Quick question on Albert Sidney Johnston

[Nathan Stuart]

Unfortunately (or otherwise), believe engineering studies were the foundation of the curriculum at West Point in the period up to the CW, and 'mathematics' was an important integral part of engineering studies.

Perhaps if there had been more emphasis placed on English and communications studies in that curriculum, some of the great blunders of the war might not have occurred.

 

[35th MA InfRegt]

Unfortunately (or otherwise), believe engineering studies were the foundation of the curriculum at West Point in the period up to the CW, and 'mathematics' was an important integral part of engineering studies.

Perhaps if there had been more emphasis placed on English and communications studies in that curriculum, some of the great blunders of the war might not have occurred.

I don't disagree but I do think that what the US Army really needed was a proper Command and General Staff College to teach officers how to do their job at formation level (brigade, division and so forth). I know the Lilliputian army of the antebellum could never have afforded such an institution.

Incidentally, I was recently glancing at the Annual Reports of the Army Infantry and Cavalry School at Leavenworth in the late 1880's. They leave me confused on a few points. There is constant reference to "recitations", "written recitations", and lectures. The reports sometimes seem to use these terms interchangeably, and other times distinguish between them. Lectures, obviously, are self-explanatory but what are recitations? I assume the Thayer method of instruction from West Point is being referred to here, but could it be something else?

 

[Nathan Stuart]

Incidentally, I was recently glancing at the Annual Reports of the Army Infantry and Cavalry School at Leavenworth in the late 1880's. They leave me confused on a few points. There is constant reference to "recitations", "written recitations", and lectures. The reports sometimes seem to use these terms interchangeably, and other times distinguish between them. Lectures, obviously, are self-explanatory but what are recitations? I assume the Thayer method of instruction from West Point is being referred to here, but could it be something else?

Having not reviewed the late 1880's Reports of this School at Leavenworth, and not wanting to deviate too far away from the subject of this thread.

Yes. When Thayer was superintendent of West Point from 1817 to 1833, he reorganized the Academy and its curriculum, making the course foundation based on mathematics. He also changed the methods of cadet education to be a precise time-allocated and thorough combination of whole class lectures by professors and split groups of cadets being individually asked questions to seek oral responses (recitals) to assess their knowledge. That is, cadets were lectured to on the content of their prescribed textbooks and then were asked to recite this content, after being allowed time for private study to memorize what they had learned. (See https://old.maa.org/press/periodica...red-years-sylvanus-thayer-and-the-new-academy ).

When Sherman established in 1881 the 'School for Infantry and Cavalry' at Fort Leavenworth, KS, he intended to make it a practical military school. It seems this military educational institution in its early years retained the combinations of learning methods adopted by Thayer at West Point. First year classes, at least, learned by a similar combination of teaching methods for both military subjects and remedial subjects, like arithmetic, geometry and grammar - i.e. by combining delivered instruction (including lectures) and student responses by recitations, to test a student's oral skill in verbal orders. (See https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/tr/pdf/ADA566897.pdf @ pp. 1-2 and footnote 5). Thought a distinction that could be made between 'recitations' and 'written recitations' by students is that the former represented 'oral responses', the latter 'written responses'.

Beyond the period in question (viz. the late 1880s), this institution would obviously have undergone numerous revisions in the curricula, as well as changes in the philosophies of instruction.

 

[bayouace]

It is not mathematics if you have alphabet letters mixed in with numbers. It just is not!

 

[Rhea Cole]

It is not mathematics if you have alphabet letters mixed in with numbers. It just is not!

Clarify that, if you please. A squared + B squared = C squared

3.14 X D = C

On a rectilinear shape H X W = A

 

[bayouace]

Clarification: this was an attempt at humor.

 

[Rhea Cole]

Clarification: this was an attempt at humor.

This isn't a format where nuance thrives.

 

[DixieRifles]

I created an infinite do loop.

The dreaded Do Loop.

I hated it when the IBM card typewriter ran out of ink. You got a punched card with nothing printed on it.
Don't drop that deck.

 

[gjpratt]

The dreaded Do Loop.

I hated it when the IBM card typewriter ran out of ink. You got a punched card with nothing printed on it.
Don't drop that deck.

Memories, memories.

 

[BCS1973]

The dreaded Do Loop.

I hated it when the IBM card typewriter ran out of ink. You got a punched card with nothing printed on it.
Don't drop that deck.

I missed out on the punch card era. For me it was Fortran 77 on a LAN based unit with amber monochrome monitors. Up until a couple years ago, fun at work was throwing a 5 1/4 floppy on the newbie's desk and telling him all the information they needed was on it and then asking them what brand of electric eraser they bought.

 

[hughes]

Could these have been the questions he answered incorrectly?

1) How many troops would be required to defeat two armies with a combined strength of over 65,000?
2) How long can consciousness be maintained if a popliteal artery is damaged?