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ABC's for the American Enlisted Man: The Army Post School System, 1866–1898

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 February 2017

Bruce White
Bruce White*
Affiliation:
University of Michigan
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Extract

The Army and Navy Journal was considerably understating the situation when it commented in 1873 that “our Army is not, as a whole, alive to the subject of education….” Although a significant minority of army officers managed to keep themselves intellectually alive on the frontier, most officers were opposed to any elaborate scheme of formal education because it detracted from the enlisted man's regular duties and because they believed the “school of hard knocks” to be the best educational force. They also commonly assumed, with a great deal of justice in many cases, that enlisted men were not favorably disposed toward classroom instruction and were too dense to benefit by it.

Type
The Century of Hope IV
Information
History of Education Quarterly , Volume 8 , Issue 4 , Winter 1968 , pp. 479 - 496
Copyright
Copyright © 1968 by New York University 

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References

Notes

1. Army and Navy Journal, X (January 11, 1873), 345.Google Scholar

2. United States Statutes at Large, V, 259.Google Scholar

3. The best discussion of Negro education during the war is in Bahney, Robert S., “Generals and Negroes: Education of Negroes by the Union Army, 1861–1865” (Doctoral dissertation, University of Michgan, 1965).Google Scholar

4. General Order [hereinafter cited as GO] No. 22, War Department, Adjutant General's Office [hereinafter cited as AGO], April 7, 1866.Google Scholar

5. The provision was probably Garfield's own idea rather than an army suggestion. He later claimed it was “one of my things,” and there seemed to be little army interest at the time. Hinsdale, B. A., President Garfield and Education (Cambridge, Mass., 1895), p. 433. In the same year Garfield introduced a bill to create a federal department of education.Google Scholar

6. Congressional Globe, 39 Cong., 1 Sess., 2350.Google Scholar

7. United States Statutes at Large, XIV, 336.Google Scholar

8. GO 80, AGO, September 24, 1866.Google Scholar

9. GO 94, AGO, November 4, 1867.Google Scholar

10. GO 46, AGO, May 8, 1877.Google Scholar

11. E.O.C. Ord to Townsend, E. D., April 10, 1871, National Archives, Record Group 94, Records of the Adjutant General's Office [hereinafter cited as NA, RG 94], Letters Received [hereinafter cited as LR], 1871, 1359. Schools, Ord wrote, would not only “elevate the character of the enlisted men, but if officers and men were both required to take part, it would break down the barriers between them.” Google Scholar

12. Mullins, to Townsend, E. D., February 28, 1878, NA, RG 94, Appointment, Commission and Personal Branch [hereinafter cited as ACP], 1878, 1389, filed with ACP, 1874, 5053.Google Scholar

13. Special Order No. 264, AGO, December 31, 1877, paragraph 3. The board consisted of Quartermaster General Meigs, M. C., Adjutant General Townsend, E. D. and Judge Advocate General Dunn, W. McK. Google Scholar

14. GO 24, AGO, May 18, 1878.Google Scholar

15. Mullins retired in 1885 because of ill health. After several successors, supervision of post schools was given to the Assistant Adjutant General in each department, and inspection to the Inspector General.Google Scholar

16. Circular Letter, AGO, November 21, 1878.Google Scholar

17. Revised Statutes, 205.Google Scholar

18. Second endorsement by Ord, E.O.C., January 13, 1876, to letter of Mullins to Townsend, December 31, 1875, NA, RG 94, ACP, 1876, 316, filed with ACP, 1874, 5053.Google Scholar

19. See especially the “Report of the Adjutant General to the General of the Army,” War Department Annual Reports [hereinafter cited as WDAR], I (1882), 26–27, and “Report of the Inspector General to the Major-General Commanding the Army,” WDAR, I (1890), 109.Google Scholar

20. Hein, Otto L., Memories of Long Ago (New York and London, 1925), p. 86.Google Scholar

21. Royal, M. B. to Drum, R. C., August 15, 1881, NA, RG 94, LR, Fund Branch Document File, Box 67.Google Scholar

22. Congressional Globe, 39 Congress, 1, Ses., 2350. Elsewhere, there was only one chaplain authorized for each post.Google Scholar

23. One company commander with the Ninth Cavalry, requesting the assignment of white enlisted men to his Negro company, argued that his need was more pressing than most because the Negroes had been recruited in Louisiana and spoke only French. The War Department refused. Townsend, E. D. to Purington, George A., May 30, 1867, NA, RG 94, Recruiting Service, Letter Book, Letters Sent, XV (1866), 297.Google Scholar

24. GO 24, AGO, May 18, 1878, 7.Google Scholar

25. Barber, M. to Drum, R. C., September 1, 1866, NA, RG 94, LR, 1866, 5055. At Fort Concho, Texas in the late 1870's there were also separate schools for white and Negro children. See Haley, J. Evetts, Fort Concho and the Texas Frontier (San Angelo, Tex., 1952), p. 316.Google Scholar

26. Allensworth, to Drum, R. C., March 3, 1886, NA, RG 94, ACP, 1886, 1263, filed with ACP, 1886, 670.Google Scholar

27. Allensworth, to Brown, J. E., March 22, 1886, ibid. Google Scholar

28. Allensworth, Allen, “Military Education in the United States,” Journal of Proceedings and Addresses (New York: National Educational Association, 1891), pp. 221–34.Google Scholar

