GDG- RE: West Point

[Gitt, Doug]

I suspect that USMA tactical training back then was in-the-field training, as it is today. Yes, there was/is some classroom tactical work. But, one reads of cavalry and artillery exercises on the Plain at West Point back then.  Certainly drill instruction was based on tactics back then, i.e. how to move troops en masse.  Also, keep in mind that tactical training must have focused on what a new Lieutenant must know, not how to maneuver divisions...

Doug


From: "Hugh F. Regan" <hfregan at sbcglobal.net>

Hey J.D.
   
  [snip] Go deeper into
Buford's tactic, and you find that it was an SOP 
defensive action that had
been taught at West Point, for example, for 
decades, and precisely
delineated in the cavalry tactic manuals of the 
period.[snip]
   
  My interest was "tweaked" when I read that comment, as it (the comment) presented me with a bit of a dichotomy ...I had occasion to accumulate some data on West Point antebellum...(you can actually access the syllabus in effect during those times).  Anyway, that review yielded the following disciplines: 50% Engineering, Mathematics & Science...15% Humanities and Drawing and 15% Military Instructions...(mostly Drill).  Further, there was only one course taught on "Tactics" and that was in the Senior Year.(As you know, Professor Dennis Hart taught "Art of War" devoted to the history, art and science of war).
   
  On further "research", I learned that most of the tactics were actually learned from personal readings of classical military literature (Roman; Cannae; Napoleon; etc).  
   
  When you refer to " SOP ...taught at West Point" and, "...delineated in the cavalry tactic manuals of the period,"  did you mean that literally? 
   
  Did the instructors have the students (Seniors?) work out these tactics in the field (Field Problems), or was it something just done on a blackboard environment? Obviously, I'm having a mental problem conjuring how a 'Buford' would be able to apply those lessons from "abstract" examples to such precise adaptions in the field. Were these tactics really learned from the personal "readings" (at West Point) and later honed in the Mexican conflict? (Once I start offering 'answers' to my own 'questions' I know it's time to stop...)
  Thanx
  Hugh Regan
   
  
 


Hugh
hfregan at sbcglobal.net