Adams
to action.
It remained--until Thomas Jefferson became president in 1801--for
the coincidence of military threats against the nation's interests
to point out the need for a standing army and a military academy
to train their leaders. Congress was moved to draw up a bill creating
a Corps of Engineers which "...shall be stationed at West Point.and
shall constitute a Military Academy." In that same year, the secretary
of war directed that all cadets training to be artillerists should
report to West Point. A school opened in the final days of 1801,
and four officers and one civilian were assigned to West Point
as instructors and administrators.
A Change of Heart for Jefferson
Although originally opposed to the idea of a military academy,
Jefferson had undergone a change of heart as president, motivated
in part by the possibility of putting the new academy in Virginia,
where cadets could be drawn from families supportive of his own
policies and politics. However, prevailing sentiment favored the
more remote location at West Point, since any mischief that the
professional army officer corps might foment could be more easily
isolated and dealt with if kept away from the capital, which by
then had moved to Washington.
President Jefferson finally signed the academy bill into law on
March 16, 1802. Thus two Virginians, George Washington and Thomas
Jefferson, became the founders of the United States Military Academy
at West Point (Sylvanus Thayer, army officer and educator, is
known as the "father" of West Point). Coincidentally, Washington
and Jefferson had also established the first engineering school
in America, the first institution of higher learning in America
not founded by a religious order, and the oldest continuously
occupied military post in the United States. And from the very
beginning, it has been New York State that has hosted this great
and unique institution.
The US Military Academy Library (http://usmalibrary.usma.edu) maintains extensive documentation of the history of West Point, the Academy itself, and Academy alumni in its Special Collections and Archives. These rich historical collections include extensive book, manuscript, photograph, and cartography holdings, among other formats.
The USMA Archives Collection, comprised of official records of the Academy from its founding in 1802 through the present, is an Affiliated Archives of the National Archives and Records Administration. It includes cadet records, curricular documentation, and information on the campus, as well as correspondence, orders, and other administrative material.
