USA > Virginia > Rockbridge County > Rockbridge County > A history of Rockbridge County, Virginia > Part 24
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A state arsenal was established at Lexington in 1816, where 30,000 stand of small arms were kept for the militia of the southwest counties. The arsenal itself was a substantial brick building four stories high, "from which every architectural beauty was scrupulously excluded." The roof was surfaced with zinc. In the basement was a mess-hall, lighted when necessary with whale oil lamps. In front were the commandant's house and the barracks, the latter a brick building containing nine rooms. The two structures formed one side of a quadrangle, a brick wall fourteen feet high forming the other three sides. The barrack windows were grated and the place was suggestive of a prison. The grounds were not so extensive as those of the school that suc- ceeded the arsenal. On the slope of the hill were a few cedars and some deep gullies. A cornfield surrounded by a worm fence occupied a portion of the present parade ground. The only tree on the plateau was a hickory known as the "guard tree."
The first commandant was Captain James Paxton, a native of the county and a thorough soldier who had served with much credit in the war of 1812. The second commandant was Captain D. E. Moore.
To look after the burnished muskets stored on the upper and well scoured floors of the arsenal, there was a guard of twenty-eight enlisted men, who were paid $9 each a month, or $3,024 in all. They were under strict discipline. Reveille at daybreak and the drum at nine or ten o'clock at night were a part of the estab- lished order of things. Drill and guard duty constituted the legitimate duty of the men. With a few exceptions, they were not of much character, and had ac- cepted this mode of life as being on the "line of least resistance." They were much addicted to liquor and to stealing ripe melons and fruit. One of the letters by "Civis" in 1835 says that, "as a body they are respected by none, considered obnoxious by some, and disliked by all." Eight years earlier, one of the guards was killed by a companion soldier.
Andrew Alexander is said to have been the first citizen to suggest turning the arsenal into some kind of school, and thus getting rid of a nuisance. The idea was at length taken up by the Franklin Society, and in December, 1832, it was twice debated in its halls. The secoind evening there was a unanimous vote in favor of the proposition. So great was the interest now aroused, that before the members had left the hall steps were taken to set the ball to rolling.
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A HISTORY OF ROCKBRIDGE COUNTY, VIRGINIA
In August and September, 1835, three letters signed "Civis" appeared in the Gazette. These articles explained what the proposed school ought to be in the judgment of the writer. Their author was Colonel J. T. L. Preston, but he never clanned to lave originated the views he advanced.
The real originator appears to have been Claude Crozet, a native of France who was educated in the Polytechnic School of l'aris. He became a captain of artillery in the army of Napoleon, won the Cross of the Legion of Honor, and soon after the downfall of the empire he came to America. Shortly after his arrival he was appointed to the chair of engineering at West Point. This posi- tion le filled seven years, and he was the first man to teach the highest branches of mathematics in that institution. Excepting the five years he was president of Jefferson College in Louisiana, Crozet spent the rest of his long life in Vir- ginia. As state engineer he laid out a number of important turnpikes. One of his achievements is the Blue Ridge tunnel on the line of the Chesapeake and Ohio railroad.
The measure was put before the Assembly, but as there was considerable opposition, success was not speedy. The Act first passed made the proposed school "a part and branch of Washington College." This was repealed in favor of the one passed March 22, 1839. This made a yearly appropriation of $6.000. which was the same as the cost of maintaining the arsenal. It created a Board of Visitors, appointed by the Governor. From twenty to forty cadets, between the ages of sixteen and twenty-five, were to be admitted yearly, and these were to con titute the publice guard of the arsenal. The officers and the cadets were to be We'd responsible for the arms. Any non-commissioned officer of the militia of the state was permitted to have free tuition for not more than ten months, but was not to be recognized as a regular student.
