Comte de Paris, History of the Civil War in America. Vol. 1.
Henry Coppee , LL.D., Ed.

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[12] to be again reduced in 1796 to two thousand eight hundred men. Each time an act of Congress had authorized the recruiting of men and the formation of corps, now and then specifying the duration of their existence, and creating the necessary grades for the occasion. But it frequently happened that, by this process, officers were procured more readily than soldiers. Thus, in 1798, apprehending a war with France, Congress ordered a levy of thirteen thousand regular troops. But two years after, it was found that, while the corps of officers was complete, only three thousand four hundred men had been enlisted; and in 1802 this ephemeral army was reduced to the total of three thousand men. It will be seen that it scarcely deserved the name of a regular army. Consequently, the more America relied upon her volunteers for defence, the more she needed a permanent school to form a corps of educated officers, possessing traditions and a military spirit, and capable of supplying the wants of an improvised and inexperienced army. Washington had felt this need, and desired to found a Federal school, upon a sufficiently comprehensive basis, in order that it might render this important service to the nation. But his project, destined to be adopted at a later period, was twice rejected, in 1793 and in 1796. It was deemed sufficient to establish a species of disguised school at West Point (une espece daecole deguisee)altogether inadequate to the wants of the country, comprising a depot of artillery and engineers, with two professors and about forty cadets. It was only in 1812 that the project of Washington was taken up again, and that the West Point academy, of which he was the posthumous founder, became in reality, the nursery of the regular army. At that period America learned at last, to her own cost, how much these indecisions and alternations had militated against the development of good military institutions.

We have desired to show by these details that the raising of improvised armies, of which the year 1861 has given such a gigantic example, has been at all times the custom of America, and that the measures then adopted upon a large scale have been resorted to since the early times of the republic whenever it has been threatened by unforeseen danger. It is easy to understand the inexperience of the whole nation when she took up arms