A SKETCH OF EDUCATION IN SOUTH CAROLINA. 509 



ton, in 1845, failed, and tlie arsenal was then made auxiliary to the Cita- 

 del, providing for the instruction of the entering class. 



Thus organized, the academy was in full and successful operation from 

 March, 1843, to April, 1865. These years were marked by the lights and 

 shadows of life, and the record of them is crowded with much of joy and 

 of sorrow. 



The course of study resembled as near as possible that pursued at West 

 Point, taking, in some departments even a wider range. " It may just- 

 ly be claimed that the education the-re imparted was that of which the 

 State has now the greatest need." The constant purpose of the Board of 

 Visitors was not to attempt too much, but to do thoroughly what was 

 prescribed. The cadets were taught " how to think," not " what to 

 think." Thus practical education was aimed at and attained. The course 

 of training was designed to develop the whole man by careful attention 

 to the cultivation of all his powers, physical, mental and moral. From 

 the moment of his matriculation until the time at which he left the 

 academy, the cadet was ever under the eyes of vigilant officers. Thus he 

 was shielded from many of the temptations and allurements of vice which 

 so often beset and mislead the youth when first freed from the restraint 

 of parental discipline and deprived of the watchful guidance of parental 

 love. But while the authority thus exercised was absolute, it was not 

 arbitrary, and though the discipline was firm, it was not harsh. 



The result of this training is best shown in the career of the gradu- 

 ates. In all associations, whether in the learned professions or in the 

 more active pursuits of life, they have not only done honor to the insti- 

 tution, but have vindicated the wisdom of the statesmen who founded 

 and maintained it, by winning the high prizes always awarded to those 

 possessing what Gov. Richardson styled " the energy and decision of a 

 military character." 



During the first period of the academy nearly eighteen hundred young 

 men of the State were educated partly or wholly within its walls. Though 

 but two hundred and forty passed entirely through the prescribed course 

 of stud}^ the large numbers should not be forgotten who remained long 

 enough in the institution to feel the wholesome effects of its training. 



ITS MILITARY RECORD IS BRILLIANT. 



Of the 226 graduates living at tiie beginning of the war, more tlian two 

 hundred were officers in the Confederate Army, filling every grade from 

 lieutenant to brigadier-general, and discharging their duties with a zeal 

 intelligence and courage that made them distinguished even in that great 

 army of Southern soldiers. 



