ABSTRACT
During the two decades preceding the Civil War, military education enjoyed a huge success in the United States, particularly in the southern states. After the establishment of the nation’s first state-supported military school, the Virginia Military Institute, in 1839, an estimated ninety-six military colleges were founded throughout the slaveholding states between 1840 and 1860. The North, which was home to the nation’s oldest private military college, the American Literary, Scientific and Military Academy (ALSMA) at Norwich, Vermont, did not embrace military education to the same extent as the South and only established twelve such schools during this time period. All of these institutions, however, were built upon the pedagogical foundation of the nation’s first military school, the United States Military Academy, founded in 1802 to formally educate and train the officers of the United States Army. The structure, which consisted of a unique curriculum and disciplinary system, was created by one of its most celebrated superintendents, Colonel Sylvanus Thayer, and became the template for the increasing number of military schools that opened during the antebellum period, almost exclusively in the South.