29. Army and Navy Journal, XX (March 3, 1883), 706.Google Scholar

30. Mulford, Ami Frank, Fighting Indians in the 7th United States Cavalry (Corning, N. Y., 1879), p. 57.Google Scholar

31. Barber, M. to Drum, R. C., September 17, 1884, NA, RG 94, LR, 1884, 4485.Google Scholar

32. Thomases, Jerome, “Fort Bridger: A Western Community,” Military Affairs, V (Fall 1941), 188.Google Scholar

33. “Report of the Secretary of War,” WDAR, 1878, I, V; Circular No. 8, AGO, September 10, 1886.Google Scholar

34. Townsend, E. D. to Hancock, Winfield Scott, March 25, 1879, NA, RG 94, LR, Fund Branch Document File, Box 58.Google Scholar

35. Whipple, Wm. D. to Drum, R. C., September 1, 1887, NA, RG 94, LR, 1887, 5147. Whipple was quoting Lieutenant Colonel Classen, H. W., the commanding officer at Fort Wadsworth, N.Y. Google Scholar

36. Richardson, James D. (ed.), A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents, X, 4570; Congressional Record, 47 Congress, 1st Ses., 728, 4998; Committee on Military Affairs, United States House of Representatives, “The Enlistment of Schoolmasters in the United States Army,” 47 Congress, 1st Ses., House Report 1425 .Google Scholar

37. Eaton, John to Carlton, C. H., January 17, 1878, NA, RG 94, LR, 1878, 2660, filed with 7989.Google Scholar

38. Army and Navy Journal, XVI (June 7, 1879), 791.Google Scholar

39. Pratz, Fred C. to Notson, William M., March 25, 1881, NA, RG 94, LR, 1881, Fund Branch Document File, Box 55.Google Scholar

40. “Extract from Report of Schools in Operation of Columbus Barracks, Ohio … for the Month of February, 1881,” NA, RG 94, LR, Fund Branch Document File, Box 55.Google Scholar

41. Collier, W. S. to Townsend, E. D., November 13, 1879, NA, RG 94, LR, Fund Branch Document File, Box 54.Google Scholar

42. Army and Navy Journal, VI (January 16, 1869), 342. In fairness to the officer, it should be added that he explained that when speaking of the “muddled brains” of the enlisted men he did not mean to be disparaging.Google Scholar

43. United Service, III (August 1880), 254–55; Crocker, George D. to Drum, R. C, July 31, 1886, NA, RG 94, LR, 1886, 3826; Drum, to Crocker, , August 6, 1886, NA, RG 94, Letters Sent, Vol. 78, 329.Google Scholar

44. GO 9, AGO, January 31, 1889. The intent, as clarified by Circular 4, AGO, May 11, 1889, was that enlisted men would continue to give elementary instruction and “zealous and efficient officers” would teach the more advanced subjects. In many cases officers were immediately detailed to teach nearly illiterate soldiers, however, and when a group of officers complained, their protest was overruled. Schofield, John M. to Redfield Proctor, April 2, 1889, NA, RG 94, LR, 1889, 1950.Google Scholar

45. Martin, J. P. to Drum, R. C., September 1, 1888, NA, RG 94, LR, 1888, 3982.Google Scholar

46. Martin, to Drum, , September 1, 1883, NA, RG 94, LR, 1883, 3795; Barr, D. E. to Townsend, E. D., September 22, 1870, NA, RG 94, ACP, 1872, 4671.Google Scholar

47. The problem was magnified, Mullins claimed, in Negro regiments where it took one third more lamps to light the classrooms at night, presumably because their black skin was absorbing the light. “Report of the Adjutant General,” WDAR, I (1882), 192.Google Scholar

48. Dodge, Richard I., “The Enlisted Soldier,” Journal of the Military Service Institution, VIII (September 1887), 277–78.Google Scholar

49. Army and Navy Journal, XXVIII (November 22, 1890), 211.Google Scholar

50. John J. O'Brien to Chief Quartermaster, Department of the Columbia, November 3, 1890, with accompanying endorsements, NA, RG 94, LR, 1890, 16587.Google Scholar

51. Circular No. 1, AGO, February 9, 1891.Google Scholar

52. “Brief,” April 5, 1897, NA, RG 94, 45306.Google Scholar

53. Assistant Adjutant General to the Commanding General, Department of Arizona, November 15, 1892, NA, RG 94, Principal Records Division, 1892, 40982, filed with 24585.Google Scholar

54. Drum, R. D. to the Commanding Officer, Fort Snelling, Minn., July 15, 1880, NA, RG 94, Letters Sent, Fund Branch Document File, Letter Book, V, 1054; GO 19, AGO, February 14, 1881.Google Scholar

55. GO 14, AGO, March 7, 1879.Google Scholar

56. General Pope offered a solution that might have proved lucrative. He urged the War Department to use half the money collected as court martial fines for libraries and reading rooms. “Report of Brigadier-General John Pape,” WDAR, I (1877), 63.Google Scholar

57. Annual Report of the U.S. Military Post Library Association, 1870–71 (New York: 1871), p. 7.Google Scholar

58. “Memorandum Report of the Adjutant General….,” n.d., NA, RG 94, LR, 1872, 3279.Google Scholar

59. Army and Navy Journal, VI (February 13, 1869), 406.Google Scholar

60. Barber, M. to the Commanding Officer, Department of Dakota, May 29, 1890, NA RG 94, LR, 1890, 6480, filed with LR, 1889, 2884.Google Scholar

61. United States Statutes at Large, XXVIII, 215–16.Google Scholar

62. Second endorsement by Schofield, John M., January 29, 1886, to “Extract from Bi-Monthly Report of Schools at Fort Douglas, Utah …,” n.d., NA, RG 94, LR, 1886, 486.Google Scholar

63. Army and Navy Journal, XXX (April 8, 1893), 553.Google Scholar