The members of the first Board of Visitors were Cononel Claude Crozet. General P. C. Johnston, General Thomas Botts, General C. P. Dorman, Captain John F. Wiley, Governor James McDowell, Dector Alfred Leyburn, and Hugh Parclay. It will be observed that nearly all these men carried military tit'es. Colonel Crozet was chairman The board was a very able one, and the action it tock was in line with these words of our first president : "However pacific the general policy of a nation may be, it ought never to be without an adequate stock of military knowledge for emergencies." The school these men were in e tablish was to Have military features, and yet it could not strictly be another West Point. The great function of the United States Military Academy is to provide thoroughly trained army officers. Each graduate becomes at once a lieuenant, and so long as he does not resign from the military establishment of the nation, he enjoys a salary for life Virginia could not thus provide for the graduates of her military school. The chief purpose of the new school was to
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impart a superior scientific training and supply well-equipped teachers. A paral- lel purpose was the better defense of the state in case of war. "Practical utility. thorough discipline, and formative training" were to pervade every department, and the military feature, with its thoroughness in instruction as well as discipline, was to be a most useful help in securing these ends. "Energy, efficiency, and reliability," remarks General Smith, "have been characteristics of its graduates in every pursuit of life."
Thus arose the second military school in the United States, West Point being the first. Without additional current expense, a most useful school took the place of the semi-id'ers who had been a pest to the community.
Francis H. Smith, a recent graduate of West Point and now professor of mathematics in Hampden-Sidney College, was unanimously chosen as the first superintendent. The man thus selected was ambitious. The new school was in the nature of an experiment, and it did not look clear that an acceptance was a promotion in the educational field. After a little hesitation he accepted, and lie remained at the head of the institution the very long period of 50 years. His salary at the start was $1,500. The rank of colonel was given to him, and that of major to a full professor. The only other instructor at the start was John T. L. Preston, who took the chair of modern languages.
In September, 1839, twenty state cadets and thirteen pay cadets were ap- pointed, and thirty-one of these formed the corps of 1839-40. John S. L. Logan was the only member from this county. The opening of the Institute, which took place November 11 of the same year, was verp unpromising. The harracks had been raised one story to provide more space, but the work was not yet finish- ed. The roof was not in place and no fuel had been laid in. There were no uni- forms. There was no banner and the roll was not called. The youths were strongly minded to desert and go home, but the calmer second thought prevailed.
The annuity was gradually increased until in 1860 the annual appropriation was $20,000. During the first twelve years three instructors were added to the faculty. The first was Thomas H. Williamson, who taught drawing and tactics. The second was Lieutenant William Gilham, professor of the physical sciences. The third was Thomas J. Jackson, whose chair was that of natural and experi- mental philosophy. A library was begun by the state library sending the second copy in those instances where it possessed two copies of the same work. There was next an appropriation of $500 a year for five years, and the valuable scien- tific library of Colonel Crozet was thus purchased.
In the first graduating class were sixteen cadets. The Institute commence- ment used to come on July 4, which was a great day in Lexington. A feature of the exercises, which were held at the Presbyterian church, was the reading of the Declaration of Independence by a graduate. By an Act of 1842, cach grad-
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nate was required to teach two years, in order to return to the state some direct benefit for Ins free tuition. The first teachers went out in 1843. Teaching was then thought unworthy of a young Virginian, and much of the educational work of the state had been done by Northerners or by Europeans. But this feeling was gradually overcome, and in 1800 the college students in Virginia numbered 2500, the ratio to the white population being larger than in any other state.
The first student organization was the Society of Cadets, which arose in 1840. It was followed in 1849 by the Dialectic Society.
In 1854 occurred the killing of Blackburn by Christian There was ill-feel- ing between these two cadets, and Blackburn was fatally stabbed near the Pres- byterian church. Christian was acquitted at Lynchburg on the ground of self- defense.
During the first seven years of the Institute, there was an arrangement with Washington College, whereby the cadets received instruction in chemistry at the college, whi'e a body of college students, known as the Cincinnati Class, drilled with the cadets. This system did not work well and was terminated in 1846. The officers of the Institute could not exercise any direct control over the Cincinnati Class, and as the uniform of the latter was nearly like that of the cadets, some confusion resulted.
