A permanent assistant professorship in the department of French, the duties of which are now performed by an officer of the army detailed for the purpose, is much needed. Whilst this will not increase the number of persons belonging to the academic staff, a great advantage may be secured in obtaining an instructor with whom the language is vernacular, and who will, therefore, be more competent to teach its pronunciation and idiom than most of our army officers. Such assistant should be put on the same footing as to pay and emoluments as the other assistant professors at the academy. I have, also, in several of my annual reports, called attention to the importance of separating the instruction of cavalry from that of artillery, with which it is now associated by law. The effect of such a separation would be to permit the establishment of distinct departments of instruction for artillery, cavalry, and infantry, having at their head officers of the respective arms of service to which these departments pertain, who would not only be immediately responsible for the proper conduct of the duties committed to their management, but would bring to the task of instruction that zeal which can be looked for most surely in those who have the interests of their own branch of service to advance. These instructors should severally receive the same pay and emoluments as are now granted by law to the instructor of practical engineering. I would again repeat the recommendation, often before made, that the officers serving in the department of artillery have the same pay and allowances granted to officers attached to the light batteries in service. Another point, which received the approval of your predecessor, is, to provide for the purchase of stationery to be used by the cadets for purposes connected with their instruction. Since the course of English studies has been so much enlarged by the extension of the academic course, the expenses to the cadets for stationery used by them in this and other branches of study has become a heavy and unjust tax on their limited pay. The amount asked for, and which I suggest should be added to the estimate for the support of the academy, is only $600, and is designed to cover the purchase of blank books, paper, drawing paper, colors, &c., &c., to be used in taking notes, writing compositions, and other exercises in the recitation rooms, and making the drawings required in the course of instruction. The principal items of the estimate for the support of the academy for the next fiscal year are Purchase of bell, and mounting the same for public clock in the tower 450 00 Repairs to officers' quarters. 500 00 Models for the department of cavalry, (anatomy of the Extension of water pipes and increase of reservoir. Gas pipes and retorts, extension to cadets' mess hall, academic hall, and other public buildings... Stables for dragoon and artillery horses.... Total..... $250 00 2,500 00 150 00 2,500 00 2,468 00 66,068 00 A communication from the superintendent, explanatory of this, is herewith; also, a statement exhibiting the condition in life of the cadets for the last sixteen years, derived from the cadets themselves, and a list of the officers of the institution on the 30th September, 1857. The report of the Board of Visitors appointed to attend the annual examination, in June last, is also herewith. Statement exhibiting the condition in life of the cadets of the United States Military Academy, West Point, New York, for the last sixteen years, from 1842 to 1857, inclusive. 1842. 1843. 1844. 1845. 1846. 1847. 1848. 1849. 1850. 1851. 1852. 1853. 1854. 1855. 1856. 1857. |