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Maryland State Archives Adam Goodheart Collection MSA SC 5826 msa_sc5826_3_1-0020 Enlarge and print image (891K) |
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Maryland State Archives Adam Goodheart Collection MSA SC 5826 msa_sc5826_3_1-0020 Enlarge and print image (891K) |
| msa_sc5826_3_l-0020 ©Maryland State Archives - 20 - Engineers, was sent to France by the Government to complete his studies at the Polytechnic School, and to examine into the different Military Schools of that country. When he was in France, the wars of the great Napoleon were fresh in memory and every military principle and practice brought over by him and inoculated at the Academy was thoroughly French, That the general course of instruction devised by him was good, may be assumed, as it is to this day very much the same, after military men have had all the advantage of the later ex- perience of the more successful German school. The Government of the cadets was too austere and monastic and the accommodation very defective. Three cadets were crowded into one small room in the South Barrack, and four or five into rooms but little larger in the North Barrack. There were no baths and no proper facilities for washing; the sinks were positively indecent, and would disgrace the dirtiest Camp or barrack of the rawest Troops of the present day, but I understand all that is now changed, and the habits of cleanliness and decency, so important to the health and discipline of the soldier, are now taught by example as well as precept. I went into Barracks with two boys near my own age and size in one of the rooms in the South Barrack where I thought we were getting along very well, when it was deemed proper to break up the party, and separate us by assigning us to rooms with older Cadets. I was assigned to a room in which there were already four others, I making the fifth, all men of the senior classes. In- tended doubtless for the best, nothing could have been more distasteful or more injurious to my future welfare. Except one, they were not what would be called gentlemen, or men of high moral character. Every Saturday night was passed in carousing, and it was customary to draw lots who should cross the River, or go to Benny Havens for a jug of whiskey. I was not usually permitted the high privilege of taking my chances in this discreditable lottery. That much con- |