OF ARTS AND SCIENCES : MAY 28, 1867. 313 



daughter of Alexander J. Dallas, of a family also well known in the 

 history of this country. Remarkable from early boyhood for his 

 aptitude in the acquisition of learning, he was appointed a cadet in the 

 National Military Academy at West Point before he had completed 

 the fifteenth year of his age. Here, although the youngest pupil, he 

 soon reached a high grade of scholarship, and maintained it throughout 

 the course, graduating in 1825 at the head of his class; — a class of 

 such marked ability that it furnished no less than five successful can- 

 didates to the corps of Engineers. It has been mentioned as a solitary 

 instance in the history of the Academy, noted for its rigid discipline, 

 that he passed through the entire course of four years without a single 

 mark of demerit, and, what may be hardly less uncommon, without 

 calling forth the least manifestation of envy. Indeed his classmates, 

 as well as the teachers, seem to have taken pride in the high character 

 and scholarship of the youthful cadet. His room-mate, several years 

 his senior, and by no means noted for studious or regular habits, 

 assumed the office of guardian, sedulously protecting him from inter- 

 ruption or intrusion during the hours of study, and, it is said, habitually 

 excused his own shortcomings by pleading the importance of the duty 

 he thus performed. Not that young Bache himself needed a guardian, 

 except for his tender years and to protect him from hindrance on the 

 part of others. Sensible beyond his years of the responsibility which 

 would devolve upon him in the support of his widowed mother and 

 her younger children, and of the obligations incurred in his education 

 at the National School, he resolved from the first to exert his utmost 

 energies, — doubtless not unconscious, moreover, that, as a descendant 

 of Franklin, something more than ordinary might be expected from 

 him. Upon such a mind as his, the adage noblesse oblige could not 

 but have a powerful influence. 



Upon his graduation he was selected, on account of his high standing, 

 to remain at the Academy as Assistant Professor, — a position which 

 gave him a desired opportunity to review and extend his studies. 

 But after a year in this service he was, at his own request, assigned 

 to engineering duty at Newport, Rhode Island, under the late General, 

 then Colonel Totten. Here for two years he was engaged in construct- 

 ing fortifications, devoting his extra hours to the study of physics 

 and chemistry. 



The most important event of this period, however, and doubtless the 

 most influential upon his future success, was the acquaintance and 



VOL. VII. 40 



