Field ArTillery - US Army Center Of Military History

22 The OrganizaTiOnal hisTOry Of field arTillery
Because of the increased emphasis on the technical aspects for fortification, the
War Department acted upon George Washington’s recommendation and established
a school for the artillerists and engineers and for the cadets attached to the corps
at West Point in 1794. West Point had been suggested as a site for a military academy
as early as 1776, and by 1781 an engineer school, a laboratory, and a library
had been set up there. Practical experiments in gunnery had also taken place at the
post. A fire destroyed the buildings in 1796, causing the school to close. In early
January 1800, Secretary of War James McHenry pushed for a military academy to
be founded at West Point, recommending that it include the “Fundamental School,”
the “School of Engineers and Artillerists,” the “School of the Navy,” and the “School
of Cavalry and Infantry.” Realization finally came in Sep tember 1801, when West
Point was reopened as an academy to fulfill Secretary of War Henry Dearborn’s
July order that all cadets of the corps should report for instruction. 12
Shortly before augmenting the artillery, Congress had authorized the construction
of twenty-one coastal fortifications from Portland, Maine, to St. Mary’s,
Georgia. Congress also authorized artillery pieces for those fortifications, but many
of the cannon and much of the shot were never provided. Nevertheless, these harbor
programs reflected the emphasis on a defensive military policy that was to continue
until after World War II, which stressed the geographic requirements for defending
the coastline. But U.S. leaders remained opposed to the large regular army that
would have been necessary to engage in large-scale land war fare. In addition, the
resources of the new nation would not have permitted such an army. The harbor
programs, by contrast, seemed both economical (in cost as well as in personnel)
and practical for self-defense. 13
The old artillery companies remained occupied on frontier posts, and the ones
authorized in 1794 were slow in organizing. In 1796, only 224 artillerists of approximately
750 (actual strength of artillery rank and file) were stationed on the seacoast,
where in an emergency militia were to reinforce the regulars in the coastal forts.
The threat of war in France in 1798 prompted Congress to increase the size of the
Army and to appropriate more than one million dollars for fortifications and arms.
The Corps of Artillerists and Engineers was authorized an addi tional regiment, to be
raised by voluntary enlistment for the term of five years unless sooner discharged.
The new unit started with three battalions, each with four companies, and in 1799
received congressional approval for a fourth. The old Corps of Artillerists and
Engineers became the 1st Regiment and the new organization the 2d Regiment. 14 Lt.
Col. John Doughty, who had left the service in 1792, returned to command the 2d
12 Official Register of the Officers and Cadets, United States Military Academy, for 1917 (West Point,
N.Y.: United States Military Academy Printing Office, 1917), p. 3; Jacobs, Beginnings, pp. 236–237
(quoted words), 238, 285–91, 297–98. An act of Congress on 16 March 1802 formally established the
United States Military Academy at West Point, which had been operating informally there since September
of the previous year.
13 Callan, comp., Military Laws, pp. 102–03; Emanuel Raymond Lewis, Seacoast Fortifications of
the United States, rev. ed. (Annapolis, Md.: Leeward Publications, 1979), pp. 4–6; Walter Millis, Arms
and Men (New York: New American Library, 1956), p. 44.
14 Callan, comp., Military Laws, pp. 119–20, 133–39; American State Papers, Class 5, Military
Affairs, 1:45–116, 175.