Pre-war Military Schools

[samgrant]

Could he South's early dominance in Civil War battles be a function of the South having many more Military Schools than the North?

Couldn't hurt. Some ideas in this link:

http://uncpress.unc.edu/chapters/andrew_long.html

I, personally have not been able to find any Northern Military schools, other than West Point. If someone can tell me of some, I'd appreciate it.

I'd guess this would be a complement to John Hope Franklin's The Militant South.

What do you think?

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[trice]

Originally Posted by samgrant

Could he South's early dominance in Civil War battles be a function of the South having many more Military Schools than the North?

Couldn't hurt. Some ideas in this link:

http://uncpress.unc.edu/chapters/andrew_long.html

I, personally have not been able to find any Northern Military schools, other than West Point. If someone can tell me of some, I'd appreciate it.

I'd guess this would be a complement to John Hope Franklin's The Militant South.

What do you think?

-

As to reasons for the superiority of what became the Army of Northern Virginia, a great source is "Two Great Rebel Armies" by Richard McMurry which compares and contrasts the ANV and the AoT on a number of levels.

As to Northern military schools, after West Point the largest producer of Union officers was Norwich University up in Vermont (still around and producing officers today). http://www.norwich.edu Norwich was the first private military college in the country, established in 1819, founded by Captain Alden Partridge.

Tim

[gary]

Good work Trice.

[samgrant]

Originally Posted by trice

As to Northern military schools, after West Point the largest producer of Union officers was Norwich University up in Vermont (still around and producing officers today). http://www.norwich.edu Norwich was the first private military college in the country, established in 1819, founded by Captain Alden Partridge.

Tim

Were there any in New York other than West Point?

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[trice]

Originally Posted by samgrant

Were there any in New York other than West Point?

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Unsure.

Down South The Citadel was founded about 1835 and VMI in 1839. Citadel records before the war are incomplete/missing.

VMI seems to have had 978 cadets attend by the Summer of 1861 (455 graduates, and almost all the rest were there at least six months). Of these, only 35 came from outside Virginia in those 22 years.

In the ANV, there were 1,965 men who served at least at the rank of Major-Lt. Colonel-Colonel during the war (doesn't count those promoted to general) according to Bob Krick. Of those, he says, the military school background looks like this:
156 VMI
73 USMA
37 The Citadel
14 Georgia Military Institute
4 USNA
1 LaGrange Military Academy

On July 1, 1861 there were 882 living VMI alumni; of these, 740 are known to have served the Confederacy in either a military or diplomatic capacity. William Couper, VMI historian, calculates that by 1865 a total of 1,796 cadets and alumni served the Confederacy. He breaks it down (highest rank attained) as:
18 generals
95 colonels
65 lieutenant-colonels
110 majors
310 captains
221 lieutenants
That, if I added right, is 819, leaving 977 enlisted men, probably most of them as non-coms, and probably overwhelmingly in Virginia units. If anyone wants to start figuring why the ANV was so good, VMI is a good place to start.

By comparison, Norwich provided a bit above 600 men as officers to the Union army, IIRR. The Citadel, I think, was a smaller school that probably provided fewer officers than either.

Tim