Beginning about 18444, there was for several years, a lack of harmony be- tween the Institute on the one hand and Washington College and the town of Lexington with its Presbyterian church on the other hand. The town showed an unfriend'y spirit in certain ways, as when the superintendent was presented by a grand jury for selling goods without a license. He had been compelled to pro- vide uniforms for the cadets owing to the inferior goods and extortionate prices of the town merchants. Neither the Institute nor the College was denomina- tional, although the former was in some degree under Episcopal supervision, as way the College under Presbyterian influence. A charge of sectarianism was brought against the management of the Institute. As for the college itself, it chole to look upen its neighbor as a rival institution intruding into a field which it should have to it elf These jealousies were outgrown. They reflected a nar- rowness of outlook which was not uncommon in America seven decades ago. Y'ct the removal of the Institute to some other town was seriously considered and the matter was significantly mentioned in the Act carrying an appropria- tion of $46,000 for new buildings The people of Levingt n and the College au- thorities also, new tock alarm and exerted their influence in favor of a retention of the military school.
The appropriation just named was in response to an appeal by the Board of Villtors and a long auxiliary petition by the cadets. It was pointed out that when the Institute began there were only four rooms in which to lodge
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THE VIRGINIA MILITARY INSTITUTE
thirty-one cadets. In 1849 four or five cadets had to study and sleep in a room only sixteen feet square. Because of this congestion, not more than half the stir- dents that applied could be admitted. Day and night fifty wood fires were burn- ing, a constant danger to the state property, the value of which was estimated at $350,000. The cornerstone of the new building was laid July 4, 1850. By 1860 the appropriations for building purposes aggregated $151,000.
In 1858 the superintendent visited Europe on a leave of absence. After his return he made important recommendations bearing on the further growth of the Institute. One of these was the founding of a School of Scientific Agricul- ture.
In 1850 the cadet corps was present at the laying of the cornerstone of the Washington Monument at the national capitol, and on the return by way of Richmond it was the bodyguard of President Taylor. The fine appearance and soldierly bearing of the cadets won for them much praise, and one result of the excursion was a battery of six pounders given by order of the president. In 1858, the superintendent had charge of the execution of John Brown at Har- pers Ferry, and nearly 100 of the cadets were present as a portion of the in- fantry and artillery force.
The war with Mexico came only six years after the opening of the In- stitute, and yet twenty-five of the ex-students took part in that conflict, generally as commissioned officers.
We now come to the important part played by the Virginia Military Insti- tute in the war of 1861. During the winter that preceded the actual clash of arms, there was intense restlessness and some turbulence among the cadets. Nearly all of them were ardent partisans of the Confederate side of the con- troversy. As soon as Virginia seceded, the superintendent was summoned to Richmond to serve on the Council of Three, and subsequently to take part in or- ganizing a system of defense for the lower Chesapeake. April 21 Major Jackson was ordered to take to Richmond as many of the cadets as were available as drillmasters. There were left behind forty-eight of the younger and less ex- perienced of the corps, and these were consolidated with the Rockbridge Greys. At Camp Lee, near Richmond, the other 200 cadets did excellent service in drill- ing the green volunteers. The more than 20,000 Confederates who were present- ly to fight under Johnston and Beauregard on Bull Run and the lower Shenan- doah were so rapidly and so effectively put into a good degree of discipline, that in the first years of the war they were superior in this respect to the troops op- posed to them. President Lincoln found occasion to remark that the Federal armies were not figliting raw militia, but soldiers drilled by highly trained of- ficers.
Most of the cadets who went to Richmond were soon commissioned as of- ficers, and as we have seen, those who were left behind went into the service with
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A HISTORY OF ROCKBRIDGE COUNTY, VIRGINIA
a local organization. The Institute did not reopen until January 1. 1862, and a month later 269 students were present. With several interruptions due to mili- tary exigencies, work was carried on at Lexington until the close of June. 1864. The military feature was now more prominent than ever, since the present func- tion of the school was chiefly to furnish additional drillmasters to the Southern armies. Recitation work was carried on at a disadvantage, since the cadets were restless and cager to get to the front. After the burning of the Institute by Gen- eral Hunter, the cadets were for a brief while quartered in the buildings of Washington College. They were then furloughed, and they reassembled at Richmond, where they were placed in the vacant Almshouse. A semblance of classroom work was there carried on nearly four months, or until the evacua- tion of Richmond, April 3, 1865.
In 1860 there were 433 living graduates of the Virginia Military Institute, to say nothing of the larger number of eleves, or students who did not complete the course of study. Among the graduates were nine governors, two United States senators, twelve college presidents, more than twenty congressmen, and more than forty judges. Of graduates and eleves, 810 were commissioned of- ficers in the Confederate army as against 282 frem West Point, although, as a matter of course, the West Pointer was the more likely to attain high rank. However, the Institute was represented in the Confederacy by three major gen- erals, eighteen brigadier-generals, and 263 regimental officers. Of the fifteen reg- iments that took part in Pickett's famous charge at Gettysburg, thirteen were commanded by Institute men. The importance to the Confederate government of the "West Point of the South" thus becomes striking'y apparent. Out of the 810, there died in military service 249, and a larger number were wounded In the Federal army were fifteen officers who had been trained in the Institute.
It is next in order to tell something of the military services of the student corps itself. The first was in May, 1862, when General Milroy was threatening Staunton from the west, and was likely to be joined in a few days by a larger force under General Fremont. General Jackson, who was watching from the south end of Peaked Mountain another Federal army under General Banks, summoned to his aid the force under General Ewell on the eastern side of the Blue Ridge. Leaving Ewell to confront Banks, Jack on made a roundabout and stra'thy movement upon Milroy. At his request, the cadets were sent to join his army at Staunton. They left the In titute at noon, May 1. 1862, bivouacked that night at Fairfield, and reached Staunton on the third day of the march Under Major Shipp they marched to the battlefie'd of MeDowell, but did not tale part in the engagement. Yet they marched in the pursuit to McCoy's mill, near Franklin, and studies were net resumed until May 20. In August of the following year, Lieutenant Wise with fifty cadets scoured the mountains of
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THE VIRGINIA MILITARY INSTITUTE
Rockbridge to arrest deserters. Two days were thus spent but without any suc- cess whatever. A few days later the cadets turned out to assist in repelling a force of Federal cavalry under General Averill. Two companies carrying four guns and rations for seven days marched as far as Goshen, but as Averill did not move eastward from Covington, the cadets were absent little more than for- ty-eight hours. A more serious task came the following November, when Averill made another raid on nearly the same course. But this time Major Shipp marched by way of Longdale to the vicinity of Covington, where General Imboden proposed to make a stand. Averill moved toward Huntersville, and thinking only a feint was intended, Imboden proceeded to Goshen. But the movement was not a feint, and as before, the cadets returned without a share in any action and after an absence of five days. Only one month later. Averill set out on still another raid and penetrated as far as Salem, where he did great damage to the railroad. Well-planned efforts were made to cut off his retreat, but Averill escaped the toils that were closing around him. The cadets, 180 strong and with their rifled cannon, marched again under Shipp, but found Bratton's Run unfordable and went into camp on its bank. Next day they manag- ed to get across and bivouacked at Coik Sulphur Spring, where they received orders to return, and their next camp was at Wilson Spring. Returning to Lex- ington after an absence of four days, they expected to have to march to Buchanan, but were ordered to join Colonel Jackson, and after a further absence of two days they were again at their old barracks. This six days of service was very severe, a long, continued cold rain being followed by freezing weather, and the roads were icy as well as rough.
The only battle in which the cadets were actually engaged was that of New Market, May 15, 1864. At that point, General Breckenridge with 4,500 men at- tacked the 6,000 Federals under General Sigel. The engagement was very severe and at times the result was in doubt. At a critical moment the 221 cadets made a brilliant charge that contributed very materially to Sigel's defeat. The casualties were 57, including nine who were either killed or mortally wounded. The high- ly creditable behavior of the cadets in this action has been written up by several pens and rather voluminously. It is therefore quite unnecessary to give a de- tailed account of the battle in this chapter. But it is quite erroneous to assume that the cadets were mere boys and without any practical experience in can- paigning. On the contrary they were of quite mature age, were thoroughly drilled, and were able to march as well as seasoned troops. The brief tours we have already mentioned had given them no little amount of experience. In short, the morale of the corps could hardly have been surpassed. One week after their battle the cadets reached Staunton almost barefoot, and were at once ordered to Richmond, but were again at Lexington, June 9.
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The raid by General Hunter is related in Chapter XIII, as is also the share of the cadets in the military operations connected therewith. The final and very brief service of the cadets in the war of ISol was when they were sent to the front from Richmond, to help in repelling Sheridan, March 11, 1865, followed by their trench duty in front of that city on the day of the evacuation. In the afternoon of the same day they were marched into Richmond and disbanded.
The fall of 1865 seemed a very unpromising time to reopen the Institute, particularly in view of the fact that its equipment was gone, and that nothing re- mained of its buildings but a mass of ruins. Neither was there any money in hand with which to rebuild. But failure was a word the superintendent would not accept. In such temporary quarters as could be made available, the school was re pened October 1, 1865, with a full faculty and about twenty cadets. The number of the latter rose during the year to fifty-five. But the professors did not receive more than $400 apiece, by way of salary, whereas the cost of board to the cadets was $25 a month. A year later there were lecture rooms and mess Fall, and 147 cadets. In 1869 the burned buildings were restored. All this was not accomplished without acute financial embarras. ment.
At the time of the reopening in 1865, 2,000 students had matriculated and 510 of these had been graduated. Of the 2,000, the state cadets numbered 527. and 177 of the latter were graduated. The graduates who had taught numbered 146. Before the war the average expense to the pay cadet was $375 a year.
General Smith resigned as Superintendent in 1889, and was succeeded by General Scott Shipp. The third and present incumbent is General Edward W. Nichols, whose administration began in 1907.
XXVII
THE ANN SMITH AND OTHER ACADEMIES
A GIRL'S SCHOOL FOR LEXINGTON-ANN SMITH-FINANCIAL EMBARRASSMENT-LATER HISTORY-OTHER PRIVATE SCHOOLS
The opening years of the nineteenth century did not find the people of Rockbridge limiting their interest in higher education to the collegiate training of young men. In the spring of 1807 they were taking practical steps to provide secondary instruction for the other sex.
The subscribers to the school of this character held their first formal meet- ing at the courthouse, April 20, Colonel James McDowell acting as chairman and John Leyburn as clerk. The other men present were Dr. Samuel L. Campbell, James Caruthers, John Caruthers, William Caruthers, Cornelius Dorman, James Gold, Edward Graham, Reuben Grigsby, John Irvine, Henry McClung, Joseph Paxton, John Robinson, Alexander Shields, John Sloan, and William Willson. Dr. Campbell was proxy for William Lyle.
Almost the first act of the meeting was to select a committee to choose a suitable site, and to submit a plan for the building, together with an estimate on the probable cost of both land and schoolhouse. The members of this com- mittee were John Leyburn, Andrew Reid, Edward Graham, Alexander Shields, James Caruthers, and Dr. Campbell. Other duties devolving on this committee were to see whether a convenient house could be used as temporary quarters, to formulate the rules for the government of the school, and to petition the next General Assembly for an act of incorporation. The report was read at a meet- ing held August 1, other subscribers present being Daniel Blain, Thomas L. Preston, and Arthur Walkup. Andrew Reid was called to the chair. Edward Graham was appointed treasurer of the organization. As secretary of the above- named committee, he announced that no suitable house had yet been found, but that Miss Ann Smith had tendered her services for one year without charge. The meeting voted an appropriation of $1,800 for grounds and buildings, and $500 for enabling the school to be opened in the fall of the same year. It was further ordered that globes and other apparatus be provided.
The committee on organization reported October 9, that a house should be rented at once and maps and other necessaries purchased; that of the two vaca- tions, the first should extend from the third Wednesday in April to the third Wednesday in May, and the second, from the third Wednesday in October to the third Wednesday in November ; and that a steward, giving proper security, should at once be employed to board the students at a cost of not more than $50 a term. Tuition was not to exceed $20 a year.
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